Author: Larry Heath

Sound City is a feature length documentary, directed by Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), about the human element of music, the lost art of analogue recording, and the history of America’s greatest unsung recording studio, Sound City. It will screen at select cinemas in Australia tomorrow night (Thursday 31st January), with additional cinemas and times…

Australia Day at The Vic took place in The Vic’s empty car park otherwise known as The Projects. This year it featured the local kings of mega hectic psychedelic reggae Sticky Fingers and inner west’s hip hop heroes Daily Meds.

Nuns are a bunch of curly haired party boys from Wollongong who have decided to release some music. Their summer heartbreak anthem “Shotgun Girl” is the first taste off their upcoming debut EP. The track premieres today on the AU review and is available for download now off Bandcamp! Shotgun Girl by NUNS LINKS: http://www.facebook.com/nunsmusic…

Every now and then a romantic film comes along that avoids a vast amount of the clichés that plague the majority of the genre (especially from the US). It’s usually a refreshing, entertaining, well produced take on the concept. The latest film to tick these boxes and save us from the romantic tripe that the…

Archie Roach has suffered than his fair share of hardships over the last three years. Following the passing of his partner and soul mate Ruby Hunter in 2010, Roach suffered a stroke and went on to lose a lung to cancer not long after that; both times seeing the beloved Aboriginal artist head into rehabilitation….

In the country to play St Jerome’s Laneway Festival next weekend, Seattle based Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius first snuck in two intimate showcases, including one on the closing night of the 2013 Sydney Festival, at The Famous Spiegeltent. The tour comes almost a year after the artist released his acclaimed sophomore LP Put Your…

I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed an explicitly classical music production before. Years ago I spoke about Run Lola Run‘s live presentation at Sydney Festival with The Bays, and at this year’s event I’ve already talked about a Jazz Orchestra, but in either case I’m very much out of my comfort zone here. At least…

Interview with Tim Levinson (a.k.a. Urthboy) backstage at the 2013 Big Day Out in Sydney. We talk about the year ahead, balancing working on the record label and producing his own music, playing the Big Day Out and more! Video Credits Interview: Larry Heath Camera: Yaya Stempler / Nathan Atkins Sound: Lucy Inglis Edit: Nathan…

As seems to be the trend of many bands playing Big Day Out this year (The Killers, Foals etc.), we’re getting a unique opportunity to catch some pretty big names in relatively intimate settings. Take last night’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig as a perfect example of this; the band played the 1200-or-so capacity Metro Theatre,…

Podcast produced and hosted by Tiffany Britchford, featuring Claire Knight, Phil Perez and Larry Heath.

While we were in New York for CMJ, we headed down to Coney Island just before it was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy and happened to bump into Brisbane boys Dune Rats wreaking their own havoc on the Island, which happened to be celebrating the Halloween season at the time. They managed to get a music…

Two men. Two acoustic guitars. An hour and 15 minutes of music. It would be fair to say that this is the best way one might describe this weekend’s debut Australian performance of The New Mendicants, aka Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub, among others, and Joe Pernice from The Pernice Brothers, among others. The pair,…

While backstage at the Big Day Out in Sydney, we sat down with Sydney duo Toucan to talk about their new EP, playing the festival and much, much more… Video Credits Interview: Larry Heath Camera: Yaya Stempler / Nathan Atkins Sound: Lucy Inglis Edit: Nathan Atkins

Every now and then a show comes along where being a fan makes it rather difficult to write a review that isn’t full of hyperbole and inexplicable excitement. For me, Weezer was one of those shows. But don’t let my status as a “fan” belittle any praise bestowed upon this gig. I’ve seen Weezer before,…

Supported by a superb five piece band and some of the best songs in the history of music, it would be fair to say that Angélique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves and Lizz Wright should have had a fairly easy night winning over their Sydney Festival crowd for the “Sing The Truth” concert – an evening of…

