chooseyourown_2

Chiraq or Chi-Town? Choose Your Own Chicago

chooseyourown

A strangely anchoring dichotomy lies at the heart of Chicago’s hip-hop music scene, from which the most segregated and violent city in the United States pivots, bends, twists and turns itself around, looping together a rich tapestry of talent and cultural diversity.

One need only blink in the direction of the vastly differing career trajectories of Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, two of the city's hip-hop alumni, in order to realise this is a scene, filled with rules, codes and boundaries, yet undeniably open to contradiction and false word. Say what? On the one side stands self-proclaimed Messiah, Kanye, having irrevocably changed the face of hip-hop and R&B all the while *insert any one his “oh he just being Kanye,” antics here.* While on the other stands a comparatively humble Lupe Fiasco, conscious hip-hop advocate who takes advantage his position as a lyricist in the limelight to excoriate corporate America for its gas-guzzling tastes and establish youth empowerment initiatives.

Even the city’s latest YouTube-sensation-come-dance craze, “Bopping,” embodies the city’s unwillingness to present a unified whole other than in its collective and total abandonment of that very notion. Made famous by Lil Kemo’s appearance in Drill artist, King Louie’s video for My Niggaz, bopping, with its frenetic footwork on the bottom and loose freestyle of elbows and shoulder shrugs on top is, as Meagan Garvey notes, business on the bottom and party on top. 

In light of Vic Mensa’s new track, Feel That, come with us as we look at four of the cities male hip-hop artists, taking over from the Kanye’s and the Lupe’s and forging a path of their own. 

Young Chop 

19 year old producer Young Chop, is an embodiment of the unlikely collisions that happen in the windy city. Credited with essentially creating the city's prominent, hyper-masculine and violent Drill scene from a desktop computer in his mother's home, a gang-affiliation free, straight-edged and clean-record Young Chop can be seen being driven around the south of Chicago by his mum in the Beemer he paid for, and, despite having ventured to Paris to collaborate with Kanye West on the latest Pusha T album, had never been to The Chicago Bean before Vice forced him up town on a webisode of Chiraq. A true demonstration of just how racially and socio-economically segregated Chicago can be. Now signed to Warner Records, Young Chop is one of the most sought after hip-hop producers in the western world, and has been an integral cog in the sky rocketing career of Bieber from the wrong side of the tracks, Chief Keef. Producing songs for the 3 Hunna member like I Don’t Like, Love Sosa, and of course, 3 Hunna. Young Chop has gone on to collaborate with Big Sean, Soulja Boy, Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa and Travi$ Scott.

Chief Keef 

This kid. If you know anything about the Drill music currently pouring out of Chicago, it’s likely that you’re also acquainted, almost to the point of exhaustion, with Gucci-flashing, dread lock-sucking, belt-enthusiast, Chief Keef. At a mere 17 years old, Keef is the face, inspiration and indeed pin-cushion of the entire movement. Having hit Young Chop up on Facebook, while on house arrest in his grandmother’s living room the two collaborated on his 2012’s album Finally Rich. A boy of few words, Keef is also the semi-absent star of Vice’s 8-part web series Chiraq and gained even more exposure when Pitchfork took him to shooting range for their interview, whereby violating the conditions of his parole. Keef represents a reality of Chicago often neglected by the media, and outsiders. A reality of projects and extreme poverty, in which guns are prevalent, death is old news and gang-affiliations everything. It’s a world in which reality and social-media seamless collide; Twitter is one's jury and cases are fought on the streets, often resulting in real loss and heartache. Now signed with Interscope Records, Keef has performed and produced with the likes of Drake, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, 50 Cent and fellow drill artists Lil Durk, King Louie and Lil Reese.

Chance The Rapper 

Unlike the “brawl out,” gun-toting, motherF*&King spits of Chief Keef and his Drill affiliations, so intimately entwined in the city’s gang wars and gun violence, 20 year old classicist, Chancelor Bennett, aka, Chance the Rapper, offers us a different perspective on the same place called home, reminding us instead of Chicago’s soulful history with his rich textures and smooth rap throwbacks. Since his first mixtape 10 Day, partially recorded while on a 10 day suspension from high school, Chance’s second mixtape Acid Rap, filled with acid jazz sounds, and equal parts Eminem / Kanye references, has graced multiple “Best” lists, including Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Complex Magazine’s. He has collaborated with the likes of future R&B stars, SZA and Tinashe, Childish Gambino, Joey Badass and fellow savemoney crew member Vic Mensa.

