Sydney's sleepmakeswaves have announced a massive national tour for June and July. Touring across six states (and one territory) the "...and so we played everything" tour will be the bands only headline tour for the year.

The show follows from a massive 2012 which saw the band tour Australia, the US and Europe and get an ARIA nomination for their album ...and so we destroyed everything.

This is my last week for State of Affairs as we hand the writing duties for this column to both Priyam Chovhan and Ruby Niemann. On this week’s column though, we see a new artist on the ARIA singles chart finally, the Australian list for Europe’s answer to SXSW, The Great Escape grows, and Bigsound announces that registrations and applications are open for bands. Exciting stuff for conference loving musicians everywhere

Welcome to this weeks album news, we hope that everyone had a great Australia Day. This week we have news from Bullet For My Valentine, Sleepmakeswaves, Stornaway and much more!

UK rock band 65DaysOfStatic played their first ever show in Perth at The Bakery. Supporting them were Tangled Thoughts of Leaving and Sleepmakeswaves.

Trash McSweeney, lead singer of Red Paintings, was simply an experience. Here tonight in solo mode, he was accompanied onstage by two artists, one (dressed as a ninja) using a traditional canvas and one given a woman’s body to paint on. With a gallivanting guitar playing style, beguiling voice and a clear passion in his lyrics, McSweeney quickly caught most of the earlycomers’ attention, apart from the large fanbase already front of stage.

At this time of year, a lot of people tend to look back at things that happened through the year. In this little review though we lookforward and look at a bunch of Australian bands (and a few from overseas) that are due for some exciting things in the new year.

Celebrating its fifth year at The Espy next weekend is the Rock The Bay Fesitval! The day of music in Melbourne promises to be delivering the festival's biggest and best line up to date, featuring the following bands:

The Beards
Electric Mary
Sleepmakeswaves
Bellusira
Tim McMillan Band
Engine Three Seven
King of the North
Sleep Parade
Breaking Orbit
New Skinn
Moroccan Kings
Manatarms
One
Sons of Abraham
Hailmary
Swerve
Bottle of Smoke
The Villain Epic

After a massive 2012, Sleepmakeswaves are already getting set for an even bigger 2013, scoring the support slot for the 65daysofstatic tour in January.

Taking in Sydney (Jan 2), Brisbane (Jan3), Melbourne (Jan 4), and Perth (Jan 5), this slot of support gigs is sure to see the band playing to some massive crowds.

I had been eagerly checking the Hi-Fi Bar website over the week leading up to this gig, in a desperate attempt to find out who exactly "+ guests" were in support of headliner Tortoise. Upon my seemingly premature arrival, I noticed the guests were both esteemed bands in their own rights, laying the foundation for an exceptional spectacle.

Instrumental rock band Sleepmakeswaves played an awesome show at The Bakery. Supporting them were The Silent World and Coveleski.

Descending into the bowels of the Crow Bar, Echotide rewarded the earlycomers with their traditional-sounding brand of post-rock. Although new onto the scene, the trio is made up of members of Arcane and Caligula’s Horse and the experience shows in the tightness of their set. Starting out with even the drums on delay effect, I thought this might be post-rock dialled up to 11.