Ang Cheng WeiOn Jan 29 next year, all the indie hipsters will be making a holy pilgrimage down to Fort Canning Park.
After all, it is the first time that St Jerome’s Laneway Festival will be landing upon Singapore shores in spectacular fashion.
First beginning in Caledonian Lane in Melbourne as an indie music event in 2004, the festival has grown immensely to include Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Breaking out internationally, the festival expanded to New Zealand this year and Singapore will be the next lucky country to host Laneway.
The UrbanWire takes a sneak preview at the hottest indie bands headlining the festival.
The Temper Trap (Check out the video!)
!!! (Chk Chk Chk)
Beach House
Deerhunter
Foals
Holy F***
LadyHawke
Warpaint
Yeasayer
!!! (Chk Chk Chk)
Pronounced as Chk Chk Chk, these disco punks will be heading down next year to infect us with tapping feet.
The California-formed sextet have just released their fourth album,Strange Weather Isn’t It?, in August. Going all the way to Berlin to record it, their latest album is infused with the clubbing music they had experienced in the German capital and more.
“We always go to a different environment on the 1% chance that it might influence the record because even that much would be worth it,” says vocalist, Nic Offer.
Losing John Pugh, Justin Van Der Volgen and Tyler Pope during the production of their album, and contending with the shocking death of drummer Jerry Fuchs who fell down an elevator shaft last year, the band is going through their most trying time yet.
All the more reason why we should cheer them on when they take to the stage!
Beach House
Most people think that a man and woman in a band automatically equates to them being a couple.
Baltimore duo Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand are anxious to dispel that myth, often pointing out they’re not romantically attached.
Still, couple or not, as a band, Beach House is undoubtedly excellent.
After all, how many bands are so dedicated as to have packed up, left home, and settled into an converted church with their producer just to create their album?
“It wasn’t about arriving at a church and it revolutionizing a feeling,” Scally said. “It was a continuation of what we were doing without disruption.
This dedication and love is what makes Beach House’s third album, Teen Dream, so magical. Slow-moving and spell-binding at the same time, their organ-infused tunes and Legrand’s floating vocals transports us to a different world.
Deerhunter
Hailing from Georgia, Deerhunter is instantly recognizable from the tall and spindly silhouette of frontman Bradford Cox.
The quartet’s fourth and latest album, Halcyon Digest, was released in September this year, with their signature 60s-inspired and self-described ambient punk sound.
Deerhunter’s live shows are to be seen to be believed. Crazy, propulsive, ecstatic, it was once described by Yeah Yeah Yeah’s vocalist Karen O as “a religious experience”.
Being praised by the Queen of Indie Hipsters is the affirmation that whatever you’re doing, you must be doing it right.
Foals
Foals will be touching down in Singapore to blast out their own unique wave of indie punk rock to adoring fans.
Formed in 2005, the Oxford band dropped their second album, Total Life Forever, early this year. Infused with emotional depth yet still being immensely danceable, the album has already been nominated for a Mercury Prize.
“Antidotes was quite self-aware – we’ve tried to regress into a more honest, naïve state with Total Life Forever,” vocalist and guitarist Yannis Philippakis said.
The 5-piece-band has already drawn comparisons to their neighbours Radiohead, also from Oxford.
Holy F***
We can hazard a guess as to why they decided to name themselves Holy F***. It’s probably because that’s what everyone screams when they first start playing on stage.
Hailing from Canada, Holy F*** has 4 members, probably so they can wear T-shirts that spell out the more…… vulgar part of their band name.
OK! Enough jokes about their name. Let’s talk about the band.
Releasing their newest album Latin in May this year, it has already been placed on the long list of Polaris Award. Oh yeah, apparently Thom Yorke from Radiohead and Lou Reed are fans too.
We can’t wait to scream Holy F*** at the stage too.
LadyHawke
Born in New Zealand, LadyHawke’s real name is Phillipa Brown. The singer-songwriter is the latest of distinctive female artistes that have cropped up in recent years, like Lady Gaga, Little Boots and Pixie Lott, as The Observer duly noted.
Though only with her 2008 eponymous debut album out, LadyHawke has already garnered piles of awards and trophies, the more impressive ones being the New Zealand Music Awards for “Album of the Year”, “Breakthrough Artist of the Year”, as well as an ARIA Music Award for the “Breakthrough Artist – Album” section.
Receiving huge critical acclaim as well as great sales (certified Gold in the UK and Australia, Platinum for New Zealand), LadyHawke will be fluttering across the stage and into our hearts for Laneway next year.
Warpaint
Four hot girls in a band? Sign us right up!
Though the band is fully composed of females, Warpaint isn’t adverse to having males join in the jamming as well, with former Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ guitarist John Frusciante mixing and mastering their first EP, Exquisite Corpse.
The psychedelic art rock band released their debut album, The Fool, barely two months ago. With thumping basslines and droning guitars, The Fool is filled with psychedelic and hazy moments so intimate you can practically feel the breath in your ear.
We’re all still just mesmerized by how hot the Los Angeles based quartet are.
Yeasayer
Experimental rock band Yeasayer returns to get the party started in Laneway Festival after coming to attention in the SXSW Festival 3 years ago.
Preferring to describe their music as “Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel”, the New York based band has already toured with MGMT, another New York indie psychedelic rock darling.
Releasing their second album Odd Blood this Feb, it contains a more pop-influenced sound, but it’s still infinitely rockable.
For us, we say HELL YEA to Yeasayer.
The Temper Trap
One of the most recognizable acts to come out of Australia in recent years, the Temper Trap will close out the Laneway Festival in 2011.
The Temper Trap boys first started out working at earlier Laneway Festivals serving drinks and checking coats, before the festival’s co-founder Danny Rogers came across them.
“I asked the guys to play at Laneway without having seen them because I had a gut feeling they might be good,” co-founder and promoter Danny Rogers said of his 2005 discovery of the band. “All of them had a spirit that resounded with us, and when I went to check them out they completely blew to smithereens any band I had seen live for a very long time.
The Melbourne-based band have come a long way since then, releasing their debut album Conditions to great critical and commercial acclaim, with it also being nominated for the ARIA Album of the Year Award last year.
Exemplifying the very meaning of Laneway, the alternative rock band that first gained exposure at Laneway will close out the 6th edition of the festival in Singapore.