INTERVIEW: Keith! Party

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Mention hip hop to most and the first things that come to mind are American rappers with too many exit wounds, diamond encrusted teeth and more swear words than you can point a shotgun at. The idea of a troupe of kids from the hipster-filled northern suburbs of Melbourne being labeled hip-hop seems a little odd at first, but one listen to Keith! Party proves otherwise.

But don’t expect straight up rap – far from it. Sure there’s rapping and plenty of break-beats, but K!P are part of the new “rave-rap” music revolution. With their newest release, the Victoria Rocks-funded Roof Raisers, expect to hear dub reggae, grime bass, electro noises, triphop, old-school horror film melodies and vocals reminiscent of Destiny’s Child. Add in lyrics that would even make a sailor blush, and you have a winner. Paper-Deer’s favourite lines are “AIDS in a wheelchair on welfare” and the lyrics of Best Fiesta which imply girl-on-girl necrophilia. While Roof Raisers lacks the I’m-going-to-fucking-curb-you vibe of gansta rap, there’s still something darkly delicious about K!P’s messed-up brand of pop hip hop. File under “great music to have drugged-out sex to.”

Paige X. Cho got real with Cathead LaQuack, Talkshow Boy and 2SHEE. (We are pretty sure those are their birth names.)

The K!P entourage is always changing shape and size. Who are the core members of the group?

CATHEAD: Talkshow Boy, Cathead LaQuack, 2SHEE, Hotdog, Easy Lee, B. Jerky and our two dancers Amy Contortion and James Phantom. Also my brother DJ Wordlyfe. I was first introduced to Talkshow Boy by a wandering minstrel named Escobar Amsterdam. When I first saw him perform a live solo gig with his crazy asymmetrical haircut, I was blown away by his limitless energy and infectious enthusiasm. I met James and Amy when they were doing a dance show for the Fringe Festival and needed someone to write the music. James and Amy are two of the loveliest people I've ever met and their choreography made a brilliant new addition to our shambolic live show.

2SHEE: The rest of the band members were lured to Cathead’s bungalow with rainbow-coloured glowsticks.

TALKSHOW BOY: Every member of the crew has their own unique flow and style. Past members of K!P include Worm, Huge Euge, Treggers, MC Sleaze, Cheeks, Gezus, Conor G and many, many more party people.

Did you ever expect K!P to get this far in four years? Or ever?

CATHEAD: Despite the accidental and amateurish nature of the project, we've always suffered from delusions of grandeur and believed that it would go very far indeed. We started making absurdly bold proclamations about taking over the world, and we were so intoxicated that we started to believe them. The only unexpected thing about what's happened since then is that we've managed to get our shit together and actually organised things like getting a grant, recording and releasing an album, putting on shows and arranging interviews like this one.

TALKSHOW BOY: I’m still making bold proclamations. From the very first day the plan was to produce cutting-edge party music, create some classic and warped pop songs and party in an unorthodox, larger-than-life fashion when we perform. We’ve totally succeeded in every respect and we have no plans to let up. We are constantly producing stupid/experimental/fun dance jams and love making tracks with unconventional hooks.

Do you try to sketch out an idea of what will happen at each performance, or are they all sort of haphazard and spontaneous events depending on what and who you can grab?

TALKSHOW BOY: Every performance space is its own party playground - what is important is that we always seize the entire available space. We have different party supplies at every show and rudimentary dance-moves that coincide with some songs, but the key to a good party is a combination of spontaneity, break beats, bass and incidental grinding. In the past we’ve had bubbles, a jumping castle, party poppers, champagne, condoms, firecrackers, nudity, spliffs, potatoes, costumes, banners, toys, dildos, flags and plenty of fun. In the future we will continue to party with all of the above and more.

Maybe it’s something in the name of your band, the crazy live shows or the loose attitudes, but everything about K!P spells out “a good time”. What’s the craziest thing that has happened at a K!P show?

