Year: 2016

A joint venture between quarterly magazine The Lifted Brow, RMIT University’s non/fictionLAB, and the Copyright Agency, the Prize for Experimental Non-Fiction was this year won by Brisbane based writer W.J.P. Newnham, for his autobiographical piece Trashman Loves Maree. The award celebrates work unlike any other, seeking out new and audacious voices from across the world….

One of Sydney’s all-time favourite casual dining spots, Devon Café, will be expanding from the flagship in Surry Hills this October to open a new venue at Barangaroo. The very welcome news does come with a heartbreaking announcement though: the hugely popular Devon on Danks in Waterloo will be closing its doors in a couple…

Father’s Day is this Sunday 4th September and a man’s got to eat, right? If nothing else, the day is a chance to celebrate all your main man does throughout the year, and there are few ways to do that then by treating him to a good old fashioned feast, whether it be a sunny…

Life’s pretty sweet for Adelaide rapper Tkay Maidza. She’s just dominated her first proper run of European festivals and has recently announced that she’ll be on tour with What So Not in the US before this year is out. For Australian fans, Tkay hasn’t forgotten them, with a highly anticipated BIGSOUND set bringing her back to Brisbane next…

Japanese Wallpaper has recently unleashed the visuals for “Cocoon”, a perfect way to cap off a successful run of shows on Australian turf. A collection of outdoor scenes and landscapes, the song has been further explored by director Hamish Mitchell – the end result being all types of lush and stunning. Just like “Cocoon” itself. While…

Ali Barter, drop your album already please. Since “Far Away” dropped earlier this year, the Melbourne songwriter has had us well excited for new material and with multiple opportunities now on the cards to see her perform around the country…all we need is a full record of material to cap it off. BUT. In the meantime,…

Easily one of our most anticipated Australian album releases is Ceres‘ new record, Drag It Down On You. Set to drop this Friday, the album is going to be fleshed out on a tour post-BIGSOUND but in the meantime, the Melbourne band are looking to be bringing some sweet tastes of album number two to their official…

Field Day is a must for many music fans keen to keep the New Year’s party going well into January 1st and for their 2017 event, the Sydney festival organisers have confirmed both Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino to appear. For fans of both artists, being able to catch them on the same line up, especially at a…

You know how much a ticket was to see one of my favourite artists play the last show on her current tour? $15. Fifteen Australian dollars. A year ago, I was in London spending that much on a pint of beer. Yeah, the beers were delicious, but I’d have definitely been more than happy to…

Despite the dreary winter weather still clinging to WA, people flocked to the basement of The Odd Fellow in Fremantle on Saturday night to soak up the positive vibes as it transformed into an electric den of energy under performances from L-Fresh the Lion’s Become Tour. Sparking with pointedly political verse, heavy beats and 100%…

From Australian Survivors to Pretty Little Liars and Knight’s Tales, here are our picks this week… Tuesday Australian Survivor, Ch10, 7:30pm AEST Things are heating up as the three tribes face the Immunity Challenge. Which one will survive the harsh environment? Wednesday Whitney, SoHo, 8:30pm AEST A heartwrenching biopic on the iconic singer Whitney Houston…

The A Word is an important BBC program that is based on an Israeli TV drama called Yellow Peppers. It is a show that focuses on a very real (read: dysfunctional) family as they try and cope with a five-year-old son who is diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. The Iris watched the first…

The definition of what a fringe festival can be blurred in this day and age – you sometimes get ‘big names’ on lineups, and the biggest arts festival in the world is a fringe festival for goodness sake. In any case, it’s a huge bunch of talent full of great shows and performances that are undeniably unique. With both…

Fratelli Fresh will officially launch their long awaited casual pizzeria spin-off, Fratelli Famous, this week in the level 5 food court of Westfield Sydney. Set for Wednesday 31st August, the trusted Italian brand will be firing up that custom-built pizza oven to kick off their massive planned expansion – they want to open around 100…

If you’ve visited Broadway Shopping Centre in Ultimo within the past week you may have noticed quite a few changes going on. The historic retail and dining hub has just completed a $55 million redevelopment to it’s second and third levels, an overdue refresh that has brought in new brands such as H&M, Sunglass Hut,…

