THE SMASHING PUMPKINS co-headline V Festival 2008. Having last toured Australia a decade ago and freshly reformed, THE SMASHING PUMPKINS remain the kings of elegiac, accomplished, ambitious alt-rock, with their best-selling albums "Siamese Dream" and "Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness" remaining the soundtracks for a generation. After some years pursuing other musical paths, founder members Billy Corgan and James Chamberlain burst back onto the scene with last year's Top 10 album 'Zeitgeist'. Joined on the road by Jeff Schroeder (guitar), Ginger Reyes (bass) and Lisa Harriton (keyboards) THE SMASHING PUMPKINS have performed the world over with true vigour, described by the Los Angeles Times as an "enveloping epic force" (Los Angeles Times). With a stunning light show and a set bursting with manic intensity, THE SMASHING PUMPKINS will not disappoint.
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Pop chameleons DURAN DURAN return to Australia to co-headline V Festival 2008. With an illustrious career spanning more than 25 years, a dozen studio albums and over 30 hit singles to their name, DURAN DURAN have remained a constant and relevant tour de force in the collective global pop consciousness. Bona fide smashes such as "Planet Earth', "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Ordinary World" have been paired with groundbreaking music videos and the band (founding members Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor and John Taylor remaining at its core) became synonymous with the jet-set lifestyle. Their new album, the highly anticipated 'Red Carpet Massacre' features contributions from some of the hottest names in pop today, including Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. As a live concern DURAN DURAN are still one of the world's most in-demand and highest grossing bands. Last blowing Australian in minds with Robbie Williams in 2003, It's with great excitement that they bring their spectacular new live show to Australia.
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Hailing from Palm Springs, California, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE bring their pounding, riff-laden robot rock to the V Festival. Since their inception in 1996, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE have sold millions of records, developed a fanatical international following and whipped up multiple Grammy award nominations. Built on the cornerstone of founder member Josh Homme, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE'S roster has continuously and deliberately changed over the years to include the likes of rock luminaries such as Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on drums and Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan on vocals. Across their six studio albums including the most recent 'Era Vulgaris' QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE have always reined supreme Down Under. With current killer line up including drummer Joey Castillo and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, as well as Dean Fertita (keys) and Michael Schulman (bass) and having last slayed the country with their sell-out sonic assault in 2005, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE return to do it all over again at V Festival in 08.
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Brothers Jim and William Reid form the crux of THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, Scotland's original and finest proponents of white noise. Raised on a steady musical diet of The Velvet Underground, Beach Boys and Brille Building 60s pop welded into a cavalcade of punk attitude and screaming feedback with wall of noise guitar and caveman-esque drumming, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN are the perfect pairing of bubblegum pop and formless guitar distortion. Through a career of over twenty years their many albums have produced iconic tracks such as "Just Like Honey", "You Trip Me Up", "Reverence" and "Sometimes Always". Flirting on the edges of mainstream success, and a profound influences on musicians as far reaching as My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN have always maintained an edge and a dangerous swagger to their live shows. Having reformed to appear at Coachella 2007 and on the back of sell out shows across the UK and Europe, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN will set V Festival alight in a barrage of hot light and sound.
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Coming to Australia for the first time in their decade long career are AIR, masters of all things French atmospheric, and electronic. Since their breakthrough single, 'Sexy Boy', Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît, have charmed and challenged in equal parts with a sound that points towards Moog and synthesizer of the 70s while reaching out towards the future. AIR have collaborated with more cool cats than you could shake a stick at including Beck, Jarvis Cocker (both V Festival 07 alumni), Francoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg. With a staggering array of synths and live set that builds and expands across their albums 'Moon Safari', 'The Virgin Suicides', '10,000 Hz Legend', 'Talkie Walkie' and 'Pocket Symphony', AIR will be sure to blow minds come March.
AIR appearing only at the east coast V Festival shows.
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Since emerging in 2003, Sydney's THE PRESETS (Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes) have rapidly ascended the ranks to become one of the world's most hotly tipped live acts. Their debut album, "Beams", produced a handful of bona fide club monsters, including "Are You The One?", "Down Down Down" and "I Go Hard, I Go Home", and their music became a constant on radio and TV all over Australia and beyond. In the last two years, THE PRESETS have honed their live show to perfection, the perfect mix of dance aesthetics with a wild, sweat soaked rock and roll energy, wowing the world over with over 300 performances at clubs and key festivals. With a new single, "My People" currently blitzing the airwaves, and their hotly anticipated follow up album to drop early next year, it seems that come V Festival time THE PRESETS will be truly hitting their stride Australia wide.
