indie pop is alive and well and living in melbourne

one way to get to know a city is to get to know its music and we've been doing our best on this front. although i struggle to name more than two handfuls of aussie bands - it doesn't help that i didn't know that ac/dc ("acca dacca") were from sydney - live music is a massive part of melbourne life. much of this happens in old 'hotels' and clubs that can be found on every other street corner and most of which come with a music room in the back/upstairs, places like the tote, the corner and the northcote social club.

(l-r: irit, tom, peter, mirella)

music-wise, melbourne is pretty much the glasgow of australia and melbournites - some of them, at least - love their scottish indie music, belle & sebastian in particular. our neighbour, peter, is a singer-songwriter of local renown (his myspace is here) and through him we've met and heard a bunch of local bands and musicians, including members of the motifs and milk teddy. there's some pretty good festivals in the melbourne area over the summer but we arrived too late to get tickets for most of them. we do, however, have tickets for the big day out at the end of january with ol' shakey himself, neil young, headlining.