TALKSHOW BOY: We had a really uptight sound guy at one warehouse party who cracked the complete shits, getting in a fit of rage and swung a mic stand at us. He gave us this intense lecture on how we’re the worst non-band he’s seen in 20 years and if we were professionals we would have held the mics “correctly”. He was really shaken and red-in-the-face – it was quite unnerving but we laughed it off and proceeded to drink bottle after bottle of Sangria.

K!P are about to release a second album, Roof Raisers. What can your fans and well-wishers expect?

CATHEAD: Roof Raisers is our idea of the perfect party, with a lot of crazy guests, hilarious incidents, booty-shaking, playfulness, excessive behavior and colourful vibes. It's got some huge obnoxious beats, riffs and choruses but it may not be as dumb and obvious as you'd expect party music to be. After cranking it up loud with your friends, we hope you'll also enjoy it as a close private listen on your headphones, since there are a lot of hidden production nuances, funny backup vocals, witticisms and tongue-twisters.

TALKSHOW BOY: It’s underground pop music. I have always been fascinated by the ‘pop charts’ and love it whenever anything subversive, innovative, experimental or absurd sneaks in there and manages to come across as unequivocally “normal”. I wanted Roof Raisers to be a streamlined, cohesive party album that approximates commercial pop music just enough to get away with it whilst remaining progressive and resolutely leftfield and fucked-up in lyrical content.

While hip hop is probably the closest single genre to describe K!P, you still sound nothing like anything else in Australia. If you could create a new genre to describe K!P’s sound, what would it be called?

CATHEAD: It's true that we don't have much of an affinity with the majority of Aussie hip-hop artists but a recent review of our album in Rave Magazine accurately noted there is a hidden “second strand” of Australian rap that’s more ravey, fun and goofy than the better-known Aussie bogan variety. Leftfield Aussie rappers like Quan, Purple Duck, Shane Skillz, Dirt Child and Curse Ov Dialect are our kindred spirits.

We like to call our style "rave-rap", which basically means that apart from hip-hop, we're also heavily influenced by all kinds of electronic dance music and will rap over pretty much any kind of beat. The word "rave" refers to our musical style but also to our attitude: positive, hedonistic, juvenile, sincere, enthusiastic, loving, respectful, revolutionary.

TALKSHOW BOY: You can call us “rave-rap”, “party pop” or “sex beat”.

Anything else you’d like to add?

We will be releasing free rave-rap remixes and downloadable acapellas for further production and remixing through www.raverap.com - we are passionate about screwed-up good-time dance music and will be unleashing plenty of it over the coming months and years. There are so many underground producers releasing killer dance tracks over the internet - we love the global spectrum of innovators and love sharing our own home-made floor-fillers.

UPCOMING GIGS:

• Tuesday January 25: Workers Club with JUNK!, Fabio Umberto, Rat Vs Possum DJs, Amy Contortion [Roof Raisers official album launch]

LINKS:

• Keith! Party on Facebook
• Keith! Party official website
• Keith! Party on Myspace
• Rave Rap 

INTERVIEW: Princess One Point Five

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Splashed across glossy-paged tabloid magazines (with their legs wide open, of course), trashy socialites like Paris Hilton have lent the word “princess” a bit of a dirty reputation in the past decade by adopting the label in a wild attempt to explain their arrogant behaviour.

But rewind back to your childhood, and think of the captivating tales of wizards and dragons, and knights rescuing princesses and all sorts of vivid tales of bravery. Though Melbourne duo Princess One Point Five’s name may come from the meaning of front woman SJ Wentzki’s moniker (Sarah means a woman of high rank, or “princess” in Hebrew), but their music is so magical that the shoe fits either way.

Princess One Point Five – known on paper as P1.5 – is a delightful musical pairing between SJ and her partner-in-crime Richard Andrew (Underground Lovers, Crow, Registered Nurse), and the pair are often joined by equally talented musicians over various instruments like Ben Grounds (Bluebottle Kiss), Libby Chow (Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set) and Jed Palmer (Hope Diamond). The result of all this talent on one stage at the same time is pop music that gives out with a feisty punch and a cabaret snarl, swirled together with some heavy rock influences.

