Billy Bragg
Some artists transcend the generation gap. Others are such a part of the musical fabric it's hard to tell which generation they belonged to in the first place. In 1996, BILLY BRAGG sang for the first generation of BIG DAY OUT goers. In 2008, he'll sing for a whole new generation of BIG DAY OUTers - and probably a few who were there last millennium, too.

Just one month before heading our way this summer, BILLY BRAGG, known to some as the Bard of Barking, will turn 50. He has spent at least 35 of those 50 years belting out songs on his guitar, songs about politics, love and the common man, some wildly funny, others stridently socialist, more than a few that bring a tear to the eye. Songs including You Woke Up My Neighbourhood, She's Leaving Home, New England, Between the Wars and England, Half English.

A folkie propelled by the passion of punk, BRAGG has also spent his career speaking up - supporting striking miners and forming the Red Wedge collective in the '80s, and bringing music and meaning to inmates with his latest initiative, Jail Guitar Doors.

Just as The Clash inspired him, BRAGG is now a beacon for young British musicians. Street-wise Londoners Hard-Fi, for example, have declared one of their new songs was inspired by BRAGG's 2006 novella, The Progressive Pilgrim. The book is about his nation's search through the ages for ways to enshrine fairness and justice, fighting racism, upholding punk ideals, and what "British values" might be. "I've been re-energised by writing it," BRAGG has said of the book.

Still on the job after all these years, BILLY BRAGG holds a special place in the hearts of Australian music fans. He'll be moving us all over again at BIG DAY OUT 2008.
www.billybragg.co.uk

Arcade Fire
ARCADE FIRE started 2006 holed up in a church in a small town outside of Montreal. They'll begin 2008 with another religious experience - converting the BIG DAY OUT faithful during their first ever tour Down Under.

It has taken four feverous years to bring Montreal's indie kings to this part of the world. But forgive them - their brief life as a band has been rather hectic. Formed in 2003 by husband and wife Win Butler and Regine Chassagne (and now busting at the seams with Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara), a self-titled EP emerged later that year.

That was enough to have ARCADE FIRE playing venues packed to the rafters with maximum 200 people. The arrival of their debut album, FFuneral, made small fry of all that. If the reviews that greeted the album were big, the shows were bigger.

A big band - expect at least nine musicians on stage at any given performance - ARCADE FIRE are a sight to see. At Coachella in early 2007, Billboard was impressed by their "plain old good songs" but had an even more grandiose compliment to deliver, calling their performance "a flashback to U2 at Red Rocks in the early '80s". It appears BIG DAY OUT punters will witness a band on the cusp - as ARCADE FIRE make that mythical journey from acclaimed indie group to genuine rock force.
www.arcadefire.com

Alibis is not only an emphatic return to form, it's the most consistent and diverse record of the band's career. While their last album from 2004 Thrills, Kills and Sunday Pills, had them in LA for the production sheen of US producer Howard Benson, Alibis sees Grinspoon returning to their roots, employing Ramesh Sathiah, the man who helmed their first EP back in 1995.

And what of Alibis' beguiling title? It came from bass player Hansen. "It sums up a lot of personal stuff that's been going on in the band for a little while," Davern cryptically says.

Jamieson turned 30 in April, and with Grinspoon now well into its second decade, he believes there's at least another five albums in the band. So how does he feel about the band's elder statesmen status within the echelons of Aussie rock? "We are the elder statesman of rock compared to Kisschasy," he laughs. "But what does that make the Beasts of Bourbon?"
www.grinspoon.com.au

Inspiration can strike from anywhere: a painting hanging on the wall, an 18th Century book of poems, or just the joys of driving around. Other songs rise up from a vocabulary that pays as much heed to old-time music and language as it does to current events and sounds. One embodies the horror of killing in the name of religion, another comes from the pages of the Old Testament.

It's all there on Paul Kelly's new album, Stolen Apples, which not only features a title tune based on the oldest story in the book, but is a collection as rich and rewarding, and surprising, as any in the 30-year recording career of one of the world's greatest songwriters. While the sources for his material are varied and fascinating, what matters most with Paul Kelly is that the great songs keep coming, at a time of life when the well for many songwriters dries up and they more often trade on former glories.

Not Kelly. His creative juices are flowing as strongly as ever, fuelled by a diverse series of creative collaborations which range from bluegrass music (with The Stormwater Boys) to instrumental sounds (The Stardust Five) and film soundtracks. He also produced Cannot Buy My Soul, an extraordinary album released earlier this year, featuring the songs of Aboriginal songwriter Kev Carmody performed by the likes of Missy Higgins, Bernard Fanning and The Herd.

