Kimbra - Cameo Lover

While it is amazing to see our old pal Gotye killing it in the UK (we been raving about him for years), we were a little surprised to learn that quite a few people in Blighty still don't know too much about his partner on Somebody That I Used to Know. So we thought we'd post the above clip with the recommendation to get on board with the insanely talented human-being, Kimbra, right away. 

We've seen her perform on her own headline tour and at pretty much every Australian Festival over the summer and can confirm that this Melbourne-based New Zealander has got quite the set of pipes on her. Her self-produced debut album, Vows, is a fantastic coming-together of disco, soul, pop and dance via funk and jazz. When we reviewed Vows last year, we described it as an "ingenious melding of a whole host of genres and consequently the creation of something new and electrifying, helped in no small part by being tied together by some seriously bone-shaking beats. If the brilliant disco belter Cameo Lover (above) doesn't make you want to dance, there is clearly something wrong with you. Vows is a soulful, textured, vibrant triumph of a debut which immediately establishes Kimbra as a unique and genuinely exciting new artist. Bravo." So there you go. Open up your heart to Kimbra. She's great.

Big Day Out 2012

So, who remembered to put on sunscreen? Oh, that's right, NOBODY. And who got sunburnt to hell? Oh yeah, EVERYBODY. Well, actually, it wasn't so much that Big Day Out punters forgot to use sunscreen, it was more the fact that we were told it was going to piss down all day. Indeed, as Abbe May's powerful set of guitar-led indie-rock closed, the heavens opened and it seemed that BDO 2012 was going to be a mud-bath of Glastonburic proportions. But then something amazing happened (in the context of what has been the most rainy Sydney summer ever). As Best Coast brought their angsty-yet-perky, reverby indie to the table, the sun came out. As if on cue. For most of the afternoon, it remained H to the O to the motherflipping T. Like, seriously boiling. Lobster skin was order of the day, especially because there seems to be some kind of unwritten rule that the majority of the crowd must remain shirtless throughout. It makes sense though, I mean, how else would we be able to see their Southern Cross tattoos?

What's that? Oh yeah, the music.... Well, the aforementioned Best Coast were an early highlight, as were Sydney punkers, Chicks Who Love Guns. Triple J Unearthed winners Underlights displayed a sound that is clearly influenced by late 90s English indie. It was a shame that they suffered terrible sound (the bass was too prominent, everything else sounded like a muddy mess) because there were signs of promise there.

Boy & Bear brought a sense of serenity to the madness with their lovely set, which peaked when they covered Crowded House. Elsewhere, Battles and OFWGKTA were excellent and The Vaccines proved why they have received so much hype of late. Kimbra has been omnipresent this summer and she put in the strongest performance that we have seen from her so far. Vocally MASSIVE and exuding confidence in abundance, this woman is an absolute megastar in the making.

At the same time that My Chemical Romance were looking bored and old, Mariachi El Bronx doffed their sombreros to a huge crowd elsewhere in the concrete jungle of a site. Later, Kasabian did what Kasabian do while the day's highlight was going on in front of a criminally small crowd at one of the smaller stages. Kitty Daisy & Lewis (above) are simply wonderful. We have said enough words about how much we love them before, but, suffice to say, anyone at BDO who didn't pop along to see at least a couple of songs from this delightful trio of London siblings deserves to have their entire record collection smashed into tiny pieces. Whatever else you were doing, shame on you for not joining the couple of hundred people who were dancing like crazy to their amazing set (during which legendary Jamaican trumpet player Eddie Tan Tan Thornton made a typically impish appearance).

After this, we cut a dash to see the back-end of Foster The People's set and discovered where everybody was during Kitty Daisy & Lewis. Holy smoke, they were playing to a gargantuan crowd. Yeah, yeah, Pumped Up Kicks has been played to death but its appearance and subsequent mass sing-along was the feel-good moment of the festival in the early evening sunshine. Back in the arena were Soundgarden but, let's be honest, who really cares? After all, it's not 1994 any more. That said, Black Hole Sun did make us chuckle, as it brought back memories of how we used to sing it as Back Hole Mum as teenagers.

