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Happy’s guide to St Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2015

This morning, I had a bad case of Jerome’s Syndrome. The syndrome is caused by seeing a lineup for a well established nationwide music festival and not recognising any of the names on the bill – symptoms including confusion, feeling old and a disdain for ‘kids these days’. The cure? A hardcore listening sesh of every band on that little collagey poster, and we here at Happy are here to do the work for you!

So here’s the best of the best of the latest rock units to do the rounds and the underground beat manufacturers appearing across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore next February. Here’s Happy’s Guide to Laneway 2015:

laneway 2015

How to avoid dancing d-bags, laptop artists and stuck up girls from the Eastern Suburbs at your 2015 Laneway expereince, courtesy of Happy.

Angel Olsen

Pitchfork poster girl, Jagjaguwar signee and pedalboard orchestrator, Angel Olsen‘s lo-fi guitar musings are for fans of Ty Segall and Neutral Milk. I’m never one to highlight a singer songwriter on a festival lineup, but Olsen is among one of the few songwriters who has plugged it in and kept a sense of delicacy to her work. She’s got a deluxe version of her LP Burn Your Fire For No Witness coming out in November – for now listen to the undeluxe version’s single All Right Now below.

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Benjamin Booker

Emerging from the humid and bead strewn streets of New Orleans is a sound from Benjamin Booker that doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but is sure to turn a head or two at the SCA grounds. Landing supports for Jack White and seamlessly channelling the old sounds of the delta and new East Coast rock and roll at the same time, Booker’s one not to be missed in 2015. Is full album is available now via Rough Trade.

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Perfect Pussy

So guitar feedback is an instrument now, thanks to Syracuse based Perfect Pussy. They make Russian Muff punk music to burn down a Brescia Furniture to, although I really wouldn’t reccomend doing anything of the sort at Laneway. That sort of stuff might get you kicked out, so maybe stick to the small time arson involving cider bars and portaloos come Laneway time. Say Yes To Love is out now via Captured Tracks.

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Flying Lotus

You almost certainly know who Flying Lotus is, but you might not know what Layer 3 is. Words, no matter how pretentiously verbose, can’t really describe what Layer 3 entails, so here’s a short video courtesy of Red Bull Music Academy.

Royal Blood

You can get blues rock so very wrong, and the schlockiness of 90% of the support acts for international headline tours I’ve seen in the last five years can back me up on this. It’s cheap, predictable and oh so outdated. That said, the UK’s Royal Blood are one of the few people doing it right. The filthy two piece are made for that 3pm slot when the acid starts to kick in, you lose your mates and you reckon Pond might be a little too much. Their self titled is currently available via the U2 machine.

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Seekae

You might have noticed that this ‘best of’ has tried to stick to bands as much as possible, but with a lineup like Laneway’s it’s almost inevitable that you’ll have to find yourself swaying awkwardly in front of an expensively dressed gentleman in front of a laptop. Even though it might sound like Seekae‘s latest work should come from a white kid’s sticker covered macbook, the dudes work with live instrumentation as much as they do ableton and the result is a unique show that you’d kick yourself for missing. If you have to see an electronic act – make it Seekae. Oh, and Flying Lotus, obviously.

EVERYONE ELSE

Agnes DeMarco*
Benjamin Booker
Caribou
Connan Mockasin
Courtney Barnett
Dune Rats
Eagulls
Eves***
FKA Twigs
Flight Facilities
Flying Lotus (Layer 3)
Future Islands*
Highasakite
Jesse Davidson**
Jon Hopkins*
Jungle
Little Dragon
Lykke Li
Mac DeMarco
Mansionair
Perfect Pussy
Peter Bibby
POND
Ratking
Raury
Royal Blood*
Rustie
Seekae
SOHN
St Vincent*
Vic Mensa

*Exclusive to Laneway: no sideshows
**Laneway Adelaide only
***Exclusive to East Coast shows only

Presale tickets to Laneway 2015 go on sale at Midday on the 8th of October (check the link to Visa presale below for more info), while general sale will commence on the 13th of this month at 9am.

FIND OUT MORE ON

 FACEBOOK  ▲ VISA PRESALE ▲ WEBSITE

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