Paper-Deer had a date to chat to the lovely SJ Wentzki about collaborating, the irony of being featured on an anti-smoking campaign and choosing her musical family.

Paper-Deer has seen P1.5 been described as your sole brain-child and a solo project, whereas others have called it a marriage between you and Richard Andrew’s talents. For the record, which is it?

It started out solo, but when I started writing for a band, P1.5 just sort of expanded out. I’ve been working with Richard for some time, but he’s progressively taken over! Just kidding. For the record, he “produces” and I write. Somewhere in between, with a lot of stops along the way is the “band”.  With this album we were a lot more collaborative with song writing and production, but our roles have pretty much stayed the same. The thing is that it’s always evolving, and really hard to pin down to one definition. It’s reflective of how indecisive I am, and who knows what it’ll be next.

How do the two of you choose who will join you for a particular recording or live show?

The short version is that it’s always been fairly organic. We’ve worked with many different people between us (Rich and I) and so it was pretty natural to just get those people in to record, when, for example, we need someone to play strings…since neither of us can. On a lot of our tours we’ve randomly sort of found people on the road to play shows (not literally “on” the road, but you know what I mean), which is bit European of us, really.  Mostly that would be friends we’ve met or made along the way have some skill or other that we need (usually bass).

 It’s part and parcel of being an independent musician. Most of the people you meet are other musicians, usually willing to jump up on stage and lend you a patch of the carpet to sleep on.  It all depends on the show too – sometimes it’s a lot of fun to play as a two piece, and other times it’s much better to play as a “band”. P1.5 isn’t terribly prescriptive these days, and it’s more fun in a frightening kind of way to play it by ear and see what happens.

The P1.5 biography almost seems like it should be spread out over 20 years. Impressive prizes and nominations like the Australian Music Prize and the Noise/Qantas Spirit of Youth Award, plus impressive support slots and Triple J rotation. What’s your next big goal?

Getting our asses the hell overseas to tour, writing a top 40 cheesy hit, retiring on the royalties. Not necessarily in that order… Some of that may or may not be true.

Your most recent album, What Doesn’t Kill You, has received all sorts of praise and more thumbs up than we can count. Does the title stem from the phrase “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?”

Yes and no. It was an odd and sometimes difficult, time during the writing of this album – for so many reasons – but also liberating and quite inspiring. The title is really more along the lines of “what doesn’t kill you can fuck right off.”  Success is relative and I think that writing this album was my way of figuring that out so that I could avoid being a complete sociopath… at least most of the time.

What’s your favourite track from What Doesn’t Kill You?

What Do You Know. It says a lot about my fascination with perception versus reality. You can never really see inside someone’s heart and so often, the face they’re showing is not their real one.

Reading reviews from the album, it seems that everyone has a different favourite song. How did you decide to give Today the honour of being a single?

Without being egotistical about this, I actually really love every song on the album for different reasons, and I think it’s the strongest suite of songs we’ve ever done as Princess One Point Five. It’s also really diverse stylistically, which is why different people take different things from each song. I initially thought that Quote Me should be the first single. Mostly because I was being a bit of an angry shit head… but when we’d finished recording Today it was a no brainer, and said more about how nonsensical everything is, ya know? Today was the best song to represent the feel of the album: catchy but bittersweet, sad but hopeful.

Define weird. The weirdest thing was that my boss at my day job told me about one of our songs being played at the Superbowl in America. The sync itself wasn’t weird. The antismoking campaign in America and Canada was ironic, but not really weird…  I think what would be really weird is if we had something on the footy show… nope, that’d just be funny.

LINKS:

• Princess One Point Five website 
• Princess One Point Five Facebook
• Princess One Point Five MySpace 

By Paige X. Cho

REVIEW: Georgia Fields @ Thornbury Theatre (12/11/10)

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Upon reading that the Thornbury Theatre’s art deco ballroom would be transformed into an “indoor picnic”, I could tell that Georgia Fields’ album launch was going to be a little different to most. The fact that Georgia’s backing band was actually more of a mini-orchestra kind of hinted towards that as well.