And then it was time for the main event. Kanye West announced his appearance by being hoisted way into the air on a cherry picker as puffs of smoke billowed below him (you can just about make him out in the blurry iPhone photo below) and the strains of Dark Fantasy kicked in. It was quite the spectacle and was greeted with an audible sense of awe from the massed throngs. This was followed by a fantastic version of Power. As starts go, this was as strong as anything we've seen, but his self-indulgence soon got kinda tiresome and his set list offered some seriously dull moments.

Post Kanye, Noel Gallagher & His Angry Birds (or whatever they're called) certainly knew how to keep the crowd happy, with a spattering of Oasis songs, including the underrated Talk Tonight in amongst his new stuff.

And, after Gallagher had done his thing, it was time for the shirtless masses to go home and apply some aloe vera to their bright red skin. All in all, it was a fairly unremarkable Big Day Out. Still, considering some of the headlines previous years have made, that's no bad thing.

Review by a sunburnt Bobby Townsend.

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.

Bobbysix.com's End of Year Review 2011 - Bobby Townsend

Over the next few days, all of Bobbysix's contributors will be sharing their highlights of 2011, culminating in the announcement of our overall album/song/movie/gig of the year later this week. Today, Editor Bobby gets the ball rolling: 

Top 10 albums
1. A Creature I Don’t Know - LAURA MARLING
Marling's most expansive record and also her most accessible, it proves her to be one of the most honest, intelligent and breathtakingly talented artists in music today.
2. Twerps - TWERPS
Twerps is the sound of a band growing up and finding their sound. This is an album that could soundtrack long summer days spent falling out of love.
3. Bad As Me - TOM WAITS
Existing fans will love it, while newbies will find this the ideal place to begin their Tom Waits collection.
4. Ceremonials - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
The art-pop of Ceremonials exudes impressive confidence from a woman on top of her game, while retaining enough of a dark edge to keep it interesting.
5. Vows - KIMBRA
Vows is a soulful, textured, vibrant triumph of a debut which immediately establishes Kimbra as a unique and genuinely exciting new artist
6. In Your Room - CAMERAS
The most refreshing thing is that, rather than front-loading the big singles, as so many albums do nowadays, it ebbs and flows like a set-list and feels very much like a musical journey.
7. Veronica Falls - VERONICA FALLS
A beguiling, intriguing coming together of dark and light, it is really rather wonderful. Melancholy never seemed so much fun.
8. Milk Annual - CAITLIN PARK
The delightful truth is that the nuanced, beautiful and outstanding Milk Annual is actually a unique sounding record. And you can't say that very often these days.
9. Smoking in Heaven - KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS
If the rubbish that litters commercial radio station playlists had one-hundredth of the honesty, heart and soul that this record does, the music world would be a much more satisfying place.
10. Yuck -YUCK
This album doesn't sound derivative in the slightest, but rather is a fresh and exciting post-grunge offering with a DIY ethic.

Top 10 songs

1. Defeatist - CAMERAS 

  

2. History’s Door - HUSKY

3. Cameo Lover - KIMBRA
4. Who Are You? - TWERPS
5. Walk Like Thunder - KIMYA DAWSON
6. Even Though I’m a Woman - SEEKER LOVER KEEPER  
7. Found Love in a Graveyard - VERONICA FALLS
8. Back in the Crowd - TOM WAITS
9. Endless Summer - THE JEZABELS
10. Covered By Snow - DEAD LETTER CHORUS

Top 10 gigs
1. FLORENCE + THE MACHINE - Seymour Centre, Sydney
So magical was the atmosphere in room during this perfect occasion that to step back into the real world felt painfully mundane. This was a wonderful and unforgettable night.
2. DAVID FORD - The Empire Bar, Belfast
At the midway point, Ford ran down the street in order to play a song at Duke Special and Phil Jupitus’ gig. They passed him on the way and came to read some poems at The Empire Bar.
3. KIMBRA - The Metro, Sydney
Her effervescence was complimented by her band as finger-clicking, red-suited male backing singers boogied in the background. She even managed a mid-set costume change. 

4.SEEKER LOVER KEEPER - St Stephen’s Church, Sydney

A night in a warmly-lit church watching three talented and charming musicians can be aptly summed-up in a single word. Lovely.

5. THE GRATES - The Metro, Sydney

With the combination of infectious pop, post-grunge and a singer that owns the room with her lust for life, tonight once again proved that to see The Grates live is to best understand them.

