All posts tagged parklife

  • October 30, 2010

    The Vine festival review: Parklife Brisbane, October 2010

    An extended live review of the 2010 Brisbane Parklife Festival for The Vine. Excerpt below.

    Parklife Brisbane, 2010

    There’s nothing quite like rain to fuck up a festival. As clouds loom ominously overhead, we wonder how many tears are being shed in Parklife HQ as wet weather threatens to disrupt the national tour’s first stop. Such thoughts are momentarily cast aside when, soon after hopping off the CityCat nearest Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens, we’re accosted by a friendly undercover policeman, who has us empty our pockets. “Has anyone offered you any drugs?” he asks. “Not yet,” we reply. With a laugh, he sends us on our way – despite having neglected to check my back pockets or earplug case, both of which are chock-full of illicit substances.

    After passing through the VIP entry soon after gates open at 12pm, we encounter Last Dinosaurs, a young local indie pop act who are playing to eight people at the Kakadu Stage. As we walk past, three of them leave. We’re just getting settled in at the better-attended Atoll Stage, where triple j Unearthed winners Teleprompter are playing, when the clouds break. And don’t let up for the rest of their set. For the 50 of us who don’t dash for the nearest cover, this makes the quintet’s set more enjoyable, somehow: dancing in the rain to their slick take on indie-punk which calls to mind the late Melbourne act Damn Arms. Inexplicably, they’re all dressed in Star Wars get-up: the singer’s Luke Skywalker, the keyboardist’s Darth Vader, and the drummer’s Boba Fett. It’s a stupid gimmick, but it’s funny nonetheless. They sound good, and they clearly don’t take themselves too seriously. The Force is strong.

    Full festival review at The Vine, as well as photos via Justin Edwards.

    I don’t usually publish my live reviews here – instead, they’re linked over in the right column, via my Last.FM journal – but I’m making an exception in this case, and I’ll likely do the same for longer reviews in future.

    No Comments / Music Journalism, Published Writing /

  • September 15, 2010

    Video: Interviewing The Dandy Warhols in Portland, Oregon

    The Dandy WarholsLast week, my girlfriend Rachael and I won a trip to the United States.

    The competition asked, in 25 words or less, which Parklife 2010 headline act we’d would like to interview and why. We both chose The Dandy Warhols.

    Why? Two reasons. We both dig their music… and the competition terms mentioned that the interview would take place in Portland, Oregon.

    Pretty sure that The Dandy Warhols are the only Parklife act who live in Portland, Oregon…

    We brainstormed for around 20 minutes. I entered: “The Dandy Warhols, because it’s been ten years since the release of their career-, genre-, and generation-defining album, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia.”

    Rachael went with an entry that name-checked a bunch of song and album titles: “I’ll step inside the monkey house of Portland’s true bohemians, The Dandy Warhols, for an illuminating interview that illustrates why everyday should be a holiday.”

    Rachael won.

    So a few days later, we flew Qantas to LAX for six nights.

    Below is a short video montage of the day spent in Portland with The Dandy Warhols. We interviewed them for around an hour at their studio, The Odditorium, and watched them perform a rare acoustic set for local radio station OPB, wherein they covered songs by The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

    It was badass.

    Thanks to Fuzzy, Virgin Members Lounge, Pedestrian.TV,  The Dandy Warhols, and Pedestrian’s video producer, Matt Dempsey.

    Click here for the full interview transcript.

    3 Comments / Music Journalism /