The dance floor of the theatre was covered with numerous tartan rugs and picnic blankets, which were adorned by plastic flowers and lanterns to create a more authentic picnic environment. There were even picnic snacks such as meringues, slices and biscuits! Add candle-lit tables, mood-lighting provided by the glow of lamps, and a low stage edged with fairy-lights and the intimate setting was complete.

As soon as Georgia bounced onto the stage, it was apparent that the setting suited her show perfectly; she exuded charm and greeted her audience as if we were old friends, telling us personal anecdotes in between songs. Her friendly, down-to-earth demeanour and amusing banter made her seem very approachable and the show even more enjoyable.

And what a show it was. The ‘mini-orchestra’, used to replicate the arrangements on the album, did not disappoint; while Georgia herself switched between acoustic guitar, ukulele and synth, there were eight other instrumentalists on stage (and a few of them were multi-instrumentalists). We were treated to a wonderful combination of vibraphone, violins, viola, cello, drums, bass, xylophone, piano, trumpet, trombone, melodica, clarinet, flute, accordion, a cordless drill used as percussion and what sounded like a sample pad made up of animal sounds.

The orchestra displayed the clever craft of Georgia’s songs, as instruments dropped in and out, seamlessly easing from a quiet lull into a tidal wave of sound washing over the entire room. Georgia’s voice, in turn, complemented the music; its timbre was smooth, soft, and slightly husky at times, while also being strong and more than capable of standing alone or accompanied only by a single instrument. 

One of the standout songs of the night was This is Not a Drill, which exemplifies the descriptions in the previous paragraph perfectly: from a simple, bare beginning, the song eventually builds up and up to an almost overwhelming whirlwind of sounds, before everything ceases except for the lone piano. As the sweet tones of the vibraphone and xylophone joined in, Georgia sang softly through a megaphone, while the audience sat—some on seats, some cross-legged on the picnic blankets—silent, mainly still, some swaying gently. Maybe it was the magic of seeing it performed live, combined with the romantic atmosphere, but this rendition surpassed the album recording by a mile.

Another special moment was when Georgia invited one of her support acts, Charles Jenkins, and special guest Angie Hart (of Frenté) onstage to perform a cover of The Beach Boys’ God Only Knows.

“This is my favourite song of all time, so there’s not only that pressure, but there’s a lot of chords!” said Georgia. Angie interjects, “Hey, Georgia…” “Yeah?” “Don’t fuck it up!”

With Angie on piano and Charles on guitar, the trio took it in turns to sing, coming together towards the song’s conclusion to sing harmonised rounds.

Georgia’s gracious and warm personality, her infectious brand of indie pop (made unique through the use of such a vast collection of instruments, with some being quite unusual indeed), the talent of her mini-orchestra and the carefully-constructed picnic-at-twilight setting captivated and enchanted the audience. All the elements of the show fitted together perfectly to create a wonderful evening that Georgia and her orchestra ought to be proud of.

LINKS:

• Georgia Fields MySpace 
• Charles Jenkins MySpace
• Angie Hart MySpace 

By Stephanie-Bowie Liew

INTERVIEW: Hammocks and Honey

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Ethereal, airy and bewilderingly good, there's something about dreamy two-piece Hammocks and Honey that makes you sink into a cloud of bliss. Classically trained cellist and synth addict Prudence Rees-Lee makes up one half of the duo, and is completed by the experimentally electronic inclined Alex Nosek of ii. This dazzling and unexpected equation results in music that's partly baroque-inspired (trying really hard to hold my tongue and not name a certain Yngwie Malmsteen song), orgasmically electronic and so dreamy that you'll be pinching yourself to check if you're awake.

When it comes to talent, these kids have the Midas touch, and it appears that have it when it comes to manufacturing as well with their debut EP Spellbinder also available amazingly as a solid gold "vinyl".

