I’ve definitely been on-and-off at the start of the year with blogging. Trying to organise yourself in a new year when there’s so much debris from the year before still to clear out is hard work, and a full-time hobby like blogging, well I had to take a bit of a break from it to get things in motion.

It’s all (seemingly!) clear now though, and to break the on-off drought permanently, I present to you a list of 21 songs currently burning a hole in the Auxilary chord connected to my iPod…

GEORGE MICHAEL I Want Your Sex
So on Wednesday night I went along with the fabulous Glenn of Stale Popcorn and his equally as fabulous Mother to the final ever George Michael concert in Melbourne (full report on that coming Monday), and whilst George didn’t perform this particular song (or my other favourite, “Praying For Time”, but more on that Monday), that hasn’t stopped me from absolutely BLARING this track several times in a day since the show. Probably the best song written about sex ever.

WHAM! Wham! Rap (Album Version)
I know he probably has no interest in rapping on stage now that he’s Not 18, but I would have given my soul for even a verse from this classic.

DAN BLACK Get Into Cloudbusting
Found via the magnificent XOlondon, this fuses the music of my favourite Kate Bush song, “Cloudbusting”, with Black singing the lyrics of Madonna’s “Into The Groove.”

MATT VAN SCHIE ft. MICHAEL DI FRANCESCO Journey
Lush/dreamy electropop from Van She bassist, Matt Van Schie. His solo EP, “Balmy Nights”, is out now via iTunes. Full review of that and an interview with the man coming next week. This particular track features Van She keyboardist Michael Di Francesco and a video clip for this should be surfacing soon.

DELPHIC Acolyte
I was lucky enough to speak to Delphic’s frontman James Cook earlier this week and what started off as a chat about their incredible debut album turned into a dance music geek-fest. Which couldn’t have made me happier. The title track from their album is what you’d call a 100% all-out euphoric dance ANTHEM. There is no doubt these guys are ahead of the game when it comes to this supposed “indie-dance” genre they’ve been tagged with. But fuck that; the album is a truly stand-out dance record that just happens to have some vocals and a few guitars in it. I’m so sick of that term “indie” these days and tend to be more and more put-off it by the minute. Anyway, that interview and the album review also coming next week.

DELPHIC Counterpoint
During the creation of their debut album, Delphic were heading out to raves and dance parties across the UK, listening to underground techno and minimal techno, “among others”, gathering inspiration for their super-euphoric music. Clever. Instead of just claiming to be inspired by dance music, these guys actually got amongst it.

GABRIELLA CILMI Love Me Coz You Want To
This is beyond remarkable. For those of you who were keen on Gab’s new single “On A Mission”, chances are you’ll be salivating once you’ve heard this. A true disco/electropop classic already, its shimmering chorus is the kind of catchy that will leave you a little mesmerised after it finishes. And just when you think it can’t get any better, the final minute comes along and changes things – wonderfully – quite out of nowhere. And this is the one produced by herself and her band – no other outside work! My favourite track of Gab’s by far, I’ll be posting the interview I did with her the other week sometime in the next few days too.

DIANA VICKERS The Boy Who Murdered Love
Out of all the tracks from Diana’s album sampler, this is the one that has GIANT HIT written all over it. That chorus is super-infectious: “Shot! Shot! Shot! Like a bullet! Stop! Stop! Stop!” Who knows what the rest will sound like, but for this, Vickers gets an A+.

ELLIE GOULDING This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)
I’ve no idea what Ellie’s done to “Guns + Horses” on the new album. The updated version has stripped back a lot of the emotion and replaced it with electronic sounds and, for me, it just doesn’t feel right. I’ll stick to the original thanks, the new version in comparison just feels really devoid of any raw honesty to it which was the reason I loved the song so much. Meanwhile, the rest of the album is as fantastic as everyone has been saying – this track in particular being the absolute highlight.

THE GOLDEN FILTER Hide Me
This is a truly sublime disco stomper with a gorgeous vocal from one of my favourite dancepop acts around at the moment. Their (incredibly long awaited) debut album Voluspa is released in April and will probably feature in many hipster ‘end-of-year’ lists if Filter’s past output is anything to go by.

PARRALOX x AIRA MITSUIKI Time To Say  Goodbye Darling
I somehow completely overlooked (what I now know is) the amazing Parralox album from last year “State Of Decay” – certainly not on purpose because I adored their debut, “Electricity”, but rather from being an absolute lazy prick/somewhere else for most of last year. Anyway, Japanese artist OXY took a collection of the acts tracks and bootlegged them with other brilliant moments in electro. This is one of the crowning moments. Download the EP in full and for free from Parralox’s MySpace.

