Five Acts To Check Out At Groovin The Moo 2013

The festivals are a'coming and Groovin The Moo is about to kick off this weekend for their annual national tour! Being a regional festival Groovin’ has been giving those kids who live outside our bustling cities the chance to see their favourite musicians play their best tracks in front of a lovely rural setting.

Last year the festival hosted acts as big as PUBLIC ENEMY and WAVVES (whose set was unfortunately cut short because of technical issues) and local acts such as 360, BLUEJUICE and our very own PURPLE SNEAKERS DJs. This year we are seeing more international acts hit our shores and with Groovin’ kicking off in Maitland on April 27, we are giving you our Top 5 acts that you must see on this tour.

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TAME IMPALA

I feel that there is no need to explain this choice to you all, but some people may disagree. Those people are insane. TAME IMPALA have crushed the record charts across the globe with their second album Lonerism. The synth-driven album provided number 3 on the Triple J Hottest 100, and with loyal followers across the country, TAME IMPALA have taken over with their relaxed, psychedelic sounds that leading man Kevin Parker says “just happened”.

No doubt the band will be presenting a lovely relaxed show with their greatest tracks ‘Elephant’ and ‘Feels Like We’e Only Going Backwards’ being chanted by the crowd as they are being played. No doubt we’ll hear some of our favourite tracks from 2005’s Innerspeaker also, ‘Solitude Is Bliss’ hopefully will make an appearance. So with TAME IMPALA being one of the biggest bands in the world right now, I urge you to see them if you haven’t already.

YACHT

“Conceptual and arty” is how Groovin’ The Moo describe American poppers YACHT. They’re not wrong there as you can listen to one of their tracks and hear a generic pop track, and then listen to another and be transported to a place where you can’t tell a horse from a unicorn. YACHT are very experimental and this most definitely works in their favour.

I’ve never seen these guys play live, but from various Youtube videos, their live shows are quirky and look awesome as hell so I’m recommending at least a drop –by for YACHT this year. For research purposes I recommend listening to their track ‘I Walked Alone’ it’s one of their more domestic tracks, but it’s got a very catchy beat and is fun to sing a log to as their lyrics tend to be fairly simple. The dancers here will be many and everyone will be guaranteed to have a great time with these crazy kids.

FLUME

I think this one was kind of obvious also. FLUME hit the big time with the release of his debut album, but that’s mainly because he has a unique sound that everybody loves. It may be a bit difficult to sing along to his tracks, but FLUME’s set is guaranteed to make you dance until your legs drop off and get stood on by many other dancing fiends. When most electronic artists play festivals, they have amazing lightshows and have their own little dance party behind their desk and I assure you FLUME won’t be any different. The only hard this about this particular set, will be the lack of space underneath the tent.

The audience here will be the musos, the dancers, the drunks, the young underage girls who are freezing their asses of in shirts that are practically bras, and of course the people who are just standing there watching (and probably have no idea what’s going on). So yes, the tent will be packed, but if you can handle all the man sweat and actually enjoy a good old dance sesh, this is definitely the set for you. FLUME should be able to distract you from the weird kid next to you.

THE KOOKS

The UK have been pumping out some great artists over the past few years but THE KOOKS sprung onto the scene years ago with catchy track ‘Naïve’ which has been covered by many artists including LILY ALLEN, and showed their softer acoustic side with ‘Seaside’. Their latest album Junk Of the Heart is full of a lot of catchy beats that your definitely going to be singing along to during their set, as well as the oldies.

THE KOOKS will be a more or a sing-a-long set than anything, but that doesn’t mean that dancing won’t happen of course. Some lovely acoustic track would be lovely to just relax to in between all of their poppy full on tracks. THE KOOKS will be one of the acts that everyone will rush to so make sure if you want to get to the front you get in there early otherwise you’ll be pushing through people and getting many death stares your way.

ALISON WONDERLAND

Groovin' The Moo always has an amazing line -up of DJs ready to knock your socks off. Last year our very own PURPLE SNEAKERS DJS rocked the stage with NAYSAYER AND GILSUN and this year, YOLANDA BE COOL will be bringing you their finest beats and DZ DEATHRAYS will be playing a DJ set for punters between some great acts. But the DJ i urge you to see is ALISON WONDERLAND. Winning the She Can DJ competition has brought ALISON WONDERLAND into the high ranks of Australian DJs, she has taken her skills to SXSW and will be showing them off at Splendour In The Grass 2013 as well. You need to see her while you still can and dance your butts off because you may miss her as she flies past and into the stratosphere.

Just her name is enough to tell you that she will take you to a wonderland of electronic beats, where you can't help but sway to the melodies and head bang to the bass drops. ALISON WONDERLAND is the DJ to watch, I can guarantee you that!

Wanna check out the full lineup for this year's festival? Suss it out HERE

GROOVIN THE MOO 2013 DATES

MAITLAND – Saturday April 27th

CANBERRA – Sunday April 28th

BENDIGO – Saturday May 4th

TOWNSVILLE – Sunday May 5th

BUNBURY – Saturday May 11th

Words by Lauren Payne

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