As 2009 draws to a close, 'M+N' editor DARREN LEVIN looks back at the stories, scandals and spats that made you ROFL, scowl and DAFSFFS in equal measure. Today, we revisit January to June; tomorrow, it’s July to December. With additional (re)reporting by TREVOR BLOCK.

January

Muscles Goes Mad: When we asked Muscles to talk to Ben Lee about his new album The Rebirth of Venus, we certainly didn’t expect the trainwreck that ensued. While the pair ostensibly had a lot to talk about, Muscles – who had threatened to sue his label Modular and quit the music biz a month prior – is more interested in venting, and the interview quickly descends into a sparring match between two contrasting egos. Muscles caps off the month with a co-headline show with Tim Rogers at The Corner Hotel, which we describe as [“best/worst gig of the year”](show](/events/2000146#review_3448663). He wisely goes into hiding shortly after.

Primitive Calculators Return: “Little Bands” instigators Primitive Calculators make the comeback of the year at Chapter Music’s 18th birthday celebrations in Melbourne. The band’s first show in 30 years is a precursor to their performance at All Tomorrow’s Parties at Mt Buller, an event that frontman Stuart Grant later describes as a “pool of pus”.

Nick Cave Curates Australia’s Inaugural ATP: “Holy crap, I'm watching a 60-year-old dude play ’60s-inspired oompa-rave tunes on the top of a mountain!” M+N’s discussion pages are positively overflowing with superlatives after All Tomorrow’s Parties makes its Australian debut at the Mt Buller Ski Resort in Victoria. The Nick Cave-curated event sees performances by Grinderman, The Stabs, The Saints and The Dirty Three at three separate events: Mt Buller, Sydney’s Cockatoo Island and Brisbane’s Powerhouse and Riverstage. But it isn’t enough to make ATP an annual fixture, with poor attendances reportedly leading to its local demise.

Harvey Quits The Bad Seeds: After 25 years as their multi-instrumental lynchpin, Mick Harvey shocks the music world by leaving The Bad Seeds. In an interview with The Age later in the year, he breaks his silence on his departure, saying he was “disappointed” with his diminished role in the band over the past few years.

February

A Lockout At Laneway: A catalogue of last-minute hitches and concerns over crowd safety culminates in the closing of the Little Lonsdale Street Stage at Melbourne’s Laneway. M+N has a birds eye view of the incident, which incurs the wrath of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and prompts personal apologies from festival co-organisers Jerome Borazio and Danny Rogers. It’s no wonder Melbourne’s Laneway is shifting out of the CBD next year.

Stockdale Unveils Wolfmother Phase II: Following the departure of founding members Chris Ross and Myles Heskett, Andrew Stockdale unveils his new look Wolfmother – Aiden Nemeth (aka the Elf Wizard) on guitar, Ian Peres on bass/keys and ex-Resin Dog Dave Atkins on drums – at a “secret” show at Sydney’s Oxford Arts Factory. Later in the year, Stockdale and his cohorts would release Wolfmother’s second album, the curiously titled Cosmic Egg. As for Heskett and Ross, the pair form Palace of Fire with Charge Group’s Matt Blackman, playing a “great debut gig” at Sydney’s Hopetoun Hotel in April.

Kuepper Becomes A Bad Seed: Following the departure of founding member Mick Harvey in January, Nick Cave drafts in Brisbane icon Ed Kuepper (The Laughing Clowns, The Saints) to handle guitar duties for the Bad Seeds’ European tour. Kuepper joins the outfit for a string of European festival dates.

Aussies Invade NZ: More than 20 Australian acts including Pikelet, East Brunswick All Girls Choir, Baseball and Love of Diagrams cross the Tasman for the third annual Camp A Lo Hum festival. Guy Blackman reports on the action for M+N.

Tim Rogers Makes Stage Debut: M+N was on hand to witness Tim Rogers’ theatrical debut as a bloodthirsty Angel of Death in the Malthouse Theatre’s production of Woyzeck in Melbourne. In typical fashion, he steals the show, adding a “genuine sense of rock’n’roll grit” to proceedings.

March

Record Store Day Rift: A spat between Record Store Day organisers and the Australian Music Retailers’ Association over the participation of non-independent chains leads to two rival events being held on the same day.

Oils Make Unlikely Return: Midnight Oil play two warm-up shows at the Royal Theatre in Canberra in preparation for their appearance at the Sound Relief bushfire benefit gig. It may have been the Oils’ third show in seven years, but it sure didn’t sound like it. “It was all smiles and good times on stage,” we said in our review. The Oils later perform alongside Hunters & Collectors and Split Enz at Sound Relief at Melbourne’s MCG. We watch it on TV.

