The Strokes in Sydney

The Strokes

With a major winter music festival only months away, there’s a wave of really awesome bands already announcing sideshows around the end of July. Pencil in Thursday 29 July kids if you’re keen to see the NYC darlings, The Strokes. With the highly anticipated fourth album due to be released in September, the band is back and ready to rock the Hordern Pavilion. Pre-sale tickets already went on sale yesterday, while the general public ones go on sale Monday 12 April. The popular Londoners Mumford & Sons have already sold out their two Enmore Theatre shows on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 August. So tough luck.

NME’s top 100 greatest albums of the decade

The Strokes

What a day! Not that this is relevant to what to do in Sydney, but I just can’t resist not publishing NME’s hot-off-the-press top 100 albums of the decade list. The list, which is made of albums released between January 2000 and December 2009, was voted for by NME staff, and a selection of musicians and industry figures. Here are the first 50, but for the full list and more detail, head to NME. While I love the fact that two amazing ladies, Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing at Hordern Pavilion on Friday 8 January) and Polly Jean Harvey, are in the top 10, I’m a little disappointed only two Australian albums have made it in. At number 45 are the Avalanches with their 2000 debut Since I Left You and at number 92 sits Sleepy Jackson with the beautiful 2003 album Lovers. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds anyone?

1. The Strokes – Is This It
2. The Libertines – Up The Bracket
3. Primal Scream – XTRMNTR
4. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell
6. PJ Harvey – Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
7. Arcade Fire – Funeral
8. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights
9. The Streets – Original Pirate Material
10. Radiohead – In Rainbows
11. At The Drive In – Relationship Of Command
12. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
13. The Shins – Wincing The Night Away
14. Radiohead – Kid A
15. Queens Of The Stone Age – Songs For The Deaf
16. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free
17. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
18. The White Stripes – Elephant
19. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
20. Blur – Think Tank
21. The Coral – The Coral
22. Jay-Z – The Blueprint
23. Klaxons – Myths Of The Near Future
24. The Libertines – The Libertines
25. The Rapture – Echoes
26. Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner
27. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
28. Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around
29. Super Furry Animals – Rings Around The World
30. Elbow – Asleep In The Back
31. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones
33. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
34. Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump
35. Babyshambles – Down In Albion
36. Spirtualized – Let it Come Down
37. The Knife – Silent Shout
38. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
39. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
40. Ryan Adams – Gold
41. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
42. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
43. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
44. Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
45. Avalanches – Since I Left You
46. The Delgados – The Great Eastern
47. Brendan Benson – Lapalco
48. The Walkmen – Bows and Arrows
49. Muse – Absolution
50. MIA – Arular