So we had a pretty good year at Paperbag Music. Since the start of 2013 we launched a new site and distro and stocked some of our favorite artists. We also started a big focus on digital distribution with making artists releases available for download with people world wide checking out and downloading tunes from our store.

We also did a bunch of shows this year across Sydney and Newcastle including a whole heap of smaller acoustic shows. Plus we had our first Paperbag Weekender which had 5 shows in 4 days, people losing their voices, weird black outs, bands breaking up and some frontier justice in Newcastle.

Amongst the score of venues either shutting or becoming a further shitty draconian  nightmares to see shows at, a bunch of new venues opened up including Birdrib, Black Rose and the Hattery. Each venue run by excellent people who care about live music and providing a fun and safe space to do shows. Fingers crossed these venues continue into 2014 and keep being excellent.

Not only did we  have a good year but so did  some of our favorite bands.

Everything I Own is Broken
ETIOIB continued in being Sydney’s best (only?) punk/ska band playing a whole heap of excellent shows across the east coast plus some international supports and further building up a collection of new songs. They released a 4 track demo with Jay Frenzal and if it’s an indication of what’s coming then their next release will be great.

Phat Meegz
Whilst only releasing  a 2 song EP this year, Everyone Goes to Melbourne had two of the best songs you’ll probably hear all year. After a bunch of shows earlier in the year followed by a brief break, singer Ethan released his High In Friends Places EP which is highly recommended to check out. Hopefully some new Meegz tunes will be out soon.

Alex Party Cat
Sydney’s pop punk chef (much like Raekwon) had a pretty great year playing heaps of shows and writing heaps of excellent new solo tracks about stuff like love and Skyrim and loving Skyrim. Amongst the slew of shows he played, Alex also scored a support slot with Joey Cape. Anyway, expect some new stuff from Alex soon as it’ll be pretty great.

Yes I’m Leaving
So Mission Bulb came out  mid this year and it was amazing. Sonically YIL are great to listen to and watch live and are such a tight band and are also one of the few bands who are so good they can heaps of guitar pedals and it doesn’t offend me. Got to see these guys heaps this year including in an alleyway, the upstairs library in an anarchist bookshop and a PCYC rehearsal space that held about 10 people and smelt heaps creepy. They also re-released their first 2 albums which are also highly recommended.

Year of Scummery
So sometime last year travelling hobo/folk punx Year of Scummery recorded a bunch of tracks which were floating around in the ether of Sound Cloud. With a bit of work we got the tracks together and put the Year of Scummery album up on our distro and it became one of our most downloaded and streamed albums of the year. Whilst YOS aren’t playing at the moment you can find their singer currently playing with folk/punx band (currently called) No Gods No Master Chefs.

Tom Lawson
So Lawson moved to Sydney this year and did a bunch of solo shows playing a bunch of new stuff and the odd Being Amazing song. Hopefully we’ll see some stuff recorded sometime in 2014!

Sleepy
One of our favourite new bands to come out of Sydney this year, Sleepy are a 3 piece fuzzy power pop band who have been playing around Sydney and Newcastle the last 6 months. Their demos are sounding very promising and hopefully we’ll be seeing an EP in the 2014.

Amateur Drunks
Keeping the pop punk torch lit, Amateur Drunks released their amazing self titled album this year and played a few shows around Australia. Their LP pretty much had all the ingredients of a great record – catchy, no filler and a J-Church cover. Looks like there will be another Amateur Drunks releases in the next year  and from what we’ve heard in terms of new material it should great.

Sweet Teens
So I was pretty gutted not seeing Sweet Teens this year. Unfortunately they didn’t play any Sydney shows this year and spent most of the year writing and recording the outstanding Terminal Grouse album. If you haven’t listen to it yet, do yourself a favor and check out one of the best punk albums of 2013 with some of the best artwork ever hands down.

So pretty much we had a great year. Heaps of news bands, great shows, great  local releases, new venues shit hangovers. Pretty much we have heaps of people to be thankful to for helping out with shows and everyone who came out to a show, checked out our distro or said something nice, thank you! Thanks to all the bands and please keep doing what you’re doing.

Have a safe and productive 2014 and light up a Labuan!

Cheers! PBM