Vic Mensa

Off the back of the colossal popularity of his first solo mixtape Innantape that debuted earlier this year, Chicago local, and savemoney member, Vic Mensa has been touring with the likes of Disclosure and Danny Brown. Since turning his back on band Kids These Days and a shiny label deal, Mensa’s solo career has gone from strength to strength but it’s unlikely the bourgeoning superstar will be satisfied until he’s “earning more money than his dad.” Recently, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League producer, Cottontale, told The Fader “Mensa’s the rare talent who can write, produce and sing with equal flair. I don’t think he’s just a writer and rapper. He’s definitely a producer in his own right. He has a lot of potential.” Telling of the camaraderie that exists at the centre of Chicago’s hip-hop scene, Drill or otherwise, Mensa also appeared on an episode of Vice’s Chiraq, attempting to gather enough money to post bail for fellow savemoney crew member, the aptly titled, Joey Purp. That’s love.

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features07/17/2014
newdirection

New Direction: An Exploration of Music's Greatest Image Makers

newdirection

It’s fair to say that the humble music video is amidst a highly anticipated and totally welcomed resurgence. After exploding during the late 1980s and early 1990s alongside the indoctrination of MTV as the cultural influencer and instigator we’ve come to recognise it as, music videos then became somewhat of an afterthought in the 2000s. A weird landscape filled with awkward product placement and clunky new media haphazardly thrown into the melting pot while artists, directors and producers alike busied themselves grappling with just what the www’s had in store for their industry. While major brands like MAC, Coke, Samsung and Pepsi, all benefited from this awkward coming of age period by jumping into bed with the Britney Spears’ and Fergie’s of the world, the true power and potential of ye’ old music video as an artistic pursuit seemed to have fallen down the back of the couch to gather dust. Admittedly, the early 2000s subjected us to our fair share of girls on film, less plot, narrative or character development. Cue music, start dancing, start filming has seemingly been the go to formula for music videos for the better part of the noughties.

Recently however, this has begun to change as we slowly dig ourselves out of the thong-laden, booty shakin’ void, one video clip at a time. From the narrative formula of Lady Gaga’s controversial Telephone epic, to the raise-your-left-hand-and-twist-at-the-wrist motion synonymous with Beyonce’s Single Ladies track now engrained in our cultural consciousness as a go-to saturday night move, the music video is steadily being restored to its former position atop not only the hyped-up MTV mountain but, with the top 5 most viewed videos on Youtube being music clips, it’s seemed to have conquered the internet as well. In recent weeks, news regarding Sia’s Chandelier clip has been plastered across Pitchfork, Sterogum, Vulture, and Rolling Stone to name a few and generates more than 26,900,000 Google results in less than a quarter of a second, making instant celebrity of both 11 year old dancer Maddie Ziegler and director Daniel Askill. Current reigning king of the music video world, Nabil Elderkin, debuted his offering for Little Dragons’ track Pretty Girls to a similar response less than two weeks ago. As a follow up to the band’s clip for Klap Klap, it’s clear directors and artists are once again harnessing the story and cinematic scope of music videos. Like Lana Del Rey’s Tropicano of 2013 directed by Anthony Mandler and Beyonces’, well Beyonce album, music videos are becoming a world unto their own, unshackled from the time limits of their audio instigators, winding their way through narrative constructs, and characters, coming in two part series and extended versions. Here we have a look at a few of the music video directors from the 80s to now responsible for crafting the medium.