Paper-Deer daydreamed about clouds, synths and classical music while talking to Prudence, the female half of Hammocks and Honey.

We have to say that Hammocks and Honey is a lovely band name. Is there a story or meaning behind it?
It was a phrase in a book, Ada or Ardour by Nabokov, which is a story about two young cousins discovering their sexuality together, among other things. It doesn’t really have much of a baring on how the band sounds though, just a coincidence that I was reading that book when I started writing music.

So how did the pair of you end up where you are now?
Alex and I met quite a few years ago playing in another band, but only started playing together in Hammocks at the end of last year. Special Award Records got involved in February and since then we’ve just been really lucky. Blogs and community radio picked up the demos we’d made we’re releasing on EP which is available digitally already, and on vinyl which is coming out on the 22nd of November.

As a classically trained cellist, is it sometimes hard to loosen up and turn to dreamy, electronic pop?
Yes, it was initially hard initially to loosen up. Writing and playing something like this is very far from what I’d imagined I would be doing while I was studying. I value the classical education I’ve had very much, and it’s given me a great base knowledge about music theory and music history, but in a way I had to forget most of that when I was writing these songs. It’s such a different approach to making music. I think lots of electronic musicians have classical backgrounds though. Programming beats and samples on a computer is very similar to working on an orchestral score.

Many writers use words like “dreamy”, “surreal” and “otherworldly” to describe Hammocks and Honey’s sound. What would you call it?
I’d agree with those descriptions, I think they suit Spellbinder well, although they probably make us sound a bit wishy-washy or aimless, when the music definitely isn’t and the stuff we’re working on now is a bit darker.

Tell us all about Spellbinder. What was it like working with Morgan McWaters (The Emergency) and Casey Rice (Tortoise, Pikelet, Dirty Three)?
They were both really amazing to work with. We spent a lot of time with Morgan, first recording everything and then mixing together as well. It was really fun, but he was great because he’s so skilled at what he does and could quickly translate the kind of sounds we had in our heads into the tracks.

Casey was great too! I didn’t know much about mastering and what’s involved, but he explained everything he was doing and did it really well, he seems to really care about artists and music, and is actually very affordable! Everyone should ask him to master them!


Spellbinder is really… spellbinding, for lack of a better word. How do you create such a timeless piece of work?
Thank you! I take timelessness as a huge compliment. I guess we’re not interested in doing what’s particularly fashionable at a given time. I want to write good songs with interesting arrangements regardless of trends, although it is hard not to be influenced by them in some ways. I guess that makes it timeless, we have a very wide range of influences from all the classical stuff I grew up with to more experimental things, and also lots of pretty mega pop.

Was recording at a beach house just an excuse to get sandy?
We couldn’t afford to hire a proper studio, and none of us lived anywhere that would make a good home one. The beach house was a good place to go where we wouldn’t be disturbed and it would be quiet, it was kind of a last resort but it worked out to be the perfect place.

We’ve heard that Spellbinder will also be available in solid gold vinyl. Where did this idea come from?
It seems kind of crazy to me that people still make CDs, as a format it’s really unreliable and commercially not solid either. I think digital, vinyl and cassette releases are going to be much more relevant in the future of music distribution, so the decision to release on vinyl was kind of an obvious one. As for the gold… the option was there, why wouldn’t you?

How much will the solid gold vinyls cost, and where can one pick them up? Will postage be a bitch since it is solid gold?
They’ll be in independent record stores and available via mail order (probably the best way) from www.hammocksandhoney.com. In shops the price will vary slightly depending on where you go, but they should be retailing for around $19. We’ll be selling them at the launch for $15.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

• Saturday November 27: Bouverie Studios, 1/81 Bouverie Street, Carlton [EP launch with AOI and Isle Adore]

LINKS:

• Hammocks and Honey official website 
• Hammocks and Honey MySpace 
• Hammocks and Honey on Bandcamp (purchase music here) 

LIVE REVIEW: Splendour Report

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Dearest Paper-Deer readers, you may have noticed that this blog went eerily quiet from July 28 to August 3, which is the fault of a little festival by the name of Splendour in the Grass.

