Foster The People: Pumped Up Kids

                                                                              

26 August 2011

by Poppy Reid

Foster The People are exhausted. Sprawled languidly at the TMN offices, the L.A. trio are in the embryonic stages of their promising career; yet they look like shells of the former band members, who in February chose Australia for their first overseas jaunt.

“I miss being outside, I just want to disappear in the mountains,” says bassist and synth player Cubbie Fink. “I wanna lay on the beach somewhere for a month straight,” quips drummer Mark Pontius.

The band will have been on tour for ten months straight by the time they get a break in December - after which frontman and band visionary Mark Foster, plans to “sit in the dark.” “We’ve been on the road so much that the only gauge we have right now that we’re a successful band is the fact that we’re playing sold out shows,” he says, perking up. Although life in a tour bubble was always the plan - having just added our own Splendour In The Grass to their 12-strong festival collection - it’s been a fast train since posting Pumped Up Kicks on YouTube in February of last year. The sunny beat over a lyrically standard school shooter trope went viral, and even made 2010’s Triple J Hottest 100 list. Fink says Australia’s obsession with the song was a major player in their February showcasing.

                                                                     Photo credit: Ken Leanfore

“I don’t know why,” he says, smiling. “It was just off the charts in comparison to everywhere else in the world.”

Five months after the track hit the Internet, Foster The People signed to Columbia Records, with debut album Torches following a year later. No mean feat for a band who, seven months ago couldn’t sell out a 300-person venue in their hometown. “But we’re going back to L.A. in September and playing two shows in a row at a 2800 capacity venue, which are both sold out already,” says Foster.

Watching the three members revel over the fruits of their popularity only makes you want to back them more. They’re hardly a young Californian stereotypes, in fact, each of them experienced arduous times before Foster The People became a major project. Pontius was couch surfing his way through film school and taking the bus to each band rehearsal, while Fink was “living off 50-cent-hotdogs from the grocery store,” after the television production company he worked for shut down during the recession. Foster recalls pawning jewellery and his first electric guitar to pay rent, “I hated that guitar,” he laughs. “But I wish I had it for sentimental reasons.”



He was, however, able to earn a crust for a while, composing for advertisements. One of Foster’s more amusing compositions was for protein drink Muscle Milk, where he penned lyrics and music for a frat boy-type commercial called Spring Break It Down.

After much coercion, Foster rapped a lyric from the ad, “I was the dopest Fauxhawk of 2006, flash my bling, flex my guns and then I steal your chicks... Without seeing it, it’s out of context,” he added seriously.

As are the lyrics in second single Helena Beat when scrutinised. Take for example, part of the track’s chorus, ‘yeah it’s okay, I tie my hands up to a chair so I don’t fall that way.’ Foster may have named the track after an ex who was “partying a lot,” but he’s really embodying the attitude of Hollywood’s drug culture scene. “They’re the young, hot, up and coming, powerful people that are gonna run the world,” says Foster. “But they’re just going out and doing drugs every night. “They’re saying it with this big smile of their face like ‘I’m great, everything’s great,’ ‘but don’t you see that you’re completely out of your mind on drugs right now that you can’t even stand?’ Their whole life is fucked.”



With such an explicit standpoint on one of the major pitfalls found in the industry’s darkest bowels, we needn’t worry whether these neophytes can hold their own. Foster The People are even as accommodating and philanthropic as their name implies; next month they will embark on a North American tour with The Do Good Bus, a charity created by Pontius’ sister where the band will help local causes at each stop. As for their next charitable ambition, Foster reminds us that while Australia may be keen to adopt them, they’re no John Butler Trio, yet.

“I’m opening up my apartment to hot, wayward teenage women that need a place to stay. I’ll keep them off the streets.”

Torches is out now through Sony Music/ Columbia Records

Live Review: Gotye

Photo Credit: Ken Leanfore

23 August 2011

by Poppy Reid

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
Saturday August 20

Just one night after Gotye released his third album Making Mirrors, he performed its tracks before a sold out Concert Hall in Sydney’s Opera House.