Today’s Go To Guy: Nabil Elderkin 

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Having aligned himself with the Future R&B movement and directed clips for the likes of Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, James Blake, FKA Twigs and Bon Iver, if you know anything about the music video industry at the moment, it’s likely to be Elderkin’s name. From small beginnings as a surfing photographer that grew up in Port Macquarie before moving to Chicago, it was Elderkin’s desire to photograph a then-unknown rapper, Kanye West , that gave him his first break. Upon registering the domain name www.kanyewest.com on a whim, Roc-A-Fella records contacted Elderkin three weeks later to buy it back off him. Uninterested in money, Elderkin transferred the domain name in exchange for a photo shoot with the artist. These images went on to be the Kanye’s first publicity photos and the beginning of an on-going collaboration between the two that has since spawned Mercy, The Coldest winter and a coffee table book. 

The Diva’s Director: Jake Nava

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Before Beyonce surprised the world with her explosive visual album, Beyonce, there were few people in the world privy to its creation. This man, Jake Nava, was one of those chosen few. Having worked with Beyonce during her Destiny’s Child days and again when she was Crazy in Love, Nava directed three of the videos to feature on Beyonce, including Flawless, the bonus Grown Woman clip and the NSFW, comes-laden-with-parental-advisory-warnings, Partition. Nava is also the man we can thank for those hours spent in front of YouTube attempting to learn the Single Ladies choreography, a video that has since listed by The Times as the 3rd Most Influential Music Video of All Time and is an exemplary demonstration of what happens when perfect production meets perfect direction in the music industry (we all end up waving our hands in the air asking strange men to put a ring on it).

When he’s not busying himself with Yonce, Nava is the darling of the divas, having directed Mariah Carey’s Shake it off, Adele’s Someone Like You, Emeli Sande’s Heaven and made breakfast foods incredibly suggestive while  Kelis’ Milkshake brought all the boys to the yard.

In 2011 Nava placed 5th in Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Music Video Directors’ and has worked with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, and, all time trump card, The Spice Girls. 

 

The MTV Mastermind: Spike Jonze

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Joining Propaganda Film’s in 1997, Spike Jonze has been credited with rendering the aesthetic of the hazy MTV generation at the height of its influence. A big call for a then fresh faced director with roots in the LA skateboard community? Perhaps, but let’s not forget, this is the same man that won 4 MTV Music Video Awards for his 1994 work on The Beastie Boys’ anthem, Sabotage, anticipated the entire Youtube obsession with flash mobs in his video for Fat Boy Slim’s Praise you, and convinced Christopher Walken to dance up and down escalators around the LA Marriott for the band’s follow up hit, Weapon of Choice, for which he won a 2001 MTV Video Music award as well as the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Video. Sounds like MTV, right? 

It was also Jonze’s brilliant idea to cast children as hip-hop royalty in The Notoroius B.I.G’s Sky’s The Limit, and weird everyone out with his back to the future tactic of placing Weezer on stage at Happy Day’s institution Arnold’s for their Buddy Holly clip. Look closely and you’ll see The Fonz singing along. Weird. 

More recently, Spike Jonze collaborated with Arcade Fire for The Suburbs, and co-directed Flashing Lights with Kanye, proving that all you really need for a great video clip is some slow-mo and a semi-clad Playboy model with a serious walk on her. A similar tactic was obviously utilised for Kate Beckinsale and the Underworld series. Walk on.

The Believe the Hype: Hype Williams

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Harold ‘Hype’ Williams began directing music videos in 1991 with an unwavering desire to focus on what a song sounded like, and draw visual cues from there. Sounds simple enough, right? This crystalline, no bullshit approach to projecting the narrative of a song and the true nature of its singer onto the screen led him to be named Best Director of the Year at the 1996 Billboard Music Video Awards and gain the 1998 MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video category for his work with Will Smith on Gettin’ Jiiggy Wit It. Hype Williams successfully did for hip hop music videos in the early 90s, what Timbaland and Aayilah did for the for the soundscape of the genre at the same time. Working with everyone from Brandy to Boyz II Men, 2pac to Nas, TLC to Aaliyah, and Missy Elliot to Ashanti, Williams also found time to collaborate some 20 times with Kanye West since 2005, shoot Mrs West’s Playboy cover of 2006 and capture Beyonce grindin’ on dat wood, for her lesson in the art of seduction, Drunk In Love. Hint, you need a beach. 

