Aussie freelance journalist, sports, music, entertainment, top 10 lists. Take beach pics too.
Summer may be long gone but Perth’s Factory Summer Festival has been rolling the past few weeks, delayed due to the WA government’s restrictions, with The Presets the latest to grace the stage at Metro City. Factory has traditionally attracted a younger crowd with its inviting outdoor set-up and trendy image, so this year’s forced…
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The hard work of organisers is set to pay off with Perth’s Factory Summer Festival set to fire up this Easter long weekend and for the remainder of April with The Presets, Illy and Northeast Party House among the acts to come. The Factory Summer Festival, originally slated for December and January, had to be…
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Sydney indie rockers Lime Cordiale have grown hugely in popularity over the past 12 months but it’s come during a period where live shows have been limited, so headlining the first SNACK Festival at Perth’s Metro City drew a sold-out crowd. Since last July’s release of their widely acclaimed sophomore LP 14 Steps To A…
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Brisbane indie pop band Sheppard have never quite been wholly accepted by Australian audiences, despite massive world tours, top 10 hits around the globe and boasting more than 740 million streams across all platforms led by huge 2014 hit “Geronimo”. Sheppard – now a core three-piece consisting of siblings George, Amy and Emma – are…
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Mix Reuben Kaye with a 10:15pm timeslot and you’re bound to get scandalous late night debauchery, filthy fun and plenty of laughs. The Kaye Hole at the Rechabite, as part of Perth’s Fringe World Festival, didn’t disappoint. The Kaye Hole is Reuben’s variety show (separate to his earlier solo show), supported by his band, featuring…
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“You’ve seen live streams before, but not like this,” The Hives lead singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist promised early as the Swedish garage rockers tried something a little different with a “Sydney show” last Thursday. The Swedish five-piece had launched a World Wide Web World Tour with six different dates across the globe including Berlin, London,…
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After more than five years, Jarryd James is back with his hugely anticipated second album P.M. and it doesn’t disappoint. Bursting on to the scene in 2015 with huge hit single “Do You Remember”, James’ long play builds on that with exquisite R&B tracks full of mood, texture and reflection. Recording P.M. took James some…
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Charismatic, bedazzling, intelligent, salacious and unbelievably natural on stage. Reuben Kaye’s self-titled cabaret drag solo show has it all. Humour, theatre and brute/obscene honesty as well as an entrancing level of crowd interaction. Described as “the evil love child of Liza Minnelli and Jim Carrey”, Kaye is one of the headline acts at this month’s Fringe…
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Swedish rock ‘n’ rollers The Hives have always been known for their charismatic and energetic live shows and this week they’ll play a Sydney show as part of their World’s First World Wide Web World Tour 2021. But the shows won’t be your standard online stream, with The Hives differentiating themselves with a unique level…
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COVID-19 and lockdown delayed the release of Illy’s sixth studio album The Space Between by eight months. Although for an album three years in the making, a bit of patience wasn’t too much to ask for both artist and his fanbase. He’s dropped plenty of singles in the meantime. Melbourne-based Illy, Alasdair Murray, hadn’t put…
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WA alt-rockers Birds of Tokyo have done plenty in their 15-year existence, but a symphonic tour is something completely foreign and new, so frontman Ian Kenny admitted they were “shitting bricks” with their first few shows at the idyllic Perth Concert Hall over the weekend. Birds of Tokyo’s symphonic tour commenced on Thursday night with…
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Anglo-American rock band The Kills have forged a career spanning twenty years, releasing five studio albums and four extended plays. Now they’ve re-mastered a 20-track collection of B-sides and rare tracks which were released between 2002 and 2009 and put it out titled, Little Bastards. In such a project there is always a risk of going…
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Fledging Perth producer Ukiyo, aka Timothy Arnott, may have garnered money-can’t-buy endorsements from Will Smith and Pharrell Williams but that wasn’t enough to genuinely draw a crowd for his maiden album launch at Jack Rabbit Slim’s in his hometown on Saturday night. It may have been a thin turn-out for the self-titled album launch, but…
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After a long absence, Wolf & Cub are back, but not as you know it, armed with a new drummer, a heavier sound and a ‘zero-f**ks-given’ attitude all on show with new album NIL. NIL is Wolf & Cub’s fourth studio album. But, their first since 2013’s Heavy Weight which failed to deliver the commercial success…
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As restrictions are slowly eased around Australia leading to the gradual return of live gigs, it feels like there’s pent-up energy ready to be released at every show but Perth indie-poppers Spacey Jane took the cake at a sold-out Bar 1 in Perth on Friday night. The local garage four-piece are quickly becoming renowned for…
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It’s been eight years since Melbourne alt-rockers Something For Kate released any new material so you’d be excused for thinking they’d split up as a band. But, this Friday their seventh album The Modern Medieval drops to much anticipation. Frontman Paul Dempsey says: “I should point out that we have played shows in every one…
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It’s a huge week approaching for Perth’s indie-pop four-piece Spacey Jane who begin a new tour in Western Australia on Friday, while they’ve been nominated for Triple J’s Australian Album of the Year, with the winner to be announced on Thursday. Drummer Kieran Lama admits they’ve deliberately set their expectations low for the J Award…
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US-born, Germany-raised, London-studied, Melbourne-based dream-pop producer/songwriter Anika Ostendorf is Hachiku and she’s just released her debut LP I’ll Probably Be Asleep. The album references the sunshine of Beach House, whilst contrasting with tension and themes of angst and nomadism. Ostendorf leads Hachiku; which includes three other band members Georgia Smith, Jessie L. Warren and Simon Reynolds….