Myer Gives St Jerome’s The Boot: The venue that gave birth to the Laneway Festival in a dank ally in Caledonian Lane, Melbourne, shut its doors after landlords Myer decide they want to turn the bar into a loading dock. A resurgent Primitive Calculators play its farewell party.

An Horse Make Letterman Debut: A few “WTFs” are uttered when Brisbane duo An Horse make their US network television debut on The Late Show With David Letterman. The band perform ‘Camp Out’, a US college radio favourite.

Aussies En Masse At SxSW: Australia’s largest ever contingent descend upon Austin, Texas, for annual industry shindig SxSW. While Temper Trap generate all sorts of buzz and The Grates pig out on ribs, we question whether it’s really worth flying halfway across the world to play at a festival with 2000 other bands. Phil Tripp gets stroppy.

AMP Winners Eddy Current Make Dicko Hard: Eddy Current Suppression Ring are the surprise winners of the $30,000 Australian Music Prize, beating out a strong field that includes The Presets, Beaches, The Drones and Cut Copy. But it’s a glowing endorsement by Australian Idol judge Ian “Dicko” Dickson on breakfast TV that really shows how far they’ve come. “It’s a great record,” he said of the band’s AMP-winning Primary Colours. This from a guy responsible for Jessica Mauboy and Stan Walker.

Have Mercy: It almost pains us to write the name “Mercy Arms” after a Wikipedia entry claiming the band had split up sparks the biggest non-story of the year. The whole thing plays out like some sort of convoluted “he said, she said” scenario, with guitarist Kirin J Callinan having the final word on the matter: “We feel no need to close the door on the future of the band, no matter how combustible or capricious.” Although with Thom Moore in Canvas Kites and Callinan playing solo, things are looking pretty grim.

My Disco’s Tour Hits An Early Snag: Just two weeks into their three-month overseas jaunt, a passport and a shiny new MacBook are stolen from My Disco’s show at Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto. The band are forced to cancel a bunch of dates across North America. “It’s like a constant tsunami hitting us every time we leave Australia,” wrote guitarist Ben Andrews in a tour diary entry.

April

R.I.P The Pitz: Sydney warehouse The Pitz shuts its doors after the expiry of its lease. Since 2006, the venue had been operating as a rehearsal space, equipment lockup and dormitory for travelling bands needing cheap accommodation (it was reportedly the place where one member of Witch Hats infamously pissed on another by accident in his sleep). It also hosted small shows in conjunction with Sydney label tenzenmen. Read Shaun Prescott’s “obituary” here.

Temper Trap Relocate To London: Melbourne’s Temper Trap follow in the footsteps of Snowman when they relocate indefinitely to the London suburb of Hackney. In an interview with M+N, drummer Toby Dundas said the band’s decision to relocate was prompted by their deal with UK label Infectious. “We made the decision to focus a certain amount of time on the UK/Europe market while we had the opportunity … It’ll be like starting from scratch, so we’ll see what happens.” Tellingly, they’re still there.

Ten Of The Best For Tame Impala: Hot young things Tame Impala land a whopping 10 WAMi Awards nominations including Most Popular Act, Favourite Newcomer and Most Promising New Act. When the awards are eventually handed out in May, they walk away with a measly three.

The Hi-Fi Heads North: The Drones, Witch Hats and Hits perform at the opening of Brisbane’s Hi-Fi, a 1200-capacity venue on Boundary Street in the southern suburb of West End (outside of The Valley's live music hub). In deference to the occasion – or maybe in spite of it – The Drones play “one of their best-ever Brisbane shows”.

May

FBi Appeals To Richie Rich: You know you’re in financial poo when you ask listeners to petition Sir Richard Branson to donate $1 million to keep your flailing radio station afloat. But this is exactly the situation Sydney’s FBi find themselves in when they concoct the “Ask Richard” campaign. While Branson declines the offer on air, the station still manages to claw its way out of the doldrums thanks to a series of fundraising initiatives in June.

Lucksmiths Succumb To Everyday Life: After 16 years and 170 odd songs, The Lucksmiths call it a day, announcing a run of farewell shows in August. “It just became harder and harder, really, to organise being in a band,” singer Tali White tells M+N. “I was feeling like I was not able to give enough to the band for it to be easy and fun. And when it’s not easy and fun, it starts to become more like work, and that really sucks.” Full interview here.

