Year: 2015

Brooklyn psych-rockers Sky Picnic are producing a sound that fans of Australia’s own Tame Impala should feel very at home with – and following the reception of their latest single “Upon Further Reflection”, they now have a full album for us to enjoy. And today we’re excited to premiere it in full, exclusively on the…

Elwood Myre is a young Australian troubadour who collaborates with mandolin player Hunter Beasley, to create folk-laden Americana flavour. In October 2014, endowed with a sound that’s smooth and warm like bubble gum, the pair stumbled into Vienna People Recordings where they tracked their debut album live in 4 days. Today we’re excited to premiere…

Ahead of their Australian tour next month, we caught up with Josh Lovelace from the band NEEDTOBREATHE, who let us in on the five bands (other than his own, of course) who he reckons we all need to see live… The Killers We have been fans of The Killers for a long time but hadn’t…

Leon and Matty from The Lazys talk to Larry from the AU review at Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie. We talk about what they’ve been up to since we last caught up in Canada during Canadian Music Week earlier in 2014. They reflect on their multiple trips and successes to Canada, their latest…

Michael Hirst has created something extraordinary with period drama Vikings, bringing a human aspect to the Scandinavians usually perceived as being only barbaric marauders wearing horned helmets. Vikings stars Australia’s Travis Fimmel and Alyssa Sutherland, with Season 3 to air on SBS ONE commencing 19th March. Here is what we are looking forward to in…

Pictured: La Femme (Photo by Larry Heath) It was a relaxed atmosphere under the hot Summer sun on Saturday, as families, Francophiles and Festival fans got their spots under the umbrellas and on top of the hay bales that scattered the rarely used (but very well suited) site of St. John’s college for Sydney’s second…

Kimberley is back with the first half of our weekly TV picks. Here’s what to watch this week on free-to-air from Monday through to Wednesday night, as the work week kicks off… Monday 2015 Australian Open, Ch. 7, 11:00am AEDT Channel 7’s live coverage of the Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific begins, featuring the world’s top…

Thanks to our good friends at Telstra we have a brand new Sony Xperia Z3 Premium Smartphone to give away, along with a brand new Digital Noise Cancelling Headset. The brand new Xperia Z3 is one of the leaders in the Android market. Combining a super-slim body and aluminium frame, the phone’s premium design also…

With ‘Awards Season’ coming along quite nicely, this morning saw the release of the official nominees list for the 87th Academy Awards. It’s the grand daddy of film industry awards, celebrating the best of the best and giving us a nice little compass to guide us through the greatest film industry achievements of 2014, and…

Director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) is back for another awards season with part travelogue, part grief memoir, Wild. The film stars Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed (seems highly coincidental, but that is her real last name), who undertakes the personal challenge of hiking solo, 1,100 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to…

Poland 1962. Anna, a young nun, orphaned from birth, is summoned after many years by her estranged aunt Wanda. Wanda is a successful judge having during her career prosecuted criminals who have been sentenced to death for war crimes. She is also an alcoholic. Upon meeting Anna she shows the nun pictures of her family…

Girls isn’t a glamorous show and in many ways that’s what makes it feel so brutally honest and real. In the third season the characters are the most fully developed and realised versions of themselves to date. It’s also one that is full of the kinds of stories and things that will challenge, enthral, frustrate…

Boardwalk Empire has always been one of the few series on television that approaches the element of surprise from an artistic standpoint. The Emmy winning show played this hand very strongly throughout it’s five-season run, taking it from just a super stylish, superbly curated gangster period drama to something much, much more and memorable than…

In our 13th instalment of “Stumbled Upon”, we meet Perth’s latest hardcore sensation Statues, and chat about their upcoming tour with Heiress. Band Name: Statues Social Media: Facebook Genre: Chaotic Hardcore Members & their roles: Jayme – Vocals Scott – Guitar John – Guitar Matt – Bass Dan – Drums What music or artists inspired…

Last July saw The AU Review venture to the Quebec City Summer Festival in Quebec, Canada where we caught up with New York based outfit The London Souls. Having just performed, Chris, Tash and Stu talk about a scary incident during their show, appreciative Canadian crowds, the history of the band and what’s next for them on an international scale.

