With St Jerome’s Laneway Festival announcing their dates and venues earlier this month, and with their official first line up announcement dropping tomorrow morning, it’s about time we all jumped aboard the speculative rumour train and predict what we may be treated to at the height of the summer festival season. 2013 delivered Laneway with an incredible, star studded line up featuring Alt J, Bat For Lashes, Of Monsters and Men and Flume; considering that the festival has been expanding exponentially every year (with its inaugural Detroit leg taking place this year, now stretching the festival across three continents), you can go ahead and start accumulating lofty expectations, because this line up is bound to be big.
First off, let’s start with the non-rumour and only confirmed act of Laneway so far, CVRCHES. The Glasgow based band have been charming the pants off everyone this year with their highly anticipated and festival-friendly album The Bones Of What You Believe dropping just last week. CVRCHES confirmed with us in August that they would be coming down under for Laneway, so you can officially get psyched about this.
Peaking the rumour mill next is Washed Out. The band reeks Laneway material, seeing as they performed at the Detroit leg of the festival this month, hinted that they would be coming to Australia soon, and have reason for a tour to promote his latest album, Paracosm. Besides, Washed Out are Laneway veterans from their 2012 appearance at the festival, and as anyone who has been to Laneway before, the chilled out atmosphere and excellent crowd makes it a hard offer to pass up.
And what about Lorde? Rocketing to stardom at a hyper pace since her Splendour debut this year, Pedestrian favourite Lorde would be a welcome addition to Laneway next year. Like Laneway did last year with plucking Flume before he got really crazy big and started spending more time overseas than in Oz, Lorde would be a perfect match for Laneway; moreover, Laneway are presenting Lorde’s upcoming Australian tour, so the connection between artist and promoter is obviously already solid. Crossing fingers for this one.
Potentially joining the under 20 crowd with Lorde will (hopefully) be the incredible 19 year old Archy Marshall, aka King Krule. After gaining traction under his former stage name Zoo Kid, King Krule has grown up since his early days and has produced what may be one of the most underrated, underplayed albums of the year, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon. Just off kilter enough in Australia, King Krule would draw his devoted Aussie fans while providing a dose of Laneway’s signature hipster cred/bait to its lineup. Hearing King Krule bellow out his flawless jazz-inspired A Lizard State, echoing its line, “You’re just a bunch of fat bitches” would be the biggest pleasure.
A perfect and perhaps likely combo lineup addition would be Mount Kimbie. Their fantastic album dropped earlier this year with one of its stand out tracks, You Took Your Time, featuring King Krule. On stage collab?!??
Dropping rumours like flies, Savages also seem like a guaranteed Laneway act, after telling The Vine earlier this year that they would be coming to Australia in February 2014, but said they “didn’t know if our festival has been announced yet.” Oops, real sly.
Everyone’s favourite slew of ethereal siblings with rolling tresses outside of The Virgin Suicides, HAIM may also be on the cards for Laneway 2014. They’ve got a heavy Europe and US schedule between now and December, but in the post Christmas and New Years daze, it’s possible that the girls might escape winter and flock to an Australian summer that complements their infectious tunes so perfectly.
Straying from his regular collaborator SBTRKT, Sampha may be returning solo to Laneway next year, after his stellar performance alongside SBTRKT in 2011. After a NYE performance in Mexico, Sampha would be wanting to promote his incredible Dual EP released earlier this year, and his tour schedule is clear for the following month: ripe for the Laneway.
In July, Laneway posted a suspicious smells-like-rumours post on their blog, titled Five International Breakthrough Acts For 2014. A likely suggestion from this post (if not all of the acts) would be the cult-status gaining XXYYXX, who, like Lorde and King Krule, will make you feel insufficient and straight up lazy, after becoming an international success at just 17. Sigh. Laneway waxed lyrical on their blog, saying his addition to their SXSW party in Austin was a “pleasure” and that they had high hopes for the kid’s future. Exceedingly young, semi-underground, dreamy bedroom artist, who has recently been touring with Laneway 2013 act Shlohmo? Give the man a spot on the Laneway bill right now.
Also appearing on that same Laneway blog post was HAERTS. If adding acts that spell things incorrectly on purpose (sup, Chvrches) is now a thing, Haerts would be a no-brainer addition to the lineup. Besides, Haerts are fucking great, already played at the Detroit Laneway festival and would be an excellent Australian debut for the band. Make this happen.
The achingly overdue album from The Avalanches is set to drop early next year, which just so conveniently coincides with Laneway’s late January/early February dates. It might be wishful thinking, but seeing as The Avalanches headed the festival’s first ever lineup in 2004, coming back for Laneway’s 10 year anniversary would make complete sense. Maybe it’s just too good to be true?
Wunderkid and liquid smooth, tender artist Youth Lagoon looks like an incredibly likely addition to the Laneway line up. With a crackling voice and nostalgia driven tracks oozing summer festival vibes, and after performing at the Detroit Laneway this year, the chances of a Youth Lagoon appearance seem ever more likely. Laneway also provided this not-so-cryptic response to Youth Lagoon’s performance on twitter.
What about Flume and Chet Faker? To crush some people’s hopes, aside from being at an all time high demand, Flume is already booked in for next year’s Big Day Out, whose dates bleed in to Laneway’s at the end of January. While Flume sure is a talented dude and can remix to perfection, he actually can’t be in two places at once. Sorry guys. Chet Faker, however, isn’t booked for BDO (though he will be playing Falls and Southbound), and after playing at Laneway Detroit, Chet Faker could be a welcome Aussie injection in to the line up.
Aside from there generally not being much Festival line up crossovers during the summer season, Falls Festival headliners London Grammar definitely won’t be heading to Australia for Laneway, or at least not during the tail end of its dates. The band is already due back for shows in the UK by the 7th and 8th of February. Quit Hopin’.
Hopeful addition that probably/definitely won’t happen: Frank Ocean. He robbed us of his Splendour and sideshow performances this year; it’s only fair for him to come back. (Please?)
To keep your hopes up that all of the excellent artists land a coveted spot on the Laneway line up, here’s our playlist to get you in the Laneway mood. Watch out for the full line up released on Pedestrian tomorrow as soon as it drops.