The Madonna Man: David Fincher

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Inspired by Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid, arguably the world’s leading music video director of the 80s and 90s, David Fincher, set his sights on a career in directing as young as 8 years old. Before directing feature films such as Se7en, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and that infinitely forgettable blip otherwise known as Fight Club, the 1980s saw Fincher co-found Propaganda Films, a music video and film production company that, come 1990, was responsible for producing a third of all music videos made in the US at the height of MTV’s reign and now counts Nigel Dick, of Britney Spears’, Baby One More Time fame, and Spike Jonze, of well... Spike Jonze fame, among its alumni. 

Despite this clear and independent success, in a 2008 interview Madonna declared she was responsible for the trajectory of David Fincher’s career after the pair worked on her 1989 hit Express Yourself and pulled the iconic video for the 1990 Madonna classic, Vogue, together in less than a week. Fincher won back-to-back awards for his work with Madonna and after a relatively dormant period on the music video front during the early 2000s, came back swinging with Justin Timberlake’s Suit & Tie released on Valentines day earlier this year. With its deliberate use of black and white and an unapologetic Art-deco aesthetic, Digital Journal called it “Fincher’s music video masterpiece,” and earned him his third VMA. 

Fincher has also directed music videos for Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and more Paula Abdul than anyone should ever be subjected to.

The Honorable Mention: Nigel Dick

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This Dick gave the world Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time. Nuff said.  

features07/10/2014
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Juce has got us 'Burning Up'

British trio known for bringing the sun to gloomy London, Juce, released a follow up to February success, All Call You Out, overnight with catchy pop melody, Burning Up. With disco notes melding seamlessly with the girl group's late 90s aesthetic and sound, Burning Up is all about juicing (or Juce-ing) it up in summer time.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/jucelovemusic/juce-burning-up[/soundcloud]

albums, songs, eps / new music07/10/2014
future

The New Future of Future R&B

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The Nineties gave us many things. Scrunchies, light-up sneakers, Sister Act 1 and 2 and the weird assurance that high waisted, terry towelling shorts were always appropriate attire. A Golden Age for all things Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin, it was also an explosive era for R&B with artists like D’Angelo responsible for crafting out the genre as we now know it. Undeniably, that R&B sound so synonymous with the glimmering decade, has outlived many of the artists producing it. It’s since become somewhat of an amorphous, chameleon genre, snaking its way through hip-hop, rap and new soul, as per the patron saint of all we do here at the interns, Solange.

Future R&B is the genre’s most recent and progressive survival tactic. It takes that sonic perfection Timbaland and Aaliyah were once working towards and pushes it further. It’s a movement heavily influenced by the underground with producers like James Blake, Kaytranada, Cashmere Cat, Bondax, Ryan Hemsworth and Jamie XX, all considered integral to reinvigorating the classic, gossamer sounds of Mariah, Janet, Lauryn and Brandy. With access to warm gooey synths, glitchy stilted samples and banging drums, producers have been integral to its arrival come survival on the club scene. While it was initially a genre dominated by male artists nudging open the doors to the new-world possibilities of R&B such as The Weeknd, Drake, Frank Ocean and Miguel, since 2012 ensuring the survival of R&B has been a charge placed firmly in hands of emerging female artists such as Tink, Tinashe, FKA Twigs and Kelela. Now less amorphous than defiantly all-encompassing, it’s a genre open to sparse, minimal beats, dark industrial instrumentals, spoken word, rap, and of course, a whole lot of the electronic synth we know and love. It’s fair to say the honey-drippin’ R&B of the early nighties just got a whole more abrasive and a whole lot more modern.  

Read below to solve your perfect future R&B equation and click here for some serious Future R&B sounds.

