Looking for a reason to SMiLE? An eBay Celebrity Charity Auction for The Beach Boys’ SMiLE Sessions has just launched…

If you’re a Beach Boys fan, you’re not going to want to miss out on a little piece of BB history.  Up for grabs is a limited edition Hobie Retro Classic Surfboard signed by Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston plus a Light Up SMiLE Sessions box set signed by Brian Wilson. All proceeds go to Heal the Bay; a non-profit environmental group working to restore Santa Monica Bay in The Beach Boys’ beloved Californi-aye.

Bidding closes on February 8th. GET BIDDING HERE!

The latest  “pop-up” offering to emerge from the streets of Sydney is an exhibition entitled Can We Fly? from local artist Bennett. You might remember Bennett as a contributor to EMI’s ‘Adopt A Gnome for Charity’ project back in December with his customised garden gnome ‘Lord Gardenpath’, which was auctioned off to raise $ for local charity The Girls and Boys Brigade.

Can We Fly? is a fantastic collection of mixed media and collage and an insight into Bennett’s post-punk twisted influences and inspirations. From layered newspaper clippings to aerosol to acrylic and everything in between, Bennett presents to us a world of contrast and alternative realities that question society’s definition of mainstream. Remixing narratives and thought-provoking images into new meanings (which are in themselves often multi-faceted!), Bennett introduces us to interesting characters such as Uncle Oscar and Aunty April.

Bennett, who currently works out of Higher Ground Studios in Darlinghurst, will be launching Can We Fly? this Saturday the 4th of February at Blank_Space Gallery in Surry Hills from midday. Come along if you’ve ever wondered if you can. Fly, that is.

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.

What’s more important than snags, cricket, beer, pavlova, facepaint or sunshine (of which there is a definite lack of in Sydney) on Australia Day?  The music. If you’re not tuning into the triple Hottest 100 tomorrow, or if you need some tunes to carry you even further into the day/ night, we’ve devised an awesome ’straya day playlist to get  you patriotic about our great Aussie music catalogue. The list includes Silverchair, Ratcat, INXS, Cold Chisel, Icehouse, Men At Work (without saying), Powderfinger, AC/DC and even Craig Machlachlan…. click here or below to play.

Last year, at a spectacular awards night at Sydney’s Ivy nightclub, Sydney-born House DJ Minx (aka Rachel Phillips) was officially crowned the winner of EMI’s inaugural She Can DJ competition.

So what’s happened since for Minx? The In Sound caught up with her to get the latest:

The In Sound: Congratulations on winning She Can DJ! How has your life changed since you won?
Minx: It’s a lot more hectic! I guess as far as gig schedules, tour schedules, production schedules and obviously having EMI on board now, my whole life has changed, but it’s all for the best, and all for building my brand. It’s really exciting working on original tracks and gigging overseas, and with the CD about to drop and my 3 month tour happening off the back of that, it’s all really exciting!

IS: No rest for the wicked! Can you tell us a bit about the album?
M: It’s a mix compilation CD, so it’s She Can DJ presents Minx. There are 17 tracks on there of songs that I’ve loved over the past year and songs that are coming out at the moment which I’m also loving.

IS: And are there any remixes on there?
M: Well there’s Swedish House Mafia remixed by Tommy Trash and Calvin Harris mixed by Benni Benassi, so they’re all kind of big dance tracks remixed by other people. I’ve also got my first two original tracks on there as well!

IS: Are you playing any festivals?
M: I do festival season every year. So I just did Stereosonic  and played with Avicii during his side show as well.

IS: Where will you be playing for your upcoming tour?
M: It’s both Australia and New Zealand, so the CD is released March 2^nd, which means I’ve got two pre-release shows from the 25^th February and then I go on my big tour, which is over 20 dates!

IS: Are you heading back to Ibiza this year?
M: Yes! I think that’s on the cards. I think I’m just trying to get my head around what’s happening the next couple of months! (laughs) But the plan is to go back over this year;

IS: So what’s your dream?
M: Well, I have been playing overseas for a few years now, so the main thing is production and that’s what I’ve been doing at the moment. I’ve just finished my first two tracks which will be on this CD and I’m working on my third, which is almost finished. Obviously, with winning She Can DJ, I get to produce an album, so it’s a collaboration basically with hopefully some of my favourite artists from around the world, who are mainly European and UK based, so I’d head over there and get a chance to jump into the studio with some of those guys and learn from them and make some songs together and put it on the album!

