Sigur Rós. Beck. Ben Folds. Cake. Silversun Pickups. And they were just my picks! With a line up like this, how could anyone even consider missing the 2012 Harvest Festival? The Brisbane leg of the tour was held at the Botanic Gardens, which provided to perfect backdrop for the festival. But due to the severe storms the day before it was well after the advertised time of 11am when the gates finally opened.

Harvest Festival wound up for the year in Brisbane's Botanic Gardens. Heath Carney braved the rain, hail, lightning and sunshine to capture it for us. Pictured: The Dandy Warhols.

Harvest Festival may only be in its second year, but it has well and truly established itself as a world class event. Last year we tentatively made our way to the brand new festival at Parramatta Park, lured in by its unbelievably dreamy line up which included the likes of Portishead, The Flaming Lips and The National. The live music was extraordinary, the grounds spacious and the crowds anything but obnoxious. This year, Harvest once again delivered.

Pictured: Mike Patton's Mondo Cane.

With nearly three decades of existence and a universe of sonic textures between them, Silversun Pickupsand THE DANDY WARHOLS will form one of the most personality-laden and emotively eclectic indie bills of 2012, taking on stages in Adelaide and Perth, as they co-headline, their only Australian sideshows.

The folk behind the Harvest Festival have some great news to unveil this afternoon. Not only have they scheduled a SECOND Melbourne show as a result of the initial Melbourne leg of the festival selling out, but the organisers have today released the next round of artists due to appear on their stages at the end of the year!

Check out the list of bands set to join the likes of Beck, Sigur Ros and Santigold below.

We're at the halfway mark of the year, and for us at The AU Review, it usually means that we take time to reflect on all the releases that made an impact over the last six months. We asked our contributors to cough up and confess on what their favourite albums are, whether it was an LP or EP, and most importantly, why they chose the featured albums. You're probably wondering if one of your preferred records made the cut. Well, the wait is over. I am proud to present: Our 12 Favourite Records (So Far) of 2012!

This is it. The last day of Sasquatch! 2012. Maybe we attacked the preceding days too hard, maybe the combination of altitude and dust got to us, maybe it was a (rookie) compounding sunburn, but on day four this reviewer struggled before having to leave much earlier than anticipated. But more on that later, because we did manage to get a little music in…

Silversun Pickups's new album Neck of the Woods is coming out this month, and Brian Aubert joins us to talk about the recording, having to shift into tour mode, and what it was like to go back to his hometown in LA and find things slightly different.

Good to speak to you again Brian, how has life been treating you?

A strange, unfamiliar synthesised sound, almost shoegaze-like, beckons at the beginning of the new Silversun Pickups single, "Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)". It is at that moment, conclusions are made that listeners will experience something new from the Los Angeles band in the near future. Their third full-length album, Neck Of The Woods, will be out in Australia on May 4th.

This week’s releases are a varied bunch – there’s everything from Hip-Hop, dance, dubstep to hard rock. Releases from Marina and the Diamonds, Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj, Keane, Jason Mraz, B.o.B and Missy Higgins keep it rolling along. It’s an interesting mix, make sure you have a look for yourself!

A few hours before they were to play the Hordern Pavilion in support of Birds of Tokyo, I sat down with Brian and Nikki of Silversun Pickups. Hailing from Los Angeles, we spoke about the tour, the weather, Melbourne, Muse,, Guitar Hero and Asian cuisine... read on!