On a Thursday night, The Gov fills out comfortably to await the return of Paul Dempsey to his beloved Kingdom. The air is chilly, but the vibe on the inside of the popular venue remains warm and inviting. It’s been a little while since the Australian favourite has been to Adelaide in this capacity and with…

Novocastrian alt-punk group Trophy Eyes have already built upon what was a huge 2015 with an acclaimed UNIFY Gathering appearance and continuing that momentum with a killer support slot touring with The Amity Affliction nationally. Their latest album Chemical Miracle has already been reaping in the praise since its release a few weeks ago and in their latest single, “Heaven…

She calls Melbourne home but recently, Europe has been calling Phia and like many young artists, she answered it and found herself in Berlin. Soaking up the atmosphere of a city currently thriving creatively, the Aussie singer songwriter found her feet performing and exploring threads of songwriting and arrangement that she would eventually pour into the…

Representing for Melbourne at BIGSOUND this year, the talented Ainslie Wills and her collaborator and guitarist Lawrence Folvig will be hitting up the massive conference and music festival for the first time. Currently in the process of writing and demoing some new music to follow on from their acclaimed release, Oh The Gold, Ainslie tells us how she’s…

The Shabbab. Let the Melbourne-via-Tel Aviv four piece take you through some epic garage rock this glorious Monday morning, thanks to their brilliant debut album GARLIC. Having made a name for themselves as a name to be watching in the same vein as your PONDs and your King Gizzards of late, The Shabbab step further out into…

Friday night marked Brisbane group The John Steel Singers‘ final ever show in Sydney, following the band’s decision to turn their latest tour – celebrating the release of their new LP Midnight At The Plutonium – into something of a farewell jaunt. It was a move that shocked fans, but one that ensure they came out…

Think Inc are an Australian organisation who are putting together some of the most interesting talks for people to go and educate themselves with. Taking a look at their previous events, the two-year-old organisation delve into the talking to people devoted to science more often than not, but intellectual discourse is what they aim for,…

The 20th Japanese Film Festival will return nationwide later this year, showcasing the latest in Japanese film, alongside a Classics program in Sydney. Highlights include leading Japanese horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s (Cure) new film Creepy, as well as popular manga adaptation Chihayafura Parts I and II, and seafood documentary Tsukiji Wonderland. The festival will also include a…

The Other Film Festival (TOFF), Australia’s leading deaf and disability film festival, will return next month to Melbourne. Running as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival with Arts Access Victoria, the festival aims to shed a light on the creativity and diverse storytelling from disabled or deaf creators, including a talk with deaf US filmmaker Jules Dameron…

Established in 1954, the Miles Franklin Literary Award is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, named for author Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin. At an announcement made on the opening night of the Melbourne Writers Festival, A.S. Patrić took home the $60,000 prize money, for his début novel Black Rock White City. All shortlisted applicants, which this…

You’ve no doubt heard of SodaStream by now, that home carbonation product that is pretty much a godsend for fans of sparkling water across the world. The benefits of having fresh sparkling water at your fingertips is evidently something many people have been adding to their daily kitchen (or office) routines, a trend that doesn’t…

Caribbean-sourced, Florida-bottled, New Zealand’s Stolen rum made waves a few years ago with a distinctive Coffee & Cigarettes flavour, but now they are pushing in an entirely new direction: rebranding as the world’s first smoked rum, maintaining a similar taste but toning down the sweetness and lifting the smokiness. Matured in ex-American whiskey oak barrels…

The company of others is an essential and inseparable aspect of Greek eating. The Greek table is all about celebrating the things that matter like friendship, love, food, wine (even, at times, shouting at each other). This is what we were told by chef, David Tsirekas., former Head Chef of Xanthi and Perama and the…

Ahead of the weekend, Glass Animals released How To Be A Human Being, their much anticipated second album. As a follow up to their 2014 debut Zaba, this new collection of music has seen the Oxford group continue to pursue an ambitious approach to their craft and the final result has been a joy to listen to (check…

Angel Olsen‘s latest music video, this time for her stunning tune “Sister”, showcases summer in LA, particularly at Joshua Tree National Park. Directed by Olsen and Conor Hagen, the clip features some gorgeous cinematography. As Olsen explains: “I wanted to keep from cutting these shots up too much. I wanted to slow frames down just enough…