Tink

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Chicago + Lauryn Hill + How to Dress Well = Tink

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/tink_g/treat-me-like-somebody[/soundcloud]

At not even 20 years old, this Chicago-based rapper, come certified songstress has been working for everything and then some, steadily carving out a name for herself over the last two years. Eluding easy categorisation, Tink’s honey-flavored narratives oscillate from emotionally-charged R&B vocals lamenting a lover's infidelity turned unexpected pregnancy (sound like Usher anyone?), to flat out drill raps and get-low hip hop traps. Like 2013’s brash announcement of arrival, Fingers Up, Tink is constantly challenging the gender expectations of Chicago’s male dominated hip-hop scene and is  a unique hook in a city where sky rocketing crime rates and explicit drill music usually hold the limelight. Although Tink’s production choices lack predictability, she moves seamlessly between genres with a matured self assurance, telling of an artist going after what she wants. Having made the decision to remain unassigned Tink has worked with the likes of Chicago locals Lil Durk and Sasha Go Hard, Jeremih, Tom Krell from How to Dress Well and New York’s Future Brown, in addition to releasing four killer mixtapes of her own, from 2013‘s Boss Up to this year's Winter Garden 2 which attracted a 7.6 from Pitchfork (take that Lana Del Ray).

Described as: A potential long lost member of TLC

You’ll like if: Scrubs aren't your thing either.

Tinashe

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LA + Christina Aguilera + Ryan Hemsworth = Tinashe

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/tinashenow/tinashe-vulnerable-feat-travi[/soundcloud]

Young gun Tinashe, cites James Blake, Little Dragon and Bon Iver among her major influences and grew up in a Californian household filled with Sade, The Jacksons, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey while learning how to sing by mimicking Christina Aguileria’s vocal runs. At first encounter, her voice is yet another light and airy treat, encased in a smooth, oozy post-production caramel, befitting of any young LA hopeful with a girl band history, and a couple of obligatory  TV appearances under her belt. Here however, is where you can check any further assumptions about the trajectory of this girl's career at the door. Despite being signed to major label RCA Records, Tinshe’s last 3 projects have been almost entirely self-produced, free, downloadable mixtapes, either aided by social media’s infinite connections, or a crowd-sourced effort. With her first official RCA Records debut, Aquarius, a year in the making, she’s made over 100 tracks in the refining process. Dedicated and determined, Tinashe’s music emerges from a dichotomous desire to showcase  her languid, down tempo R&B vocals and the dark, grit of her lyrical content. As she says “I always like to play with stuff that’s more on the darker side of the spectrum... Because I consider myself to have quite a ‘sweet’, quote unquote, voice. It’s high, it’s soft, and so I want to contrast that, have some juxtaposition in the beat. I like there to be a lot of bass, a lot of grit, I like it to be really dark and heavy.” A girl who clearly knows what she’s doing, Tinashe is at the forefront of the future R&B sound and is constantly finding new ways to resurrect  that classic 90s sound through the electronic sound popular today. Tinashe has worked with the likes of Ryan Hemsworth, producer XXYXX,  A$AP Rocky, Future, Mike WiLL and Travi$ Scott.

Described as: Reminiscent of Cassie or Aaliyah

You’ll like if: You know what's good for you.

FKA Twigs

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London + Septum piercings + sex = FKA Twigs

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/talea_color/fka-twigs-two-weeks-2014[/soundcloud]

Unless you run scared at the thought of feeling a little tingle between your thighs, or are having an enduring dry spell, you’ve undoubtedly heard of, slash shuddered to, the sounds of Young Turks artist FKA Twigs. Carnal like no other, Twigs’ catalogue, EP1 and EP2, is filled with sparse, stripped-back, down right naked and staccato pulses that quiver below a perfected whisper of superhuman falsetto. Unlike the narrative turns and story telling of Tink, who similarly debuted in 2012, FKA deals with the deed less plot fillers and supplementary characters. Water Me, Papa Pacify and most recently Two Weeks, are straight up sex jams to rival the pinacle of all sex jams, R. Kelly classic Bump N’ Grind.

Described as: A contemporary Aaliyah, as remixed by the xx or the Weeknd,

You’ll like if: Sex. Just sex.

Kelela

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Washington D.C. + Faith Evans + You have a subscription to Beyonce's blog = Kelela

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/fadetomind/kelela-cherry-coffee-prod-jam[/soundcloud]

Kelela remembers hearing Aaliyah’s 1 in a Million for the first time, while driving down the streets of her home town and becoming instantly obsessed. Obsessed in a way, that from that moment forward, Aaliyah, Faith Evans, Mariah, all divas of the day, would infect, and take over her production. Mixing and melting within her to form a unique take on an already contemporary sound. With a desire to be deliberately off-putting, interrupt the space and baffle people in the best way possible, Kelela’s brand of Future R&B, is like an ice-cream melting with the promise of a brain freeze: In your face, and jarring but irresistible and totally undeniable. Having released her mixtape The Cut 4 Me, in September 2013, Kelela has  been signed to Solange's label Saint Heron, worked with the likes of Night Slugs, Jam City, Tink and Girl Unit, and, keeping it in the family, has featured on Beyonce's blog.