Gotye's second show on the following night also sold, no mean feat for an artist who only recently found mainstream success. However, seated amongst the other 2,670-something fans watching Melbourne’s most deserving musician, it was clear we had flocked to his unique sound rather than him targeting us for chart success.

Performing as part of the city’s Graphic Festival, Gotye’s album preview was overtured by one of the most emotive animations I have ever experienced. Created by Shaun Tan and narrated by Tim Minchin, 15-minute film The Lost Thing won an Oscar in February for Best Animated Short Film, another worthy but unsurprising Australian merit. Complete with an onstage mini-orchestra expertly performing the film’s score, the screening couldn’t have been for fitting as a Concert Hall support act.

Gotye’s intricate set was orchestrated to a tee. Acclaimed animation teams faultlessly backed his music and lyrics with jaw dropping, dizzying, at times creepy, but always emotive visuals. Brendan Cook’s morphing bear-man endowment for opener and lead single Eyes Wide Open was the perfect spearhead for the visual banquet. The audience sang long proudly as Gotye’s musical phalanx materialised our aural memory of the track.

:: View live shots from the performance here.

The performance also marked the debut of Gotye’s 10-piece band, each member undertook multiple moonlights as they swapped and changed instruments through collective vocal contributions, random hand claps and finger clicks.

Other animation amazements included distorted delight State Of The Art, where creative duo Greg Sharp and Ivan Dixon of Rubber House delivered their sunny, Disney-circa-1950s animation which was tailored especially for the track. The crowd’s grateful cheer afterward was only equalled twice more. Once for chart topping singleSomebody That I Used To Know where contradicting emotions filled the hall. Our hearts broke for Gotye as he bore his soul with each lyric but they were concurrently filling with light as Kimbra stepped out to perform her cameo. The pairs’ eyes only met upon the track’s finish, adding to the theme of discontent.

Hearts A Mess was another emotional rollercoaster as Gotye turned the massive venue into an intimate setting. Taken from second albumLike Drawing Blood, the 2007 track painted Gotye as more than a musical genius but also a beautiful singer with an impressive vocal range.

We sang along when he asked for Save Me, his homage to girlfriend of four-years, Tash Parker. “Is Tash here?” he said. “Love you Tash.” Exempt of any animated accompaniment, Gotye’s players and our own feeble contributions were enough. “It’s nice singing that song and thinking about Tash,” he said.

Mechanical Apple’s Ari Gibson and Jason Pamment approached Gotye’s Bronte as more of a mini-film while the multiplying cactuses for the Jackson 5-like track In Your Light was an enjoyable backdrop, leaving room for our minds to feast on Gotye and his talented ten.

“Had I stuck with my original set list plan we would have gone offstage and done a few high fives…” Gotye skipped the encore tradition and instead gave us more of his time.

“If you can all help us out we can all go out on a high,” he said before rearing into Like Drawing Blood track Learnalilgivinanlovin. Although Shannon Cross’ cartoon-nostalgic clip brought on happy childhood memories, it was Gotye’s incredible drum solo and the roaring horn section which incited dancing in the isles. An instant standing ovation and massive applause then ensued.

Gotye’s stunning album preview ceased, beaming faces spilled out of the Opera House and the heavens cried. Okay it may have just started raining but isn’t it nicer to think the former?

Katy B: Mission Accomplished

19 August 2011

by Poppy Reid


Katy B is revered for plenty of reasons - her doe-eyed maturity, arresting presence, and the sense of urgency she injects into a dubstep culture screaming for mainstream recognition.

Born Kathleen Brien in Peckham, South London, the 23-year-old still lives at home with her family. Speaking to TMN on the phone from the family bathroom, she drops her voice down an decibel or two so as not to wake them. “It’s just past midnight here,” she says softly.

Next month, Brien will make her maiden voyage to Australia, where she’ll perform alongside fellow Gossip, Santigold and The Streets at Parklife festival. Procuring the spot on the back of her ARIA chart mainstay On A Mission, the debut defies the fate of many artists who started their career the same way. Brien featured on Geeneus’ As Iand DJ NG’s Ministry of Sound-released single, Tell Me (What It Is); but while most guest cameos fizzle into distant memory (eg. Estelle) along with the plethora of UK dance subgenres, the singer went on to receive epithets like ‘the first lady of funky house,’ and ‘the voice of dubstep.’ With such lofty plans for Brien and what her success spells for female singers endeavouring to break out from the underground, it’s surprising to hear her admit she didn’t always have a hunger for singing stardom.

