All Tomorrow's Parties —a 'boutique' festival curated by headlining artists, and held in an ever-changing array of holiday camps on varying continents— will make its maiden voyage to Australia in January. After the recent success of the first-ever ATP New York (helmed by shoegaze kingpins My Bloody Valentine), come the early ought-nine the fest will sail from its home, in England, to its farthest colonial outpost. And curatorial reins have been handed to Nick Cave, the devilish renaissance-man whose stature in his hometown, Melbourne, is something close to godly.

ATP will hold a fully-fledged two-day summer camp-out, on January 9 and 10, at Mt. Buller Ski Resort, roughly three hours outside of Melbourne. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds —currently finishing off their first North American tour in five years— are, of course, the headliners.

And, as programmers, Naughty Nicholas and co have picked a particularly eclectic mix of artists: legendary synthesizer trailblazers Silver Apples, recently-reformed kraut-rock supergroup Harmonia (populated by members of Neu! and Cluster), doped-up gospel-psych institution Spiritualized, British wall-of-sound noiseniks F**k Buttons, and shamanist Japanese psych sisters Afrirampo amongst the ranks.

The following weekend, January 17 and 18, ATP will stage the same single-day festival, on back-to-back days, on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour (with free ferry ride to the islet included in ticket price!). And, in between the two outdoor-concerts, from the 12th to the 16th, a series of ATP-themed shows will take place in Brisbane's Powerhouse, with a larger-scale outdoor jamboree planned for January 15 at the Riverstage in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

For abundant, in-depth details, one need turn only to the informative ATP website, which is, quite amusingly, already hawking 'earlybird' tickets to ATP NY 2009 (only 11-and-a-half months to go!).

Photo © [Polly Borland]

Chad VanGaalen is a poster-child for recycling. The 30-year-old Canadian is a notorious homebody, forever tinkering away in the basement of his Calgary house. There, when not beavering away at, say, the three albums he’s released on Sub Pop, VanGaalen can be found tending to his collection of self-built instruments, which he’s fashioned from society’s refuse as part of an art-world-inspired, trash-as-treasure aesthetic.

VanGaalen's brand new album, Soft Airplane, is a lyrical study on death, which also makes it about recycling: the natural world's continuous loop of death, decomposition, and rebirth lingering in his often odd tales.

I recently interviewed Dr. VanGaalen, who discussed his days busking, his work with fellow Calgarians Women, and the influence of the lo-fi movement on his embrace of at-home practice and archaic tape-machines.

The self-styled songsmith's peculiar brand of ad-hoc pop is ripe for some free-like sampling at Sub Pop HQ, too. Whilst a legally-admissible MP3 of the sweetly banjo-pluckin' ode-to-dying "Willow Tree" is a fine score, those wishing to truly get a handle on VanGaalen's ways should open their eyes to the lurid video for "Molten Light." Animated by Chad himself, it serves as a direct, disturbing window onto the grotesqueries of the songsmith's subconscious.

Photo © [Marc Rimmer]