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It’s only been two months since Fremantle indie-poppers San Cisco released their fourth studio album Between You And Me and for the past fortnight they’ve been making hay while the sun shines with WA’s relaxed restrictions with a series of the shows, the latest on Saturday night at Freo Social. Saturday night’s gig was actually…
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Money-can’t-buy endorsements from Will Smith, Pharrell Williams and Casey Neistat, to name a few, have given 23-year-old Perth electronic producer Ukiyo a big head start, and helped him to amass over forty million streams before the release of his debut LP. Now this week his self-titled debut album Ukiyo finally drops to a healthy degree of…
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Western Australian dark pop songbird Felicity Groom is back with her third album Magnetic Resonance Centre; her first since 2014. And she’s bitten off plenty, largely producing it herself amidst having and raising two daughters. “It has been predominantly written and recorded in in my house in-between daytime naps that my children would have,” Groom explains in…
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“I thought this revolving stage would be a nightmare but it’s awesome,” Eskimo Joe singer Kav Temperley exclaimed two songs into their set at the ground-breaking Good Day Sunshine Festival in WA’s south-west region on Saturday, in a ringing endorsement. It was the question on everyone’s lips. Festival organisers Macro Music had created a world-first…
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Redcliffe-raised, Melbourne-based songsmith Stephen Grady has been around the indie-folk scene for about five years now, but in 2020 he’s letting it all out. There’s a great quote in his bio which sums it up best: “The best stuff may still be round the corner but I can’t get there if I keep holding back.” With…
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Four pens and a rotating stage!? The future of live music festivals in the COVID world may be on show this Saturday when the ground-breaking Good Day Sunshine Festival takes place in WA’s South-West, headlined by John Butler and Xavier Rudd. As we learn to live with coronavirus, new initiatives are emerging. Promoters Macro Music…
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Songwriter and musician Liam McGorry has been on the Melbourne music scene in various guises for the past decade. But, he’s now taken the solo plunge with the moniker Ex-Olympian and debut album Afterlife, creating a sunshine-filled indie soul record. McGorry will be known to many from his work with Saskwatch, Dorsal Fins and Eagle and…
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He may have admitted nerves and rustiness in the lead-up to his first live event in more than six months, but DJ Tom Loud, aka Hot Dub Time Machine has still got it when it comes to get a crowd energized. Hot Dub was billed as the main attraction at Saturday’s sold-out Wine Machine festival…
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There’s been a high level of anticipation about the album drop for the collaboration of drum and bass royalty Sub Focus And Wilkinson and they haven’t failed to deliver with Portals; a journeying 11-track that has moves downtempo and orchestral, but sticks with their D&B signature style. After the pair released single “Take It Up”…
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Like most in the music industry, the past seven months since COVID-19 hit has heavily impacted DJ Tom Lowndes, aka Hot Dub Time Machine or DJ Tom Loud. But this weekend he’ll finally return to the live scene with two shows in Perth. Tom is currently quarantining in an Airbnb house in Perth’s outer suburbs,…
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Whichever way you try, Mildlife don’t fit neatly into any genre or pocket. This Melbourne alt-rock four-piece are carving their own original niche and have built upon their burgeoning reputation with this second offering, Automatic, a six-track album which runs for 40 minutes. Mildlife’s 2018 debut Phase led to labels of sci-fi space-jazz or psych-kraut-rock. There’s…
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It makes you feel old when you consider that Melbourne synth-pop rockers Cut Copy have been around more than 15 years now, but here they are with their sixth studio album Freeze, Melt. Between 2017 album Haiku From Zero and this release, the band went their separate ways, with likeable lead singer Dan Whitford moving…
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