“I was one of those people who just wanted to do everything. I wanted to be a dancer, I wanted to be a pianist,” she says, laughing. “I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to be a footballer. I was always getting involved in lots of different things.”

It wasn’t until she was accepted to BRIT School, a performing arts academy in London, that she decided to follow fellow graduates Adele, Amy Winehouse, Jessie J and Leona Lewis into the pop star cog culture machine. But while she may have studied with some of the UK’s most successful exports, Brien attributes Benga (the producer of her first single Katy On A Mission), and pirate radio station Rinse FM as the launchpads that shot her to recognition.

“He [Benga] has a massive fanbase so I think that helped,” she says. “The underground really supported it so that pushed it up and more people joined on and caught on to it.” 

Rinse was not only the first to play Katy On A Mission, before it received its commercial license in June last year, Rinse FM also premiered tracks from both Dizzee Rascal and Wiley in their early days. Brien even signed to Rinse FM’s recording label after a series of unsuccessful meetings with the majors.

“I think you just get a feeling when you’re in talks with someone, you know?” she muses, her South London accent thickening. “I remember meeting a couple of managers and I just didn’t get a good vibe from them, d’you know what I mean? “When I started working with Rinse FM I just knew that they were all about supporting new music and they were really interested in music in general, and I didn’t feel pressured at all.”

Brien achieved this all with unexpected success too, accolades and praises have been ringing in since the album’s release in May this year. Four of her On A Mission tracks charted in the UK’s top 10 Singles Chart, she was recently nominated for the coveted Mercury Prize, and she can now count almost every publisher on her side of the world among her fans.

“Everything is like a snowball. Everything lends itself to each other,” she explains. 

Brien has the potential to spearhead an uprising for female artists of the underground, her sass-soaked voice feeds refreshing moxie into a genre lousy with homogenous offerings. For now though, she is happy to remain, at least while her expectations stay mild, a working singer/ songwriter.

“I don’t have any kind of goal of ‘I want to sell this many records,’” she says. “I just really love singing and I like recording and making records; so as long as I get to do that for a long time, I’m happy.” 


On A Mission is out now (SME)

Gotye: Neurotic exotica

15 August 2011

by Poppy Reid

“Neurotic exotica. That’s my genre.” Gotye’s eyes light up as he describes the music that has shaped his past decade.

This week, Gotye (aka Wally De Backer) will release his third full- length, Making Mirrors: the product of four years of self-psychoanalysis and op shop record samples. Slated for a June or July release, the album was put on hold to furnish indie’s most notable success this year so far, the chart topping, Gold certified Somebody That I Used To Know.

Written throughout October and November last year, the single -a bitter reflection on De Backer’s past relationships - became a two-person story in need of a female parallel. The sweet melismatic pop of fellow Melburnian Kimbra completed the single perfectly, a part that his current other-half had ironically auditioned for.

“Her voice just was not right for this kind of character. It just didn’t have the same feeling to it, it just didn’t work,” he admits. “When I asked Kimbra to do a demo I was like ‘Yeah, this is gonna be great!’” The overslaugh was met with the reaction you’d expect from a girlfriend of four- years - an understandable sting.

“I think there was a little bit of hurt there. It was like ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could do a song together?’ But it was weird, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend and we’re singing this heart-wrenching breakup song. It almost didn’t have the right resonance from the start.” As further proof of his formidable relationship, De Backer then decided to make his music video debut a momentous one: With Kimbra, naked. Clocking over 1.3 million views on YouTube to date, De Backer jokingly puts the ease of filming down to his European background (he moved to Australia from Belgium when he was two) but then explains his need to accompany the track’s theme with the same stripped-back (pun intended), soul-baring (also intended) forthrightness.

“It definitely felt right to step out and sing directly; because I think if I’d done a clip that kind of escaped the directness of the song, that would have been a bit weak.”