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For well over a decade, Washington’s MODEST MOUSE has forged its own spectacular brand of noise pop. Across five albums, countless tours, MODEST MOUSE has emerged from the underground to centre stage as one of the most well regarded bands on the planet. Fusing the happy/sad and quiet/loud technique with a knowing muscular prowess, MODEST MOUSE is weird, wonderful and completely compelling. An ingenious, unconventional and instantly-recognisable sound encompasses manic, scream-sing vocals; infectious, off-kilter pop hooks; angular, delay-drenched guitars, and hypnotic, intricate, snaking beats. They do not disappoint live. Last seen here and fantastically received at the end of 06, MODEST MOUSE is sure to be embraced by old and new fans alike at V Festival.
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Anyone lucky enough to witness UK dance maestros Moloko ('Sing It Back', 'The Time is Now') visit Australia in 2004 will testify that their front-woman RÓISÍN MURPHY (pronounced Ro-Sheen) was an absolute tour de force, setting the stage alight with her seemingly boundless energy. Post Moloko, and now very much in full bloom with the release of her sophomore solo album ‘Overpowered’ (produced by Róisín and featuring the likes of Groove Armada, Jimmy Douglas and Bugz in The Attic), RÓISÍN MURPHY is set to bowl audiences over once again with an array of irrepressible, non-stop disco pop. The recent singles (and their memorable accompanying videos) ‘Overpowered’, ‘Let Me Know’ and ‘You Know Me Better’ rightly place Róisín at the top of her field, a fully fledged disco diva with buckets of style and humour to boot.
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Perennial festival faves, CUT COPY will be dancing under their unique kaleidoscopic disco ball at V Festival 08. The Melbourne based trio fuse an obsession with 70s MOR with the latest in cutting edge dance programming and a healthy dose of indie-rock leanings. Their new album “In Ghost Colours” was recorded over the last year in New York with Tim Goldsworthy of DFA fame. The preceding singles, “Hearts on Fire”, “So Haunted” and “Lights and Music” all display an irrepressible pop sensibility, whether swathed in woozy guitars, cascading synths and punching beats, it’s all aimed straight for planet pop. “Hearts on Fire” was the most played song on Triple J last year, and given their loyal live following and buzzing onstage antics, CUT COPY look set to tear it up at V Festival this year.
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From Vancouver, Canada comes the winning charm of HOT HOT HEAT. Five acclaimed releases over seven years of non-stop touring has witnessed the rapid and steady ascent of this infectious, hook laden four piece, from indie synth-punk hopefuls to unrivalled gladiators of majestic pop. Their most recent release (and Triple J feature album) Happiness LTD. has a sound described by the band as "drastically different, unpredictable... yet somehow maintains an overall timelessness". This will be their first visit to Australian shores in three years.
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CSS, aka Cansei de Ser Sexy (meaning "tired of being sexy" in Portuguese, a quote apparently lifted from Beyonce) seem anything but tired or un-sexy as they bring their raucous blend of fizzing, punked up electro-rock-dance to V Festival. Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, CSS meld wild English and Portuguese lyrics to driving rhythms and a tightly-wound live show that has seen the band kick it at every major festival around the world. Now UK media darlings and world-famous for their absolute dance floor killer "Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above", CSS transcend borders of genre and geography. With their track "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" picked up for the global iPod Touch commercial, expect to hear and see a helluva lot more of CSS in 2008.
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THE RAKES are a short, sharp injection of super-tight, agile pop. Switched-on and keyed-up, this quite literally "skinny as rakes" London-based four piece has created a huge buzz over their sharp as tacks sound and their stylish presentation. Having performed with everyone from Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and Maximo Park, to going on to headline the festival circuit and massive sold-out tours of their own across Europe. Their most recent album Ten New Messages (produced by two of the hottest producers around, Jim Abbiss and Brendan Lynch) is a perceptive, expansive and brave take on urban life in London and their live show reflects and elevates this – on-point, economical and exciting. Having garnered masses of critical acclaim and a feverishly loyal live following, it’s with great pleasure that we introduce them to the Australian audiences on the V Festival stage.
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She is Robyn. The CEO of Konichiwa Records. The most killingest pop star on the planet. A pint-sized atom bomb dosed to the tits on electric and dispensing wisdom in three-minute modernist pop bulletins on the post-adolescent condition. ‘Robyn’, her newest album, is also a collection of ultra-concise pop moments – that rarest of things, a classic pop album. It’s a sad-eyed, super-strong battery of nuclear-powered pop. It’s the best weapon she’s got... and it's pointed directly at V Festival Australia 2008!
