Bobbysix.com's End of Year Review 2011 - Our showbiz mates

We managed to round up a few of our friends from the world of entertainment and ask them to contribute to our End of Year Poll. Here's what they offered us.

Jim Bob
Jim Bob (above) has had a busy 2011, finishing his new book, doing stuff at the Edinburgh Festival and playing sold-out shows with his band, Carter USM. Here’s what he listened to/watched when he had some down time.

Top 5 albums
1. Good News - WITHERED HAND
2. Own Side Now - CAITLIN ROSE
3. A Creature I Don't Know - LAURA MARLING
4. The Life Equation - AKIRA THE DON
5. Distraction Pieces - SCROOBIUS PIP

Top 5 films
1. Submarine
2. Attack the Block
3. Animal Kingdom
4. True Grit
5. Another Year 
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Amber Anderson
You may have first seen super-talented actress/model/musician and all-round lovely human-being Amber in the Match.com ads. Since then, she has worked on a number of movies, campaigns and editorials and we predict HUGE things for her in 2012. For now, check out her top albums and films from this year.
 
Top 5 albums (in no particular order) 
Ceremonials - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE 
21 - ADELE 
Suck It and See - ARCTIC MONKEYS 
+ - ED SHEERAN 
The English Riviera - METRONOMY 

Top 5 films (in no particular order) 
The Help 
We Need To Talk About Kevin
The Inbetweeners Movie 
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 
My Week With Marilyn
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Cameras' Fraser Harvey 
Fraser (left in picture) is one-third of Sydney band, Cameras. Here, he tells us a little about the records he has been playing as his band has toured Australia and The States.

Top 5 albums 
1. Blood Pressures – THE KILLS
I instantly loved every song on this record, but I kept liking it for different reasons every time I put it on. Plus, who doesn’t want Alison Mosshart to have her way with them and then sing you The Last Goodbye.
2. The Child EP – THE CHILD
We played a show with these guys in LA, they’re also on Manimal and right from the first song I was enamoured. The ditties sound simple, but underneath there are actually a lot of complexities that will pass you by if you’re not careful. Their drummer Norm recorded and mixed this. Bitchin’.
3. The King Of Limbs – RADIOHEAD
This was so much to swallow when I first heard it. They seem to make every single idea work, all at once – and this album leaves you discovering subtleties well into your 10th listen and beyond. Very few bands achieve this.
4. Let England Shake - PJ HARVEY
C’mon, it’s the Peej so of course it’s going to be good – but this was a particular slice of form. Plus I’m a sucker for some Autoharp.
5. Grinderman 2 – GRINDERMAN  
I know this came out in late 2010, but I only got onto this in 2011, so it’s going on my list. I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoy crude lyrics, and there are few better than Mr. Cave in this department. Fuck off Boy & Bear’s record was better than this.
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Clytem Scanning
Our favourite Parisian purveyor of beat-driven electro-pop melodies filled with dark ambiances sent us her top five albums and her top four films. “I couldn't find any 5th film cause I am pretty difficult with recent movies,” she told us.

Top 5 albums;
1. work (work, work) - HTRK
2. W - PLANNINGTOROCK
3. Absence - SNOWMAN
4. Faults - SEEFEEL
5. Wounded Galaxies Tap at the Window - CYCLOBE

Top 4 films
1.We Need To Talk About Kevin
2.The Murderer
3.Triangle
4.Meek's Cutoff 
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Sienna Guillory
As well as filming the new Resident Evil movie and trying to get Stone Roses tickets (she did), Sienna has also become a Mum to twins this year. So she hasn’t had much time to watch new movies or to discover new albums. Here's the five artists she has been most listening to in 2011. 

1. Neutral Milk Hotel 
2. Caveman 
3. Beirut
4. Waters 
5. The XX
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Chicks Who Love Guns' Cass Navarro
Cass (front left in picture) is the frontman for awesome band Chicks Who Love Guns, who have been wowing crowds in Sydney with their high-energy punk amazingness. We reckon that 2012 is going to be a good year for them. Here are Cass' choices for records and moves of the year.


