Guitar Wolf
It took all of a few hours to make this booking. We heard Japan's legendary "jet rock'n'roll" trio Guitar Wolf were playing in Geelong during Meadow. One email contact flicked us onto another email contact and shortly afterwards the deal was done."There are garage-rock bands, and then there's Tokyo terrors Guitar Wolf. Your typical garage band might make your ears ring; this one kills zombies." - Pitchfork
They first toured Australia in the late '90s, when Seiji rode on to the stage of a packed Tote on the back of a borrowed motorcycle. God knows what we've signed ourselves up for but at least we can guarantee it'll be loud.
Pureblast
We've been on the hunt for an act like Pureblast for the last few months. Hard to put a finger on exactly what we were chasing. Something with a lot of energy. Uncompromising and unpredictable. A surprise that you can dance to. That act that you probably weren't too familiar with before the festival, but the one that you can't stop talking about when you leave. We think that's Pureblast.There's a Prodigy-esque vibration to their latest EP, Psycho, which is likely to translate to absolute chaos on a Friday evening in Bambra.
The French duo have already been hand-picked to perform at some of Europe's finest festivals and clubs. A Boiler Room appearance and a handful of internet DJ sets showcase their dancefloor mastery. We absolutely can not wait to share this with you.
Twine
Twine applied to play Meadow as part of our emerging bands competition, but, let's be honest, take a quick listen and you can quickly determine, they have certainly already emerged.We didn't hesitate to offer them a spot on the main stage. Friday afternoon kicks off with the volume at 11. Screeching guitars and a buzzy violin will signal that Meadow 10 has begun.
There are certainly some extremely mature influences at play here. Their debut record dropped late 2024 and it kicks, and then kicks again. They call it barrelling noise rock and wounded, stinging country twisted together. We're pretty happy with that description.
Mika James
Cinematic country to punk-infused blues. Big things on a wild horizon ahead - we're sure of it, but just waiting for the time to come. Mika James is leaping out from behind the drumkit of Melbourne punk outfit The Vovos to unleash a modern nostalgic solo outing. A promising future fit to promise a fitting end to our own future. Get it - she's closing the last ever Meadow.
Think About You
The cluttered aesthetic and sarcastic presentation does little to obscure the warm and fuzzy take on folk music that lies underneath. Think About You have thrown their music on the table and said, hey, we want to be the local band playing the main stage at Meadow this year. And we said, okay.The sound is right at home among our Meadow 2025 lineup. With Bellarine Peninsula in their blood, Queenscliff, Lonnie and suburban Geelong in their stories, we can't wait to host them on Saturday morning.
James Range Band
You just won't believe these harmonies. They're clearly from far away because it's rare to hear anything of the sort around here. James Range Band are joining us at our final festival all the way from Utju, several hours West of Alice Springs. This will be their first show in Victoria. Ever. The fellas have been heavily influenced by the sounds of their music heroes; the desert, their language and culture. Flitting back and forth between Pitjantjatjara and English their lyrics spill out in a full-spectrum of bobbing colours, washing together and telling tales of family, culture and place.
Big Yawn
Fractious drum beats crunching across the top of dissociating synths mark the start of any good Friday night, right? A little golden light left skipping across the grass and a soundtrack from one of Melbourne's finest electronic quartets in their absolute moment is a match made in recreational heaven. Following the release of their ultra-lush new record, NGBE, expect dubby textures, boundaryless sound bites and a barrage of broken beats when Big Yawn take formation on our small stage in Bambra.
Eggy
Conjurers of scruffy pop manifestations with minds of their own. Far from static, but full of static. A sound that meanders off the stage filling space bristling fairytale warmth. Enough warmth to make a bandroom sweat until cascading sirens and crying violins demand a moment for contemplation. A little chaotic, a respectful nod to the 70s and all the encouragement required for raucous merrymaking. A joyous journey led by Eggy - just ahead of Friday's sunset.
ORB
Revered local rockdogs. ORB. From Geelong, just 20 minutes down the road. What started out as riff-heavy hard-rock and a cheeky nod to the likes of Black Sabbath, now flits in and out of 70s psychedelia on their latest, Tailem Bend. Best to pop the genre labels aside before the fuzz shape shifts and you find yourself looking a little silly. What matters most? After nearly 20 years together in the Frowning Clouds and now ORB, this live show is an exhibition in musical chemistry. It's about time our neighbours popped over for a jam.
Empress
A trio of perfect vocals. Three layers. Glistening through syrupy electronic production. It's got an addictive quality in those ingredients alone.Forming just a few short years ago, the list of festival stages Empress has already traversed is loooooong. It's not surprising, their debut album is littered with melodies you cannot unhear. Nor would you want to. One new single out signals that the swirly saccharine adventure continues. Guess you'll get to see what all the fuss is about very soon.
