Looking back on 2012: Media related things

Continuing from the last blog here's a few more notable things that occurred during 2012 which characterised my year.

Seeing bands live

I saw the following artists live in 2012;

(Big Day Out) Soundgarden, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Kimbra, Cavalera Conspiracy, Mariachi El Bronx, Girl Talk, Kasabian, (Laneway) M83, SBTRKT, Opossum, Gotye, (Gigs) Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Em' All, The Dresdan Dolls, Roger Waters (Twice), Roots Manuva, Die Antwoord, Skrillex, Porter Robinson, Enter Shikari, Robyn, Flight Of The Conchords, Earth, John Baizley, Scott Kelly, Morrissey

I moved from Dunedin to Auckland this year and being in New Zealand's only 'supercity' gave me the opportunity to see much more bands than I have previously had the opportunity to see. Of the bands Morrissey was a definite highlight, as his performance coincided with the peak of my interest in The Smiths and Morrisey's solo catalogue. Roger Waters was also particularly epic, and I wrote a blog earlier on my experiences regarding The Wall as seeing it live, check it out here: http://hamish-and-film.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/reminiscing-about-wall.html.

Morrissey (though from the Wellington show)

Last years Big Day Out was the smallest of the five I attended yet still managed to have a couple of pretty memorable sets, Noel Gallagher, Cavalera Conspiracy and Kimbra in particular. M83 stole Laneway 2012 for me, although SBTRKT had a surprisingly energetic live act as well. Seeing Odd Future live at the height of their Internet fuelled hype was definitely a lucky occasion and although I didn't really know their music bar a few tracks, it was particularly entertaining just for being smack bang in the sweatiest rap moshpit I've ever witnessed. Enter Shikari also had an incredibly sweaty and energetic audience, being an all ages gig it was filled with teens and young Uni students, and although I felt my age the band I had a good time never the less. The sweat from the audience caused the band's gear to malfunction and at one stage the barrier separating the audience and the band collapsed, yet the band played through these technical difficulties and  proved themselves worthy of their loyal fanbase.

2013 proves to be equally promising gig-wise, with a great Laneway lineup (Tame Impala, Bat For Lashes, Japandroids), plus Black Sabbath and rumours Blur will tour down here. Already promising and the year hasn't even began!

Listened to some Films, Watched some Albums

Typically, I spent a lot of the year watching films and listening to albums. These films stood out to me as the most enjoyable cinematic experiences of 2012:

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Looper

Moonrise Kingdom

Safety Not Gauranteed

The Dark Knight Rises 
The Most Fun You Can Have Dying 

Honourable mention must go to West of Memphis, the documentary on the West Memphis Three, which was aided by a Q & A featuring Peter Jackson and Damien Echols (my blog on this here: west-of-memphis). A good moment from Pete considering what a travesty of blockbuster filmmaking The Hobbit turned out to be.

I didn't seem to spend much time listening to new music in 2012 but here's a few albums that I particularly enjoyed in 2012:

Baroness - Yellow & Green
Tame Impala - Lonerism
Kanye West present G.O.O.D. Music - Cruel Summer
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
 
Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music compilation copped a bit of flack but the beats were great, and there was enough variation and experimentation for it to hold up to repeat listens. Plus it had some of the best anthems of year, in the form of Clique and Mercy in particular. I spent most of the year however listening to albums that weren't released in 2012 so if I was to list favourite albums by what I actually listened to, I'd have to include albums such as The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs which got a lot of plays and also Blur - Parklife. Probably older favourites such as Sandinsta! as well which I fell further in love with earlier in the year. It's the album that keeps on giving!