Top 5 Albums (in no particular order)
New Start Again - DICK DIVER
Exmilitary - DEATH GRIPS
Royal Headache - ROYAL HEADACHE
Ugly Animals - RETOX
Smoke Ring For My Halo - KURT VILE

Top 5 Films (in no particular order)
Autoluminescent
Submarine
Drive
The Inbetweeners Movie
Hanna
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Holiday Sidewinder
The Bridezilla frontwoman, solo-artist and long-term friend of Bobbysix.com didn’t have much to offer in terms of her top five lists. However, we very much approve of the one name she gave: “I actually haven’t done much watching or listening of new stuff, so aside from Twerps, I dunno.”
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Larry Heath 

Larry (pictured with Bobby) is the brains (and hours and hours and hours of hard work) behind brilliant website, The AU Review. 

Top 5 albums
1. Gloss Drop - BATTLES
2. Prisoner - THE JEZABELS
3. Simple Math - MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA
4. Don't Say We Didn't Warn You - DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?
5. Wasting Light - FOO FIGHTERS
 
Top 5 films 
1. Drive
2. Midnight in Paris
3. Harry Potter 7.2
4. Tucker and Dale vs Evil
5. Super 8
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Colin Delaney
Colin is a music, arts, film and travel writer based in Sydney. He is also a fine fellow indeed.

1. BURNING MAN
Jonathan Teplitzky’s latest is inspired by his own experiences of love, loss and the downward spiral it can send a man on. Brit Matthew Goode plays chef Tom who struggles to juggle the various women in his life as it turns inside out from grief. It turns inside out for us too. Between Teplitzky and editor Martin Connor the non-linear storytelling proper fucks with you. The film is as brilliant as it is difficult to discuss without giving away some major plot points. Just go see it and sob like a baby. 
2. BRIDESMAIDS
The girls out-bromanced the bros. If you didn’t like this film I hope you get diarrhoea in your wedding dress.
3. DRIVE
Speaking of bromance… if you’re a guy and you don’t get the whole Ryan Gosling thing yet, watch Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. A merciless prick on a revenge drive through Los Angeles, Gosling remains pretty under pressure, all to a cool yet soulless score by Cliff Martinez and College’s “A Real Hero.” 
4. CAUGHT INSIDE
There may have been a better thriller made this year but this little Australian film, which was like Bra Boys meets Dead Calm as a chartered surf trip turns bad, scores points for the following reasons… 
A) The film could have easily been another schlock teen horror but first time feature director Adam Blaiklock handled his script competently to find the right balance. 
B) Made for just about nothing and filmed on location with a tight cast and crew of less than twenty, it’s an example of putting all your budget on screen. It should be seen by all aspiring filmmakers as fodder of what can be done on a limited budget. 
C) Bon Oxenbould gives what will hopefully be for him a career-turning performance, ala Eric Bana in Chopper, to steer him away from his Nudge (yes, as in Hey Dad!) character. 
D) Unlike every surf-based drama that came before it, Caught Inside doesn’t fall into a cliché trappings of the surf lifestyle. With Blaiklock a surfer, it was something he was all too aware of, both in story and filming techniques… as in, every actor had to be able to surf. 
5. CATFISH
Another film that’s hard to talk about… This documentary about Facebook was certainly more affecting than The Social Network. Scary, sad, funny, we all know someone who thought to quit Facebook over a stalker. It took a lot of balls from the filmmakers to follow through with what they did. I’d have probably just quit Facers and reactivated my Bebo account.

Colin gives notable mentions to: Red State, Snowtown, Midnight in Paris, Hanna and The Tunnel.
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We'd like to thank our industry pals for taking time out of their schedules to tell us what has been floating their boat this year. And thanks to you for voting as well. Be sure to check back in to Bobbysix.com tomorrow for the grand results of our epic End of Year Review. We'll be revealing the overall best album, best song, best gig and best film of 2011. 