6. CAMERAS - Changing Lanes Festival, Sydney

While their atmospheric sound is best suited to playing in the dark, they still gave one of the performances - if not the performance - of the day (pictured, left)

7 SIMONE FELICE - The Vanguard, Sydney

His voice was beautiful, ethereal, transfixing and when he bowed at the end of the gig he did so with the awkward charm of a five-year-old having performed in the school nativity play.

8. KIMYA DAWSON & AESOP ROCK - Manning Bar, Sydney

It was a rare joy to see two such different artists sharing a stage and creating an evening of such eclecticism.

9. THE JEZABELS - Homebake Festival, Sydney

Singer Hayley Mary has something of the Kate Bush about her in terms of her vocal and the band's pop songs were powerful and engaging.

10. HOWLING BELLS - The Standard, Sydney

Simply, they sound like a proper band, with clean, strong guitar driven indie songs and an excellent vocalist in Juanita Stein.

Top 10 Films

1. Submarine

2. Bill Cunningham New York

3. Snowtown

4. Midnight in Paris

5. We Need To Talk About Kevin

6. Black Swan

7. Senna

8. Drive

9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

10. The Guard

Top 5 TV Shows

1. 24 Hours in A&E

2. Match of the Day

3. Boardwalk Empire

4. At The Movies

5. Q & A

Top 5 radio shows/podcasts

1. Kermode and Mayo’s Film Reviews - BBC Radio 5Live

2. Guardian Football Weekly Podcast

3. Arvos - FBi Radio

4. Desert Island Disks - BBC Radio 4

5. The Allnighter - FBi Radio

Favourite interview of the year

There were a few actually. It was a joy to chat to Florence Welch, even though it was at 7am and I hadn’t been to bed from the night before. I also enjoyed doing a face-to-face with Juanita Stein from Howling Bells. Our interview would lead to me drunkenly teaching her how to use the DJ decks at Sydney’s World Bar the next night. Speaking to Britany Nola was very interesting. I always enjoy interviewing models, as they have so much to say and are rarely afforded the opportunity. Her words about human rights and tolerance were inspiring. However, my favourite interview was with Laura Marling. I adore her work - firmly believing her to be the best lyricist of her generation - and I enjoyed catching up with her, as we first spoke over three years ago, when she was a shy 18-year-old. Though she is now a pretty big deal, it was lovely to discover that she remains as unassuming, polite and friendly as she was back then.

Highlight of the year.

Being able to attend the first Brighton & Hove Albion game at The American Express Community Stadium was an incredibly emotional end to a 14-year journey and something I will never forget. However, my actual highlight came at Sydney’s Metro Theatre in September. I was attempting to woo an especially beautiful lady when a young man came up to me and said “Excuse me, I just wanted to say I love your blog.” It is the only time in my life I have appeared cool and his timing was excellent.

2011 in words

Regina Spektor once told me that, "Man plans and God laughs." She could very well have been talking about my 2011. A fucked up fruitcake of a year, starting in the snow of England, ending in the heat of Australia, via Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eastern Europe. An era ending. Stolen moments in Budapest. A head resting on my chest in Sydney. Tourbus hilarity on the motorways of Britain. New friends on both sides of the world. A crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.  

Prediction for 2012

Our new website is going to blow your fucking minds. Watch this space.

Bobby is the Editor of Bobbysix.com. He has written for publications and websites including CNN, Drum Media, Inpress, BBM, Time Off, Rip It Up and The Argus. He has also appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC 7. He splits his time between Australia and England.

A few words with Ben Salter

Bobbysix.com had a quick chat with Ben Salter as he prepared for his gig tonight at The Gaelic in Sydney:

How has the tour with Busby Marou been? 
It's been great, all the crowds have been receptive and I think overall the Busby fans have picked up what I'm laying down. Except the couple in Fremantle who I chastised mid song for talking loudly through my whole set. Don't reckon they'll be coming back.

You've toured with some big names this year. What have you learnt from these experiences?
That I still have a lot to learn. Oh, and that Raymond Kurzweil thinks humans are gonna merge with computers in around twenty years. Thanks Paul Dempsey.

