Year: 2016

As torrential rain fell heavily on the streets of Melbourne, and people sought cover from the wild weather, the inviting warmth and vibrancy of The Press Club was a very welcome sight. In celebration of the DVD launch of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 I was invited to enjoy a Greek style menu prepared by…

It’s widely known that 8Bit have some of the best burgers in all of Australia, regularly attracting queues to their O.G Footscray and now Swanston Street venues. Just the very mention of their expertly designed burgers is enough to elicit copious amounts of drool, so think of how wet the typical Melburnian appetite will be…

Earlier this year, Sydney’s The Morrison Bar & Oyster Room was full of full crabs and claws for the annual Crab Carnival, but August will be bringing something much different to the CBD venue. For the fourth year, the team will be welcoming the popular Oyster Festival for a month-long celebration of shucked goodness across…

The recent conversation about funding cuts to community radio was met with much opposition. Much of the opposition came from the music community and bands, many of whom got their first radio play on community radio. It’s a pity that the cuts to community radio is such a real thing, because it’s bands like Brother…

From acclaimed director Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers) comes the incredible true story of six elite ex-military operators who fought to protect the CIA against overwhelming odds when terrorists attacked a U.S. diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012. Starring John Krasinski (The Office, It’s Complicated), James Badge Dale (World War Z, The Departed) and Pablo Schreiber…

A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession. Featuring Anya Taylor-Joy (Morgan, Atlantis), Ralph Ineson (The Kingsman, Guardians of the Galaxy), Kate Dickie (Prometheus, Red Road). Panic and despair envelops a farmer (Ralph Ineson), his wife (Kate Dickie) and four of their children when youngest…

Making its presence on the Australian scene known with the recent launch of what Beam Suntory and CCA are calling the “Distilled Different” campaign, Lowlands single malt Scotch whisky Auchentoshan American Oak is here to make a case for the distillery’s distinctive commitment to triple distilling every single drop. Whisky in Australia is only getting…

Two years ago Doritos and Pizza Hut partnered up to offer Australians a limited edition Doritos Crunch Crust Pizza, a relatively well-received shot at collaborative junk food that was successful enough to warrant another team-up between the brands, even if it was divisive in taste – a corn and pepperoni aftertaste? no thanks. This time…

The 2016 NT Song of the Year Awards were held in Darwin this evening, with upwards of 200 members of the industry and local music scene in attendance at the gorgeously set up Museum and Art Gallery of the NT. Of the 450 songs that were entered in this year’s competition, the entries were whittled down…

Collins Street now has a classy addition with respected Chef-Restaurateur Philippe Mouchel bringing his namesake restaurant to the laneway site following recently closed pop-up Déjà Vue. Philippe is Mouchel’s dedication to classic French cuisine with extra punch from his signature rotisserie style, said to deliver a generous and affordable casual dining experience to those who…

In this issue: New music out of Adelaide from The Winter Gypsy, Melbourne’s Residual announce their new EP, Roots Manuva has a new LP set for August, Ella Hooper releases a double EP this month and more! THE WINTER GYPSY Adelaide folk group The Winter Gypsy have announced the release of their debut EP, Page…

The Australian Music Prize judging process has kicked off for another year, as the hunt begins to find out which Australian artist or band will be taking home the $30,000 cash prize courtesy of the PPCA in the award’s 12th year. All albums released between January 1st, 2016 and December 31st, 2016 are eligible to…

“Fat man and beautiful lady pretend to be a couple for the day…” So goes the description of Toothless‘ new music video for “Palm’s Backside”, as penned by the man himself, Mr. Ed Nash. The new single from the Brit has seen him link up with the talented Marika Hackman and for the song’s visuals, the duo take to…

Next month, Canary will be bringing their sophomore album to venues in Sydney and Victoria on a little album tour that is going to see I Am Lion roar (had to do it). The Melbourne five piece have been garnering much praise for the album’s material we’ve heard so far; “Fickle Heart”, “Women’s Business” and “Here We Go” all…

Emerging Australian producer Alice Ivy this week kicked off her latest tour, this time off the back of her already warmly-embraced new tune, “Almost Here”. Bolstered by some awesome vocals and input by Georgia Van Etten and RaRa out of Melbourne, the tune has further put Alice Ivy (Annika Schmarsel) into the spotlight as a talent to be watching. Before…