DAY ONE:
Paper-Deer and entourage rolled up to Splendour's new crib at Woodford, where we were met with mud and thirty-thousand new best mates to get muddy with. The "security" check on a car consisted of an awesomely laid back guy who seemed disappointed when we told him we honestly didn't have any drugs on us, and told us to let him know if we scored any... presumably because he was in desperate need of dope.

Day one proved blistering hot for our delicate Melbourne skin, and Paper-Deer's skinny-leg-wearing travelling companion was heard complaining, "I almost put a pair of shorts in my suitcase when I was packing, but then I told myself to not be so stupid." After nearly passing out from erecting a tent in the scorching Queensland sun, we managed to drag ourselves to the festival grounds but not before getting seriously lost in an endless sea of navy, khaki and silver temporary homes.

Violent Soho was the first aural feast of the festival, and they did not disappoint with their grunge-revival tunes. Hailing from Queensland but now based in the US, they opened Jesus Stole My Girlfriend by explaining that this song got them in trouble with our conservative Yankee cousins. That tends to happen when you call the son of God a "cunt".

British India seemed to please the indie segment of the crowd, and the Little Red crowd were more then content with the syrupy, retro-inspired tunes by the band. Although we should add that there were a few very angry young men dressed in black skinny legs, Doc Martens and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club shirts checking their watches very anxiously during Little Red's performance. A couple of stray girls from Little Red's set decided to stay on and hung tight to the barrier, but the sight of a completely badass leather-clad Peter Hayes doing sound check with a rebellious cigarette dangling from his pouting lips absolutely frightened them. "Um, excuse but are Black Rebel Motorcycle Club heavy? Will we get trampled?" one of them nervously asked another punter. The four girls managed to survive because of a tamer-than-normal mosh pit, most probably because the crowd were absolutely blown away by the phenomenal three piece's grimey, blues-drenched garage rock.

Back at the GW McLennan tent, Lisa Mitchell (aka Audrey Hepburn lookalike) frolicked around a stage decked out with coloured flags and her devoted backing band. But despite all the hype about this gorgeous nymph going from an Australian Idol contestant to Australia's next idol, her performance totally panned out. Weak, Angie Hart-esque vocals sound dainty in the studio, but guess what? Dainty just sounds weak in a live setting. One punter was overheard saying, "Wow, it's like over-processed open mic night" before shaking his head and running out of the tent screaming, thus lowering the male to female ratio in the tent even more. LCD Soundsystem was a loud relief to the ears after that all that soft, whingey folk, and they turned their stage into one big muddy arena of people dancing like drugged up music lovers. Which they probably were.

Perhaps the most memorable part of the day was not watching amazing bands while sun baking on a gorgeously green Queensland hill, but frustratingly trying to find our way back to our tent. Poorly marked out roads, lack of lighting and the fact that the marshals were completely uninterested in even directing us to a map didn't help us in the slightest, but we somehow managed to get to our tent but only after a considerable period of time and picking up a few other lost souls on the way.

DAY TWO:
Despite our greatest efforts to laze about naked in our sleeping bags until at least noon, it turned out that a plastic tent in the northern heat makes quite a good oven. Instead of roasting away, Paper-Deer and co trudged along and watched the very talented Jonathan Boulet and his backing crew hammer out their delicious, percussion-driven indie pop tunes at the main amphitheatre, followed by the also excellent Band of Skulls doing their thing.

Paper-Deer just missed out on Melburnian gems Oh Mercy (damn queues for mini Dutch pancakes!) but got to dance up a storm at the incredibly amazing John Steel Singers, who were accompanied by dancers wearing horse masks. The boogie-trend continued with Philadelphia Grand Jury with their jump-worthy tracks like I'm Going To Kill You and I Don't Want to Party [Party]. The three men ran about stage in their usual haphazard fashion, smashing equipment while pre-recorded banter blared out over the amphitheatre, and previewed a new song for the Splendour crowd.

