YOUNG GALAXY

Fucking motherfucking interwebs! I've really gotta stop downloading copious amounts of porn. Last month I exceeded my download limit and so for the past couple of weeks my internet has been 'throttled down to 64kbs' (whatever that means?!) and I've been forced to stay away from my talky talky shiny box or 'computer' to normal kids. So, once again I've been hurled out of the blogosphere loop and have no clue as to what's going on in the music world and now it's time to play catch up.
     Let's begin with Young Galaxy; their new video for 'We Have Everything' features a very lonely grimace like creature who takes a life changing bus ride, the clip is a great parallel to the actual song which also takes you on a bus ride up into the clouds. The Montreal trio's third album, Shapeshifting is due for release on the 8th of February through Paper Bag Records.

YOUNG GALAXY - WE HAVE EVERYTHING

PS I don't really download porn. . .I stream that shit!

WALTER MEEGO

I'm loving the new direction Walter Meego has taken on their new record, Wondervalley. The duo have moved towards a more matured pop sound and shows them departing from their previous synth saturated endeavors. Lead single 'Starlight' is the perfect example of this where the synths are still there, but it's the guitars that take control. Currently label-less, the guys have placed the whole album up on their souncloud for free, which kinda blows my mind.

WALTER MEEGO - STARLIGHT

TROPHY WIFE

Trophy Wife were undoubtedly one of the biggest and brightest new acts to come out of 2010 and are certainly a force not to be reckoned with in 2011, their brand of minimalistic indie really struck a chord with me and I've really become quite the fan. The Oxford band are set to release the follow up to their incredible debut, 'Microlite' in the form of a double A-side single, 'The Quiet Earth / White Horses' which is due February 28th through Moshi Moshi.

Stream The Quiet Earth below.
Trophy Wife - The Quiet Earth by Anorak London

FOSTER THE PEOPLE

Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks" was one of the highlights to 2010, a very accessible pop debut that had everyone talking about the LA trio, so popular in fact that they managed to sign a deal with Columbia. Since then the band have been working on recording new music and have just dropped their latest track, "Helena Beat", a crazy follow up that's going to have you spinning and bouncing for the rest of the Summer. With their debut EP, Pumped Up Kicks just around the corner (Jan 25), the band are set to tour Australia in February with three dates across the east coast- get on it!

FOSTER THE PEOPLE - HELENA BEAT


AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES

Sun Feb 13 BRISBANE, AUS The Zoo
thezoo.com.au

Mon Feb 14 SYDNEY, AUS Oxford Art Factory oxfordartfactory.com

Wed Feb 16 MELBOURNE, AUS Northcote Social Club northcotesocialclub.com

WOLF GANG

Here's the new vid for Wolf Gang's undeniably catchy single, 'Lions In Cages' which was released late last year (still getting used to saying 'last year', quite surreal.)

YOUNG EMPIRES GUEST LIST

On the eve of the Falls Music & Arts Festival (which was fucking rad by the way), I was severely rushed in posting my top albums of 2010 and amongst the chaos of packing and trying to get some sleep I managed to leave out a guest list from those ridiculously talented Canadian lads, Young Empires.
Now that it's 2011 and I'm back into the swing of things, I've had the chance to finally post it and get an insight into what albums made up the year for them.

Behold, Young Empires Top Albums of 2010

#1 Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
#2 Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
#3 Crystal Castles (21)
#4 These New Puritans - Hidden
#5 Caribou - Swim
#6 Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
#7 Broken Bells (album)
#8 Foals - Total Life Forever
#9 Yeasayer - Odd Blood

MYSTERY JETS w/ THE HOLIDAYS AT THE HI-FI BAR, MELBOURNE 05/01/11

I seriously need to upgrade my camera at some point this year, but until then i'll have to settle with what I've got. Here are some snaps from The Mystery Jets show last night with The Holidays supporting; amazing performances and was happy to see the guys throwing in their 'After Dark' collab that they did with the Count & Sinden.

SKELETON JAMBOREE'S TOP ALBUMS OF 2010

It's 2:08am and I'm still packing for Falls Festival which I have to leave for at 7.30am. So, I'm just going to throw down my Top Albums of 2010 and get some sleep action- no fancy presentation, just a list of what albums gave me a big ear erection.
Check it:

SURFER BLOOD - ASTRO COAST

THE NATIONAL - HIGH VIOLET

CROCODILES - SLEEP FOREVER

TAME IMPALA - INNERSPEAKER

OH NO ONO - EGGS

ARCADE FIRE - THE SUBURBS

FOALS - TOTAL LIFE FOREVER

DEERHUNTER - HALCYON DIGEST

YEASAYER - ODD BLOOD

WILD NOTHING - GEMINI

That's it for me for 2010, I hope you had an amazing year and I hope your new year's eve celebrations kick as much ass as mine. Keep it foolish and may the power of greyskull be with you!

All the best and I'll see you in 2011,

SKELETON JAMBOREE XXX

It's not easy trying to compile a list of the 'best' songs from a whole year, I've basically just gone back to a few older posts, gone through all the albums I bought, checked under the bed and sussed out what had the most plays in my itunes. I've tried to go back to when I first heard each song and tried to relive how it first made me feel. So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite tracks that made up 2010 (subject to be updated):

GROUPLOVE - COLOURS

TROPHY WIFE - MICROLITE

DELOREAN - STAY CLOSE

WEEKEND - END TIMES

CHAPEL CLUB - FIVE TREES

EGYPTIAN HIP HOP - MOON CROONER

SURFER BLOOD - TAKE IT EASY

JAI PAUL - BTSTU

ARCADE FIRE - READY TO START

WILD NOTHING - CHINATOWN

WAVVES - KING OF THE BEACH

THE MORNING BENDERS - EXCUSES

THE NATIONAL - ENGLAND

HARD MIX - MEMORIES

BAG RAIDERS

Bag Raiders - Sunlight
As far as Summer anthems go, this is about as big as they come. Bag Raiders' have just revealed the video for their second single, 'Sunlight' taken from their debut self-titled album.  The vid is based around a bad-ass party chimp who totally plays this babe, he acts all romantic but then reveals his true identity. Move over Super Chill Monkey, there's a new chimp in town.

