Another massive album announcement week this week in our Album News Weekly! There’s a couple of live albums on the way, Franz Ferdinand have announced a new record coming up, plus there’s the Maine, Bliss N Esso, some compilation albums a few labels have put together, plus many many more!

It's the announcement that will make hip-hop fans the nation over die a little bit on the inside; Live Nation, in conjunction with Niche Productions, Triple J and MTV present the Movement Festival. Co-curated by American icon Nas, the festival will feature performances by some of Australia's best hip-hop acts, as well as Chiddy Bang.

The Red Bull X Fighters international freestyle motor cross competition held their finals on Sydney’s Cockatoo Island on Saturday October 6th. Let me start by saying, I am a complete motor cross newbie, so I arrived at the island completely neutral.

In this week's edition: Karise Eden ploughs on at the top of the charts, For All Eternity, Violent Soho & The Janoskins all get signed to record deals, and SxSW starts revving up and calls for applications for attendees.

Brimming with a genuine passion for independent Australian artists, MusicOZ Awards are moving from strength to strength. Held this year at the Sydney Opera House, the awards night played host to a wonderfully vast caliber of speakers and performers, rendering the night anything but predictable – and a far cry from being dull or overly formal.

Larry from the AU review sits down with Aussie Hip Hop Superstars Bliss N Eso as they take their music global at SXSW. We talk about the music, the festival, the Aussie BBQ and much more...

Camera: Mandy Hall
Editor/Interviewer: Larry Heath
Photo: Johnny Au

2012 will see another huge line up of Australian talent headed for the USA and Canada The Aussie BBQ turns 10 years young, celebrates with shows in LA, Austin as part of SXSW, Toronto as part of Canadian Music Week and New York this March.

The Aussie BBQ has come along away since the inaugural event at Emos Annex in 2003 that featured 8 of the 9 Australian acts invited to play the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference.

Jägermeister will introduce a new people’s choice Most Hunted award to this year’s Sixth Annual JÄGERMEISTER INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS (JIMA’s) to be held on Wednesday 12 October in Melbourne. Music fans will be given the opportunity to vote from Tuesday 13 September and the winner will also have the opportunity to appear on stage on the night to help present the trophy to the Jägermeister Most Hunted artist.

Due to the unexpected and extreme weather conditions that hit the North Coast of NSW on Sunday 12th June, the highly anticipated Bliss n Eso concert at the Coffs Harbour Showground had to be cancelled three hours prior to the scheduled gates open time.

Bliss N Eso continue to lead the pack when it comes to technology innovation through this week’s launch of their free iPhone application which puts fans in the director’s seat for their forthcoming live DVD.

The Bliss N Eso iPhone application was developed in collaboration with Smudge Apps (www.smudgeapps.com) in lead up to the band’s biggest ever Australian tour (and the country’s biggest ever by a local hip-hop act) which includes their record breaking sold out 8,000 capacity concert at Brisbane’s Riverstage.

After popping my festival cherry at the start of this year with Future Music Festival, I was very excited to head along to something a little bit more up by alley – Groovin’ The Moo.

With nationwide ticket sales now climbing into the 40,000s, Bliss N Eso’s hugely anticipated Running on Air tour kicks off this Friday with a sold out performance in Armidale, NSW.