Laneway Festival isn’t just about bringing the some of the freakin’ best on-the-cusp-of-enormousness talent from across the world together for what’s seriously gotta be one of, if not the, best touring festivals in the world. They’re also bloody well committed to giving fresh faces a big leg up on a giant stage.
Since 2012 the Festival has been pairing up with Triple J Unearthed to give new bands a chance to tread the boards at their local Laneway stop with a competition that over the years has seen names like Cub Sport, Client Liason, The Hard Aches, BAD//DREEMS, and Milwaukee Banks score coveted early gigs before blowing well and truly up in the months that followed.
The 2017 comp has been run and won, and the next crop of lucky talented so-and-sos has officially been announced by Laneway and Triple J today. And boy oh boy, there are some choice cuts in amongst this lot.
If you’re heading off to the Sydney stop, Canberra-based slow jammin’/slow burnin/hot fire rapper Genesis Owusu has gotten the call to fang up the highway and throw down a set. It’s not the first time he’s caught the attention of Unearthed either, having previously been a finalist of Unearthed High 2015. Get yourself well acquainted now.
In Melbourne, it’s dreamy alt-rock/psychedelic duo IV League who have been tapped to open up proceedings. Think half-way between Tame Impala and Best Coast, but with so much reverb so wet they might as well be playing in the Maribyrnong.
Over in Adelaide, it’s experimental electronic artist Lonelyspeck getting a trot in the 1s, having only mere days ago launched her official video for the jarring, not-quite-right-but-also-intensely-listenable new banger ‘All My Skin on the Air.’ The video’s equally as weird as the song, and we are hellishly into it.
In Brisbane, it’s the excellently named Confidence Man who are getting brought up to the majors for the show on January 26th. They sound like they really, really, really, really like Devo and in absolutely no way is that a bad thing because this is a fucking jam.
Lastly over in Fremantle, it’s shoegazy, mid-90s alt-rock worshipping Dream Rimmy rotating off the bench. They’re a six-piece band that have taken all the best bits of slacker rock and indie-pop and smashed them all into one glorious, hook-laden riff fest. Get squarely around ’em.
They’ll all be joining the likes of A.B. Original, Nick Murphy, Tame Impala, Tash Sultana, Camp Cope, Luca Brasi, Car Seat Headrest, Gang of Youths, Whitney, Young Thug, White Lung and a swathe of others on the sprawling, fantastic mess of summer glory that is the 2017 St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival.
You can cop all the vital festival details over at the official Laneway website.
Source: Triple J.
Photo: IV League/Facebook.
