The dynamic duo of Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore met in the year 2000 having both been signed to EMI and being introduced by A&R representative Simon Moor. The pair collaborated on their solo projects with Littlemore providing songwriting assistance on Steele’s band The Sleepy Jackson’s debut album, and Steele assisted on Littlemore’s art-rock project Teenager.
Littlemore is also of the electronic dance outfit Pnau alongside guitarist and producer Peter Mayes. Pnau’s self-titled album reunited Steele and Littlemore and the three crafted a luscious vocal-centred album, which led to the creation of Empire of the Sun.
The band’s name which has long been attributed to the J.G. Ballard novel “Empire of the Sun” or the Spielberg film of the same name, actually refers to empires of civilisations where the sun is the theme of worship, that the band feels connected to.
Despite living in different parts of Australia the two entered the recording studio with Peter Mayes and produced their debut album “Walking on a Dream” in October 2008. The album debuted at No. 8 and peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart, led by the singles “Walking on a Dream” and “We Are the People”. Empire of the Sun earned mainly positive reviews for the album, drawing comparisons with MGMT.
The band’s follow-up, 2013’s “Ice on the Dune” was led by the single “Alive”, which featured a music video produced by Kelvin Optical, Inc., of Bad Robot. The album received slightly poorer reviews than its predecessor however along with the release the band announced they would be scoring the soundtrack for the Jim Carey sequel “Dumb and Dumber To”.
Father John Misty was born Joshua Tillman to an evangelical Christian family in Rockville, Maryland. Despite being a “pretty aimless kid”, in his words, from a young age Tillman was taken with the idea of being a performer. However, since secular music was forbidden in his house, the closest thing to it that he could aspire to be was a pastor, which was his ambition until the age of 17. That was the age he was at when his parents allowed him to listen to secular music that had a “spiritual theme”, leading him to discover albums like Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train Coming”, which completely changed his life.
Tillman was already musical, having learnt the drums as a child, and then picked up the guitar at 12. Once he was able to listen to the albums that influenced him most he began to write songs, and then at the age of 21 he moved from his native Maryland, to Seattle, Washington in 2002. One of his first demos found its way to Seattle based singer-Damien Jurado, who was so impressed that by the age of 22, Tillman was opening for him on tour. After extensive touring and distributing his demos at shows for free, independent label Fargo Records released Tillman’s first solo album “Minor Works” in 2006, along with his albums “I Will Return” and “Long May You Run” in the same year as a double disk set.
In 2007, another album of Tillman’s was released called “Cancer and Delirium”, meaning that Tillman was an artist who’d released four studio albums of entirely original material in two years. For such a prolific artist, it’s a testament to his creative spirit and lack of ego that he’d then join Fleet Foxes the following year as their drummer, without any involvement in their writing process. Despite him touring with the band extensively, his solo albums still got him signed to Western Vinyl in 2009 where another two albums of his were released the same year. He stayed touring with Fleet Foxes until 2012, when he played his last show with them, changed his stage name from J. Tillman to Father John Misty and made a break for the mainstream.
Since then he’s become something of a songwriter’s songwriter, still releasing stellar solo albums, touring the world to ever increasing crowd sizes and working with everyone from rapper Kid Cudi to Parks and Recreation actress Aubrey Plaza. He’s the kind of artist that could have found success whenever he started, and we should be thankful that we’re around to see his prime. Highly recommended.
Real name John Anthony Gillis was born in Detroit, Michigan and is the youngest of ten siblings. His earliest musical influences came from his brothers and he began playing drums at the age of sixteen after finding an old discarded kit in his attic. He began listening to iconic artists such as The Doors and Led Zepplin at an incredibly young age before finding a love of blues and 1960s rock in his teenage years which would go on to inspire the sounds for The White Stripes. He met future collaborator and wife Megan White in a restaurant that she worked in when he was a senior at college, they began a courtship and quickly married.
Whilst finding his way in the music world, Jack was running an upholstery company called 'Your Furniture isn't Dead' during the day and moonlighting in local bands in the evenings to gain live experience and debut some of his solo material. It was only by chance that White began to play the drums yet after the couple branded themselves The White Stripes they scored their first live gig just two months later.
