Last night some very lucky triple j listeners, Time Out Sydney readers and special guests were treated to a very unique and quietly spectacular event.  Ms Laura Marling performed a very intimate show for 165 lucky guests at the Paddington Uniting Church, Sydney.  The attentive audience watched Laura and her five piece band (featuring double bass, cello, harmonium, guitar, mandolin, horns and percussion) surrounded by candles and the hush that only an artist of Laura’s calibre can command.  So special was it, that the audience was treated to a brand new song that has never been recorded anywhere before.  It’s so new it doesn’t even have a title yet!

Laura dropped by triple j breakfast to chat to Tom & Alex, which was recorded by the triple j live music team and will later be broadcast in the ‘Live At The Wireless’ series.  To win a ticket to this special event, triple j winners had to submit their ideas for Laura’s next album title (noting that all of Laura’s albums thus far have been five word titles).  Some of the entries were hilarious and very clever, including these standouts:

Behold, I Wrote More Songs
Marcus Mumford: A cheating lout
Meow, I’m not a cat
Unicorns ate my pancakes
Yay, I Bought Some Floaties

Some winners traveled from far away to join us: one from Adelaide and another winner Ruby driving 7 hours to be there.

For more head to the triple j website or view Groupies gallery and review HERE. Check out the 64 pic gallery on triple j’s web site to relive the magic.

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

Triple j are hosting an intimate evening with the enchanting Laura Marling, and we have a double-pass to give to a lucky InSounder! The other-worldly songstress will play an exclusive acoustic set on February 8th within the beautiful setting of the Paddington Uniting Church in Sydney. It’s an invite-only affair, so if you’d like to be one of the lucky attendees, send us an email explaining why you love Laura  (in 25 words or less). Competition closes on midday February 7th.

You can also can catch the lovely Laura Marling at Laneway Festival or at one of her sideshows below.

Thursday, 2nd February
FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE
 With Special Guests HUSKY
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100

Thursday 9th February
Presented by Sydney Opera House
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL
Tickets from sydneyoperahouse.com or 02 9250 7777

A Creature I Don’t Know is out now on iTunes.

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?

Laura Marling’s stunning new album A Creature I Don’t Know is out today and to celebrate we have a deluxe album, poster, postcard set and previous albums Alas I Cannot Swim and I Speak Because I Can to give away. To enter, simply send your answer to the following question: In the liner notes of A Creature I Don’t Know, Laura thanks “poached eggs, coffee and the Saturday crossword” for helping her create the album. What three things motivate you to be creative?

The best entry will win the deluxe pack, and three runners-up will receive the new album.

Email us your answer by Thursday September 15th.

Calling all lovers of Laura Marling…

If you’d like to get a little closer to knowing new album A Creature I Don’t Know, we have five double-passes to the album listening party in Melbourne tomorrow night. It’s being hosted by Frankie Magazine at an intimate venue in Collingwood, where guests’ ears will be treated with the entirety of A Creature I Don’t Know…. three days before the rest of the world gets to hear it. It’ll be an intimate little soiree, and places are extremely limited. To enter, please email us your name and phone number with “Laura Marling listening party” in the subject line. We will contact winners tomorrow afternoon. Good luck!

Here in the UK, the nominations for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize have just been announced. This annual award has been going since 1992 and is rather coveted among many British artists due its unique remit – to recognise quality new albums regardless of any commercial success or media profile… “the music on the album is the only thing taken into account”.

What the nominations produce is a list of 12 albums released in the last year which should definitely be heard, but for many would otherwise lay undiscovered. In this respect the nomination is almost equally as important as scooping the award. The couple of months between nominations and award ceremony allows extended exposure for music fans to digest the highlighted albums, often producing significant sales spikes which needless to say are extremely important for the lesser known artists.

2010’s nominations see three EMI artist albums – Laura Marling, Corinne Bailey Rae, I Am Kloot (UK-distributed) – recognised as well as two Domino artist, the superlative Wild Beasts and the Irish folk sesnsation Villagers. The full list is below, this year I’ve got an unprecedented 7 of the albums which has produced a very smug appearance on my face. How many have you heard?

Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can (buy) Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea (buy) I Am Kloot – Sky At Night Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (buy) The xx – xx Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions (buy) Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N’ Cheek Paul Weller – Wake Up The Nation Villagers – Becoming A Jackal (buy) Kit Downes Trio – Golden Foals – Total Life Forever (buy) Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

Latitude is a music and arts festival that takes place near the east coast of England in Suffolk. Now in its fifth year, Latitude presents a popular yet relatively niche collection of established artists from a very broad and respected spectrum.

I’m currently on a 100% attendance rate and it’s been a real pleasure seeing it mature into the celebration it has become. Unfortunately my veteran status didn’t stop me from taking every wrong turn on the way there, thus turning a three hour trip into a four hour slog.

I digress. Once I had exposed the lying wench within the satnav, I spent a glorious few days in almost unprecedented thirty degree sunshine and in the company of (among very many others) – Empire Of The Sun, Laura Marling, Corinne Bailey Rae, Richard Hawley, Wild Beasts, Chief, Hockey, Yeasayer and a fresh-out-of-retirement Belle And Sebastian.

Empire Of The Sun - Latitude 2010

Check out these photos from a glorious festival weekend, and have a look at the official site to see more of Latitude.

Image credit: John Williams Photography.co.uk

Hello from the UK! A largely sunny July has seen iTunes take over the Roundhouse venue in Camden for a month of free gigs, with the likes of Laura Marling, Goldfrapp, Tinie Tempah, Mumford & Sons and The National – to name but a few.

Friday’s show featured Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons presenting a collaboration between themselves and a group of Indian folk musicians called Dharohar Project. First up was Dharohar Project, followed by Laura Marling and then Mumford & Sons – before all three groups returned to the stage to perform the EP they recorded at the end of 2009 in India.

Overall a heartfelt evening without a hint of self-indulgence or pretentions. Check out the EP (iTunes UK) now or hang on for the live version (also iTunes UK) as heard by my very ears.

Next up was The National on Saturday night, playing a mix of tracks from their three superlative albums. An energetic set was topped off when singer Matt Berninger walked into the crowd blazing through Mr November, with a seemingly endless cable following him to the back of the auditorium. I thought about taking a picture of him as he rocked past me but then I decided to spare you a dark blurry image in favour of me enjoying the moment. Hope you don’t mind! You can take a look at the official images here.

It’s back to the grind for me, I’ll be back sometime next week with a report from the sterling Latitude Festival.

If you’ve not heard today’s incredible 10th anniversary Splendour In the Grass lineup, have you not a computer / radio / phone / ears / eyes????

OK so camping tickets are $450 (ouch), but we’ve done the math & it turns that makes each set $5.55… Five and half bucks to heard the new LCD album live!? The full lineup is below, with our favourite acts on the LHS. (Full disclosure, they’re all ours!)

In your pre-Splendour research mode, we’re willing to help you out even further by giving you:

• Laura Marling Ltd Edn I Speak Because I Can CD/DVD with 5 free downloads, postcard artwork, and lyrics booklet
• Jonsi blockmounted poster featuring Go album art
• Operator Please signed 7″ vinyl of Logic / Logic (Dolby Anol Remix)
• Ben Harper & Relentless7 signed blockmounted poster featuring White Lies… art
• Gorillaz limited edition Plastic Beach CD/DVD
• Hot Chip One Life Stand double gatefold vinyl
• Goldfrapp Headfirst collector’s edition cassette

Just head to our sister store at theinsong.com/splendour, buy any of the singles or albums to receive competition details, and tell us in 25 words or less how you plan to warm up for Splendour.