RAY & ANITA (formerly 2 UNLIMITED) In Da Name Of Love (Extended Version)
To really capture the magic of this track, you need to hear the Extended Version. 2 Unlimited songs always made more sense to me in their full, un-radio edited versions and Ray & Anita’s return is no exception. Poor Anita has been diagnosed with breast cancer but is reportedly fighting on, even donning a wig in the so brilliantly-cheap-and-expensive-at-the-same-time video clip. Get well soon and welcome back! Unfortunately I can’t find the Extended version on YouTube, but keep an eye out for it…

MEN Off Our Backs
I’ve had this on every playlist I’ve made thus far in 2010. There you go. JD Samson of the incredible Le Tigre is one third of this bonza act.

CELINE DION Eyes On Me
I saw Celine Dion’s amazingly crazy tour documentary “Celine: Through The Eyes Of The World” at the movies last week and, I gotta say, it’s worth the admission price alone for this. It’s a clip of Celine doing a five-minute-run-through of her 2 hour live show. The whole thing is delightfully bonkers, Celine even pretends she’s a horse at one point, but it actually gets even CRAZIER from the 2:25 mark. That incredible noise she’s making with her tongue/amazingness was inspired by this song, which was my favourite from Celine’s 2008 album “Taking Chances” (and, FYI, features Delta Goodrem on backing vocals.)

ROBYN No Hassle
Robyn seems to have stuck to her word on making 90’s-influenced dance music with this absolute Ace Of Base/reggae flavoured dancefloor throwback. Produced by Diplo, whose stuff for Kelis’ new album I’m incredibly keen to hear.

LIVVI FRANC Automatik
Thanks to the gorgeous (except when he’s laying into my poor Cheryl!) Mike Wass from PopTrashAddicts, I am completely addicted to this song. Sure, it’s a RedOne/GaGa ripoff, but here’s a newsflash: I like GaGa and RedOne, so the more rip-off’s, the less anxious I will be waiting for The GaGa’s third album. I LOVE the chorus, fucking goes off.

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS Oh No!
I’ll finally be reviewing Marina’s album next week, but this track is not only my favourite but comes complete with the records best lyric: “TV taught me how to feel, now real life has no appeal.”

KE$HA Blah Blah Blah
Yeah, I hated this originally but the video clip won me over. What a skank! Could do without those 3OH!3 cunts though, they really are a bunch of giant fuckwits, aren’t they.

LADY GAGA Bad Romance (Monster Ball Studio Version)
I found this (possibly fan-made?) studio version on the incredible GaGaDaily’s stupendously grand GaGaBoards. Visit, join, etc.

HOLE Skinny Little Bitch
Courtney is back and I love love love. “Oh baby just go slower, oh baby just go lower” … And then everything goes incredibly fast and nuts and OH MY GOD A NEW HOLE ALBUM IN APRIL. If you’re quick, you can download the MP3 for free from the bands official website.

DONKEYBOY ft. LINNEA DALE Ambitions
What a terrible name for a seemingly great band. The show is completely stolen by 19 year old Linnea Dale in the chorus, who has the voice of a seasoned vocalist in her late 20’s/early 30’s. Remarkable. I definitely want to see and hear more of her, and would not object to Donkeyboy hiring her as their new co-vocalist and re-recording their album with her.

WHITNEY HOUSTON Nothin’ But Love
I’ve also been hammering her cover of “Song For You” and “Step By Step”. AND ALSO TOO, POOR WHITNEY. She’s been copping a lot of flack on her Australian Tour these last couple of weeks (which I’m sadly missing due to a lack of funds), but Whitney, I ain’t got nothin’ but, nothin’ but love for ya (eei-ah-ma-ma.) And just in case you missed it, proper-amazing star-in-the-making Meece is BEYOND Chris Crocker in this incredible video…

I’m not sure I trust Alison behind the wheel of a truck, but isn’t her Disco Rocket spectacular?!

Pretty damn fabulous video clip.

GOLDFRAPP | MySpace Music Videos

Gold Coast formed Operator Please are hot-on-the-heels of releasing “Logic”, the debut single from their as-yet-unreleased sophomore album ‘Gloves’. Gearing up to headline at this years mammoth Future Music Festival, the bands front-woman, the passionate and delightful Amandah Wilkinson, sat down with me for a chat about the new album, working on the road, Lady GaGa, and preferring to be labelled as a pop group rather than an Indie one.

Operator Please had a wild 2007/2008. Releasing their debut album Yes Yes Vindictive saw them touring globally and promoting their wares across the world. Alternative radio were hammering their singles, but so were the commercial radio networks. It was hard to escape Operator Please mania, and whether you loved or loathed their debut single, the quirky “Song About Ping Pong”, there was really no denying these kids were on the rise.