The pair publicly presented themselves as a brother/sister duo and kept a monochromatic theme whilst performing live, only wearing white, black and red. Jack enjoyed huge successes with the White Stripes, winning a handful of Grammy awards, critical acclaim for their revolutionary sounds and numerous sell out worldwide tours along with a prestigious headline slot at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival. In 2011 the band announced they would be splitting "mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band". Due to the successes of his work with White Stripes, Jack White had the chance to collaborate with many esteemed artists on his debut 'Blunderbuss' which was a huge success worldwide charting atop UK and US album charts and performed all over the world with his promotional campaign.
Still working on experimental blues rock, his 2014 LP 'Lazaretto' was another huge success and was applauded by critics for the intelligent minimalist style that has been consistent through his career. Jack White is an eccentric, mysterious artist who has kept the music at the heart of everything he has done.
As the son of Ian Dury, Baxter Dury was surrounded by the hedonism of his father's difficult life yet also the musical magic that made Ian Dury such an incredible artist. Baxter was born shortly after his parents had left art college, being present for his father's various musical ventures, from Kilburn & the High Roads to Ian Dury & The Blockheads. As a child, Baxter struggled at school, being kicked out of several institutions before eventually leaving at 15, finding escape in the world of soul, jazz and funk.
Music was not an immediate pursuit for Baxter, before working in a watch shop and assisting with a number of indie films. It was not until nearing 30 that Baxter began to forge a music career, not long after his father's death in March 2000. Baxter travelled to Austin, Texas, US to begin recording songs, with the outcome being 2001's "Oscar Brown" EP.
Baxter returned with his album debut in 2003, releasing the visceral, folky, "Len Parrot's Memorial Lift," continuing this sound with his second, "Floor Show" in 2005. Bringing forth psychedelic influences into the mix, 2011's "Happy Soup" found Baxter greater success, finding critical praise with a sound reminiscent of Blur's Graham Coxon. His fourth record, "It's a Pleasure" arrived in October 2014, shortly after playing to a sell out show at London, UK's 100 Club.
I've seen Empire of the Sun twice now, once at Virgin Mobile Freefest 2011 in MD and once at EDC Chicago 2013. During my first encounter, I was just waiting for them to finish their performance so the artist that I really wanted to see could come on stage. Long story short, I fell in love with these artists, and it was my fate to be at that stage early so I could be moved by such beautiful music. These artists are definitely unique, with beautiful costumes and sets that made me wish I discovered Empire of the Sun much sooner. My second encounter was much more magical, because I actually knew who these people were, yet I was still swept off my feet by a most enchanting spectacle. It's hard to describe what it means when something is magical, but all I can say is that these performances are so worth any sacrifices one might have to endure. What I enjoyed most about the show was when the lead singer, Luke Steele, jumped off stage and stood over the railing that held back the crowd. Hearing his voice so close would be enough to drive even the shiest person wild, in a good way! I still remember his metallic silver costume, and I will never forget how amazing the show was. I won't be any more specific for fear of spoiling the show for true fans who have yet to watch Empire of the Sun perform. I will just give one more insider, and it is that Empire of the Sun shows these days are PACKED. So one might not have as much room to dance as he or she hoped. My advice is to arrive early if you want to be close to the stage, otherwise be ready to watch them from far away.
laurie-jayne-trejo
Imagine standing 15 feet from the gloriously bearded Josh Tillman as he tells the crowd about how humanity has forgone the beautiful unicorn. He makes wisecracks about the crowd, who's clearly there to see the next act at the music festival, but they still eat it all up and fall in love with his soulful singing, with his sassy personality, with him. Then he kisses the unicorn. The crowd goes wild. That was Lollapalooza 2013. If that's Father John Misty at a music festival, I'd love to see what he can do when he has the place to himself. Josh Tillman, originally of Fleet Foxes fame, is constantly satirizing modern music in his live performances, but his music is still undeniably spectacular - as good if not better and more heartfelt than that of his albums. His performance style can get a little intense at times (for example, at Lolla, he wrapped his microphone cord around his body, singing "someone's gotta help me dig" on "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings." Several audience members were visibly shaken by his performance, as you could see from the baffled looks of their faces on the jumbo screen). Regardless of his occasionally overzealous tactics for crowd entertainment, or for his own, Father John Misty has an impressive stage presence, better than any act I've ever seen live. Tillman's constant witticism, blatant disregard for rules (drinking and having a smoke right on stage) and overall couldn't-care-less attitude make for an extraordinarily entertaining show, one that's certainly not to be missed by any fan of folk and fun.
mary-kate-brogan
Skepta is a newer Rap artist that I've seen around on youtube and other rap sites. He seems rather new in the mixtape area, producing music in the underground (but upcoming) Grime scene. He has a really good sound to him and unique. His rapping flow is nice and unlike any other that I have seen before.