Was performing with Kimbra on Rockwiz fun and do you have any plans to work together again? 
Yes it was great. She's very talented and insanely composed for someone so young. No plans at this stage, but I suppose it's always a possibility. I'm sure our paths will cross again at some stage.

What does 2012 have in store for you? 
I think maybe I am going to go overseas and have adventures. Probably release another album too. Making albums is the fun part.

Complete the following sentence. You should turn up early to see my set at The Gaelic tonight because... then you can get a good spot to see The Winter People who are playing right after me and are awesome! Oh and cause I'm pretty good too if you like that sort of thing.

Catch Ben Salter, Winter People and Busby Marou at The Gaelic in Sydney tonight. Oh and here's that duet with Kimbra we were talking about. We love a bit of Supergrass.

Interview by Bobby Townsend

Homebake Festival 2011

Bobbysix.com's Editor went to Homebake Festival in Sydney and realised that he is a grumpy old man. Here's why: 

It started with a vomiting pumpkin...

Australian festivals are a strange thing. Considering the wonderful weather in this country, there aren't very many camping events, meaning that often festivals are staged in a single day. Therefore, punters take the opportunity to get as fucked up as possible, as quickly as possible. No time to waste. It's like watching three days of Reading footage on fast-forward. And so, in that context, we return to the pumpkin. As I entered the site, I saw two girls dressed as pumpkins, walking side by side. One stopped dead in her tracks and proceeded to projectile puke pretty much everywhere. It was like something out of The Exorcist, had The Exorcist been set in Sydney's Domain on a beautifully sunny summer's afternoon. She wiped her mouth, laughed and carried on with her day. It was 1.50pm. The tone, rather perfectly, had been set.

As the awful 360 proved just how awful Aussie hip-hop can be, I took a wander round the site and remembered that men who wear thongs (flip-flops - English Translation Ed) to festivals annoy the shit out of me almost as much as girls who wear those high-waisted denim cut-offs from which 40 percent of their arse hangs out. It's not a good look, ladies. Not a good look.

Anyway, to the music. Well, The Vines played but no-one really cared because it's no longer 2004. Meanwhile Unknown Mortal Orchestra (good name, by the way) rocked the Rowland S Howard Stage and were followed by the equally excellent Big Scary and  Noah Taylor & The Sloppy Boys.

 

Next up, technical difficulties meant that Kimbra (above) started 20 minutes late on the Dome Stage. Looking A-fucking-MAY-ZING in red she played a very short set which ended with the brilliant Cameo Lover. Her vocal was perhaps a little low in the mix and the fact that the sound was bleeding - or, in fact, hemorrhaging - from the main stage was pretty annoying. No-one wants to hear Drapht (more fucking Aussie hip-hop) at the best of times, let alone when they're trying to enjoy the soul/disco/pop of Kimbra.

There were irritating sound issues throughout the day. PNAU could be heard over The Triffids, even when standing about ten foot from the stage on which The Triffids were playing, while Gotye's eclectic, imaginative set was somewhat spoilt by horrible, bassy, muddy sound. Still, by that time, many of the crowd were too mashed to care. The girl in front of me at Gotye was the most gurnful individual I have ever seen. Goodness knows how many drugs she had taken but I suspect the answer to have been "lots of drugs." She was gurning so hard that, at one stage, she seemed in danger of swallowing her own head.

Mashed punters and bad sound aside, there were some outstanding moments at Homebake 2011. The Jezabels proved why they have become so popular, so quickly, with a stunning performance. Brilliantly named singer Hayley Mary has something of the Kate Bush about her in terms of her vocal and the band's pop songs were powerful and engaging. Elsewhere, Papa vs Pretty were great, our old mate Ladyhawke played to a full tent, after which Cut Copy had the crowd going mental with their tightly wound indie/dance stuff that let loose at all the right moments. A bit Icehouse, a bit New Order, a lot brilliant, they were the festival's late highlight and certainly worth missing the start of Grinderman for.

Ah, Grinderman. How I should love thee. Nick Cave. Tick. Warren Ellis. Tick. Dirty as fuck songs dripping in sex and grubbiness. Tick. So, why then, when watching them close Homebake 2011 under a clear purple sky, was I constantly thinking "I wish I were watching Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds."? I guess because I wished I were watching Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. A certain female vocalist who shall remain nameless told Bobbysix.com in the safety of the VIP area that she wasn't staying for their set because it is "mid-life crisis music." Which is actually a brutally fair assessment. Still, mid-life crisis or not, it was still awesome to see Cave hacking at a guitar and Ellis utilising more pedals than you could shake a stick at. But, as a band, they seem to equal less than the sum of their parts. Put it this way, I've never wanted to hear Stagger Lee more in my life than I did at 10.45pm on Saturday.

