Melody Pops

Melbourne Music Festival Gets Organ-ised
Melbourne Music Week’s second lineup announcement this week added local favourites The Primitive Calculators, Pikelet, New War, The Night Terrors, Laura Jean, Bum Creek and New Estate to an already impressive lineup of locals and internationals.

Headlined by Italian prog-rock legends Goblin (who will be incorporating the 83 year old grand organ at Melbourne Town Hall into their horror-film soundtrack set), the festival is a week long series of carefully curated shows centred around the juxtaposition created by contemporary musicians playing in historical Melbourne buildings such as Melbourne University, North Melbourne Town Hall and Where?House.

For the full line-up so far and tickets check out the Melbourne Music Week website.

AIR Nominees Announced
The Australian Independent Record Labels Association this week announced the 2012 nominees for their annual Independent Music Awards.

Melbourne based electro-pop dude Chet Faker and rapper 360 have the most nominations at five and four a piece, while Sydney scuzz punks Royal Headache have three. The nominations for artist and album of the year are:

Best Independent Artist: 360, Ballpark Music, Chet Faker, The Jezabels, Royal Headache.
Best Independent Album: 360 – ‘Falling And Flying’, DZ Deathrays – ‘Bloodstreams’, The Jezabels – ‘Prisoner’, Royal Headache – ‘Royal Headache’, The Temper Trap – ‘The Temper Trap’

Much like the AFL grand final, Paul Kelly and Tim Rogers will be playing at the event, and the full list of nominations are available at the AIR website.

Automating the Sounds of Sleep
Having recently returned from Germany after a stint at Hannover’s College for Music, Theatre and Media, local experimental musician Sasha Margolis released a new album under his Automating moniker this week.

‘Somnambulist’ began as an aural documentation of psychoacoustic techniques, comprising mainly of field recordings and found audio scrap. Margolis eventually morphed the sounds into a spellbinding audio take on the concepts of sleep and dreaming, using “loops, confused narratives, and seemingly unrelated material that nonetheless makes sense while we are experiencing it.”

Automating‘s ‘Somnambulist’ is available on CD via bandcamp and as a free download at Wood and Wire.

ESG and Rapping Chef for Sugar Mountain
In yet another festival announcement, this week Sugar Mountain revealed a wonderfully eclectic first round of artists for their third annual music/arts/multimedia extravaganza. Bronx-based proto-hip-hop sisters ESG have been revealed as the big drawcard, along with post-industrialists HTRK , gourmet chef/rapper Action Bronson, Laurel Halo, Woods, Peanut Butter Wolf and Kirin J Callinan & Kris Moses.

With more announcements to come, Sugar Mountain is taking place at various venues around Melbourne January 19 next year.

Gigs of the Week
The LuWow are having a beach party on Friday night! Drink loads of amazing rum and pretend you’re a pirate with The Volcaniks, Wilde Turkey, DJ Beach Bunny Babz and GoGo girls.

Tickets are still available for Nada Surf‘s gig at The Corner Hotel on Friday night. Supports are The Gold Hearted and Lurch & Chief.

The Dirty F bring the ruckus to The Gasometer on Saturday night. Supports are Chico Flash, Montressor and Glasfrosch.