The Annual Canadian Music Week has chosen to feature Australia and New Zealand for their 33rd installment, hosting 21 elite industry members and over 25 artists to participate in conferences, performances and awards shows… with more to come!

London based Vanilla Ace is set to tour Australia for the very first time this January, thanks to Soapbox Artists. After exploding onto the EDM scene in 2012, the producer will finally be bringing his soulful house music to some of the most loved underground venues on Australia’s East Coast. Citing influences ranging from 1980’s disco to New Swing Jack, this is not a show to miss!

Since launching onto the Melbourne scene in 2011, with an annual event at the Forum Theatre, the boutique festival Sugar Mountain has become one of Australia’s most anticipated events. Always boasting an incredibly well curated lineup, the event endeavours to provide an experience you won’t have at any other festival. And by all accounts it…

Based on the best-selling autobiography of the same name, Clint Eastwood’s new film American Sniper is the gripping story of Chris Kyle, the “Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History”. Starring Bradley Cooper in the lead role, the film avoid the typical “war movie” plot twists or convolution, endeavouring instead to focus on a man who…

We look back at the 14 TV shows that we couldn’t get enough of in 2014… 14. Banshee This little known series produced by one the more low brow networks in the US (Cinemax), has a plenty of thrills and was one of the more underrated shows of the past couple of years. This series…

Wicked: The Musical is in its final weeks at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney, with the Emerald City closing down on January 30th before it moves on to Brisbane (opening February 12th) and then Perth in May – and we have a double pass to give away to one of the final shows! One lucky…

It’s that time again where we look ahead to the year, rather than backwards, and move through the Australian artists we think will make it big in 2015. Now, our definition of “big” doesn’t mean a Gotye size explosion – we just think that by the end of this year, all these artists will be…

Big news for horror fans today as Alex Garland, screenwriter for 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, as well as director for the upcoming Ex Machina, popped by the IGN offices in London and opened up about the very strong possibility of making the very long-awaited 28 Months Later a reality. Garland stated, ““We’ve…

Cult comedy and regular best. show. ever recipient Community was purchased by Yahoo! last year, adding to the confusion over the series foggy future. At least that future is a bit clearer now with the announcement that the show will return for a Sixth Season, an announcement made at a panel which included series creator…

Ben & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas are back with a bang this summer, bringing music by day and movies by night to Sydney’s Bondi Beach. As part of a nationwide series of events, which are enjoyed by more than 150,000 people across Australia, the Sydney leg of the tour will take place on the lawn by…

With Banshee now entering it’s third season, it’s time for fans to own the complete second season of this action-packed series on Home Release. Released in stores nation-wide as of today (Wednesday 14th January), the Home Release of Banshee is packed full of special features including episode recaps, Banshee origin stories, twitter commentary with the…

Make no mistake about it, the story which has inspired director Angelina Jolie to bring this film to life is equal parts heartbreaking and genuinely inspiring, digging into the crux of the human spirit – or rather a particular human spirit – and a resilience that seems almost impossible. Unbroken is a biopic about remarkable…

Earlier this month we revealed our top 40 albums of 2014, which included 14 albums from Australia (including The Smith Street Band as our number one!). As we did last year, however, we want to make sure as many Australian albums are highlighted as possible! So, we’ve gone back to our list of votes from…

We’re excited to present Kim Churchill fans with an amazing opportunity. We’re giving away two tickets to two lucky winners to his show at the Oxford Art Factory in Darlinghurst, Sydney, on Saturday the 24th of January. Winners will also be treated to a meet and greet with Kim at the venue after sound check…

Farewelling Australia next month will be much loved US post-hardcore/melodic rock group Conditions, hitting the stage as part of the mammoth Soundwave Festival tour. In advance of the bittersweet shows, the band’s lead vocalist Brandon Roundtree shared with us ten of his favourite tracks for today’s exclusive playlist: Song name: Better In The Dark Artist:…