Bridezilla Selected For ATP: Sydney’s Bridezilla are pinching themselves after being selected alongside The Drones and The Dirty Three for The Flaming Lips-curated ATP Festival in New York in September. Speaking to M+N after the event, singer Holiday Carmen-Sparks said the experience was like being in a “parallel world”. She also blogged about it for M+N.

The Tote’s Close Call: A liquor licensing technicality almost derails Melbourne institution The Tote Hotel. In a statement to the media, director Bruce Milne detailed how close they came: “I always thought that if the Tote had to close one day, it would be with a bang. But last night, I called the staff together to let them know that we couldn’t survive another weekend without trading and that the era of the Tote was over. They were told they were out of work. There wasn’t much of a party atmosphere. I drank a bottle of shitty moscato that that no customer had ever been silly enough to order.”

R.I.P Maurice Frawley: The former member of Paul Kelly and The Dots and the Olympic Sideburns loses his battle with liver cancer, aged 55. Old friend and bandmate Paul Kelly pays tribute: “Maurice Frawley wrote some of my favourite songs – ‘Harness Down’, ‘Old Folks’, ‘Queen Stone’ and many others. Great songwriters create a world. Maurice did – a hard-bitten, pastoral world through which walked a straight talking man, wide-eyed and willing.”

Pink Fits Split: Wollongong garage-rock favorites the Pink Fits call it a day, choosing to go out in style with a hometown show while still at their peak. “We're just a lot busier than we used to be with everyday stuff and don't really have the time necessary to commit to the band,” singer Padraic Skehan tells M+N. “Rather than drag it out we thought we'd just leave it as it is.” Guitarist Lenny Curley makes a cameo later in the year with a newly reformed Tumbleweed.

Everything Old Is New Again: Two classic ’90s albums are reprised in full. Ahead of a full-scale re-release Screamfeeder do Kitten Licks across the country, reassuring its “position within Australian rock”, while Tim Rogers gets the Twin Set back together to perform his 1999 debut solo album What Rhymes With Cars And Girls. We speak to co-producer Jen Anderson about its genesis.

June

Cut Sick Play Final Show: “One of the most insanely fast Melbourne hardcore bands to ever exist” pulls up stumps at their spiritual home, Missing Link. Drummer Max Kohane later teams up with ECSR’s Mikey Young, unleashing Brain Children on an unsuspecting public. Of course we liked it: “These guys take genres that are generally derided as cliched and find in them elements that make for great pop music – no matter who they’re referencing.”

Melbourne Staple Returns: The Community Cup – a charity football match between community radio stations Triple R and PBS 106.7FM (“The Megahertz”) and local musicians (“The Rockdogs”) – emerges like a proverbial phoenix after a year-long hiatus with a different locale and new charity partner. The Dogs run out winners in a one-point “thriller”. Relive the glory here.

D Is For Dappled: In the first of two TV appearances for the year – they later cook up a storm on Ready Steady Cook in December – Dappled Cities help preschoolers learn the alphabet with their “Alphabreaks” series on Playhouse Disney. “We just became a group of miming silly men, laughing and singing to the tracks for the kids,” singer Tim Derricourt tells M+N.

Another Record Store Bites The Dust: After two-and-a-half years of operation in inner-city Sydney, Newtown’s Bravery, Repetition and Noise makes its final transaction. Store owners Justin and Reyad blame the internet: “The really favourable exchange rate with the pound and the US dollar combined with the slew of great little independents that are doing it all online themselves has played a big part in the decline of the record store in our opinion.”

Steve Lucas Gets The Virgin Blues: The X frontman causes a major stir when he brings a guitar strap adorned with bullet cartridges onto a Virgin Blue aircraft. The straps are deemed a “security threat” and removed from the plane, only to get lost in Canberra. "When I called the complaints line, they said it was considered that I was potentially a terrorist," Lucas tells The Age.

Pikelet Meets World: Everyone’s favourite looper embarks on a lengthy world tour, sending us a diary from New Zealand, which clearly made a positive impression. “New Zealand ... I love you,” she wrote. “The three weeks I spent in Wellington and the three days in Auckland were a whirlwind of excellent music, insightful and hilarious conversation, and beautiful friendly people that made me feel so welcomed.”

Kilbey And Kennedy Go Postal: Church frontman Steve Kilbey and All India Radio’s Martin Kennedy speak to M+N about the process of recording an album together, despite each doing their parts in different states. “It was a simple operation,” Kennedy said. “I sent him the music, he wrote and recorded the words and that was it.”

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TOMORROW: We recall the final six months of 2009.