Next up on the main stage was Operator Please, who have proved that they are most certainly not a one-hit wonder. While they did play Just a Song About Ping Pong, they got the crowd moving with a reworked version to keep it fresh, as well as showcasing their seriously shiny and amazing fashion sense.

We headed down to the GW McLennan Tent (which a friend dubbed "the boring acoustic tent") to watch Laura Marling and to see what Jack White is going on about. She was undoutably charming, and it was quite hilarious and lovely to see completely "blokey" going all mushy and singing their hearts out while clutching to their beers.

Back at the main stage, Wolfmother turned the main amphitheatre into bogan central with their excessively safe and wanky tunes. It must be said that the Led Zeppelin/Black Sabbath cover band did seem to impress most of the fist-pumping crowd, but there were quite a few of us hanging out the back rolling our eyes.

By the time that Florence & the Machine came onto the stage, the summery skies closed up with thick, purple clouds ominously rolling around above us. There was almost an electric quality to the air as Lady Florence started belting her heart out in a floor length lace dress and a white cape with her fiery red hair peeping out of the hood. If Lisa Mitchell disappointed us with her lack of stage presence, Florence was the complete opposite. Tearing across the stage, bouncing along barefoot, the red-haired Briton unleashed her vocal abilities with songs like Kiss With A Fist, sometimes bashing away at a floor tom by the microphone. With her almost mystical persona and waving a drum stick about like a magician's wand, the crowd watched her every move in awe like they were witnessing a goddess.

The Strokes headlined night numero duo, and lead singer Julian Casablancas seemed totally overwhelmed by the crowd every time he addressed the audience in between songs. "Look at this cauldron of humanity!" he proclaimed, in what has probably become the most quoted line from the three-day festival. The New Yorkers planned out an excellent set for their fans, full of crowd favourites like Last Night.

'Flo of the 'Mo

DAY THREE:
Despite the lack of proper showers and incredible amounts of dirt, this reviewer was incredibly jealous of all the beautiful girls strutting around in perfectly clean clothes and immaculate make-up, and was half tempted to sneak back to their tents to see if there was a make-up team on hand. But back to the music...

The day opened with Cloud Control soothing tired festival-goers with their mountain music, followed up by Surfer Blood back at the main amphitheatre. We Are Scientists' banter was definitely the best at the festival, with Keith Murray's incredibly bizarre but hilarious sense of humour. At one stage, he put out a safety announcement, warning the crowd to be careful of the steep slope in case they slid down at landed on the giant spikes at the bottom of the hill. Some of the slower (or perhaps inebriated) punters looked confused, but the rest of us has a quiet chuckle to ourselves. The greying band was followed by Ash, who impressed Paper-Deer until we realised that they had a backing track. Tsk tsk.

Unlike their hilarious David Letterman performance, The Vines' set was rock solid, and packed to the brim with their seriously fucking excellent garage rock. Lead singer Craig Nicholls seems to have put on a few pounds but his signature sexy crazy-man hair and devil may care attitude was more than intact. The Sydney band had the crowd under their thumb as they played songs like TV Pro, Winning Days and Get Free.
Kate Nash was hilariously crude and ladylike at the same time, with a banner in front of her keyboard reading "A CUNT IS A USEFUL THING" (point noted). She did have a several good whinges to the light guy, doing a little girl singsong tantrum routine about the lights "attacking" her, but we weren't sure if she was just playing or was just a legitimate princess.

At the Mix Up Stage, Alison Goldfrapp of Goldfrapp came onstage in a fierce flurry of black streamers, and wowed audiences with her electropop-ness but Paper-Deer had to leave before Goldfrapp had a chance to play any favourites like Strict Machine or Black Cherry to get a good spot for Pixies at the main amphitheatre.

