Despite the current lack of summer in Sydney, the weather report on the eve of St Jerome’s Laneway festival  promised blue skies and soaring temperatures.  And, as we all know,  sunshine + festival = plenty of  flesh, short-shorts and, when it’s Laneway…. Sydney’s most beautiful people… oh what a babe fest!

Set within the concrete surrounds of the Sydney College of Arts, what Laneway lacked in grassy knolls it made up for in way of easy bee-lining between stages, allowing us to get the most out of a pretty great all-round lineup. So with so many bands to see and a fair few clashes to contend with, we thought we’d enlist a crew of In Sounders to help review them:

Laura Marling

Laura Marling was splendid as always, drawing a respectfully large crowd who were surprisingly hushed. Maybe they were in awe of her gorgeous voice, or pretty guitar playing, but either way Laura delivered a solid set of tracks from her latest album A Creature I Don’t Know, and a couple of oldies too. – Bianca

Anna Calvi

A passionate performance made complete with Anna’s shedding guitar solos and irresistibly strong vocal melodies. The audience appeared appropriately stunned by the set of the day. Well played! – Sam

Austra

One of my favourite shows of the day (apart from the searing heat at the time)  Amazing voice, crazy backing singers.  Kinda felt like we were being hypnotised. – Sarah C

Active Child

I’m a massive fan of Active Child but his Laneway show was uninspiring. Probably because the hipster-heavy crowd was crammed into a corner far too small for the size of the stage. That said I still have “Hanging On” stuck in my head 48 hours later. – Sam

He plays the harp live.  Amazing voice.  Couldn’t see much as I was right at the back.  Pulled a mega crowd. – Sarah C

Pajama Club

The area in front of the stage was bare before the start as fans crammed under every possible inch of shade going. Pajama Club opened with ‘These Are Conditions’ – a perfect cruisey way to start the set with the sun at it’s hottest. Neil was warm and engaging with the crowd, as is true to form. They played a cover of Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream ’. Neil made a comment about JJJ claiming their audience didn’t know who Bowie was to which one punter screamed JJJ didn’t know who Bowie was. The oldies were united!

Neil played drums for ‘Tell Me What You Want’ which was a highlight cause I never knew he played drums, and was doubled up by Alana Skyring who played tom toms on the side.  It was a fitting way for the kiwis in the crowd (me included) to celebrate Waitangi Day. – Liz

The Horrors

I remember seeing The Horrors in 2005 and being mesmerised by their eerie yet upbeat show. Seven years later, the boys with the bowl cuts and sunken eyes have matured into men, and their set while eerie was not so upbeat but atmospheric; and somewhat fitting to the concrete ex-hospital setting of the SCA. – Emma

The Drums

The Drums totally rocked the Young Turks/ Eat Your Own Ears stage. Each song had the crowd dancing and singing along to hits like ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ and ‘Money’, while the sunset relieved us of the heat. It’s a pity the sound wasn’t better!  - Emma

SBTRKT

Despite the delay (45 mins of technical difficulties which SBTRKT apologised for personally once he hit the stage), this show was well worth the wait. Sampha’s live soaring vocals combined with SBTRKT’s electronic wizardry capped off with a pretty amazing laser show rounded my day off on a high note.  - Emma

Image: Anna Calvi

While indie and dance fans may have become a little disillusioned by festival announcements of late,  many of us were thrilled to wake up this Monday morning to the news that not one, two, but a TOTAL ONSLAUGHT of incredible artists will be heading down these parts for 2012 festival season.

St Jerome’s Laneway Festival

It’s all about the girls at this year’s St Jerome’s Laneway festival with the ridiculously talented Laura Marling, Anna Calvi and Feist all heading up the bill. Then there’s Chairlift, Austra,  Active Child, Pajama Club (feat. Sharon and Neill Finn), The Horrors, The Drums, SBTRKT and much, much more… see below and head to their Facebook page for more. Laneway will tour Australia in February 2012.

Future Music Festival

Swedish House Mafia have confirmed all Australia tour rumours as true and will be headlining Future alongside Fatboy Slim, Tinie Tempah, Paul Van Dyk, The Wombats, Alex Metric, Die Antwoord, Jessie J, SBTRKT, Aphex Twin, James Murphy and Pat Mahony (LCD Soundsystem) and wayyyyy more. Future will tour the country in March 2012. Read the rest of the lineup here.

Hmmm… wonder if Tinie and SHM will join forces at Future?

The Mercury Prize shortlist for Album of The Year is out and it’s a goodun’! Personally, we’re rooting for Tinie Tempah, Anna Calvi and King Creosote & Jon Hopkins.

Here are the big contenders:

2011 Nominees:

Adele – 21
Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys!
Everything Everything – Man Alive
Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam
Gwilym Simcock – Good Days At Schloss Elmau
James Blake – James Blake
Katy B – On A Mission
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
Metronomy – The English Riviera
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Tinie Tempah – Disc-Overy

Purchase the nominated albums now on iTunes:

Disc-Overy – Tinie Tempah
Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
Diamond Mine – King Creosote & Jon Hopkins

Having played a series of support tours with distinguished luminaries like Nick Cave’s Grinderman, and making the list for BBC’s Sound of 2011 poll; South London rising star, Anna Calvi has just embarked on a massive headline tour. Over four months she’ll tour the UK, France, Germany, Italy and basically every city on your euro-trip wish-list!

Although we have to use our best patience skills and wait until March 4 for her debut album here in Australia, her self-titled record dropped in the UK and Europe on January 17. She’s already celebrated by press overseas; NME said her debut “is perhaps the first great record of 2011.” Recorded in secret, in a basement studio, Calvi says “it’s a culmination of my whole life up until now.” Some tracks are intertwined with freaky Hitchcock sounding strings, others explore lust and loneliness; but every track is doused in Calvi’s powerful noir-pop grace. Plus she plays guitar and was dubbed “the biggest thing since Patti Smit” by industry magnate Brian Eno.

We think the indie kids will drool all over their beards for this one, and so will lovers of accessible pop. How do we know this? Well the record is climbing the iTunes album charts super fast and it’s already #1 in France. To help you jump on the bandwagon, check out some footage below of her performing the album’s closer, Love Won’t Be Leaving. Don’t forget to tell us what you think!