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Labels such as no-wave, new-wave and any other wave refuse to pigeon-hole Portland’s GLASS CANDY. Band members Ginger Peach, Johnny Jewel and mesmerizing front-woman Ida No’s brand of downtempo disco sounds as though it could have been an unearthed gem from yesteryear or a gleaming space missive from the future. Either way they’ve emerged as one of the most exciting bands to come out of the US today. A word of mouth, blog sensation has witnessed GLASS CANDY’s unmistakable sound emanating from DJ sets, fashion catwalks and cooler radio stations the world round for the past few years. With a live show that is in equal parts raw, glammy, arty (and everything else in between), this is Australia’s first chance to savour a taste of GLASS CANDY live on stage.
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Making their Australian live debut and hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden is THE TOUGH ALLLIANCE, electronic duo of dashing pop sensibilities. With three EPs and two albums already under their belt since 2003 inception, Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund have courted acclaim and scandal in their homeland for their stunning pop gems and left of centre live antics. With their most recent release, 'The New Waves' scoring an 8.00 on hipster online bible Pitchfork in the US, it seems the rest of the world is quickly catching up to THE TOUGH ALLLIANCE's unusual charms. Be the first to catch them in Australia at V Festival.
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Melbourne 5 piece and recent Modular signings PLUG-IN CITY display a canny knack for instant timeless future pop. Urgent and rhythmic, PLUG-IN CITY match clanging guitars with bold vocal hooks, hypnotic bass lines with disco hi-hats. An icy detachment squares off with inviting warmth in the PLUG-IN CITY sound. In their short time since forming PLUG-IN CITY have held their own sharing stages with the likes of Gerling, the Juan McLean, Uffie, The Lost Valentinos, The Temper Trap, Van She, Children Collide and many, many more. On the strength of their acclaimed debut EP and their recent sell out launch tour, PLUG-IN CITY will bring their national festival debut, bringing their cut glass ice-funk to the V Festival main stage.
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Cavaliers of club, barons of Baltimore, tramps of techno and hobos of house, Jaime Doom and Gus Da Hoodrat are two parts of Sydney party troupe The Bang Gang Deejays, and two of the finest party rocking DJ’s this or any other dimension has ever seen. Pioneers of the sound that’s come to be known as "dimensioneer dance", Hoodrat and Doom are trailblazing DJ’s completely unafraid of taking a trip into the murky waters of the sonic exploration, with complete disregard for acceptable club convention and what is commonly recognised as "good cricket".
UK’s most important music magazine The NME recently described the MUNK boys as "the German DFA". A description which is not that far off. Not only did they create a label (GOMMA) that releases some of nowaday’s freshest club music, but over the last years they have also been working with upfront artists from all over the world – including a cooperation with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem/ DFA on their debut album Aperitivo. The DJ Style of the MUNK boys has been described as the new "post minimal" sound. It’s a mix of new German and French house records, Italian Cosmic stuff and old , rare leftfield disco records. It’s hard, futuristic disco.
Flosstradamus, the oft-mentioned Chicago DJ duo comprised of J2K (Josh Young) and Autobot (Curt Cameruci) have been dominating the USA party scene with their tag-team DJ sets (3 turntables, 2 mixers) for just over a year and show no signs of slowing down. Gathering vast influences from their respective backgrounds in punk and hip-hop, Flosstradamus have brought normally divided crowds together with their unique mixes of Baltimore club, hip-hop, house, obscure remixes, and juke. The only regret about having these two party-makers along for V Festival 08 is that we'll have to wait and see whether they bring the house down or blow the roof off at the Virgin Mobile Venue.
Born in Bayonne NJ, Mike Simonetti grew up a hardcore punk kid in the New York hardcore scene in the mid 1980s. Through friends involved in the club scene, he began going to nightclubs during the heyday of NYC nightlife - the late 1980s. By 1989, he landed a job at the legendary club Mars as a promoter. During that time he got his first taste of DJing- going out and working at clubs like Palladium, The Tunnel, Save The Robots, Soul Kitchen, The Red Zone, Building, NASA, The Limelight... Mike started Troubleman Records in 1993 - releasing seminal releases by Unwound, Erase Errata, Glass Candy, Black Dice, Death Comet Crew, Wolf Eyes and over 170 other releases spanning every imaginable genre and format.
DJ Andee Frost is that loveable type of bloke that keeps night clubs open for business, the care bear of the Melbourne music scene. After developing his current state of psychosis at the worldly renowned and now ceased Honky Tonks, Andee has proven to be that rare enigma of a DJ who simply brings an attitude to the old wheels of steel as opposed to a style. Known to make punters feel the walls cave in, the fake i.d. holders turn into vampires and the oldies forgetting their 9am starts, Andee’s sets ain't about being a fashionista, they're built on the need to get twisted. Whilst having supported every big name foreigner from Daft Punk to Justice and the tea sipping Klaxons, Andee Frost continues to prove why his dimensioneering, kooky party sounds have him known as the Dr.Seuss bastard son of the Aussie club scene!
