Bobbysix.com's End of Year Review 2011 - Heidi Pett

We're just a couple of days away from the big announcement of Bobbysix.com's overall winner of best album, film, gig and song of 2011. Before that, Deputy Editor Heidi Pett talks us through her favourite things from this year:

You’ll note that these lists have not been numbered. That’s because I’ve been known to take days sweating over my Triple J Hottest 100 votes (should I vote for my personal favourite on the album, or the most popular single, propelling a worthy artist to a higher rank? Is that selling out? What about that little-known band who I love but that will never make it in, is that wasting my vote? And if I do that, will Art vs fucking Science achieve a better result than they would have if I’d voted for, say, The Grates instead?) etc, etc, until oblivion. And that’s an anonymous vote which doesn’t even have to be ordered. So in the interests of my continuing to exist as a functioning member of society, here are my top picks of 2011, in no particular order.

10 Albums/EPs
Bon Iver - BON IVER (pictured, above)
Crystal Theatre - BELLES WILL RING
Forever So - HUSKY
Carry On - PATRICK JAMES
The Josephine March - THE JOSEPHINE MARCH
Absence - SNOWMAN
Milk Annual - CAITLIN PARK
I Want That You Are Always Happy - THE MIDDLE EAST
Helplessness Blues - FLEET FOXES
Secret Rituals - THE GRATES

10 Songs 
History’s Door - HUSKY
Last Night I Heard Everything In Slow Motion - OLIVER TANK
Rose Coloured Glasses - THE JOSEPHINE MARCH
Falling Away - BIG SCARY
Wishingbone -WINTER PEOPLE
Warriors With Wild Hearts - CAITLIN PARK
Paper Thin - FLUME
Please You - PATRICK JAMES
Hector Myola - TIN SPARROW
Holocene - BON IVER

10 Music Videos 
Bizness - TUNE-YARDS
Aroused - TOM VEK
Awkward - SAN CISCO
Little Frog - SUI ZHEN
Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) - GOTYE
Cameo Lover - KIMBRA

Featherstone - PAPER KITES

Fat Monk - RAT vs POSSUM

Holocene - BON IVER

Defeatist - CAMERAS

5 Gigs 

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE - Seymour Centre, Sydney

THE GRATES - The Metro, Sydney

SEEKER LOVER KEEPER - St Stephen’s Church, Sydney

PATRICK JAMES - Hibernian House, Sydney

HOWLING BELLS - The Standard, Sydney

5 Books

Eating Animals - JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER

All That I Am - ANNA FUNDER

Tall Man - CHLOE HOOPER

You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead - MARIEKE HARDY

Penguin Plays Rough - VARIOUS

5 Festivals

Woodford Folk Festival

TiNA/Emerging Young Writers Festival

Jaipur Literature Festival

The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival

Changing Lanes Festival

10 Blogs/Websites

I spend a fairly embarrassing amount of time jaunting around the internet, getting inspired by people who are making and doing things. Often I’ll read the entire archives of a blog and then forget to bookmark it for later reference, so here are a few that I actually remember:

suizhen.tumblr.com/

palahniukandchocolate.tumblr.com

thespitpress.com

reasonsyouwillhateme.com

heathenscripture.wordpress.com

thehairpin.com

mimihlvst.blogspot.com

thingsmypretentiousfriendssay.tumblr.com

http://ausreleases.tumblr.com/

raddestrightnow.blogspot.com

2011 in words 

I started volunteering with FBi Radio in June and have finally found that community of beautiful, creative, interesting and interested people that I’ve been looking for in Sydney. Because, you know, I was starting to think this town was full of wankers and everybody was too cool for everything. These people give up their time and their skills out of love and passion and a desire to create, and it’s the best bullshit filter I’ve ever come across. What feels like forever ago, I spent two months sharing a backpack with my best friend as we travelled around India. Trains that were 19 hours late, colour and dust and beauty and heartbreak, escaping Darjeeling in the back of an army jeep, making dinosaur noises at leering men on train platforms, packing more books than clothes, dark green eyes and a hand on the small of my back. And the fact that when we got home we were too embarrassed to reach for the handles on the train, as we reeked of filthy Delhi bathrooms and four days of unwashed transit.

Heidi Pett - Deputy Editor
As well as being a fine writer, Heidi is an award-winning radio producer and presenter. She takes photographs through a plastic lens, drinks wine, listens to folk songs with gratuitous swears and can more often than not be found with her head buried in a book.

Seeker Lover Keeper at St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney

SEEKER LOVER KEEPER 
HENRY WAGONS 
St Stephen’s Uniting Church, 22/11/11 

Your standard gig experience usually involves standing on beer soaked floors in dingy rooms, stuck behind either the tallest man in the world or the person with phone held aloft, filming the entire set and stopping only to have loud conversations with their friends in the middle of a particularly quiet song. So, what a delightful anomaly it was to sit and watch a show in the least rock 'n' roll venue ever. A church.

The Sydney leg of the Heavenly Sounds tour saw the first of two sell-out crowds enjoying a booze/mobile phone/annoyance-free environment at St Stephen's Church as Melbourne-based Henry Wagons opened the evening. While his banter was pretty funny, and despite the fact that it was a purely acoustic performance, the brashness of his delivery and persona weren’t really in keeping with the sweet, ethereal nature of the occasion.

Despite having spent years performing live, the three members of Seeker Lover Keeper all retain a shy, slightly awkward stage presence which is hugely appealing. Not least Sarah Blasko. As she danced like the shy kid at a school disco, shuffling her weight from side to side, it was pretty hard not to fall in love with her. This is surely the most unassuming supergroup around. But super they are. Songs from their excellent debut album were note-perfect; their nuances enhanced by the church’s fine acoustics and soft lighting.

Alongside Blasko’s beautiful, breathy-yet-powerful voice, Sally Seltman offered dreamy tones while Holly Throsby’s vocal was nicely understated. The band, backed by a drummer and bassist, interchanged constantly, with each member intermittently taking on lead vocals, piano and acoustic guitar duties. All three also performed one of their solo compositions, with Throsby adding it was a joy to play hers because, “Seeker Lover Keeper are the best backing band ever.” True, these three songstresses’ voices all perfectly complimented each other.

Ending the night with their best song, Even Though I’m a Woman, the trio left the stage to a deservedly rousing reception. Without wishing to make the previous few paragraphs seem superfluous, a night in a warmly-lit church watching three talented and charming musicians can be aptly summed-up in a single word. Lovely.

Review by Bobby Townsend. It first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.