Hiatus Kaiyote
One full circle, right? Destined to play the Bambra Bowl in 2022 before fate cruelly ripped them away. It wouldn't be right to leave a loose end so untied. So, we've invited them back to deliver what we promised to present 3 years ago. As we described it last time "An explosion of light, shade and everything in between. An integral seed to the beginnings of Melbourne's perpetual contemporary groove scene. Thank you, Hiatus Kaiyote."From a Northcote share house over a decade ago, a far-flung journey through glorious neo-soul, future-groove and wonder-core is now stopping off in Bambra! Let's do this now, again, and before we never do it again.
Osmosis Jones
UK garage is on a run. A hot streak. We're not here to stop you dancing a little hard, or a touch fast, so we've invited the classiest example we know, and star on the rise, Osmosis Jones to command the floor until the end on Friday night.A devotee to the old-school sound of UKG with production chops that everyone's starting to murmur about. Let's validate the fuss. Yes, he's Osmosis Jones. Yes, he's in the house. And yes, on Friday March 21, we're all Inside The Rave.
Armlock
If Meadow 10 is all about coming full circle, inviting Armlock to come play is a full circle and an extra u-turn in sequence. Hamish and Simon joined us in Bambra in 2016 as Couture; a short-lived but wholly excellent experimental dance act that bleeped and blooped across our stage shepherding synthesised sounds into dance-inducing formations just after midnight. This time, it'll be just after midday instead with hushed and heartfelt lyrics sifting through guitar moulded dreamscapes. Their latest record, Seashell Angel Lucky Charm, is seven tracks (and a far-too-short eighteen minutes) of low-lit lilting hypnosis. Tender therapy for tender heads. Sink in.
Miles Nautu
Effortless. The best rappers are the ones that look like they're not even trying. Watching Miles Nautu glide across the top of a live jazz band is pure pleasure.How's this for high praise from FBi Radio "Miles Nautu has it. His flow flips between different rhythmic cadences and syllabic phrases with the dexterity of, yes, Kendrick Lamar's best tracks. It's organic and constantly shifting, never clunky but fluid, sliding together in neat arrangement."
Some truly exceptional hip-hop coming from further north right now and this is one of Meanjin's brightest buds; it's just the beginning.
Npcede
Something of a surprise. Saturday afternoon can't simply flow into Saturday night without interruption. Without question. Without a little chaos. Truly one of the most frenetic live sets we've seen in Melbourne's bandrooms this year.Thanks Chapter Music for the hottest tip we received for the 2025 program. When NPCEDE's bio proclaims "Wild industrial hip-hop noise punks; a meeting point of Sigur Ros and King Krule", what would you expect?
Chee Shimizu
We love the idea of a little Saturday afternoon get down. It needs the right DJ though. A dedicated collector and professional mood curator. Chee Shimizu is that guy. He literally wrote the book on it...Flying in from Japan to join us, Chee is one of the world's most revered selectors; both for the club and the deep-listening session.
Owner of Tokyo record store, Organic Music, presenter of an NTS radio show by the same name, and author of the crate-digging guidance book, Obscure Sound, it's crystal clear Chee is completely devoted to music. You'll struggle to find much about his club shows online, but a quick look at the events he's been invited to should tell you enough.
MJ Lenderman
Although it feels like MJ Lenderman has only been a blip on our radar for 2 or 3 years, it has been more than a pinch-ourselves moment to realise we've managed to invite one of 2024's shining stars to perform in Bambra next March.A hero with the guitar, a poet with the pen (or maybe even the notepad app on his phone) and songwriter for the ages, who has skyrocketed to notoriety with the delivery of his fourth record, Manning Fireworks.
It's impossible to comprehend how this album carries such a throw-away insouciance but harbours some of the sharpest lyrical couplets you could ever encounter amidst its layers of distortion and rusted-wire guitar solos. It's like screaming "I don't care!"" at the top of your lungs whilst carefully putting something back together that you've just smashed to pieces, but doing it in such a way that it's a thousand times more meaningful, beautiful and precious than it was before.
Proto Moro
Funk punks Proto Moro have been handed control of the stage just as it's about to kick up 2 or 3 gears on Saturday night. They've been told to set the mood, increase energy levels and prepare the Bambra Bowl for one last large evening. We have absolute faith they'll deliver. Sliding between genres, borrowing bits and pieces from opposite ends of the musical spectrum to create bewildering textures, the end result? Explosive.Jazz musicians with a punk perspective. It's a little loose but you can definitely dance to it.
Floodlights
The sound of Australia on record. A sound that imbues burnt orange skies and dry dusty days. Inspires you to dip your hand through that first layer of ice and grab a crispy cold one to crack open as you're walking back across crunchy half-dead grass in a suburban backyard - peak summer. It's so damn Australian.Maybe it's the emotive passion in the lyrics; the rawness. Or the powerful musical outbursts back by a driving unstoppable rhythm.
Record number three is on the way in 2025, can you feel it? We're so damn excited.