In fact, much of Making Mirrors carries the same thematic standpoint; De Backer used his music to work through the self-reflections that plagued him - with each track’s resolution came the closure of another rumination.

“Sometimes when you look back on songs you’ve finished, especially the more personal ones, they solidify things you’ve been mulling over and chewing on so they can hopefully provide a bit of detachment from them,” he says as if referring to someone else, before adding, “that’s how I feel about it which is nice.”

To guide this detachment, De Backer recorded the bulk of the album in a makeshift barn-turned-studio on his parents’ farm. He approached the creation of Making Mirrors just like his previous efforts: entirely solo, in self- imposed seclusion.

“[I] produce, write, arrange and play in a fluid process by myself in my own time, and strike ideas as they come up and work through the barriers rather than seek assistance,” he says with pride. “Other artists, that’s not what they do, they need a producer to create that exciting piece of music; horses for courses, I guess.”

Perhaps one of the only similarities between De Backer and the onslaught of singer/songwriter projects congesting radio airwaves is his amicable use of public platform as counsellor’s couch. “They say songwriting’s cheaper than therapy,” he shrugs facetiously, “and then you can go on tour and relive it!”

In between the handful of festival slots he will play over the coming months, his Animated Album Preview at the Sydney Opera House will pose one of the biggest live challenges.

It won’t stem from the sheer size of the animated production - which also features a 10-piece band - but rather the pressure of performing new track Giving Me A Chance. Written about going against all his principles and morals, opening these scars in a live setting doesn’t sit right with De Backer.

“I’m going to play it solo live and I don’t know how I’m going to feel about that. It’s a pretty rough one,” he acknowledges. “I don’t know if I could actually engage with it every night with what I’m really expressing- playing something bare about something I’m not proud of.”

After much deliberation about whether artists owe their listeners the exact emotions that fuel fan favourites, De Backer came to a decision out loud.

“Do I owe the sometimes random people who have decided to pay money to invest in my music and come see a show? I don’t owe them anything up front to have a certain level of honesty,” he says. “I’m just creating something that has an engagement factor for me, that I think is interesting, challenging and expresses something.

“But it’s odd sometimes wondering where that line is about some imaginary responsibility to the truth of your own experiences, and delivering that somehow as unadorned as possible. I don’t really think the artist has that sort of responsibility.”

Album Review: Jim Ward, Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins

04 August 2011

by Poppy Reid

A Jim Ward solo full length has always been on the cards for the ex At The Drive-In frontman. When the post-hardcore band split, Ward took his rebel’s view and joined Drive-In drummer Tony Hajjar and bassist Paul Hinojos in their more radio friendly project, Sparta as well as starting his own alt-country oeuvre in Sleepercar. 

Although Sparta and Sleepercar have gained Ward his inimitable style and acclaimed recognition, both bands were mere stepping-stones in transition to Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins. The debut is an EP trio hybrid of acoustic tracks he started in 2006 whilst on Sparta’s last tour. Plucked from EPs Quiet (2007), In The Valley, On The Shores (2009) and this year’s The End Begins, the verbose title can almost be forgiven because of its pertinent back-story.

It also represents a shift in type for the El Paso native, although the record is a culmination of six years of emotions and events; At The Drive-In and Sparta fans will need to place themselves on the other side of the musical spectrum to grant these tracks the virgin ears they so deserve.

Produced in Ward’s hometown Clap of Thunder studio with Sleepercar bandmate Gabriel González, the 35-year-old recruited González and seven other local artists to back him, including Chris Heinrich, Chad Morris, Joel Quintana (Sleepercar, Metatron), Charles Berry (The Lusitania), Nicole Smith (The Royalty), Gregg Sosa and Ray Wallace (Secret Life of Sparrows).

Upon first listen of a song like Waves In Spanish, a modest narrative that lethargically crosses the finish line at seven minutes 11 seconds, the disparity is particularly evident.

Similar tracks like the swinging On My Way Back Home Again or lush canon Decades - a tribute to his ten year marriage, both induce a state of soporific harmony between Ward and the listener. Folk guitars and hints of piano unbend you whilst controlled lyrics like “I crawled into your smile” evoke surprisingly intricate images.