So, a mixed bag then. Some great performances, some bad sound, some beautiful weather and a vomiting pumpkin. A pretty fair representation of your typical Australian one-day festival.

Review and shitty iPhone pics by Bobby Townsend

The 2011 ARIA Awards

 Bobbysix.com's Bobby Townsend and Heidi Pett went to the 2011 ARIA Awards in Sydney today. They behaved like consummate professionals. Here's Bobby's review:

As you would expect from any Australian award ceremony, the 2011 ARIA's were a mix of fun, disappointment, excitement, happiness, booze and moderate embarrassment. Team Bobbysix arrived in the searing heat in time to see the crowd go apeshit as Hall of Fame recipient, Kylie Minogue, trod the red carpet. She looked small. And pretty. Taking our seats just in time to see Western Australian MC, Drapht, ably demonstrate how incredibly average Aussie hip-hop can be (and often is), it became pretty clear that the only way to enjoy such an occasion was drunk (after all, I have always been keen to reprise my performance at the 2007(?) MTV Awards when I shouted alcohol-fuelled abuse at Nicole Ritchie and those bellends out of Good Charlotte). So, we got our fucking arses to the bar. 

Maybe it was simply the booze, but the whole thing seemed a very surreal experience: the country's PM gushing over Kylie (not literally), Guy Sebastian seemingly dressed as a human disco ball and, later, crowd-surfing, The Living End winning Favourite Live Act and then putting on a fairly shit live performance, Art vs Science's song being enough to make me want to rip my ears off. Oh, and some dude THAT WE'VE NEVER HEARD OF who apparently won X Factor, swaggering around the stage like a wannabe Pete Doherty and going on an anti-corporate rant during his Best-Selling-Something-Or-Other speech. Irony alert. As Heidi tweeted: "You're from X FACTOR, for fuck's sake."

It wasn't all weird/bad though. Indeed, there were great performances from Gotye and Kimbra and Boy & Bear, while Hamish & Andy or whatever their names are even managed to be moderately funny when presenting an award. We were also happy to see The Wiggles get inducted into the Hall Of Fame. Indie snobbery aside, these guys are unquestionably one of Australia's most important exports.

Just when things seemed to be taking a turn for the better though... hold on, it's those fucking dudes from Good Charlotte again. I swear they have been at every award ceremony I have ever attended. Why? For the love of God, why? Anyway, I suppose them presenting a couple of awards gave us a chance to swear loudly in the direction of the stage for few minutes. Which was fun. By the time Pink (I refuse to spell her name with the ! for an i) undeservedly won Best Something To Do With Not Being From Australia (can you tell we were paying attention?) ahead of Adele, I'd gotten bored and went off to buy ice-creams (which would result in Heidi getting chocolate stains on her lovely white dress - we're nothing if not classy and cool at Bobbysix.com). 

Oh yeah, the winners. Well, we were really pleased for Boy & Bear, who basically cleaned up, winning BEST ADULT ALTERNATIVE ALBUM, BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST - SINGLE, BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST - ALBUM, BEST GROUP and the coveted ALBUM OF THE YEAR.

Meanwhile, Bobbysix.com fave Gotye won SINGLE OF THE YEAR, BEST POP RELEASE and BEST MALE ARTIST to add to PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, BEST VIDEO and ENGINEER OF THE YEAR already bestowed at the ARIA Awards Nominations Event in early October, all for the hit single, Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra). Kimbra won BEST FEMALE ARTIST while the legendary BILLY THORPE posthumously won an ARIA AWARD for his final masterpiece, Tangier.  

There were loads of other winners too but, Jeez, we were too busy drinking and loudly singing John Farnham songs (and generally annoying the hell out of the people in front of us who, presumably, had forked out hard-earned cash for tickets) to notice. You'll be delighted to know we'll be back next year for more quality journalism and breathtaking commentary.