Interviews by Bobby Townsend

Bobby Six spins some tunes at the Captured Sydney Grand Finale this Sunday

It's weird what goes through a person's head. And by 'person', I mean me. There are so many things to occupy one's mind. Philosophy, politics, art, literature, the great unanswered questions. However, today I have been thinking a lot about that Shaggy song. Surely, the whole thing is massively flawed. I mean, if your other half walks in on you doing naughty things on the kitchen floor with another lady, simply saying "It wasn't me," isn't going to do much good? It clearly was, and is, you. Also, you know that All Saints song? Shouldn't it be, "A few answers that I need to know"? You would only need to know questions if you were some kind of quiz-master, right?

Anyway, all of the above nonsense has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that, this Sunday the 2nd of October, the Grand Finale of Captured Sydney takes place at Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar. Captured is a competition in which six filmmakers were paired with six bands to make some truly inspiring clips and it's up to you to decide which is the best. Voting continues here until 10pm on Sunday. The winning band and filmmaker will be announced on the night at 11pm.

Before the big announcement, you can catch the brilliant Cameras and Chicks Who Love Guns (who are both in the competition) in a one-night-only double bill. Also you'll get one last chance to see all the clips again. And before that? Oh yeah, you'll find Bobby Six on the wheels of steel, offering up 90 minutes of good shit.

And, entry is FREE. That's two great bands, six great video clips, and some idiot on the decks, all for zero dollars. What the heck else are you going to do with your Sunday night? Especially considering you can have a lie-in on Monday.

SET TIMES 
8pm DJ Bobby Six
9.30pm Cameras
10pm Films are screened, winning filmmaker announced, as selected by a group of industry judges (of which Bobby Six is one).
10.30pm Chicks Who Love Guns
11pm Winning band announced, as voted by the public.
11.05pm until late - OAF Resident DJs

Getting To Know... Chicks Who Love Guns

Sydney's Chicks Who Love Guns play at The Gaelic this Friday. Vocalist Cass (front left in the above picture) tells us what to expect:

I would describe Chicks Who Love Guns' sound as something that spawned from boredom, then evolved into something a little more thought out. It's got a real brash element to it which is probably the boredom thing coming into play again. We play fast songs, loud songs and generally it's something that we feel is sonically entertaining - at least to people who are in the same boat as us and are sick of generic indie pop blegh.

We take inspiration from all over the place. Xavier (Drums) is as much into watching Dave Grohl or Jimmy Chamberlin play drums as he is into listening to The Budos Band. Jack (Guitar) listens to all sorts of shit too, he makes electronic music on the side in the vein of Flying Lotus or Gaslamp Killer. Mitch (Bass) listens to a lot of 31G bands like The Locust and Some Girls, Mody (Guitar) loves him some Rowland S Howard and Liars but has a pretty keen ear for good local music and always seems to be the one playing us some random band from Brisbane or Melbourne or something. I guess that leaves me, these days I listen to loads of hip hop. A group like OFWGKTA appeals to me heaps (well, all of us really) because they have a real punk ethic to them and seeing footage of them live is more like seeing one of our shows than your standard hip hop gig.

Sydney is pretty good. Some of the music that comes out of here is truly awesome but a lot is rubbish. I'm a grumpy bastard though and really can't stand any music that is too quirky or cutesy and there seems to be a neverending flow of that. There are some great bands here though - Zeahorse, La Mancha Negra, Psychonanny and The Babyshakers, Myth & Tropics, Mother and Son (Wollongong) - bands that have more balls and substance for me. I'm sure it's like that everywhere though, there will always be a counter-culture. Whether we are or they are is something I'm not sure of.

I am currently listening to Earl Sweatshirt, Pulled Apart by Horses, Rolo Tomassi

It might surprise people to learn that the G from The G,L + S tattoo Xavier got tattooed in his lip for our video clip has already worn away. Ahaha now he just has L+S.

Our show at The Gaelic will hopefully be one of the best we've done. We haven't played in about two months because we've had a couple of members overseas, so I'm hoping we get a good crowd down. It will be a supremely fun night I think, tell a friend. BYO ruckus. We just may be doing a cover of this:

Check out Chicks Who Love Guns on their Myspace Page. They are are supported by Redcoats and The Rubens at Last Night at The Gaelic on Friday. Tickets are a bargain ten bones on the door.