FESTIVAL: Laneway Line Up Announced Ft. Yeasayer, !!! & Foals

Laneway festival 2011 will be decending on newly redeveloped Aotea Square on Monday 31st January. This has been common knowledge for quite some time now. The news that everyone has been waiting for is the line up announcement, and this definitely won't disappoint. Enjoy.

Festival Details

• Monday 31 January 2011, Aotea Square, Auckland

Line Up

• Yeasayer
• Foals
• Ladyhawke
• !!! (Chk Chk Chk)
• Deerhunter
• Blonde Redhead
• Children's Hour
• Warpaint
• Beach House
• Ariel Pink's
• Haunted Grafitti
• Lawrence Arabia
• Holy Fuck
• An Emerald City

Ticket Information

Tickets on sale from 9am Wednesday 20 October, from www.lanewayfestival.co.nz and www.the-edge.co.nz  or 0800-BUY-TICKETS. For all the latest news and ticket information go to www.lanewayfestival.co.nz.

Press Release:

95bFM, Groove Guide & Under The Radar present St Jerome's Laneway Festival.

Since its inception in 2004 in Melbourne, Australia, the Laneway Festival has become synonymous, as they say, with hot summer days, awesome locations and diverse, forward-thinking line-ups filled to overflowing with vital, surprising bands. Favouring talent over mainstream success, Laneway has consistently brought compelling, boundary-pushing acts to discerning punters and next year's event will continue that tradition.

In 2011, New Zealanders will experience their second Laneway Festival in the newly revamped Aotea Square, beside the Auckland Town Hall. The square itself is perfect for Laneway, with room to fit stalls, stages and audience comfortably, and more space and atmosphere than ever. Punters will have access to two different stages, enough amenities to cater for those wanting to wander between the stages or stay in front of their favourite all day, plus local arts showcases and delicious cuisine.

An Emerald City

Forming in late 2005, An Emerald City created a six member sound that combines Eastern traditional instruments and psychedelic leanings with experimentation and musical liberation. Instrumental, thoughtful songs created by guitars, drums, sitars, violins, a Persian long -necked lute, tablas, daabuka, piano and percussion found from various reaches of the universe.

After the release of their debut album Circa Scaria to huge critical acclaim in New Zealand An Emerald City moved to Berlin and have been based there for the last two years touring Europe, supporting The Black Angels, Crowded House and just last month Black Mountain. The band is working towards their 2nd album, due out in 2011.

For more, visit An Emerald City on MySpace and Bandcamp.

Children's Hour

In the world of alternative music, there are many well kept secrets. New Zealand  dark alternative rock band Children's Hour are most definitely one. Chris Matthews, Grant Fell, Bevan Sweeney and the late Johnny Pierce formed the band in 1982, and managed four national tours and a handful of recordings before disbanding in 1984.

Signed to the legendary Flying Nun Records, Children's Hour are best known for their student radio hit 'Caroline's Dream' with the video being directed and made by Chris Knox. In 1985 the band morphed into The Headless Chickens who were hugely successful in New Zealand and Australia with platinum selling albums and number 1 singles.

Visit Children's Hour on MySpace.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Reclusive pop surrealist Ariel Pink comes out of his shell and across the Pacific toting his full band, Haunted Graffiti.  After a decade putting out a succession of woozy, tripped out lo-fi pop LPs for Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks imprint, this year Pink stepped out of the bedroom armed with Before Today, his thoroughly awesome hi-fi 4AD debut and our album of the year. A gloriously damaged, genre-hopping record, Before Today is as schizo as it is excellent, filled to the brim with immediate, surprising hooks and a cracked charm.

Visit Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti on MySpace and YouTube.

Beach House

A Beach House primer for you. Fact: Baltimore duo Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally are not a couple. Fact: They are brilliant. Fact: Their third release (and first for Sub-Pop), Teen Dream, is classic, dreamy, timeless pop. At once exultant and melancholic, Teen Dream sets Legrand’s breathy vocals atop a rich, sparkling sonic bed of organ and guitar, the result that rare kind of music for which the word magical truly applies. Live, the duo weaves a spell that you have to see to believe. Have a look at these photos of the band on stage recently at Radio City Hall.

Visit Beach House on MySpace and YouTube.

Blonde Redhead

Over seventeen years, eight albums and countless eps, alt-rock titans Blonde Redhead have secured their place in the rock’n’roll firmament as one of the most consistently inventive and evocative acts of the past two decades. After beginning life as a No Wave inspired outfit, over the years the trio of Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace have pared back the squall while pushing their sound to ever more expansive places, as evidenced by their wall-of-sound, break-out cut from a few years ago, 23. Their latest LP, the lush electro-dream pop outing Penny Sparkle, is pure narcotic summer bliss, the latest evolution of a band never afraid to try their hand.

Visit Blonde Redhead on MySpace and YouTube.

