GUARDIAN ANGEL

Forgive us Father for we have Sinner! We’ve fallen into an accidental dopamine detox post-tennis season. In a meagher attempt to rediscover meaning, we travelled west to perceive the next gen of hotties at the ticketed Boiler Room event and then into the city to rally with the ratios.

[TOPICS]

(00:00:00) Dopamine Detox: Post-Australian Open 2024

(00:07:22) The "Whatever Hat Will Do" Epidemic

(00:11:32) The "Tree Hugging Tennis Player" Style Crisis

(00:18:20) Heading West To Boiler Room

(00:30:15) Naarmcore, Normcore, Numbcore

(00:33:57) Fontcore Slacktivism vs Who Gives A Craptivism Aesthetics

(00:40:37) Wearing Beaters To Boiler Room

(00:41:08) The "Prada Sunglasses" Epidemic

We returned to Brandland lathered in La Roche-Posay SPF50+ for the Australian Open 2024 season. We checked in on our boy Ben Shelton post-on signing, but sadly, no autographs were hunted by Harry this year. We neglected our Fishbowl kink to smash ghost kitchen grub and bin-chicken Nachos whilst creative directing custom flavour concepts courtside for a future Messina serve.

We logged off for our annual summer trip to Byron Bay to rest and rejuvenate, but the podcasting paparazzi never sleeps. We ate the rich, reviewed the food scene, loitered the industrial estate and tried our hand at the La Sportiva lifestyle with damning effects.

[TOPICS]

(00:00:00) Gooch Week In Byron Bay

(00:01:11) Celebrity Sightings: Troye Sivan, Shannon Bennett and Erica Packer, Joe Daniher, Josh Heuston

(00:13:47) Koalas, Dropbears And The Anti-Speeding Conspiracy

(00:15:35) Double Demerits: I Fell Off A Bike And Into A Parked Hilux

(00:29:44) Confiscating Mia's Gorp Badge After The Fall

(00:33:16) The Industrial Estate: Shop Jume, Bacteria Books x Good Morning Tapes: Dolphin Kiosk Gift Emporium, House House

(00:38:32) Review: The Byron Bay Cafe and Dining Scene - The Roadhouse, Sunday Sustainable Bakery, Top Shop, Light Years, Beloporto, Japonaise Kitchen, Doma Cafe, The General Store, Bang Bang, Hutong Harry's

(00:50:30) Australian Psycho: Patrick Bateman's Third Cousin, Paddy Mateman

The dregs of the industry crawled their way back from the Meredith bush to attend the Virgin Music and Four Tone Artists Christmas Party for one last ‘Cheers’ before logging off for the summer. We unwrap our year on Spotify and unpack the glory days of Triple J before addressing the lump of coal delivery of pre-holiday redundancies.

[TOPICS]

(00:00:00) PSA: Where Are Our Mushroom Party Invites?

(00:04:07) Recap: The Virgin Music and Four Tone Artists Christmas Party

(00:05:56) An Ode To The Great Australian Meat Raffle

(00:08:40) Childhood Lunch Box Reveal: Fancy Deconstructed Lavosh Wrap Harry VS Gravel Palette Tip Top Sandwich Mia

(00:11:40) Spotify Wrapped Reveal: Our Top Artists, Fudging The Numbers, Mood-Based Listening, The Inescapability Of Drake, The Weeknd and Taylor Swift

(00:18:44) Analysing Anthony Albanese’s Spotify Wrapped: Listening To Lana Del Rey & Taylor Swift With Ribbons In His Hair, Listening To Lily Allen While Rebelling Against His Publicist & Social Media Manager, Listening to The Boss While Doing The AUKUS Deal With Biden, The Way Jimmy Chalmers Demanded The AUX Cord While Drafting The Budget

(00:23:22) Spotify Wrapped (Up Contracts), The Legacy Of Triple J, Post-Social Media and Social Issues Triple J, The Purpose Of Commerciality, Goodbye To The King

The divide between Gorp Life and Gorp Lite has never been more evident than at Meredith Music Festival when The Sup transformed into a mud pit instead of a mosh pit. Real-tree camo and ponchos were all that sheathed us from the sludge, but we gladly took our Salomon’s to the dirt for a front-row viewing of Caroline Polachek.

[TOPICS]

(00:00:00) En Route To Meredith Music Festival

(00:07:44) Secret Diary Of A Bartender

(00:13:38) Surviving Our Tent Flooding

(00:17:17) Review: Caroline Polachek

(00:29:23) Review: Flowdan

(00:30:00) Encores Are Corny

(00:30:34) Should You Gatekeep Your Setlist?

(00:32:31) Review: Kraftwerk

(00:34:50) Review: Sneaky Sound System

(00:37:12) Review: Moktar

(00:38:13) Tantrums In The Mud Pit

We hopped in the Volkswagen with our number 1 ticket holder, Jade Zoe, for a good old Australian road trip to Spilt Milk Festival in Ballarat. Our truck stop investigations explored the political undertones of sports drinks and homogenous fashion choices before we arrived in the country for a day of live music, rural hospitality, and field reporting from inside of the artist area.