This week, Glass Animals returned to Australia with a live show that had been so highly anticipated, all shows on their quick east coast run sold out impressively well in record time. Since Australian crowds first fell under the spell of their grooves and eclectic and exotic interpolation of beats and rhythm at the Falls…

This week in the music industry: for the first time ever, audio streaming has exceeded video streaming in America, and applications for the Australia Council for the Arts’ International Residencies Program open. BuzzAngle’s 2016 mid-year music sales report This week, BuzzAngle released the 2016 mid-year instalment of their  biannual reports on the performance of music sales within the American…

Last week, we brought you the first part of our feature on the diversity existing and thriving within our music industry. Across genres, artists have been standing up, proudly so, and making some incredible music that has been, as we found out, influenced by their cultural upbringings in some way. Whether they had relocated from…

Melbourne’s Tinpan Orange have this week dropped a stunning new single in “Cities of Gold”, taken from their acclaimed Love is a Dog album. The folk group have continued to assert a niche for themselves with this record; Emily Lubitz at the lead with those haunting and captivating vocals, not to mention the talents of the band as…

Etched, crafted, carved and coaxed into being in-between Brisbane and Brooklyn, Culture How Could You? is the debut album by Alice Night. Bold and conscious storytelling spun against that intimate musical frontier of expression opened up by artists such as Bjork, Beth Orton and Ani Difranco, ‘Culture How Could You?’ is at once radical honesty…

Time to get all ‘Super Saiyan’ again. The best news, it’s not too far off as Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 arrives this October!

2016 is already a mammoth year for Disney, with 4 of the 6 top grossing films a release from the studio. With another Marvel film (Doctor Strange) and a Star Wars Story (Rogue One) still to come, it’s sure to take the lion’s share of the top ten come year’s end. One of the films already released is their…

Following a teaser by the leading man himself, ABC has announced that filming for season 4 of Josh Thomas’ critically acclaimed TV series Please Like Me has begun in Melbourne. The upcoming season will consist of six episodes, with the return of familiar faces including Thomas Ward, Hannah Gadsby and Caitlin Stasey. As well as…

Relive the “golden” age of French cinema on the big screen as the annual Alliance Française Classic Film Festival returns for its first nationwide debut in August, following the festival’s extremely successful debut in Sydney last year. This year’s theme of the festival is “Les Blondes”, celebrating the light haired beauties of French film from…

Earlier this week, Nintendo kicked off a soft-rollout of their second major mobile game release, Pokémon GO. The altered reality game, which allows players to hunt and capture using the camera on their smartphones has already become a worldwide sensation. Everyone in The Iris offices has been playing it almost non-stop since it dropped and, in a…

To celebrate this year’s Calgary Stampede, which kicks off today (July 8th) in Calgary, Canada, Bar C Food & Drink is teaming up with Alberta’s first craft distillery – Eau Claire Distillery – to launch a Stampede-inspired cocktail list that will be sold exclusively during the 10-day celebration. In addition to the new cocktail list,…

Yep, you read that title correctly. Superstar comedian Amy Schumer is set to tour Australia and New Zealand this December for the first time*, playing massive indoor arenas around the country. We’d probably be able to make some crude joke here, but we’re sure she’ll have that more than covered in December, as the Inside Amy Schumer and…

Once again it is time to go through a whole bunch of fascinating shows, exhibitions and other arty stuff around the country for the month of July. Here are our picks: Cosi Fan Tutte Mozart’s opera about testing fidelity is an intriguing story to music of impossible beauty. Two men disguise themselves as Albanians and…

Melbourne food truck Mr Burger have been in the headlines as of late with their ‘win free burgers for life’ competition which required entrants to legally change their surname to Burger to win, only to have that competition swiftly shut down by state government. The situation obviously hasn’t slowed the team down though, with them…

Around 10 years ago Johnnie Walker introduced their Green Label blend into the market and it remained one of the most well-received expressions for the iconic Scotch Whisky, until it disappeared. The blended malt whisky was somewhat of an outlier in JW’s core range, but nonetheless it was loved for it’s complex profile and, when…