One thing I love about events like Sydney Festival is that it gives you the chance to discover new artistic beings you probably should have already known about, but didn’t. Robert Wyatt was one such being, whose name I’d heard echo around the music ether over the years, but never really took the time to…

Currently on tour in Australia, I had the opportunity to catch Vancouver based outfit The River and the Road in Sydney last Thursday night and was truly blown away by their music and their strong performance. Last year the band released their debut album, and this track “I’m Broke” is one of its many fine…

As we speak, there are three Spiegeltents doing the rounds (pun intended) in and around Sydney. Two are for Sydney Festival – The Famous Spiegeltent in Hyde Park you’re probably already familiar with, and the newer addition, The Idolize Spiegeltent, sits in Parramatta (and was also part of the Darwin Festival last year). The third…

You might recognize him as “the guy with a beard” you often see in festival pits around Australia (or even the world), and now Kane Hibberd (aka Kanye Lens) is releasing a book that captures his experiences photographing the Soundwave Festival since it went national in 2008. The book, Kanye Lens Vs Soundwave Volume 1…

One of the first food trucks to make a stand on the Sydney scene was Eat Art Truck, with a changing menu that focused on an Asian-American fusion of delicacies – and plenty of other influences along the way. Just like Cantina Mobil before them, who recently opened up a physical storefront off Oxford Street,…

There was a period – let’s say between October 2010 and February 2011, from the time their record Gorilla Manor broke until they played Laneway in Australia – that everyone was talking about Local Natives. Naturally they haven’t so much been in hiding since then, but rather working on new material. Late last year we…

10. Cloud Nothings – Wasted Days “If your face was not melted off upon your first of many, many listens to this phenomenal grunge-rock jam, you were listening to a different song entirely.” – David Young 9. Jack White – Love Interruption 8. Frank Ocean – Thinkin Bout You “The lead single is as smooth…

It’s a big week here in Sydney. Every night there seem to be dozens of bands playing sideshows from their Falls, Field Day, Southbound, Peats and Woodford appearances – and there simply aren’t enough people in this city to fill every venue with a $50 ticket. Unfortunately this meant that the crowds were not out…

One of the highlights of the Sydney Festival every year are the string of phenomenal, intimate performances that take place in The Famous Spiegeltent in Hyde Park. Helping kick things off last night for 2013 was Brooklyn based talent Sharon Van Etten, who was using Sydney Festival to not only launch her first ever tour…

Sydney Festival time is upon us once again and this year the festival passed on its usual “Festival First Night” branding and introduced us to “Day One: An Opening in Three Acts”, which was a rather artistic way of telling us there would be three events happening in the Sydney CBD on the first day…

Walking onto the stage to an eerie projection and soundtrack, the Swedish duo that make up First Aid Kit – aided tonight by two others and playing in front of a sold out Sydney Opera House crowd – launched straight into the “In The Morning”, before taking us through tracks from The Big Black &…

Having had a fair dose of laughter thanks to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival travelling roadshow, I headed to Shroom in New Delhi for the Second Aussie BBQ, which was part of a very jam packed final two days of my time in India. The show, in the futuristic surrounds of the venue – where…

What was once known as “Sydney Festival First Night” will tomorrow be rebranded as “Day One” – a day long event that runs throughout the city of Sydney. This morning at Sydney’s Town Hall, the artistic director of the festival, Lieven Bertels, walked media through tomorrow’s festivities that ends in a concert in the Domain…

We continue our countdown of the best tracks of 2012, as voted by our contributors! 30. Steve Smyth – No Man’s Land 29. Grizzly Bear – Sun In Your Eyes 28. Blood Red Shoes – Cold 27. Chance Waters – Young and Dumb 26. Iluka – Paper Doll 25. Kendrick Lamar – Bitch, Dont Kill…

In the first week of 2013 that begun traditionally with a stellar day at The Domain thanks to Field Day, it was time to kick off the Falls Festival sideshows with a string of events around the city. Though the following night would end up proving the most difficult for clashes, there was plenty on…