Review (in the broadest sense of the word) and shitty iphone picture by Bobby Townsend.

Kimbra at The Metro, Sydney

KIMBRA 
HUSKY 
FIRE SANTA ROSA FIRE!
The Metro, 16/09/11

After Adelaide's female-fronted Fire Santa Rosa Fire! had created an impressive sound with giant bass meeting snarling guitars and synths, Husky's acoustic songs were dreamy to the point that they weren't quite as attention-grabbing as they needed to be. That is, until their final offering and radio favourite, History's Door, showed just how good a tune these guys can write. With its rumbling drums and lovely melody, it was the first standout song of the evening.

There would be many more standout moments to follow though, as Kimbra arrived on stage in a fantastic ruffled dress and set about bringing the party to The Metro. Starting with album opener, Settle Down, it was instantly clear that her show was going to be a whole lotta fun. Fun in music can be a tricky thing, as often it can come across as contrived and insincere but, as the New Zealander bounced around stage with abandon, it was obvious that she was genuinely having the best time ever. Her effervescence was complimented by her band as finger-clicking, red-suited male backing singers boogied in the background. She even managed a mid-set costume change. Looking feisty in off-the-shoulder red, she sent the female-heavy crowd into a frenzy with more tracks from Vows, most notably the disco-pop of Cameo Lover, which is surely one of the year's best singles.

Of course, Kimbra hasn't caused such a stir simply because she has a good time on stage. She oozes talent too. Her songs are expertly put together and they translated perfectly to the live arena. And then, of course, there's the voice. Holy smoke, what a voice. When this woman opens up her lungs and lets go it is absolutely breathtaking. Like poor old Amy Winehouse, it just doesn't seem possible that such a powerful and extraordinarily soulful sound could come from her thin frame. The constant comparisons to Nina Simone help nobody (how could anyone live up to such expectations?) but there is absolutely no doubt that she is a quite phenomenal vocalist. Judging by this excellent display, Kimbra is going to be a big star. Let's just hope that she can become one while remaining as interesting and diverse as she is at the moment.

Review by Bobby Townsend. It originally appeared in Sydney's Drum Media. Oh, and please excuse the terrible photo. The nasty security man made me ditch my camera before I got a decent shot. Boo.

Kimbra - Vows

While many people's main exposure to Kimbra Johnson thus far is perhaps hearing her lend a vocal to Gotye on his recent mega-hit Somebody That I Used To Know, the truth is that she isn't new on the scene at all. Since relocating to Melbourne from her native New Zealand over three years ago, the 21-year-old has in fact been tirelessly working on the songs that have eventually formed her debut long-player.

Vows was recorded and produced by Kimbra – at home and in various studios – alongside Australian Urban export M-Phazes (Amerie, Pharoahe Monch) and François Tétaz (Bertie Blackman, Gotye). Musically, things jump from disco to soul to pop and dance via funk and jazz, while her powerful and impressive vocal is at times reminiscent of Nina Simone. Elsewhere, her voice has the playfulness of Björk or Camille. However, regardless of influences and comparisons, there is nothing even remotely derivative about Kimbra's sound. Rather, Vows is the joyous and ingenious melding of a whole host of genres and consequently the creation of something new and electrifying, helped in no small part by being tied together by some seriously bone-shaking beats.

If the brilliant disco belter Cameo Lover doesn't make you want to dance, there is clearly something wrong with you. On it, she sings “Open up your heart to me.” With fantastically written and produced music being delivered with the invention, heart and energy of this, it would be impossible not to comply with her demands. Simply, Vows is a soulful, textured, vibrant triumph of a debut which immediately establishes Kimbra as a unique and genuinely exciting new artist. Bravo.

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

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (featuring Kimbra)

We love a bit of Gotye at Bobbysix.com, so when his new video leaked all over the web yesterday like sexy wee wee, we got very excited indeed. Gotye - or Wally De Backer to give him his real name - said of his new clip: "I hope you enjoy the video. It was the most lengthy and intense shoot I've ever been part of- two days of shooting, the second day stretching out to 36 hours! Anyone who's ever done full body painting and stop-time animation will know the way time can crawl, especially when you're trying to stand dead-still for hours." Still it was worth the effort, in our opinion.

The female vocal you can hear, belongs to Kimbra.