IS: And who are your favourite artists?
M: Haha, how long do you have?

IS: Top ten?
M: Well the guys like Swedish House Mafia are a sound that I play and love. If you see me play at festivals and clubs, that’s what I do; I play progressive house, a lot of main room sounds and those kinds of guys do that really well. For example, Dirty South, being someone that I’ve known for many many years, who’s been a great mentor, and someone that I’ve played with many times, his productions are ridiculous, so he’s a big one for me! Local guys Hook and Sling, Tv Rock; those guys are great. But Avicii who was out here recently;  I’m a big fan of his. Eric Prydz is my favourite producer, so if I ever got a chance to go and see him, that would be cool!

IS: Being one of our top female DJs, and obviously after winning a big competition like this, do you think the industry needed a competition like She Can DJ?
M: Nothing like this has been done before, I mean there are lots of DJ competitions around, but nothing with prizes like this one had to offer, or showcasing the talent of female DJs in this country.  I think when you meet people and you tell them what you do as a female DJ, they’ll say “Oh! There’s not really many of you out there are there?” But there was hundreds and hundreds of entries for this competition alone, let alone what it’s going to be like when it goes global. It just makes people realize there is a huge female base within the industry that they don’t know about, so I think that’s the main thing. There was definitely a market for it, and to get us out there and a bit more known, as it’s not just a men’s club!

IS: Yeah, I think I saw in a magazine recently, they ran their top 50 DJs, and there was about two females in there?
M: Yeah, well, In The Mix run a DJ competition every year and I was the only female that got in the 50. That was a public vote; so obviously the public don’t really acknowledge how many female DJs are out there. So I was stoked that I got in there!

IS: That’s crazy!
M: Yeah it will be interesting to see, if this competition runs again, whether there will be a shift at all.

She Can DJ Presents Minx –  a massive 78 minute big-room house music mix compilation featuring  Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, Calvin Harris, deadmau5 and Madeon will be released on March 2nd.

It’s only my second day here interning at EMI and already I’ve been given the exciting honour of writing about one of our most incredible new artists, Emeli Sandé. Hailing from Northern Scotland, the 23 year old multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter has already made her mark on the industry and formed a pretty wide fan base. 2011 proved to be a huge year for Sandé, she was snapped up to support Coldplay on their most recent European and UK tour, collaborated with fellow EMI artist Professor Green on UK chart-topping single “Read All About It” and completed her own headlining tour. The year wrapped up with Sande being awarded the pretty prestigious Critics Choice by the Brit Awards (which takes place next month) and with over 100 artists considered, she came out on top and joined other successful Brit pop songstresses who have previously won the top award (including Florence and the Machine and Adele)… perhaps putting my 23 year old self to shame!

2012 is set to be even better. February sees the release of Our Version Of Events, the highly anticipated debut album from the lovely lass; and with her song writing ability, melodic vocals (and awesome hair do!) I’m sure it won’t dissappoint. It will include previous singles; Heaven and Daddy, as well as some new tracks. It is now available to preorder on iTunes.

She recently appeared and performed on the Graham Norton Show. Here is her outstanding performance, which will actually go to air here on Saturday at 8.30pm on Channel 10.

Don’t Think STARRING THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS A Film by Adam Smith

Don’t Think?! It can be hard to not think A LOT when it comes to the upcoming premier of what poses to be one of the best music movies of this generation. This will be no ordinary documentation, guaranteed. Filmed with 20 cameras at a headline show at Japan’s very own Glastonbury – Fujirock Festival – Don’t Think is the first time the full Chemical Brothers’ live experience has ever been captured on film, let alone in this way.

Concert movie debut = WINNING. Directed by long-term visuals collaborator Adam Smith this full-length feature film places cameras in the centre of the stage as well as at the very heart of the crowd to perfectly capture a fan’s eye view of the heightened emotional reactions of the audience seeing the band at their very best. “I wanted to capture what it is like to experience the show from right in the middle of the crowd as well as showing and combining the visuals featured in the show with the footage we captured on this one night; to see how the music and visuals emotionally affect and connect with the audience” says Adam Smith.