It’s 2010 and they’re not exactly kids anymore. ‘Logic’, the bands new single, is a spiky pop song that demonstrates a clear growth, not only as artists but as a collective. It’s punchier, perhaps more importantly; poppier, and feels more refined.

“We only really decided on the single maybe a month before we put it out,” says Wilkinson. “There were a lot of contenders, but the band kind of felt like ‘Logic’ should be the leading single for quite some time, so we just did it.”

It’s an exceptional pop record, even if the Alternative stations try to tell you otherwise.

“I’ve always written pop songs,” Amandah says, before laughing. “I was a little confused with the Indie/Alternative title we got, but I’ve always thought we’ve written pop music.”

In a year where pop finally took precedence thanks to the emergence of Lady GaGa, Wilkinson gets excited as I mention Lady’s influence on the pop spectrum. “I think pop is becoming more predominant,” she says. “We went through particular styles of music; a few years ago pop was all about bubblegum, but a while before that pop was Blondie and Madonna, then you had the trio of Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson. Now Lady GaGa’s coming through, I don’t think people are expecting it but I think it’s amazing.”

Surely there are fans who would guffaw at claims that Lady GaGa was worthy of attention. Maybe even some that would do the same at the mere mention of the word ‘pop’. Amandah doesn’t seem to care though, and is quite pleased the great divide between credibility and pop music is moving its way closer to one another.

“There’s always going to be people that hate pop music,” she adds. “But the majority of the time, most people aren’t aware they’re listening to a pop song when they are (laughs). It’s true though, it’s a structural thing, all these key elements that make up an incredible pop song – you can put fuzzy guitars or whatever you want and call it whatever genre you want, but chances are you’re putting fuzzy guitars over a pop song. You know? Pop connects, it connects with people. The Beatles were pure pop mate, and think of how huge they were. I just think it’s really good that the stigma is disappearing, because particularly in the 90’s there was this big separation between pop music and alternative sounds. It was a very big spectrum, and we’re not necessarily closing the gap, but it’s definitely being turned around.”

Gloves, the bands follow up to their 2007 debut Yes Yes Vindictive is said to include lots of synths, xylophones and drums. The band took the combination of being on the road and listening to music to form the creation of the songs within the new record; everything from pop to 90’s RNB.

“I think I personally reverted to a lot of stuff I was listening to when I was in high school – you know, lots of RNB (laughs) and Hip Hop, I’ve always loved 80’s Madonna and Janet Jackson and Prince. All the experiences from being on the road, watching other bands perform live; it all just kind of rolled into one really.”

Being on tour for such an extended period of time did play tricks on the bands mind however. An element of cabin fever began to brew as they tried to juggle being on the road, writing new material and not being able to record any of it.

“I guess that being on tour you don’t get too much of that time, so it was a mixture of absolute frustration, but also enjoying being on tour simply because we were on tour (laughs). But if you get the two worlds melded up it can actually get quite frustrating and difficult. You’re there to play live and you really need to give it your all to do that. You think about a new record, mainly what we used to have to do, because we, you only get so much time to yourself, so I find if I can get ideas down by myself and then get them out to the band I feel less nervous about it. Because I’m always real nervous about showing people new ideas or showing people new music, wearing everything on your sleeve and being vulnerable to everything (laughs).”

Amandah admits to me that, during the albums early days, she was nervous and a little scared to share the music. “I’m not now though,” she assures me with a cheeky laugh.

“I think, because you have a back catalogue of music, when you’ve first written your new stuff it’s actually quite alien until you’ve played it with the band. You’re forever comparing the new stuff to your old stuff, which is something you can never do, you just need to have the confidence to do what you want to do. I was nervous at the start, but now I’m ready to just get it out (laughs).”

Between agonising over the tracklisting, to choosing which songs will end up on the final cut, Wilkinson’s job at arranging the albums finer details have caused her somewhat of a proverbial headache. Striving for perfection is hard, but the burning desire to get it right is evident in her responses.

“We want to make sure it’s the right title. It’s kinda the same with naming songs and putting together the tracklisting for the record, you have to make sure it’s right and sit with it for a bit. Which can be a pain the arse!”

It’s an album Wilkinson and her band are hoping to take overseas, after spending most of 2008 on tour through International shores. “We didn’t spend much time in Australia on the last record,” she says.  “We were in London, Europe and Japan, some shows in the US, but we’re really hoping to just step it up another level you know? I reckon growth and growth through new records and whatever (laughs). I’m not the kind of person that’s like, oh yeah, I want to be the biggest band in the world or whatever (laughs). I know it’s ambitious and all that crap, but you need to take it step-by-step I think. I’m just hoping we bump it another level, and that’s all I can hope for. And if it goes further than that – awesome.”

