After getting two high ranking songs in the Triple J Hottest 100, Ball Park Music are hitting the road again with the 180º Tour!

What an amazing year we had in 2011! We're taking a look back now at our 11 favourite tours from the year, featuring the local artists who dominated our live scene...

The burning sun and heat inside the tent told me it was time to get up and get going for day number two of Pyramid Rock. It was a beautiful day on sunny Phillip Island and the breeze off the ocean made for perfect festival conditions.

Now in its 8th year, the Peats Ridge Festival seems to be getting bigger and bigger. World renowned as one of the leading sustainability events, "Peats" is one of the must do NYE events on most of Australian bucket lists. A gathering for all things eclectic, the event creates a environment like no other.

And we're here! It's time to announce the top 10 albums of 2011, as voted by the contributors of the AU review. But before we get there, you may remember we had an album on the list released back in 2010 (Grinderman 2)... so we're going to kick off our final countdown with a look at what made number 41 on our list.

Let's dive right into the next batch of favourite tracks of 2011, as voted by AU review contributors!

30.

Can you believe it's that time of year again? We can't... but here we are bringing you the first part of our mammoth fortnight of eclectic "best of..." lists. First up we announce The AU Review's Top 40 tracks of 2011, as voted by our fine contributors around the country.

40.

Last night, in front of a packed industry crowd at Sydney's Oxford Art Factory, the 2011 J Awards winners were announced, and Gotye was crowned the big winner of the night - winning the J Award for Australian album of the year after Art Vs Science belted out their hit single "A.I.M Fire!", which was coincidentally nominated for best Australian music video of the year.

Boy & Bear, Ball Park Music and The Paper Kites blew the roof off the Enmore Theatre in Sydney over the weekend. Mikki Gomez hit up the photo pit of their first show and brings us these photos.

Oz music has never looked so good. On this Saturday night, Boy & Bear plus friends turned blood to gold, sporting the metaphorical green and yellow stripes showing the future in music is looking very promising in this fair nation. The first set was a short one from Melbourne’s The Paper Kites. They lived up to expectations that they will help fill the void left by The Middle East as the boasted at times epic folk rock tunes. They were basically a perfect choice of openers for the evening.

After a day in the park playing football with their support bands Northeast Party House and The Jungle Giants, Dean from Ball Park Music talked to me about their Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs national tour.

You have been on a national tour around Australia for the debut release Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs, how have the shows been going?