Described as: Brandy but weirder

You’ll like if: Kelela has said “If nobody likes the mixtape, I'll be pretty comfortable with that, honestly, because I finally got out what I meant to say." So maybe, you like if you don’t like to like? Like totally? 

Head to page 2 for a playlist featuring the future of RnB

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/the-in-terns/sets/future-r-b[/soundcloud]

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features07/03/2014
11firsts_2

11 Firsts of Big Day Out

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Here at theinterns, what underpins everything we do is an unwavering desire emphasise the “new” in “new music.” So, with yesterday’s sad revelation that The Big Day Out Festival will not be returning to our shores come 2015, having debuted in 1992 with newer-than-new band, Nirvana as a headliner (that's right, before Nirvana were even a thang), we decided to take a moment to reflect on the many personal cherries we popped as frequent visitors to the iconic festival responsible for instilling a love of all things music (and otherwise) in us for over 20 years.

The first time we experienced an on stage Iggy-orgy.

During their first visit to Australian shores, Iggy and The Stooges invited a countless number of semi-clad young punters on stage to dance with them during submissive-anthem-for-the-masses, I Wanna Be Your Dog.

The first time everyone ignored that flag ban.

Nothing to see here. 

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The first time Marilyn Manson showed us just how many uses The Bible really has.

Including acting as a kleenex for when you’re dressed as Hitler and feel like a cheeky rub and tug.

The first time we actually raged Against The Machine.

If we learnt one thing during 2008’s Big Day Out Festival it was this: A sure fire way to instill anarchy and pandaemonium in a 46-000 strong crowd is to follow Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name of, with riot-inducing equal, Bulls on Parade. People really don’t like that combination. 

The first time Eminem turned down six million Aussie dollars. Well, probably not the first time.  

Along with Blink 182 and Prince, Eminem turned down a hefty sum of money to headline the long standing festival during 2012. As a result, festival organisers sought help from who else but Yeezus. Which led to the following... 

The first time Kanye went all prophet on our ass.

During Kanye’s 2012 performance, crowds were treated to a 7-minute vocal break down at the end of Lost In The World in which he, unsurprisingly, lamented his exclusion from the fashion world and a 10 minute story of a Friday night date gone wrong. 

He also managed to irriate second headliner Soundgarden that year. Kanye decided to perform a loud soundcheck during Soundgarden's show with Chris Cornell later responding, "“Sounds like there’s children playing music there, retarded children, retarded as in held back.” In response, Kanye went on stage 45 minutes late. 

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The first time Bjork cancelled, assaulted photographer

One of the bigger cancellations in Big Day Out's history was Bjork's pull-out of the Sydney show due to "swelling vocal chords". A few days earlier she had already run into trouble when she tore a photographers shirt apart at the airport in Auckland. Shen then fell to the ground. She hasn't returned to Australia since 🙁

The first time we were introduced to Silverchair

In 1995, three long-haired, grungey teenagers were added to the bill. Like Nirvana, the trio typified the raw, rock n' roll atmosphere of early Big Day Out's. That year, they would go onto release Frogstomp which headed straight for number one in Australia and reached the top ten in the USA. The year before, Tomorrow, had already topped charts around the world and so, this was somewhat of a premature victory lap.

The first time Big Day Out buggered up its second Sydney show.

Yep, it happened twice. In 2012, no doubt, elated with the joy of securing Kanye as a headliner, festival organiser put on another Sydney show. In 2011, with Muse at the helm, both Sydney shows had sold out in record time. Organisers had hoped the same would happen in 2012. Unfortunately, not. Weeks before the event the BDO had to introduce a 'bring a friend' policy for the second show, essentially giving tickets away for free.  In 2014, having not learnt from previous mistakes, organisers attempted it again and then promptly cancelled it before it got to the point of a 'bring a friend' policy. Phew.