Roisin Murphy may have had the first amazing track of the decade, but Gabriella Cilmi – of all people! – has the first anthem. “On a Mission” is officially brilliant and I don’t care if she’s boring and a bogan.

The ace Glenn Dunks just popped this up as his status update on Facebook, and I couldn’t agree more with him.

Gabriella Cilmi’s new single, “On A Mission”, is BIG, as opposed to the rubbish that was on her first album which I still don’t understand the hutzpah over – it just wasn’t that good. This though; THIS is great. It’s like Xenomania having a stab at creating Fischerspooner’s “Emerge”, don’t you think? The press shot is HOT as well; moving her from the ‘boring bogan’ label to the ‘has potential’ one. At least she’s conscious about the fact she can’t dart around looking like any-old K-Mart shopper anymore. Here’s some more evidence – the FUN video clip.

First listen, I was unimpressed. Second listen, I was hailing it an 8.5 out of 10. Third listen; 10/10.

Two posts in one day; what is this, 2006?

When I saw Nomi Ruiz performing with Hercules & Love Affair in December 2008 for the Nevereverland Festival, I was pretty mesmerized by her incredibly unique and rather androgynous voice. If any of you caught the shows you would have heard Ruiz performing the usually Antony-fronted “Blind” – you’ll also know then that Nomi’s version was JUST AS good as the original.

I was at the festival after-party at the now defunct Third Class (one year and nine days since it closed its doors) nightclub, and at one point at roughly around 2AM, Nomi Ruiz came strutting through the hallway entrance and through to the bar where I was standing. She was with one of her Hercules bandmates, and as she got to the bar, she threw her incredibly small purse on the ground and started to salsa dance in front of the bar.

I was in love.

Little did I know that she’s been busy with a project called Jessica 6. My good friend Patch (who’s behind the so-incredible-you-must-bookmark Waves At Night) brought the video clip for “Fun Girl” to my attention this morning and now I’m even MORE in love. In May last year, Jessica 6, comprising of Nomi Ruiz and two of her former Hercules & Love Affair tour band mates, released a double-A-side of sorts – the first track is the aforementioned subtle mid-tempo disco ROMPER, “Fun Girl.”

LOVE. (edit: Download the MP3 from here!)

And then there’s the flip-side, the surprising ballad, “Not Anymore.”

ALSO LOVE.

There’s no real murmurings of whether we’ll get an album this year but I’m hopeful. Will definitely be cheering these guys on in 2010.

Happy New Year!

Here’s what I got up to, and then some.

> My New Years Eve was single-handedly the best New Years Eve celebration I’ve ever, ever had. It was small; a group of no more than 8 at one time, primarily situated most of the evening in a small outdoor laundry room, but by God did we make a lot of noise for that tiny little laundry room.

> New Years Day was celebrated at the Summadayze Music Festival, which has been running for as long as I can remember on NYD in Melbourne. I’ve been to quite a few over the last 10 (11 now?) years, but this years was by far and away the best yet. Great atmosphere, good tracks; and Solange…

> Met Solange. She was LOVELY. Here is a picture.

> Technotronic played for 15 minutes in thunder and rain. They were set to perform at 8pm but, due to being late, were then moved to 9:30. By the time their equiptment was set up, it was 9:45 and the stage closed at 10pm due to sound restrictions. Really, really disappointing. Whosever fault this was is besides the point; sure, Technotronic could have learnt to be on time for their first Australian festival appearance, and sure; Future Entertainment could have gotten the acts tech-folk to set up their equipment at 9pm instead of 9:30… but pointing the finger doesn’t solve the fact I did not hear them perform “Move This.” A somewhat bitter ending to a monstrously good day.

> Sebastien Leger took the title for my set of the day; playing Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” and The Aztec Mystic’s “Night of the Jaguar” cemented that fact quite early on.

> During the recovery period (hem hem), I watched a LOT of Better Off Ted, starring Geelong’s own Portia de Rossi. Portia is from Geelong, AND SO AM I.

> Everyone is (rightly so) losing their shit over the amazing new Roisin Murphy single, “Mama’s Place.” Clicky Clicky.

> I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but you can follow me on Twitter now…

Much more positive about 2010 than I was this time 2009. Here’s hoping it stays that way! Now that the silly season is out of the way, expect some regular blogging…

Charge those glasses; it’s 2010!!