Ward’s other tracks are shorter but still gravitational; lead single and In The Valley EP extraction, Broken Songs spawned from a conversation between Ward and Tegan Quin (one half of Canadian sister duo, Tegan and Sara). Both expressed a tendency to escape certain situations for fear of getting attached and although all lyrics and music were written by Ward, it’s apposite that Quin features on the commitmentphobe ballad.

The entirely instrumental Lake Travis is another highlight where complex guitar lines and jazz sounds paint Ward in a whole new light. Ward has even anticipated the hesitancy of fans who aren’t quite ready for the departure; the album includes a six-track self explanatory EP titled The Electric Six. Ward has re-recorded songs from the album with a more Sparta-friendly attitude. The electric version of Take It Back featuring Maura Davis of Denali will be a favourite for its experimental, anthem-esque leanings.

Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins may be jagged for some fans to digest, and they’ll grip tight to The Electric Six, but true zealots who have followed his EPs since 2006 will lap up the hybrid collection. What will prove interesting however, is whether Ward will kick on with his acoustic-country sound or wear the more recent Electric Six hat in his next offering.

Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins is out now through EMI Music.

Jim Ward will play three dates in Australia from August 10 - 13.

Incubus: A New Story (for The Music Network)

03 August 2011

by Poppy Reid

Brandon Boyd is determined not to become another modern cliché of the music industry. Over the phone from his house in California, the Incubus frontman is feeling highly righteous (and highly caffeinated) as he chats about the band’s five-year hiatus since 2006 album, Light Grenades.

There’s this story that’s at play in the music world... It’s singer/ songwriter or band person finds fame and success, they get a drug addiction, they go on Celebrity Rehab or they die in a car accident -or there’s a sex tape leak,” he swiftly adds, making sure to cover all possible fates. “I’m interested in finding a new story. I’m interested in creating new, modern mythologies.”

Over the band’s 20-year career, since breaking in the early ‘90s, the eclectic rockers have been on the road to achieving just that, defying industry cliches whilst taking each of their genre-leaping records to Gold or multi-Platinum success. Their latest road however, could not have been more straight or narrow; emotionally drained from the chaos that comes akin with two years of non-stop touring, Incubus succumbed to their exhaustion and announced their hiatus in April 2008.

Boyd finished a solo album and took up a semester at Otis College of Art and Design in L.A, lead guitarist Michael Einziger completed a degree in music composition and science at Harvard, bassist Ben Kenney released a solo record, turntablist Chris Kilmore upped his repertoire to include piano, and drummer Jose Pasillas relished first-time parenthood.

Their seventh album and bold return, If Not Now, When? spawned from phone call rap sessions between Boyd and Einziger, which were then cemented on a drive from New York City to Buffalo in a rented car. “I was telling him all about my album and how it was a really fun and educational process for me,” says the 35-year-old Boyd. “He wanted to come up and just quietly start talking about it but I guess it was my pursuit that really got the action started.”

Whether you heard it early when it leaked online or waited for the July 12 drop date, change will be the crucial word for long-time Incubus fans upon first listen of If Not Now, When? With Left Coast balladry and slow-hum sonics, their latest effort could be the quintet’s most soothing release yet. Boyd, now well versed in ‘Fan Reaction 101’, says this time around he needed to trust that his listeners could handle a challenge rather than release a regurgitated version of chart-topping 2002 album, Morning View.

“As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to understand the nature of [listeners] more, that when you give people what they were expecting, the immediate reaction is ‘good for you! That’s what I wanted!’” he says, sending his genial voice up five octaves. “But the long term reaction is ‘that’s so boring of you, like, why would you do that again?’”

However dissimilar to past efforts the new record may sound, lyrically it began with the same method Boyd has always used. He describes writing the title track as an almost subconscious experience, in which he was unaware of the song’s true subject matter until an epiphany struck.

