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

Getting To Know... Colin Delaney

Colin Delaney is a Canadian-born Australian living in Amsterdam. As well as being an international man of mystery, he is also a music critic, blogger and all-round talented writer. Here, he takes some time out of his hectic schedule to discuss words, gigs, albums and the big differences between Sydney and Amsterdam.

Writing is for people who want to talk to themselves but are too sane and realise that's only what the crazies do. It's also the best way to earn a living. You shut up and write what you want... then the editor hates it so you stick it on your blog and watch the Google analytics drop.

I’d love to interview Charles Darwin - what a mover and a shaker. And for a similar reason, The Clash's Joe Strummer. But for serious, Magic Johnson, all Oprah-like with tears and highlight reels. And maybe Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys on his front porch with his record collection. A lot of people think they'd be great friends with Dave Grohl but I think I'd be better friends with Dan.

Amsterdam has opened my eyes to how a city should be creatively. I grew up in the country and moved to Sydney (after a few years in Brisbane and overseas) in 2004 and it felt like a thriving metropolis with so much to offer. And it does. But creatively the potential is not being tapped. There could be so many more opportunities. High rent is the biggest problem. I interviewed Pia Jane Bijkerk, a fellow Sydneysider living in Amsterdam. She's a photographer/stylist/author with clients like Saatchi and Saatchi, Vogue Entertainment & Living and Tommy Hilfiger but used to own a boutique in Sydney until it wasn't viable anymore - as she said, "City council and real estate agents need to 'cut some slack' to Sydney artisans as shop rents are so high."

However, in Amsterdam - and the Dutch being the hippy pragmatists that they are -they have started opening up old abandoned warehouses and temporarily empty buildings in the centre of the city to small creatives start-ups because they know it's only going to get squatted in if they don't. My office is in a heritage listed old bank with subsidised rent and seven storeys of the most exciting creative companies in Holland, whether it's collaborative shoe designers, film makers or a company that builds social media for the dead - we even have a bar on the roof overlooking the city. Shit's tight. This is what should have happened to that large building on Crown Street that stood empty for so long. Instead you got a swanky wine bar and so on. That said, the small bar licensing is a step in the right direction. When I was back in Sydney in January, it was a great, pokie-less atmosphere.

I've seen so many amazing gigs at so many at different times and places in my life. Faith No More at Lowlands last year was pretty amazing. My friend and I went nuts, my serotonin levy must have burst because I felt unnaturally ecstatic. Only a few months before that, Blur played in Hyde Park. Among others, to hear Parklife performed in the park it was written about on probably London's most perfect day of the year was a gig to remember. Not to brag, but I see Prince in two weeks, that should be pretty amazing.

If I could only listen to three albums for the rest of my life, they would be:
London Calling by The Clash,
OK Computer by Radiohead,
Ill Communication by Beastie Boys.

Arguably each band's biggest record, but the diversity on each disc is so that if I haven't got tired of flogging them over all these years I see no reason why I ever will.

Aside from writing, I love to travel which finds its way into my writing and in little movies. My girlfriend and I just bought a VW campervan named Bumblebeast to which we'll take around Europe from here to Latvia, down to Turkey and around the Med to Morocco. But before that we're off to France tomorrow to see Jay Z, Missy Elliott, LCD Soundsystem and a shitload more. Which reminds me, I gotta go pack.

Check out Colin (once, twice, three times) Delaney's awesome blog.

Friends of Mine

You may have noticed a little widget down the bottom of the right hand side of the page. If not, check it out as it links you to some of my dear friends' blogs that I think are really rather good. Amongst the wry wit of Portsmouth's own Rhys Jones and the freelance writings of Guy Wilkinson and Colin (once, twice, three times) Delaney, you'll find blogs from Sydney's two finest photographers, Cybele Malinowski and Daniel Boud (above).

There are some owls and some pipsqueaks, and, amongst others, a newish fashion related offering from Sydney-based model Olivia Dunn Frost (below) and her sister Emerald. (If you would like your blog added to the blogroll, then drop me a line).

As for this blog, I'm looking to add to the music-related gubbins by branching out a little further, so keep your eyes open for interviews with people from the world of film, TV, fashion and many other creative areas.