Three Important Things For Summer

* Memory Tapes, generally, Bicycle especially.

* Kindnesses

* Matias Aguayo + Rollerskates

Answer To Yourself

Apparently these guys - The Soft Pack - are from LA. They used to be called The Muslims but changed their name. They seem to be pretty well hooked up, playing shows with folks like Franz Ferdinand, Friendly Fires and Phoenix. They have a debut album ready to roll for sometime next year.

Will You Still Love Me?

I've got a huge soft spot of 60s girl groups and The Shirelles are definitely up there on my lists of favourites. Sassy, catchy songs sung by hot girls about boys, love and heartache - what's not to love?

So then, when I stumbled across Lykke Li covering The Shirelles' classic 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow' I was curious. And then I heard it and it was like a knife going into my heart. So powerful. It's piercingly honest and raw. And beautiful.

She's giving it away on her website, but before you go, check out the video...

The Intercom

There's a bunch of amazing jams floating around at the moment. Some of which I've taken time to point out here on this stop-start blog of mine. But perhaps the most exciting release of 2009 is by Sydney producer Toni Toni Lee... !

You might recognise Mr Toni as Spruce Lee, one quarter of my favourite get about town fellas, djs, who together or separately are party starters, promoters and general good-time nice guys, Ro Sham Bo. Who you of course listen to every Tuesday night, religiously, on FBi Radio.

ANYWAYS, I could sing their praises at length, but the point of this is to tell you Mr Lee has unleashed his debut EP and it's totally el scorcho. The launch a couple of weeks ago at Jimmy Sing's place GoodGod Small Club was off the chain and the jams played pointed in that direction, but now that I've had a good listen I can confirm, dude has multiple talents.

If you want to read more about Mr Lee, head here for some insights.

But take my advice, don't be snoozing, get yourself a limited edition copy of this EP, with artwork by another supremo talented Sydney sider, Hana Shimada.

Come on Over...

Something else I've been meaning to share for a while now - a remix that's been floating about for the last couple of months that I just can't get enough of.

It's a pretty dreamy song on it's own, the lyrics are sweet, whimsical and so true! I don't know about you, but I fall in love every time I walk down the street!

But with the magic touch of LA duo Classixx on the remix, Yacht's Psychic City becomes even more perfect. If you're in AusLand then you'll be happy to hear that Yacht are coming out for a bunch o shows around the country, for Meredith and others...

Here's the original

And the remix..

Ambling Alp

So Brooklyn based Yeasayer have been working on a new album, Odd Blood. Apparently it's due to drop early next year. Signs at this stage are pointing to February.

And to get you all excited about this prospect, they've released the first single Ambling Alp through their website.

It's worth the listen.

In the meantime, here they are live in 2008.

You Can't Go Home Again

It's nearing the end of the year.

Which is when in television you get an extended [unpaid] holiday.

I'm thinking I might take this opportunity to have a crazy big adventure.

And in order to get the whole planning process flowing I thought I'd track it musically.

I might start here:

And then go here for some fun party-times:

Before heading North of the Boarder for some further inspiration:

And even though Randy Newman warns against it -

I have to agree with Ryan Adams, I Love New York.

So I'll have to also go there....

Just Passing Through

Months ago I was talking about the Live Local project that the folks at Digital Eskimo have launched.

Basically it's about the idea of shifting your focus, reconsidering how you live and the impact it has on the environment and the world around you more generally...

Well I finally finished my documentary for Radio National about it. It's available online for a month here. Or you can tune in to RN this coming Wednesday at 1pm EST to hear it repeated.

Summer Band Camp

Here are the highlights from Parklife 2009 that I was mentioning before... more to come soon.

Nobody Lost, Nobody Found

Here's a little bit of on-stage action that EROL ALKAN shared on twitter, from Radelaide Parklife...

There are a bunch of pretty incredible tours on the horizon, but right now I’m still recovering from the brilliance and crazy fun-times that was Parklife. I had the immense fun of interviewing the lion’s share of artists on the bill, the fruits from which’ll be on the internetz shortly. But in the meantime, here are some things I learnt this weekend and some gems that made me LOL.

TIGA doesn't have facebook and generally prefers to communicate via fax[!] He also loves talking. His favourite thing is having a captive audience. Apparently buses are best. But planes are pretty good too....

There was a hilarious moment when I was interviewing Tiga and Jesse from MSTRKFT interrupted. They proceeded to have a random conversation, within which Tiga asked when was the precise moment MSTRKRFT decided to drop the vowels from their name – and said he was thinking of calling himself TG. Around that time BUSY P and A-TRAK decided to crash the party and the whole thing became a fascinating group interview session. Tiga revealed that Funky Town is one of his favourite songs. And that Michael Hutchence is his favourite Australian artists. A-trak gave props to Bag Raiders and Busy P said he liked Midnight Juggernauts and Wolfmother. When Pedro said their names it was more like ‘idnigh yuggernaut’ and ‘oolfmother’ – which just made the whole thing even funnier and more charming...

METRONOMY didn’t consider the side-effects when they developed their current on-stage outfits kitted with lights. They’ve had to deal with some serious moth-action. They’re also getting tired, and are thinking that the next album should be slow ballads, so they can sit down and sing.

Jeremy from JUNIOR BOYS likes Steely Dan. So listen out for those influences in their next album, they’re going back into the studio shortly.

The English folks on the tour were all into soccer [football!] and pretty much all of the Europeans wore boat shoes /loafers.

A-TRAK was deeply touched by his experience of working with HEAPS DECENT – so watch out for expansions on that front. He was also cheekily challenging everyone to go on the big ride – the one that looks like a ball that drops from really high? He asked Pedro [Busy P] and Tiga but then said they were scared. In the end Stephen from Aeroplane went with him.

Finally, what’s with music dudes who wear white trainers – even though it was hella muddy? After the show before heading out to party a couple of folks had to make a pit stops at the hotel to restore the white, and carry spare laces cause that’s the part that’s hardest to clean, but easiest to replace.