“I honestly didn’t know what I was writing about. I knew I was channelling something missing perhaps that had been in a place of unconsciousness as to a moment in me, in my life [Boyd is renowned for these philosophical tangents]. As I was writing these things down I realised that there was no better time to bask in that blinding light of that moment. “What it is specifically is irrelevant,” he says, returning from the moment. “The guys in the band liked the lyric and it became an Incubus song that potentially the listener could apply his or her experience to; whatever that moment would be, would be relevant to them and them alone.”

Boyd is surprisingly conscious of his “listeners”; the band created a global first with Incubus HQ Live where nearly 2 million fans interacted with the band through 24 hours of streaming content for seven days. “If you’re not viral in the first fifteen minutes then you’re nowhere,” laughs Boyd, who almost lost his characteristic cool on the first day of filming.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so anxiety-ridden my whole life... Our manager kinda had a nervous breakdown and the band were freaking out too.” For a band that’s placed millions of albums in millions of stereos and iTunes libraries the world over, feelings of worry may sound surprising. But it does prove Incubus are in it for the right reasons; slow burning their way into consciousness through seeking challenges that make a contribution.

If Not Now, When? is out now through Sony Music.

Live Review: Splendour In The Grass (for The Music Network)

Photo credit: Dan O'Brien

03 August 2011

by Poppy Reid

Woodfordia, QLD
Friday July 29 - Sunday July 31

It’s the Australian festival to rival all festivals, the behemoth among a sea of stilt-wearing imitations; so when Splendour In The Grass didn’t actually sell out (for the first time in seven years) expectations came back down through the roof and settled in the rafters.

This year however, expectations were exceeded putting any ticket sale comparisons aside. Splendour 2011 had it all: sweltering sunshine, greasy food goodness at every turn, hillside ‘deep and meaningfuls’ and a three-day lineup set to satiate every genre palate. The downfall? My cloning inability, I may not have caught every act but here’s how my Splendour went down.

Day One - Friday July 29

Meticulously planned timetable in phone with text reminders? Check. Unnecessary gumboots and bin liner raincoat? Check. Eyes freshly peeled for Jay-Z and Mossy (Alison not Kate) sightings? Check.

I kicked off the day with Perth rockers Jebediah at the Amphitheatre, the quartet ignited the high-school skater buried deep in all of us (exception guitarist Vanessa Thornton of course) with favourites like Harpoon, Fall Down, Teflon and new single She’s Like A Comet. The Kills took the same stage next with Jamie Hince’s rolling bluesy guitar licks and Alison Mosshart’s stunning vocals delivering a mostly Blood Pressures derived set. Apparently video of Kate Moss was blown up all over the Amphitheatre side screens at one point but by that time I was squeezing through armpits over at the Mix Up Tent trying to catch a glimpse of James Blake.

Seated at his keyboard, Blake sang older track CMCK and newer crowd-swayers like Limit To Your Love and The Wilhelm Scream. “This is an amazing place thanks for making me feel so welcome,” he said.

Welcoming the sunset, Sydney folk outfit Boy and Bear played recent tracks Blood To Gold and Feeding Line to a packed G.W. McLennan Tent.

“Apparently Jay Z's here,” said frontman David Hosking. “I don't even know who that is.”

Sadly but expectedly, the highlight was the band’s cover of Fall At Your Feet; senescent Crowded House fans and young hipsters with the latest Triple J Hottest 100 CD united.

After returning from my campsite wearing every inch of clothing I possessed, I joined the ranks of shuffling nanna ponchos and military coats vying for a square of space back at the Amphitheatre. Indie trailblazers Modest Mouse have a supposed ‘cult following’; but looking over what could have been all 30,000 splendourites singing along to Trailer Trash and The View, the sextet’s cult looked more like last year’s World Expo gathering. Frontman Isaac Brock lead musing instrumentals and trilling harmonies over two mics while double drumming team Jeremy Green and Joe Plummer pounded the reverberating back beat in perfect unison. I was convinced every band should have two drummers from this day forward. Float On set apart the stalwart fans, as they used this track to rest while others howled the only song they knew.