The first time headliner Neil Young cleared the mainstage

In 2009, Neil Young came as a confusing addition as headliner to the Big Day Out. While most that stayed, were enamoured with his predictably brilliant set, most of the youngsters had fled the arena, leaving one of the sparsest headliner crowds in memory. Where did they all head to? The Prodigy in the Boiler Room which in Sydney, at least, was closed, with thousands of people having to crowd around a screen outside. Still, they looked satisfied.

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The first time you went to the Big Day Out

All jokes aside, the Big Day Out will for many of you be etched in your mind as one of the first festivals you ever went to. No doubt you have memories of downing UDLs before the gate, passing out from heat exhaustion and experiencing the immense euphoria induced by seeing your favourite band on the mainstage. Over two decades, the Big Day Out has become a staple in many punters diaries, consistently churning out larger line-ups than many of the other festivals. Believe it or not, come Australia day, you may just wish you were singing along to the Hottest 100 live at the Big Day Out.

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lists06/27/2014
RYAN HEMSWORTH

Ryan Hemsworth gives us 'Every Square Inch'

Following through with his promise to Facebook fans yesterday, favourite in theinterns office, Ryan Hemsworth, dropped new song, 'Every Square Inch,' overnight. Created in collaboration with Japanese producer,  Qrion, 'Every Square Inch' is like sour skittles bouncing their way down a techno-coloured rainbow. Straight A Hemsworth with its vulnerable highs, bursting over defiantly get-low lows, 'Every Square Inch,' has us excited for the release of his October LP, Guilt Trips.

[soundcloud url="https://soundcloud.com/ryanhemsworth/every-square-inchwith-qrion" iframe="true" /]

albums, songs, eps / new music / Uncategorized06/20/2014
broods 2

Broods release Mother & Father

BroodsNew Zealand duo Broods, get straight to the heart of the matter in their new song, Mother & Father.With a catchy cascade of lyrics and pulsing chorus reigning out across a defiant drum beat, the duo's latest offering embodies that perfect young adult contradiction: Strong but not quite strong enough. Although Mother & Father doesn't feature on their current EP, it's got us all excited for the release of their up-coming debut album. [soundcloud url="https://soundcloud.com/broods/broods-mother-father" iframe="true" /]

albums, songs, eps / new music06/19/2014
meta2

The Metamorphosis of Kanye West

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Kanye West is easily one of the most divisive and contradictory players in the game today. So divisive in fact, most can’t even agree on what game Kanye’s actually playing. Music, fashion, Kapitali$ing on the Karda$hian Kid$, or simply rick-rolling young blondes at award shows; as the game changes, so does Chameleon Kanye. *cough Yeezus.* Undeniably, most have struggled to reconcile his often-outlandish public persona with his force as a humble yet boundary-breaking music producer. Yes, I did just write humble and Kanye in the same sentence. 

Almost exactly a year ago, in what was a candid-as-Kanye-gets interview with The New York Times, West explored the various influences and inspirations for his latest album, Yeezus. Along with ensuring that henceforth no commentator (myself included) could mention Kanye West without including some scathing reference to his boundless adoration for the late Steve Jobs (man, he really likes him), The Times interview also delivered him an incredible amount of flack for peremptory insistences like “I am so credible and so influential and so relevant that I will change things” and like “Yeah, respect my trendsetting abilities. Once that happens, everyone wins. The world wins; fresh kids win; creatives win; the company wins.”

A year on from citing Le Corbusier’s lamp as his greatest influence and declaring NBA commissioner David Stern an artist, Kanye’s gone and got hitched to an impeccably-dressed pot of vanity in front of a impeccably well-curated wall of flowers, has graced the cover of US Vogue with said pot of vanity and baby North, been declared by Lou Reed as “the only person who’s out there really doing something,” and collaborated with James Blake on the Brit's upcoming album. Having been described by Justin Vernon from Bon Iver as “otherwordly,” and securing the lead role in Instagram’s Most Liked Picture of all time, the West that walked out on stage yesterday at the Cannes Lions Festival to talk all things techno-culture, is a far cry away from West that ranted for 8 minutes straight on Jimmy Kimmel mere months ago. Despite spinning the same bullshit about design with utopian aspirations, and the hard-knock life of “rentable” celebrities who face public “lashings,” Yeezus appeared a changed man. Cool, calm and collected.