Paper-Deer are not really into Mumford and Sons, but there is no denying how truly amazing they are. Armed with their beautifully crafted acoustic songs and humble onstage personas (repeated thanking Australia for being so good to them), the crowd loved them every bit back. The amphitheatre was completely packed, with not even a patch of dirt to spare. Everyone was jumping around, waving their arms, taking photos, singing along wholeheartedly, and there was even an inflatable zebra in on the action. It was clear: Mumford and Sons should definitely start a cult in Australia.

A large portion of the Mumford crowd stayed to watch grunge gods Pixies, but most did not stay. This writer should probably add that she is a massive fan of the quartet, but was seriously disappointed. Black Francis' dour attitude at their recent sellout show in Melbourne seemed to have gotten worse, and the only bit of banter in the entire set was a delightful little exchange between Francis and Kim Deal at the start of their famous Where Is My Mind. But it was admittedly hilarious when many non-fans (eager to hear at least some sort of interaction) actually replied to Black Francis when he yelled out "HEY! Been trying to meet you!" at the start of Hey. Perhaps they were a bit offended when he didn't reply, or just plain bored, but the human pit that Mumford and Sons commanded turned into a wide open space after a mass exodus about three songs into their set. On the plus side, devoted fans were treated to many non-Doolittle tracks like Bone Machine, Gigantic, Cactus, Caribou, Cecilia Ann and Velouria. It kind of proved that being able to sell out show in a couple of minutes doesn't always mean they should. (Paper-Deer is also readying itself for an onslaught of angry Pixies fans commenting on this post.)

GIG: Brown Paper Bag #3

We have moved! Our blog is now at www.paper-deer.com. 

Brown paper bags have a mystical quality about them. White paper bags, pink paper bags or black paper bags just doesn't bring up the same mental images of 1. hobos drinking poorly concealed alcohol out of them, 2. Daphne on Frasier bringing groceries home, or 3. using it as the perfect way to conceal an ugly lover's face. But be prepared to start associating the humble bag with fucking excellent music.

Brown Paper Bag #3 is here, and it's cemented the night's reputation for super-awesome-excellent line-ups. This round will be held at grungy-cool city venue Ding Dong, with Sydneysider Jonathan Boulet headlining with his cheerful, folk pop. But the bands that Paper-Deer are far more excited about are the local talent on offer: experimental pop lords (well, lords with the Evelyn crowd at the very least) Rat vs Possum, East Brunswick All Girls Choir (Paper-Deer's favourite Melbourne post-punkers, who painstakingly glued pictures from vintage books on their EP packaging), the infectiously cute and catchy Parking Lot Experiments and jungle indie band Northeast Party House. The last time that Paper-Deer caught Parking Lot Experiments, they were gallivanting like school children at The Evelyn and played some film with lots of cute puppies in the background... that pretty much sums up Parking Lot Experiments. They are the most endearing, be-spectacled experimental pop band out there.

So if you like your pop experimental, your MySpace genres set to "Jungle" and your drugs psychedelic, head over to Ding Dong on Friday July 16. And hopefully they'll have the same drink specials, dished out by the bar staff in brown paper bags to have you feeling all hobo-ish. It'll do wonders for your indie-cred.

The Parking Lot Experiments... running around on mattresses

DATES:

• July 16: Ding Dong for Brown Paper Bag #3
• July 21: Northeast Party House at Karova Lounge with Yacht Club DJs and Neon Love
• July 24: Northeast Party Houe at The Toff in Town for City Calm Down's EP launch with White Birds & Lemons
• July 27: Northeast Party House for I OH YOU Warehouse Party with Foals and In Tongues
• July 29: Rat vs Possum at The Tote for Love Connection's residency
• July 30: Jonathan Boulet at Splendour in the Grass
• August 5/6: Rat vs Possum at the Prince Bandroom for Passion Pit and The Joy Formidable [both sold out]

LINKS:

• Buy tickets for Brown Paper Bag #3
• Jonathan Boulet MySpace
• Rat vs Possum MySpace
• East Brunswick All Girls Choir MySpace
• Northeast Party House MySpace
• The Parking Lot Experiments MySpace