The Frankly! Festival is back for Brisbane Festival 2011 with an even more wildly eclectic line up than usual. This year the festival features a collection of visionary artists and bands from the USA, Japan and Australia. Making its debut in 2009 and graduating its sophomore year with acts such as Xiu Xiu, High Places and Crayon Fields, Frankly! quickly raised eyebrows in Australia’s indie scene for its innovative program and unique setting at Brisbane’s Powerhouse.
This year Frankly! pays special attention to the burgeoning Los Angeles Hypnagogic-pop underground by showcasing the Not Not Fun label. Easily one of the most prolific and eccentric labels on the face of the planet, they’re bringing out Not Not Fun icons LA Vampires and label mates Wet Hair. They will play alongside Australian label-mates Angel Eyes and Blank Realm. LA Vampires is the shapeshifting soundsystem universe of Amanda Beth Brown (co-runner of Not Not Fun Records and ex-Pocahaunted voodoo-ist). To date she’s released 3 records, each more different than the last: an acid-jazz crate-digger split with Psychic Reality, a spectral witch-dub collaboration with Zola Jesus, and a blurry sunbleached cassette-loop collab with Matrix Metals. Hers is an evolving vibe, utilizing a web of slowed/screwed tapes, boombox Casio FX, low end theories, and bleached voice patterns to conjure a reverb chamber’s worth of dance floor mirages. Multiple future collaborations are in the works, but this is her first tour outside the USA.
Highlighting new avant pop from Japan, Frankly! plays host to Tokyo Folktronica artist Miko (backed by Celer), Osaka eccentric song queen Ytamo and the new Prince of Osaka’s psychedelic pop subculture Oorutaichi.
LA Vampires Tour Dates:
Sept 3 – Mixed Grill’d at Arthouse, Cairns
Sept 6 – The Bakery, Perth
Sept 7 – Emma Soup Gallery, Newcastle
Sept 8 – GoodGod, Sydney
Sept 9 – The Workers Club, Melbourne
Sept 10 – FRANKLY!, Brisbane
