So, 24 hours driving, a broken GPS, a red-bull induced flip-out, a Jane’s Addiction cop-out and many muddy Timbaland boots later, we are back from the bowels of Splendour in the Grass. D will be filling youse in with a complete update in coming days, but in the mean time, I’d like to post on a personal favourite who I had only just gotten into prior to the festival and who blew me away at the very early time of 12:24 on Sunday afternoon. The Middle East, who sound like they came out of Bon Iver’s woods, are actually from Townsville. You know, that down somehwere near Brisvegas that everybody makes fun of because it’s totally full of bogans? Anyway, these guys are the ones laughing, because they are truly a spectacular band. With about six members, all of whom play multiple instruments, four of whom sing and a rapidly swelling fan base, The Middle East are probably the kind of band you want to have sex too; quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours, emotional enough to match the mood and epic enough to last even those among us who don’t require the services of AMI Technology, which I assume is everybody given the number of billboards they took over on the drive up to Byron Bay.
Our good friend and local party animal Jodi made us get up super early and nearly kill ourselves rushing back to the site to make sure she didn’t miss any of The Middle East’s gig. I thought she was nuts (as she usually is 
), but it turns out that she has a pretty good barometer for truly blissful music. Standing in the dusty/sinking local produce tent, chilling with all the girls wearing leather jackets and expensive boots, I had a quasi-religious experience. Honestly, hearing all these kids singing in beautiful harmony, so ridiculously unpretentious, flying in the face of all of the hipsters who’ve been blogging about them for months (that’s not me, I only did it today). Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. And the lyrics are pretty deep, I know this because Jodi kept quoting them to us in the middle of the night whilst we were speeding down one-way streets in rural NSW trying not to die. It just all adds up. Get into this band now before they win the AMP Awards and you have no fucking idea where they came from.
The Middle East – ‘Blood’
In other news:
*Jay-Z has released a track with Rihanna and Kanye West. The only good thing about it is Yeezy is rapping again. The rest of it blows.
*Sneaky Sound System have done a song with DJ/Producer/God Tiesto. It’s as hilarious as it sounds.
*Zero 7 have a new album out soon and so do Arctic Monkeys. ShamWOW.
*Friendly Fires are up for a Mercury Award, alongside Tilda Swinton (La Roux) and Kasabian.
*MGMT are officially the most overrated band in the world. There, I said it.
3 Comments:
[...] Brothers One-A-Day are back in full force. Whilst yesterday J confirmed the highlight of our Byron Bay soiree for youse, he also speculated as to an imminent [...]
[...] heard before and liked, that’s probably because it’s taken the best bits of The Middle East’s hardcore harmonies, combined them beautifully with the subtlety of great Bon Iver and, like fellow [...]
[...] It wasn’t the Gotye airwaves slayer but it had an undercurrent that was similar to that of The Middle East’s ‘Blood’ a few years back; everyone stopped dead and wondered aloud ‘Who the hell is [...]
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