Here’s why.

Firstly, Kanye’s started wearing skirts 

“Men wearing skirts goes back hundreds of years, but never caught on in America. We have been brainwashed into thinking this is some sort of feminine act. One of the most masculine things you can do is put on a skirt.”

Ever knowledgable Kanye knows that happy genitals equal happy people, right? So in an act invested with moralistic intension and a desire to de-brainwash the poor un-manly men of America, Kanye’s reinvented the wheel with his high end man-skirt. Taking the lead, not that he’d admit it though, from Marc Jacob’s signature kilt, Kanye’s ensuring that as summer descends on LA LA Land he, along with anyone looking to purchase a man-skirt for a mere $US250-$US5000, will have easy, breezy and carefree junk in an environment designed for optimum mobility and fresh air cultivation. Making people happy in the pants, or should I say skirt, always makes you feel good about yourself so it's no wonder Yeezy is all smiles.

When he’s not wearing skirts, he’s wearing track pants

After an on-going saga with Nike, in which the brand failed to promise Yeezus royalties to his Yeezy trainers, or deliver future collections for the designer collaboration, a now Baby-Daddy in all their three-stripe, dollar $ign goodness.

“The old me without a daughter might of taken the Nike deal, because I just love Nike. But the new me, with a daughter, takes the Adidas deal, because I have royalties and I have to provide for my family.”

It’s humbling to know that worries regarding financial security keep even the Kim-ye clan up at night. So, with a new collaboration under his belt, and well on the way to getting his money “up to the next level. Because it ain’t on Jay Z level yet, it ain’t on Diddy yet,” it seems clear all Kanye of by-gone days really needed was a few good nights' sleep.

He even designed the blanket under which he’s been sleeping

?

He found time to stop and smell the roses

With Annie Leibovitz pulling out from her role as official Kim-ye wedding photographer mere days before the wedding, Kanye was still determined to have Annie-Leibovitz-like photography for his big day. While this meant he enlisted the help of a 19 year old, then-unknown photographer, it also meant he spent “like four days,” perfecting the palate of a flower-filled photo of their wedding for Instagram. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it.

He’s become a family man

During The New York Times interview, Kanye was particularly tight-lipped when it came to discussing family matters, stating “I don’t want to explain too much into what my thoughts on, you know, fatherhood are, because I’ve not fully developed those thoughts yet. I don’t have a kid yet.” And explaining that when baby North did come, it would be his kid, “not America’s.” A Vogue cover and one highly anticipated, over-the-top wedding later and my, my, how times have changed. Mother-in-law Kris Jenner sat in the audience for Kanye’s stint on the Cannes stage, while Kanye himself declared he “can't be with any girl but Kim because that's the girl that I look at her pictures the most and get turned on the most.” What did I say about happy genitals equalling happy people?

And finally, his genius has been credited in app-form

In yet another social initiative to beautify the world, Kanye lent his mug to web programming group, The Free Art and Technology, for an application that allows you to put Yeezy’s face all over your desktop’s icon dock. Downloadable here, Kanye must be feeling pretty good about bringing some Kanye-tinted beauty to desktops everywhere. 

features06/18/2014
kanye-west-announces-cruel-summer-cannes-film-festival-1

Twitter Talks Kanye at Cannes

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Talk about music in conversation.Overnight, Kanye West took to the stage at the annual Cannes Lions awards show and festival as a late addition to the Translation's seminar, entitled Technology, Culture, and Consumer Adoption: Learning to Read the Cultural Landscape. Never one to miss an opportunity to publicly drool over the late Steve Jobs, or  "say these really big over-the-top statements that end up getting quoted," his presence at the creative communications festival provided Twitter with a more-quotable -than-quotable carb-loaded meal, ready for the taking.

Here's some Yeezus flavoured inspiration for your morning.

 

features06/18/2014
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