So far this year, no other song has come close to this one for me. I was immediately drawn to it the first time I heard it, and not too long after that I lost a close childhood friend to suicide just after dealing with some other intense personal issues. I was scared and I was heartbroken and I had little to turn to for comfort, except for this song. Though the lyrics on Bon Iver’s latest album are quite cryptic, there was something about Holocene that really gave me such deep assurance, and I listened to this song literally hundreds of times during those weeks, which were some of the hardest of my life. The song feels desolate, but at the same time I felt a glimmer of hope from it every time I hit play. Some nights tears streaked my eyes and I stared out blankly into the black street, numb and grieving, but this song reminded me that it was okay to feel.

The official video is now out and though the imagery here is nothing much like what I see when I hear the song, it’s absolutely beautiful. A young boy explores the Icelandic wilderness on his own, sometimes looking scared and lost, other times looking completely liberated. The scenery is truly breathtaking in this video, from ice-capped glaciers to vast, moss-covered mountains and endless lakes. He is alone, but he is free, and as the video ends he closes his eyes, completely at peace. For me the song lives in a darker place than this because of its associations, but this video does it justice despite the fact that it’s not necessarily my interpretation.

I encourage everyone to listen to the song and watch the video and make what they will of both. The beauty of these ambiguous lyrics is that each individual will take something different away from them, and for me, this song was as close as I’ve ever come to a saviour.

Rachel – this will always be your song for me, even though you never heard it. I hope wherever you are is as beautiful as the places this video takes me.

I’ve really been digging this video lately. It’s the kind of aesthetic I really enjoy – it has absolutely beautiful costumes and imagery, and the kind of carefree ‘hippie’ attitude that I so love in life. I love the contrasts between the scenes – it goes from a very stern-looking Victorian tea party (Miss Thorburn looking positively bored, pouring her sugar all over the place while everyone else sips daintily at their teacups, pinkies up) to the same kind of thing inside, like a portrait, to a much more free-spirited setting where she’s running around in shorts, paint splattering everywhere as she dances without a care in the world.

Nikki Thorburn is a singer/songwriter from Sydney, and her music falls into the indie pop category. This tune is an upbeat little number not unlike something you’d expect to hear from artists like Lenka. Cute, but not nauseatingly so. I think the video goes so well with it too, and Nikki’s voice has that delicious sultry edge to it while still maintaining a certain youthfulness.

The track comes from Nikki Thorburn’s new EP, To The Place. You can check out more of her tunes on MySpace.

This has been around the internet since the beginning of the year apparently, but I’ve only seen it tonight and am having the biggest heart palpitations ever. Paul Simon is, of course, my favourite songwriter of all time, and The Tallest Man On Earth’s The Wild Hunt was one of the best folk records this year. I didn’t listen to it as much as I should have, so I don’t think it warrants top 10 albums of the year status for that reason alone, but it did accompany me on cold nights in Sweden – the country of its origin – and there are many nuances to it which I just loved.

So here’s the greatest thing the internet has ever shown me (other than this, of course) – The Tallest Man On Earth and Jaw Lesson covering ‘Graceland’ at a music festival in the Netherlands earlier this year. He just has such an unbelievable voice and really hits the exact tone and mood of the song, and makes it sound totally new again – even though I’ve listened to the original song so many hundreds of times. Wonderful cover, and check out how hesitant Megafaun are to follow the performance up!

Very cool video from Brisbane band Montpelier for their latest single ‘Last Boat’, lifted from their upcoming EP. The track itself, built on floaty synths and guitars, shows off frontman Greg Chiapello’s sweeping vocals as it ascends to soaring heights and brushes several moods, ending in a defined calm. But seriously, check out the video. It’s paper stop motion made by Sydney’s Paul Andrew Rhodes and is one of the more original clips coming out of a local band of late. Definitely worth a watch and listen.

And if you want to check the band out live, their next shows in Sydney are as follows:
Saturday January 8 @ Raval with Ngaiire, Husky & Vorn Doolette, 8pm, $15 at the door
Sunday January 9 @ Dr Pong with The Spirits, FREE
Friday February 18 @ MUM World Bar, FREE

Free download – Last Boat.mp3

On high rotation right now is New Zealand songstress Dear Time’s Waste aka Claire Duncan, who has just come out with her debut album Spells (Speak n Spell). This song in particular has become a firm favourite, thanks to its very ‘In Between Days’-esque vibe and definite similarity to my favourite Sydney band, Songs, through its distorted jangly guitars and beautiful femme vocals. A must for the summer, so stick it on your iPod and off you go.