[TOPICS]

(00:00:00) Road Trip To Spilt Milk With Jade Zoe

(00:07:00) Expressing Your Politics With Gatorade, Powerade & Maximus

(00:16:33) Pod Discourse VS Small Talk

(00:20:46) Truck Stop Maccas Was Mid, Homogenous Festival Fashion, Bathroom Scenes

(00:26:55) Review: Spilt Milk Festival (Rural Hospitality, The Mud, The Flow, Levin’s Greenhouse, Gentrification Of Festivals, Y2K Is The New Boho, Brand Activations Analysis)

(00:40:22) Review: Latto

(00:42:53) Review: Fashion On The Field

(00:46:37) Review: Partiboi69, Peach PRC, Aitch

(00:50:00) Field Report: Live From The Artist Area ft. Jade Zoe

(00:54:27) Review: Dom Dolla

(00:59:28) Review: Post Malone

(01:04:29) Recommendations For All Festivals: More Rides, Please Stop Clashing Headliners With Logistics

Vocal shitposting is our bread and butter, so we’re perceiving wildly and running our mouths about the city-country divide, bodies of water, drink trends, modes of transport and the goodest white ‘it’ boys (most notably Harry Styles).

[TOPICS]

(00:00:00) The Good Old Days

(00:02:40) I Dyed My Hair Black & Sustainable Haircut Anxiety

(00:06:50) Sydney, Test Cricket And The Young Murdoch Dream

(00:00:00) Bodies Bodies Bodies Of Water Debate: Oceans, Creeks, Rivers, Ponds, Man-Made Lakes, Indoor Pools (That Families Pee In)

(00:13:15) Meredith Music Festival, Bartender Appreciation & Disrupting The City-Country Divide

(00:20:27) Drink Trends: Great Northern Dad/Better Beer Son/Barry Daughter, Hard Solo Forcibly Rebranded To Hard Rated, Ciggies Pair Well With Spirits/Beer/Wine, Vapes Pair Well RTDs

(00:24:34) Post-Buzz Cut Harry Styles

(00:29:14) Goodest White It Boys: Jack Harlow, Paul Mescal, Jabob Elordi, Jeremy Allen-White, Harris Dickinson

(00:30:54) Review: Post- Harry Styles CIBI

(00:36:00) Practice Vacay Was The Original Staycation, Stealing Toilet Rolls For Your Sharehouse VS Our Post-Who Gives A Crap Society

(00:39:51) Running Path Scenes: Genres Of Old People, Good Samaritans, Using Your Phone While Your Torch Is On

(00:42:31) What Your Mode Of Transport Says About You: Tandem Bikes, Lime Bikes, Skateboards, Long Boards, Penny Boards, Rollerblades, Rollerskates, Razor Scooters

We embraced masochism and flew back to Sydney for the warm weather and washed nights of fancy feasting and post-Aria Awards shenanigans.

[TOPICS]

(00:00:00) En Route To Sydney (Again)

(00:04:05) Review: Ester

(00:29:18) The Pains Of Being Cropped Out

(00:36:00) Review: Aria Awards Afters - Our Sadistic Return To The Abercrombie, The Lansdowne Lock-In, The Lure Of The Ace Hotel, The Morning After At Paramount

I arrived at SXSW Sydney with clear objectives: avoid AI and see Dust play live. Mission accomplished. Harry fed his academic appetite with weird panels by day, before joining our crew of industry misfits to search for new music by night. After hours at the Abercrombie had us in a choke hold for five mornings in a row, which inevitably led to sinister repercussions. No regrets.

[ TOPICS ]

(00:00:00) Throwback To SXSW Austin + Arriving At SXSW Sydney (Ft. A Brief Encounter With MD Colin Daniels)

(00:12:57) The Haymarket To UTS Tap Out Tunnel

(00:16:40) Brand Activations Need More Rides, Showbags + Extreme Sports

(00:20:50) Film Premieres + The OneFour Doco

(00:21:35) Celebrity Sightings: Murray Wiggle, Chris Lilley, Rove McManus

(00:23:55) Panel Reviews

(00:30:55) The Success Of UNFD + Jaddan Comerford

(00:32:28) Suggestion: SXSW Podcast, Shoutout: Pam + Thinking Loud

(00:34:32) Chats With Gareth @ Spotify House: Rise Of The Wooly Mammoth, Jeff Goldblum Keynote 2024

(00:36:38) That Time I Lost My Pass + Alex From Baby’s All Right Found It

(00:38:17) Football Chat: Magpies VS Swans @ House Of Vans, NFL @ The Glady

(00:40:14) Music Review: Fcukers, Exxstacy, Cat & Calmell, Red Veil, Gut Health, Dust, Tiffi, 1 Tbsp, Cherry Chola, Lil Cherry, 1300, BAYANG (Tha Bushranger), TNSW, Otoboke Beaver

(00:40:47) Harry’s SXSW Highlight: Otoboke Beaver, Lil Cherry, 1300

(00:41:23) Mia’s SXSW Highlight: Dust

(00:49:48) Hottest Act At SXSW: Fcukers

(00:52:28) The Abercrombie (5 Nights In A Row)

No Gods, no Masters - just CB, TJ, and a theatre full of tropes. We went full Gonzo from the foyer to the afters and mingled with the fitted freaks of the local Goners community.

[ TOPICS ]

(00:00:00) Perceiving The Fits, The Tropes & The Vibe

(00:42:22) Review: How Long Gone Live

(00:54:36) Meet Me In The Foyer: CB & TJ IRL

(00:57:44) Afterparty Shenanigans

(01:03:25) Post-Pod Clarity