The Hives also split the theatre in two; as memorable and energetic as the Swedish rockers were I’ll remember them more for the mixed crowd comments which sat at the tip of either side of the spectrum. Some lapped up Pelle Almqvist’s self-aggrandising between-track-banter and swiftly plonked down on their asses when he requested before finishing Tick Tick Boom. Others however, stood tall, shouted mocking insults and booed the dynamic frontman who shrugged and said amicably, “That booing ain't gonna do no good, I love that just as much. I don't care what you say as long as you say something.”

Kanye West’s performance was nothing short of epic, even if Jay-Z failed to make his rumoured appearance. Rising from the front pit in a cloud of white smoke, the hip hop brat brought the power in droves to make a motherfucking monster out of each of us. Over three mesmerising acts, the rapper and his 20 dancing sirens mesmerised us through his diverse (and heavily borrowed) back catalogue of hits. Tracks like Jesus Walks, Monster, Love Lockdown and Gold Digger each offered a different visual feast with all the pyrotechnics, special effects and mind blowing choreography you’d expect from a Kanye concert, but it was the simplicity in closer Hey, Mama that left an impression. Perhaps it was the fact he went slightly easier on the autotune and distortion he had been so heavily reliant on, or maybe it was because most of us were thinking “I just freakin’ saw Kanye West!”

:: Check out the live pics from Day One here

Day two – Saturday July 30

Woodfordia welcomed another perfect, sun-drenched day on day two after an unforgiving night of around 9 degrees. It wasn’t even noon yet and Splendour was in full swing; yoga classes were saluting the sun while a circle of bongo amateurs channelled their inner Xavier Rudd; a hilarious actress wearing plastic breasts and a merkin was seducing her well endowed dwarf co-star at the Sphincter Theatre, and over at the Splendour Forum tent, a discussion panel including Jake Stone of Bluejuice, Federal MP Wyatt Roy and environmentalist/comedian HG Nelson were debating the moot: Climate Change: Where Are This Generation's Protest Songs. Oh, and I’d been approached for acid twice now, just lovely.

Leaving the forum tent more confused about climate change than ever, I headed for Children Collide at the Amphitheatre. Singer Johnny Mackay was holding his guitar upright and backwards for Into The Sky With Ivy while bassist Heath Crawley managed to make soft rock look hardcore with his neck cracking throw downs and provocatively wide strumming stance. “You’re so fucken’ responsive today,” said Mackay after he played half a track lying on his side at the edge of the stage. After crowd favourite Jellylegs, the singer produced his camera and snapped a picture of us. “Do you guys have Facebook?” he said with a straight face. “Maybe we can be friends and then tag each other.”

Mackay joked his way through the blistering set, he asked if we’d heard their new throwback song Cherries and when most replied with a yes he said, “No you haven't, you fucking liars. I used to trust you."

“We’d like to announce a special guest, Kanye West,” said Mackay before Chris Cheney from The Living End joined the trio onstage for new track Loveless. This band and their music deserve a later slot in 2012.

Over at the Mix Up Tent Foster The People were leading a rave. We could all care less that we knew none of the lyrics to the entire set except one track. Mouths mimed fabricated lyrics to tracks Houdini, Call It What You Want and latest single Helena Beat, before the coveted Pumped Up Kicks started a spinning, fake pistol-slinging riot.

Muscles was the oxymoron of Splendour; the expected disappointment who had promised a live set but stood behind his keyboard, tapping at his laptop and singing embarrassingly out of tune. A highlight did make it onto the Melbourne DJ’s set however, when he played his single Ice Cream twice.

Patience Hodgeson and her frenzied stage antics caught most new fans by surprise, myself included. The Grates’ frontwoman leaped, bounced and even made roly-polys across the stage and over the crowd. Older tracks like 19 20 20 and Burn Bridges were offered the same heavy dose of fervour as newcomers Change, Young Pricks and Borrowed Skin. The Grates’ new bassist/keyboardist Miranda Duetsch and drummer Ben Marshall did well to make us forget Alana Skyring’s departure last year. Closing with new single Turn Me On I can certainly speak for half the hill when I say I wish The Grates had extended their set to save us from the train wreck successor that was The Mars Volta.

“I'm gonna tell you a secret. Omar over here tells me he wants to fuck the shit out of you with his music!”

Frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala was off to a good start as he gestured to his sheepish guitarist. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there as he stumbled through the hour with his stage gymspastics and his whiny tone-deaf vocals. Fixing his hair and gyrating his mic stand he said, “we’ve invited you to our personal rehearsal,” as if we didn’t already guess that when he blundered through an illegible version of Dyslexicon. He could tell a good story though, revealing Def Leppard had them banned from Mexico for four years after the rockers told them it was okay to call the crowd "dirty Mexicans". Donning a plastic horse head for Goliath and Car Crash, the singer attacked his amp and camera before singing “wouldn’t it be finer, to be in your vagina in the morning!” With a strong backing band and a magnetic stage presence, all Cedric needs is a voice coach and to perhaps ditch the skinny jeans to accommodate his scissor kicks.

The Living End were always going to deliver an unshakable set of hits you knew every line of, even if you didn’t want to. Chris Cheney climbed Scott Owen’s double bass for White Noise and the mosh pit seemed to pulse in unison for West End Riot. Closing with their stupidly long album title track The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating; it will forever be impossible to get sick of watching these guys live.

Saturday’s headliners Regina Spektor and Janes Addiction couldn’t have offered more contrasting sets. If you weren’t nice and close for Spektor at the G.W. McLennan Tent then you couldn’t quite feel the weight of her vulnerable performance. Tracks like Better which she played from a grand piano and her acoustic guitar execution of That Time were completely lost on me so it was back to the Amphitheatre for Janes Addiction. They may have used the exact same backdrop they’d donned in 2008 when they played Soundwave but all was forgiven when the grunge rockers played tracks from their 1988 record, Nothing’s Shocking while two aerial-dancing sapphics lolled and swayed above them like hanging meat.

Dave Navarro hung close to the front of the stage, pleasing his groupies and 52-year-old singer Perry Farrell smiled and beguiled his way through Ain’t No Right, Jane Says and Been Caught Stealing. “Everywhere I go I steal shit,” he said. “I’m very good at stealing, I stole these shoes.”

Farrell danced with maracas for final track Three Days while a gagged dancer simulated fellatio on him; Janes Addiction left us dirty inside and out – there’s a reason these guys still pack stadiums.

:: Check out the live shots from Day Two here

Day Three – Sunday July 31

Splendour In The Grass really isn’t your average festival bear; the smarty-panted organisers saved most of the mellow artists for Sunday with acts like Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Friendly Fires, Kaiser Chiefs and of course Coldplay all scheduled to round out the weekend. Coldplay was indubitably the highlight but there were other moments of magic too: like when Hungry Kids Of Hungary threw giant white beach balls in the crowd before Let You Down and Set It Right, or when The Vines covered the OutKast track Ms. Jackson and how Pulp incited mixed emotions as we danced along to Do You Remember The First Time? and Mis-Shapes while still digesting Jarvis Cocker’s comment - “this may be our last time ever in Australia.”

Coldplay opened with Crossfade and a tear jerking Yellow as fireworks and colourful side screen images lit the sky. Chris Martin thanked us for sticking around to see them. “I know you've been here for fucken’ weeks and you've lost your trousers and your shoes..” He played In The Sun and Violet Hill on acoustic and dedicated The Scientist to Pulp.

“This song is about Scott and Sharlene from Ramsay Street,” he joked. “No it’s actually about Alf from Home And Away.” Us Against The World was met with roars of laughter; a little Australiana homework and he’d won us over completely.

Martin had us sing happy birthday to drummer Will Champion after new track Charlie Brown, just one of four newbies spread through the set. Releasing Champions balloons into the air Martin made us promise not to tell Rupert Murdoch about his environmental indiscretion.

Coldplay were the only headliner to perform a three-track encore with Christmas Lights, a Winehouse Rehab tribute preluding Fix You and new single Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall. Paper butterflies swarmed the stage, fireworks penetrated the night and Martin juxtaposed his band's music by smashing two guitars. 

:: Check out the live shots from Day Three here

As we struggled our way through the exits immediately reminiscing our splendid weekend surfeited with live show luminaries and fresh-faced up and comers, it's evident Splendour In The Grass still hold the crown.