!!! (Chk Chk Chk)

Look, look, look, it’s !!! (Chk Chk Chk)! We’re really looking forward to hosting these brooding, dancefloor filling disco punks. The Warp Records-endorsed Californian collective’s long-awaited fourth LP, Strange Weather, Isn’t It? seems poised to find them a wider audience, with hookier hooks and solider grooves that are somehow more instantly accessible than their critically acclaimed back catalogue.  The venerable live act are an absolute riot on stage so discard your inhibitions and we’ll see you down the front.

Visit !!! (Chk Chk Chk) on MySpace and YouTube.

Deerhunter

Mixing woozy ambience, hypnotic Krautrock, art-damaged squall and classic, 60s-inspired pop into one wholly arresting package, Athens, Georgia four-piece Deerhunter have quickly cemented themselves as one of the most compelling and combustible bands of their era. Led by the magnetic presence of frontman Bradford Cox, Deerhunter’s live show has become the stuff of legend – an utterly immersive, noisy, gauzy, ecstatic, propulsive thing that the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O describes as ‘a religious experience’. Deerhunter return to New Zealand on the back of their fourth LP, the self-produced Halcyon Digest, an album of lush, elegant, nostalgic neo-psychedelia that manages to keep pushing forward even as it’s looking back.

Visit Deerhunter on MySpace and YouTube.

Foals

Foals’ new record - the impressive follow-up to Antidotes - Total Life Forever proves a bunch of things. 1) You can produce a perfectly danceable collection of songs without forsaking emotional depth. 2) Frontman Yannis Philippakis can sing. Really. (See: TLF centerpiece ‘Spanish Sahara’). 3)  It’s possible to listen to an album approx. 1 million times without tiring of it. As punters of their recent sold-out Australian tour will attest, the Mercury-nominated band are a powerhouse on stage too: if they're not careful, they could end up on a similar trajectory as their Oxford neighbours, Radiohead.

Visit Foals on MySpace and YouTube.

Holy Fuck

Holy fuck, it’s Holy Fuck. Sorry Mum, but profanities really are the only way to convey the chaotic, sonic muscle of the Ontario instrumental quartet’s particular take on intricate dance-y math-rock.  Utterly compelling and completely unique, the band’s live performances have become the stuff of legend over the period of their six-year career.  New album Latin is at once raw and disciplined and as visceral as anything we’ve heard recently.  Apparently Thom Yorke and the terminally unimpressed Lou Reed are fans. This is vital stuff.

Visit Holy Fuck on MySpace and YouTube.

Lawrence Arabia

Lawrence Arabia is the pseudonym of James Milne, who has established himself with a hugely rich musical resume as a former member of The Brunettes and The Ruby Suns and one time touring member of Okkervil River; he has also produced for films and theatre and wrote the score for the indie film hit, ‘Eagle vs Shark’.

His sophomore album Chant Darling released in March last year received critical acclaim around the world as well as winning the inaugural Taite Music Award in NZ last year. Lawrence Arabia was also awarded with the 2009 NZ APRA Silver Scroll Award for his single ‘Apple Pie Bed’ , the most prestigious songwriting award in New Zealand. See Lawrence Arabia play new songs from his forthcoming 3rd album due out in 2011.

Visit Lawrence Arabia on MySpace and YouTube.

Ladyhawke

Ladyhawke describes herself as a lady who loves guitars, loves synths, loves making noise and pressing buttons. The Masterton-born, UK-based singer carried off NZ Music Tui awards for  Single of the Year,  Album of the Year, International Achievement,  Best Female Solo Artist,  Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Best Dance/Electronica Album last year after the release of her debut album. The album had huge success internationally being certified gold in the UK, Australia as well as New Zealand and reached number 16 on the UK album chart. This year Pip Brown aka Ladyhawke has been based in New Zealand writing, but has continued to wow audience and critics alike being nominated for the International Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards in May this year.

Visit Ladyhawke's official webiste and her MySpace.

Warpaint

Warpaint were our pick of SXSW 2010.  We saw them, like, 5 times. Three Californians and an Australian, Stella Mozgawa, on the sticks. Four immeasurably talented girls, all droning guitars and pulsing bass lines.  Don’t be deceived by the heaven-high harmonies of songs like ‘Billie Holiday’; these girls can kick the wind out of you.  Their Rough Trade/Remote Control released debut album The Fool (due out 22.10.10) weaves between psychedelic jams and hazy moments so intimate you can practically feel the breath in your ear.  Ones to watch.

Visit Warpaint on MySpace and YouTube.

Yeasayer

Everyone in favour of a good time say ‘YEA…SAYER’.  Our favourite prog-pop proponents return to get the party started with wares from the remarkable Odd Blood and its equally inventive predecessor All Hour Cymbals.  If tracks like ‘Ambling Alp’ and ‘O.N.E.’ don’t make you all kinds of happy, then we can’t be your friend.  Having sold out all the shows on their recent visit, Yeasayer are A-Listed. Also, please watch this video.

Visit Yeasayer on MySpace and YouTube.