Don’t Think undergoes a transformation from concert film to fully immersive document of one of the most mind-bendingly psychedelic live shows ever seen. This is every Chem Bros fan’s dream come true!! Now you don’t have to relive the mind-blowing concert experience via visually and aurally dodgy handheld videos uploaded to youtube! Nope, this release marks the first concert film to feature glorious Dolby 7:1, surround sound, mixed for the big screen by the band themselves. Music to our ears!

For a bunch of lucky fans we’re giving away double passes to see the film nationwide upon it’s release on Feb 3^rd!! To enter, simply email us at admin@theinsoundfromwayout.com and answer this question: “What’s the one word you would use to describe a Chemical Brothers show?” If you haven’t been to a Chemical Brothers show before watch the full trailer here. Wanna secure your tickets? You can also purchase them here or here!

“This film is the closest I will ever get to being at a Chemical Brothers show…  and yeah, it’s a beautiful experience.” -Ed Simons of The Chemical Brothers

Late last year Channel 9’s TODAY SHOW ran a major COLDPLAY promotion for a winner and friend to see them live in London just before Christmas.

Hew Sandison from Canberra was the lucky winner and obviously a massive Coldplay fan as he documented his trip of a lifetime and put it up on youtube. It’s a gorgeous video, that will give you goose bumps around the 2.20 minute mark. It’s so nice when a true fan wins a competition like this.

Enjoy………………………

It’s no secret from the boss down, there are lots of fans of LCD, DFA and Mr. James Murphy in the house. Today started real well when we came across this news piece.

Shut Up and Play the Hits is a new film which follows LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy in the final days of the band. Directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, Shut Up gives viewers an insight into Murphy’s decision to end LCD Soundsystem, right up to the band’s incredible final show at Madison Square Gardens last April.  The film will be premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival on January 22nd.

Check out the epic trailer below…

Fortunately the end of LCD Soundsytem doesn’t spell the end for James Murphy and us lucky Aussies are getting a dose of him in March when he tours Future Music Festival with Pat Mahoney as DFA…. alongside Swedish House Mafia, New Order, Professor Green, Fatboy Slim, The Wombats and way, waaaaay more.

Here are the dates:

Future Music Festival 2012
Brisbane – Saturday March 3 – Buy Tix
Perth – Sunday March 4 – Buy Tix
Sydney – Saturday March 10 - Buy Tix
Melbourne – Sunday March 11 – Buy Tix
Adelaide – Monday March 12 – Buy Tix

Matthew Gillett has had a cracking couple of years. In 2010 he enjoyed a packed house at his Mart Gallery exhibition ‘Peace Inside Anxiety’, graced the cover of SMH’s Extra Magazine, collaborated on a project with sunglasses brand Carve and next month he heads off to South Africa for the launch of a signature series t-shirt range with Billabong. In between all of this Matt has just returned from a 10-month stint in Indonesia to work on his next project.

Since landing back on Aussie shores in November 2011, Matt has hit the ground running and has been busy collaborating the works he completed during his overseas stint for his upcoming show, ‘MY ART KILLS MONSTERS’. Check out what it’s all about here.

“Matty G” lives life as he paints. At times gritty and haphazard, at times elegant and graceful, Matt will employ his own independently crafted techniques and spontaneous aesthetics to create something unexpected and always engaging. “After only being back 8 weeks it was unreal to get the opportunity to be involved in the EMI Art Project, a great opportunity to get your art out there for people to see. I have chosen two of my works painted over the last 18 months one finished only a few weeks ago! Enjoy!,” Matt says.

The two paintings Matty has chosen for our latest EMI Art Project window install is ‘DISCONCERTING BI-PRODUCT’ , which Matty explains is for all of us to think about how our social interactions impact other people’s lives.

The other he calls ‘THE WEIGHT OF ACQUAINTANCES’ which explores thoughts of all the people that come in and out of our lives – some for seconds some for days some forever!

For more on Matty G’s work, visit his website http:/matthewgillett.com