The album's dazzling bookends illuminate the range this allows him to cover. The opener, Feelings of Grief, shows the band at full stretch with a U2-like grandeur. The closing Please Leave Your Light On finds Kelly alone at the home piano, with mic leads stretching out to the shed, delivering a performance as naked and emotional as any in his long career.

"We could forget about the songs for a month or two then go back to them and they would spring to life again," Kelly says.
www.paulkelly.com.au

From indie rocker to sitcom writer to one half of super-hot production team DFA, to label boss, to Grammy nominee, New Yorker James Murphy has worked up a golden touch. While DFA produced the likes of The Rapture and remixed the likes of N.E.R.D, Murphy was also dreaming up a band - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM's first single Losing My Edge caused an electro-disco-punk-noise stir in 2002.

But don't go thinkin' LCD SOUNDSYSTEM is just about delirious dance. Summing up LCD's second album, 2007's Sound of Silver, the Sydney Morning Herald praised Murphy's "depth of songwriting, including lyrics with more meat than just about any other beats merchant." Whether dissecting American culture over beats hijacked from a German autobahn (North American Scum) or mining deep personal loss (Someone Great), Sound of Silver works the physical and the emotional.

Now it's your chance to work it. As the over-excited folk at BIG DAY OUT 2008 like to say: LCD SOUNDSYSTEM is playing at our house!
www.lcdsoundsystem.com

In the early 1990s emcees Suffa and Pressure met while attending the same high school in the hills of Adelaide and were later introduced by a mutual friend to DJ Debris. Inspired by the classic styles of Ultramagnetic MCs and Public Enemy, as well as local heroes Def Wish Cast and AKA Brothers, the trio conspired to add their own chapter to Hip-Hop's canon. The Hilltop Hoods were born.

The Hoods infuse a classic Hip-Hop sound with an ethos that is innovative and fearless. Staid conservatism and self-indulgent experimentalism are both avoided and the Hoods' inspirational sound has been embraced far beyond Hip-Hop's loyal underground.

When the heads of rock fans, dance music devotees, and even casual radio listeners all nod in unison to the Hoods' infectious beats it's no wonder the boys have been labelled as head of their game and racked up a number of prestigious industry awards.

A rigorous touring schedule, including a sold out solo national tour, standout spots at the Big Day Out (in 2005 and 2006), Splendour In The Grass (in 2005 and 2007) and Falls Festivals, has seen the crew recognised as one of Australia's hottest live acts by press, industry insiders and fans alike.

The Hoods' critically acclaimed 4th album 'The Hard Road' debuted at number 1 on the ARIA Album Charts and has since seen Hilltop Hoods secure their 2nd Platinum Record, won 2 ARIAs and numerous other awards (including the coveted J Award) with these exceptional feats having once again set a benchmark within the genre of Aussie Hip-Hop. It was this release that led to the concept

Hilltop Hoods' achievements in the past year alone have been phenomenal. It doesn't give them justice to say they went from strength to strength as that doesn't mean enough. They stay true to their music, their integrity and their original supporters and they have been duly rewarded for their tireless work. Give credit where credit is due and here's to the remarkably bright future Hilltop Hoods have in front of them.
www.hilltophoods.com

The shape-shifting mistress of pop music's avant-garde, BJÖRK is many things to many people. The frontwoman of beloved Icelandic indie group Sugarcubes. The eyebrow-raising fashionista. The award-winning actress. The It's Oh So Quiet song'n'dance gal. The singular, iconoclastic vocalist. The huntress at electronica's future frontier.

At recent festival appearances, she has packed an all-female brass section and two techno gurus to bring Volta's varied and impulsive soundscapes to life.

Bewildering, brilliant, and bound for your BIG DAY OUT 2008 - that's the one, the only BJÖRK.
www.bjork.com

The drought will break and the rebellion will rise again this January with the long-awaited return of Los Angeles, California's RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE in their exclusive first performances outside the United States.

The re-formed RAGE - vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, drummer Brad Wilk and bassist Tim Commerford - will set the Australian summer ablaze with two very special shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

Wildly inventive, unashamedly political and socially active like few others, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE spent the 1990s causing waves from the stages of the Big Day Out to the offices of the White House. Three albums - 1992's self-titled debut, 1996's Evil Empire, and 1999's Battle of Los Angeles - raised the ire of conservatives in the days when "parental advisory" stickers were still a novelty, and at the same time opened rock fans' minds to a genre-busting blend of metal, punk, hip hop and funk (inspirations the band explored on 2000's covers album Renegades), and shining light on issues ranging from indigenous rights to mass-media brainwashing.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE return to Australia this January - still impassioned, still important, and determined once more to take the power back. Join the movement here. And a note to the RAGE faithful in all other corners of Australasia. Never fear! Additional RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE appearances in Auckland, Queensland, Adelaide and Perth are scheduled and will be announced shortly.
www.ratm.com