When I have seen him on stage he usually is starting up for someone since he is new. He usually has a large presence on stage with people behind him trying to living up the crowd. He usually kind of dresses baggy and hood. I like the way he moves on stage and keeps the crowd hype he moves around the stage around alot and doesn't hesitate to do anything wild.
One of my favorite songs from him is "The man". He also has alot of freestyle I've heard on youtube I really like. I would love to go see him at some point since he seems like he is an up and coming rap artist. I really do believe with in time he will be famous and have a decent cd out where it will sell millions he seems so much more advanced then some of these other artist I've seen.Skepta is awesome.
Jack White is sure to melt your face off with his his thrashing guitar and raw energy on stage. My heart always feels like it's going to explode in a Jack White mosh pit.....and trust me, it's in a good way.
Although Jack toured with two entirely different bands on his last tour, one made up of all females (the Peacocks), and one made up of all males (the Buzzards), his tour this summer is a collaboration of the two (along with some new faces).
Jack likes to keep it real on stage by not dedicating himself to any particular setlist, but instead calling out which song to play next on a whim. This keeps things fresh as neither him nor his band know what song is coming next until it is time to play it (although there does seem to be a rotating list of songs you can count on hearing!).
One of the other things I really love about seeing Jack live is his interplay with the crowd. I like how chatty he is with the crowd, and he doesn't just run down the same old spiel every time. Jack's level of energy is always matched by the crowd, so if the crowd is amped, he will rock the roof off.
Songs you can (probably) count on hearing: --"Steady as she goes" by The Raconteurs, --"Top Yourself" by The Dead Weather --"I Can Tell That We Are Going To Be Friends" by The White Stripes, --"Hotel Yorba" by The White Stripes, and you can definitely count on hearing --"Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes as the encore finale.
The best part about seeing Jack again and again is that Jack and his band play all of your favorite White Stripes, Dead Weather, Raconteurs, and his solo work a little differently every time. Some other interesting things to note about his current tour: --Theremin solos!! (Get ready to have your mind blown) --Jack has been playing some covers, which is something I have not really known him to do in the past. So far, he has played songs by Metallica ("Enter Sandman"), The Police ("Message in a Bottle"), Talking Heads ("Psycho Killer"), Bob Dylan ("Isis"), and even Kanye West ("Black Skinhead"). Jack makes it his mission that fans that come to his shows will not be getting the same thing every time, so do yourself a favor, and find a Jack White tour date near you!
Amyyybuggg
The band to save music from itself.
IDLES are one of the best if not the best live band in the UK. Do not miss them. Raw passion, power, humour and a heartfelt love of what they do.
1000yardstare
Amazing set by Tinlicker, well worth travelling from London to Amsterdam to see them!
I’m looking forward to seeing them again soon in the UK or anywhere else they may be playing!
sk-71100309132530778
Ian Dury was a gifted lyricist, an enigmatic performer and when he sadly passed in 2000, he was described as ‘one of few true originals of the English music scene’. It’s clear when watching him live that his son Baxter Dury has inherited many of his dad’s talents.
Similar to his father, the focus of the show is on Baxter’s voice and if you listen closely to his faint yet dominant wisp you’ll be rewarded with some truly thought provoking lyrics. Baxter is an unhinged force on stage. With the slightly uneasy feel of watching a man on the edge of breakdown, the crowd daren’t look away. Baxter stumbles round the stage occasionally erupting with screams of anguish, a force of loose energy barley contained by the confines of the stage whilst all the while, his band play on, hammering down a steady post-punk rhythm and providing a stark contrast to the unpredictability of Baxter.
If you are prepared for a deeply unpredictable show, riddled with a dark humour and an engaging energy, make sure you check out Baxter Dury.
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