Music news

'The Wild Beasts' visit this summer on the road with The Laneway Festival. Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming share vocals on the track 'All The Kings Men'  delivering a captivating and ethereal range from a low and sexy swoon to a high pitch squeal. The infectious track doesn't stand alone on the album 'Two Dancers'. As well as Laneway the band are hitting the road with a string of headline shows around oz. 

This year at Peats Ridge Festival, 2010 was beckoned with new ideas and inspiration. I embraced women's urinals, barefoot mud dancing, hula hooping, but the highlight was a new love. For Kid Sam.

I'd heard snippets of the 2 cousins from Melbourne. Their self-titled debut album was nominated for a J Award earlier in 2009, but it wasn't until I sat mesmerised in a tent in Glenworth Valley, that I was hooked. Live, phew. These guys are something. Absolute fave is the single, we're mostly made of water. It just grabs your psyche the moment the guitar yodels in. By the time the melancholic chords are struck you've already signed up. Then Keiran Ryan's vocals grip you tight and your heartbeat is punctuated by stark cracks of the snare. Sigh. I was in tune-love.

So lustful was their performance, that the first task after the drive home on New Years Day was picking up said album from iTunes! I can't recommend it highly enough. Happy new music year 2010!

The lovely Angus and Julia Stone are back with the first single from their forthcoming sophomore record. The track 'And The Boys' inspires joy gained from love lost. With a driving drumbeat, beautiful touches of melatron and moog behind the acoustic guitars and dancing bass and piano, the song speaks to the power of the beauty that can be found in even the hardest of times.

I've been a little reluctant to share this baby with anyone, but as the Summer rays descend, it's almost criminal to hide the latest offering from California's punk scene, the low-fi noise-pop Wavves. It's nice to see a band that don't take themselves too seriously; with songs touting titles like So Bored, No Hope Kids and To the Dregs, it's pretty clear that singer Nathan Williams hasn't exactly stretched himself for influences. Yet his fuzzy, distorted falsetto and simple lyricism capture a certain element of playful hedonism that makes the San Diego tunes hard to dislike (think the Wipers and the Breeders and No Age). Get your fill of Summer ecstacy here.

The poverty-stricken artist is a time old cliché, but in the case of hard-partying, hard-touring band The Scare, we suspect it might just be true. Listing their pastimes as playing music, sleeping on floors, drinking gin and eating beans, the post-punk outfit is hitting the road once again to pimp their second album, Oozevoodoo on a national tour. They’re hitting up Falls Festival, Homebake and Big Day Out and are challenging their fellow countrymen to a game of pool along the way (location is Twittered, if you beat them you get free entry to that night’s gig.) Though they’re originally from the Sunshine Coast, their sound is strictly of the dark, loud and fast variety. Still, you’ve gotta love a rock band whose website includes a clip of them busting a move to “All The Single Ladies� and who aren’t afraid to don a ruffle here and there.

Thanks to our good friends at Diesel we have a very special prize pack to give away to two lucky, lucky, lucky Sydney readers... TODAY!

To celebrate the Diesel:U:Music winners, D:U:M will be hosting a concert  at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney TONIGHT (Wednesday 25 November) – headlining will be International D:U:M selection The Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt!, Maluca and Australia’s D:U:M winner, Melbourne-based Foxx on Fire.

The two winners sill each receive a pair of jeans (you pick the style up to the value of $360) a Diesel t-shirt and VIP tickets for you and your entourage (up to 10 people) to party in the VIP area at the D:U:M event in Sydney.

Just email competitions@yenmag.net with Diesel in the subject line and tell us in 25 words or less why you love denim. Note, transport to the event is not included.