By the way, if you haven't already bought the album, you might wana hurry your shit up and get it here! SUMMER LOVIN!

YOUNG EMPIRES

Young Empires just dropped me their latest demo, a nice little slow jam called 'The Earth Plates Are Shifting'. Since last checking in with the Toronto trio, the guys have featured on the latest Kitsune compilation, been down to Bogota, Columbia with Jamiroquai and have locked some dates in next month to play with Tanlines and Chromeo. 2011 looks like it's going to be a pretty big year for these guys and it's still not too late to jump on and say 'I was a Young Empires fan from the beginning.'

YOUNG EMPIRES - THE EARTH PLATES ARE SHIFTING

GOLD FIELDS

My friend works at Deluxe Guitars, a boutique guitar store and rehearsal studio here in Melbourne. He's always giving me the heads up on some of the acts that come in to rehearse and at the moment there's a band that's been coming in that's really caught his ears. Gold Fields are a quartet from Ballarat who have just released their debut single on Young & Lost Club over in the UK and will soon be supporting Crystal Castles in Sydney next month. Not a bad referral, certainly one act to keep an eye on in 2011.

GOLD FIELDS - TREEHOUSE

M.I.A - BORN FREE
Directed by Romain Gavras



LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - DRUNK GIRLS
Directed by Spike Jonze & James Murphy



EL GUINCHO - BOMBAY
Directed by Nicolas Mendez



YEASAYER - MADDER RED
Directed by Andreas Nilsson



HEALTH - WE ARE WATER
Directed by Eric Warheim



KLAXONS - TWIN FLAMES
Directed Saam Farahmand



ARCADE FIRE - THE SUBURBS
Directed by Spike Jonze



BATHS - LOVELY BLOODFLOW
Directed by Alex Takacs and Joe Nankin



 MUSCLES - GIRLS GO CRAZY
Directed by Beaufort


TAME IMPALA - SOLITUDE IS BLISS
Directed by Megaforce


RÖYKSOPP - THE DRUG
Directed by that go (Noel Paul & Stefan Moore)

F I C T I O N

FICTION - BIG THINGS

I've been following Fiction for a while now and I've watched them slowly become one of London's finest indie acts. The four-piece recently finished up a UK tour with Klaxons and are gearing up to release their second single 'Big Things' through Hit Club. The band have also just revealed the new video for the single which you can peep below.

BEST COAST & WAVVES

For some, Christmas songs ignite something inside us that transports us to a place filled with nostalgic spirit and warm, happy times. For me, Christmas songs generally just give me the shits, however, I'm willing to make the rare exception. Late last month Target in the U.S of A paid a bunch of artists to record a song for the Christmas holiday season which would feature on a free compilation. Two of those acts were Best Coast & Wavves, who paired up to give us 'Got Something For You', a very pop friendly carol that we can all sing around the tree.
Both Wavves and Best Coast will be in Australia in March! MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS!

BEST COAST & WAVVES - GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU

Grab the whole compilation here.

OH NO ONO

Oh No Ono "The Tea Party" from friendly fire recordings

Oh No Ono just dropped their very lovable new clip for 'The Tea Party'. The Danish band released their debut LP, Eggs earlier this year and it's definitely one of my albums of twenty-ten!

TEEN DAZE

Teen Daze recently released his brand new EP, Beach Dreams which he recorded during the Canadian Summer. Inspired by beach life and the whole lo-fi pop scene, the EP is meant to bring back fond memories and recapture those love fueled experiences of the past Summer just gone. Good thing for us kids in the southern hemisphere then, where we're just starting our own Summer and can use these songs as a relevant soundtrack to our very own beach adventures.
Grab Beach Dreams here.

TEEN DAZE - LET'S FALL ASLEEP TOGETHER

TAME IMPALA

Tame Impala - Expectation from Modular People on Vimeo.

Whilst on tour in Europe, Perth lads Tame Impala took time out to head to a forest just outside of Paris to film their new clip for 'Expectation'. Directed by Clemens Habicht Sjot, the vid is a twisted kaleidoscopic visual feast for the peepers. The band also recently took out the J Award for Album Of The Year and rightfully so, clearly one of the best Australian debuts in recent times.

SMITH WESTERNS

I was supposed to post this weeks ago but I didn't for some reason, either way I'm too hungover to care.
"Weekends" is the first single to be taken from Smith Westerns' forthcoming album  Dye It Blonde, the followup to the Chicago band's self titled LP which was released back in 2009. If the rest of the new album is to sound anything like the first single, then it would seem the band is moving away from its former fuzz driven sound and moving towards a more polished and poppier reincarnation.
Dye It Blonde is set for release next month through Fat Possum and can be pre-ordered here.

SMITH WESTERNS - WEEKEND

G H O S T W O O D

Ghostwood are back with their latest offering, "Sunset Mirage", a song that showcases a band that are truly coming into their own. The Sydney boys are currently in the midst of rehearsing and recording new material and have been jumping from LA to London in search of a producer who will help them shape their debut album.
Follow this link and read about the time I randomly met the band in London many moons ago.


GHOSTWOOD - SUNSET MIRAGE