I’m 35 years late with this but I only heard this mashup this week and I am IN LOVE WITH IT. I’m not much of a hip hop fan at all (I blame it on ignorance rather than me actually hating it – I just don’t know much about it) but this is fantastic and goes really well with the Grizzly Bear song. Apparently The Hood Internet does heaps of indie/hip hop mashups so I need to check it out.

And speaking of Grizzly Bear, I interviewed Ed Droste yesterday and will be getting a Q&A up on the blog within the next few weeks, as well as one with Alex Trimble of Two Door Cinema Club. I’ve been a busy girl so look out for those soon!

I’ll preface this with full disclosure – Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive is a high school friend of my sister’s (and mine), who I had some rad musical “jams” with back in the wonder years (including a fucking awesome rendition of Ben Folds’ ‘The Luckiest’ at my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary party in 2006). It’s a pleasure to hear about any young up-and-coming bands making big things happen, but even moreso when it’s a friend (and really, I wouldn’t be promoting a friend’s music if it wasn’t any good).

Tonight Alive are a young five-piece pop/punk band from Sydney, having already racked up some pretty impressive support slots for acts like Lostprophets, 3oh!3 and Mest in their relatively short time as a group. This is their very first video for single ‘Wasting Away’, lifted from their debut album, All Shapes and Disguises, which was released to the iTunes store yesterday and has already made its way to #1 on the Australian alternative charts.

Though I haven’t really paid a whole lot of attention to the pop/punk scene since about 2005, it might very well be time to – this song is catchy as hell and is a pretty good throwback to my better days (Paramore comparisons aside). Check it out.

It has been a lengthy wait, but Canadian indie orchestra Arcade Fire have finally put some new stuff out, the first since 2007′s Neon Bible.

‘The Suburbs’ meanders along a path similar to Arcade Fire’s previous songs, although it is a little tinny-sounding. Win Butler’s vocals have not developed much on this track, and musically it’s nothing out of the ordinary – I’d go as far as to say that the melody is even a little pedestrian, never developing much past its very strict chorus-verse-chorus structure save for a bit of a bridge which sits on the same triadic lines. Perhaps it’s because this is a leaked track, but the quality of the song is a little lacking as well. Considering the three-year wait, this is a little disappointing.

The second leaked single, ‘Month of May’, is a much more interesting and intriguing listen. It’s upbeat in a way that no previous Arcade Fire songs have really been – this one has a real rocky edge to it, and the instruments all mesh together to create a really raw sound that they haven’t touched before. I’m not loving it on these first few listens, but it sounds like a song that might be a real grower, and if this is the first taste the band has chosen to give the world of the album, then that’s a pretty good indication that the record is going to present some pretty radical changes to the Arcade Fire everyone knows and loves.

The album, The Suburbs, will be released August 2.

I’ve made no secret of my love of Norway and its music in recent times – my favourite act of last year, The Little Hands of Asphalt, hails from Oslo and I’m planning a visit over there for later in the year. So you can imagine my delight when I caught wind of another stunning up-and-coming Norwegian artist, Solvor Vermeer.

Vermeer has just released the EP The Beaming Light, with a debut album to follow sometime soon. She’s a singer, songwriter, pianist and cellist, with gorgeous waif-like vocals that drift ethereally around her subtle, wintry songs. Norwegian music has a personality all its own, and Solver Vermeer brings that personality a whole new sense of feminine beauty.

Check out the above video of her song ‘Hope’ and head to her MySpace to stream a few more songs. The Beaming Light, which will be reviewed on BTTB soon, is out now through Bloksberg Music and Lazy Acre Records.

As per my good blog friend Bianca, I thought it would be a rad idea to post a new band/artist each week for your aural pleasure. (Hope you don’t mind me taking inspiration, Bianca!).

For the first installation, allow me to introduce my friend Jenna Fields and her man-half Chris Donlon, all the way from Los Angeles. The two lovebirds are planning to make a name for themselves first by posting cover versions of popular songs, before hopefully delving into their own songwriting. This is their first cover, a sweet, sped-up rendition of She & Him‘s ‘If You Can’t Sleep’.

Jenna and Chris are looking to name their new project, so if you have any suggestions fire them up in the comments here – so far they’ve got Turtle & Elephant and Bird Cousins on the shortlist. Hopefully they will have themselves set up with a MySpace and other such things soon, but for now enjoy this cover – I think it’s a pretty great one.