Annie-Rose Maloney
The most perfect full-circle we've drawn for Meadow 2025. One faultless sweep. Welcome back Annie-Rose Maloney - after 10 years.From the side of a truck, on a stage powered by a borrowed generator, at the bottom of a hill, in a mate's paddock in Bambra, Annie played the very first Meadow festival. Our 2025 lineup isn't just a perfect cross section of contemporary music from our perspective. This year it's a nod to where we've come from, it's filled with connection and it means the world. The whole way 'round.
Annie - thanks a million for coming back. We started Meadow with you, so we certainly couldn't end it without you. Country-ish music about the deep kernels of pain we all carry around in our pockets. Try not to cry. Sunday morning; we all wave goodbye.
Pop Filter
Ocean Party, Cool Sounds, Way Dynamic, Lachlan Denton & Emma Russack and now Pop Filter. All connected through interchangeable band members, and the tradition that one of them will end up playing Sunday morning at Meadow. Part of the furniture and some of the finest furniture at the party.We never recognised our programming had a bit of a pattern to it until one of the artists quipped last year, "one day we'll get to play on the Saturday..." Not a chance! There's something about the nonchalant delivery and the melodic pop heart at the centre of all these bands. They just make you feel better. Even when a festival is about to end.
Pop Filter's brand new 4th record, Ray and Lorraine's is every bit of that. Guitar-heavy pop with a warm and sweet core.
Pond
Looking back through space and time, we've tried to invite Pond to play Meadow on 4 prior occasions. Date clashes, band members touring with Tame Impala and supporting slots for the Queens Of The Stone Age in the same period are some of the excuses we've had to this day.Can you believe it?
Thought we'd throw it out there one last time following the release of their 2024 glam-funk stomper, Stung! It's meant to be, I guess. Their 10th album, our 10th and final festival and we've got the tick of approval. POND are coming to Bambra. We wholeheartedly believe this is one of the best live bands in Australia. No stretching. It's our great pleasure to hand POND the reigns to headline Meadow's last Saturday night.
Kaiit
From the buzziest new voice in soul in 2017, to sold out national tours, a cheeky ARIA in 2019 and mammoth festival slots on Splendour and Laneway, Kaiit arrived with absolute force. A rollercoaster ride slanting madly upwards, Papua New Guinea born artist would soon be in outer-space.Fast forward to now, and that's exactly where we find ourselves, as Kaiit dropped a wickedly lush, and long-awaited single "Space", calling for exactly that; some time, some respect, and some space.
Now releasing on her own label and teasing much more to come, we're as eager as you are to peer behind the curtain at the shimmery feel-good nostalgia that Kaiit's bound to paint in her next contemporary soul experiment.
Empress Of
You already know Empress Of. We're sure you've heard her music. She's your favourite artist's favourite artist. Just go and check-out the list of acts she's toured with - some real superstars. So, that makes LA based Lorely Rodrigues a fully fledged popstar in our eyes and that's exactly what Bambra requires around midnight Friday.An absolutely no-skips fourth record, For Your Consideration, arrived earlier in 2024. Pitchfork describes it best as, "an insatiable new groove, reprising an effusive, sensual point of view over propulsive dance and electropop. It's the most intricate Empress Of album to date, a dazzling showcase for Rodriguez's unexpected vocal and production approach as she experiences the peaks and valleys of heated romance."
Fizzy, unpredictable love songs; can you dance to that?
Marcellus Pittman
Always been a bucket list item to have someone representing that real Detroit sound on our stage. Insane to be announcing we're hosting one of motor city's central characters in 2025.Marcellus Pittman is back in Australia next year; an artist deeply embedded in vinyl culture that we can just about guarantee will deliver an immaculate selection. If you can track him down on the web, you'll likely hear him chatting about old school ideas of a DJ's role as guide, tastemaker, treasureseeker and pleasure-freaker.
"Music is a really precious thing"
The real deal - closing things down, late night Saturday.
Dameeeela
Conjurer of unforgettable party moments, Dameeeela is making the trip to Vic next autumn. The expert manipulator of mass euphoria brings more Australian festival experience than any other DJ before her to Meadow. Think of any big festival in the country and she's been there, delivered a feverish dancefloor experience and moved onto the next. Now it's our turn. Lucky last for our lucky last.
OUR CARLSON
Our Carlson told us he's coming to Meadow to rant about ableism, trauma, capitalism and ciggies. You ready? With DJ Cash Daddy (Cash Savage) laying down the tracks, prepare for absolutely top notch banter. Dark but full of humour - this is EDM (Epileptic Dance Music) at its finest. In case you haven't heard, Best On Ground, MVP and One To Watch as declared by many and most following a wild debut performance at Meredith MF last year.
ALLYSHA JOY
Allysha Joy is poetry in motion. Meditative, raw and powerful. A Meadow favourite fronting 30/70's 2018 set and featuring in Close Counters 2021 performance, we're stoked to welcome Allysha back to the Meadow stage to share her second album 'Torn : Tonic' in a specially curated late night performance.
