This year we headed backstage at Sugar Mountain Festival to capture some of the performers from the day. Ian Laidlaw set up his studio and got straight to shooting throughout the day. Enjoy them exclusively on the AU, starting with the one and only Dan Deacon, above:

With 13,000 punters from Singapore and around the Asian region descending on the iconic Gardens By The Bay, yesterday saw St Jerome's Laneway Festival take place for the fifth consecutive time in the city, with organisers selling out tickets for the first time ever.

The boutique festival Sugar Mountain returned to Melbourne yesterday following a year off in 2014, moving to its new home of the Victorian College of the Arts for a day of music, arts and great times. Rebecca Houlden brings us photos from the epic day:

“This song is about a bear committing suicide”. That's how mewithoutYou singer Aaron Weiss introduced their second to last song of their set in Adelaide's UniBar on the 24th of January. It's that kind of thing – the song was 'Bears Vision of St Agnes' from Ten Stories, by the way – that sums up the blend of bizarrely entertaining and deeply maudlin that mewithoutYou bring to both their live show and their albums.

The Kooks came back to Sydney to play some shows to play their new album Listen - as well as some huge old hits - and had The Griswolds along for the ride.

"This country is becoming one of the cultural epicentres of the world!" - Festival co-founder Danny Rogers said yesterday, as he thanked punters at the end of St Jerome's Laneway Festival 2015. The country he was talking about was Singapore, which served as the opening date of the festival run for the fifth consecutive year, before it hits Auckland tomorrow and then makes its way to Australia where the full lineup will join the tour.

Ahead of tomorrow's Hottest 100 countdown, we ask The Preatures, Ball Park Music and Tkay Maidza to talk about the first time they heard themselves or their band on triple j. We also talk to KLP about the first time she hosted House Party... Filmed during the radio station's 40th anniversary celebrations in Sydney: Beat The Drum.

Mewithoutyou kicked off their Australian tour with their first ever show in Perth on Friday night. Supporting them were locals Foxes, Sail On! Sail On!, Spilt Cities and Kites. Stuart Sevastos was there and brings us these photos from the night:

Homegrown quintet The Ocean Party are back with their fourth album, Soft Focus, and it encompasses the local way of life better than ever. Carefree and gentle, the tracklist embodies a sense of laid-back ease that’s unmistakably Australian from beginning to end.

Last week we exclusively premiered the new album Her Dawn Wardrobe from Brooklyn psych-rockers Sky Picnic. Today we catch up with the band to talk about the record, their music, the origins of their band and much more. Read on:

There are three ticking metronomes on stage. “Tick tick tick” they echo around the theatre as the audience files in. Far from keeping any sort of time with each other however, they are irregular and manic. “Tick TICK… tick”. You almost breathe a sigh of relief when Nioukhine, performed by Michel Robin, shuffles on stage to stop the metronomes one by one, as the lights dim and On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco begins.

In This Issue: Laugh Masters, 2014 Sydney Theatre Awards announced, Flickerfest, The Adventure of Figaro, The Red Dress, Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibition, Queer Thinking Seminar and Don’t Be Lonely.

Passenger played his biggest ever Australian show on Friday night, at the Qantas Credit Union Arena in Sydney, supported by The Once. Evelyn Tjia was there and brings us these photos from the anticipated event:

Bo Ningen, one of Japan's finest exports, played a special Sugar Mountain Festival sideshow at Oxford Art Factory on Friday night. Pete Dovgan was there and brings you the photos:

The off Broadway cult hit, 5 Lesbians eating A Quiche, is making it’s international debut in Brisbane. Be transported back to the 50s, the A-Bomb has been dropped and everyone is dying to get their secret out. Director Nathaniel Cooper is audibly excited about the upcoming performances at Brisbane Powerhouse.