Author: Larry Heath

the AU review’s Larry Heath sits backstage at Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie, NSW, with Sydney based hip hop duo Jackie Onassis to talk about their brand new mixtape SUSHI and we get the latest on their next full length album, due out in 2015. We also look back at the band’s experiences…

the AU review’s Larry Heath sits down with Karl S Williams backstage at Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie, NSW, to find out his highlights of 2014 and his favourite record of the year, Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There.

One Last Time. It’s the hashtag that’s being used to promote the last film in the epic Lord of the Rings universe – a reference to a line in the film, but also a clever reminder about how we’re supposed to feel about the film. NOSTALGIC. This is (hopefully) the last time we’ll have the…

Now that we’ve brought our best songs of 2014 countdown to an end, it’s time to get to the albums. And what an incredible year it’s been for the album – this was definitely the harder of the two lists to put together. Both at home and across the globe, 2014 was an amazing year…

Brazilian singer/songwriter Seu Jorge brings his vibrant Latin American music straight from the heart of Rio de Janeiro to Australia for his debut visit this January. Here for the Sydney Festival, Jorge will play one headline show at the Forum in Melbourne on January 13. We have TWO double passes to give away to the…

Alongside a new cabin outfitting which was launched in September 2013 – optimising travel primarily for its premium customers – Singapore Airlines introduced a state of the art upgrade to KrisWorld – its In Flight Entertainment (IFE) system – for its brand new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, currently operating from Singapore to Sydney, London and Tokyo…

We’re wrapping up our year by bringing you backstage coverage from Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie, talking to some of Australia’s finest artists about the festival and getting them the reflect on 2014. First up, we bring you our full chat with Adelaide based rapper Allday: See what Allday thought of Aussie Hip…

Today we conclude our list of best songs of 2014, as voted by the AU’s amazing group of contributors… in case you haven’t been keeping up to date on where we’ve gotten to so far, you can check out 40-31, 30-21 and 20-11. 10. Kingswood – ICFTYDLM (I Can Feel That You Don’t Love Me)…

We continue on with our best songs of 2014, as voted by the AU’s amazing group of contributors… in case you haven’t been keeping up to date on where we’ve gotten to so far, you can check out 40-31 and 30-21. 20. Coldplay – A Sky Full of Stars 19. Courtney Barnett – Pickles in…

Welcome to our new series where we take you on a culinary journey around the world, picking up our favourite food treats along the way. We begin in Hong Kong – a city for business, a city for shopping and a city for FOOD. It’s hard to go wrong when it comes to a good…

Last Monday, in an Australian first, a mix of media, travel industry and 100 Facebook competition winners got the chance to party on board Australia’s largest cruise ship – Royal Carribean’s Voyager of the Seas – in a Facebook Party at Sea. The party marked the relaunch of the ship after a huge multi million…

It’s that time of the year again when the AU team vote on their favourite songs of the year, resulting in our annual top 40 song list… taking in a mix of local and international music that we haven’t gotten enough of this year. We start things local though at number 40… 40. Thelma Plum…

Following on from yesterday’s first ten tracks, today we bring you the next ten songs that have been voted as the best of the year by the AU review contributors. So, without any wasted time… 30. Taylor Swift – Blank Space Jules LeFevre: Tongue in cheek with a devastating hook – “Blank Space” is proof…

As we come to the end of 2014, we’ve been talking to a lot of our favourite local and international artists about their year in music. Few have had bigger years than Bluejuice‘s Jake Stone, who has spent the last few months playing shows to bring his time in Bluejuice to an end (though Falls…

In our final AU session for 2014, we capture South Carolina’s Trevor Hall performing his track “Wish Man” in a park in Sydney, Australia. The track is taken from his record Chapter Of The Forest, out now. Trevor will return to Australia in 2015 to play Bluesfest and shows with Michael Franti. Photo by Gwendolyn…

the AU review sat down with Jason Mraz during his brief December 2014 Australian tour. In part one of the interview, Mraz talks about his experiences touring Australia, Asia and the world. He talks about sharing his “tools of transformation… to remind people that our thoughts, speech, actions and attitudes… that’s what dictates our life…

It was a dusty start for punters on the second day of Festival of the Sun, as the weather shined on us once again. Most were slow to hit the stage as they tried to wash their hangovers away – some quite literally with the ocean just metres away. A little late to enter ourselves,…

While at Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie, we asked Allday to share with us what he reckoned were the best Aussie Hip Hop albums of 2014. Here’s what he had to say:

Following the cancellation of Blur at this year’s Big Day Out, the group’s lead singer Damon Albarn called time on their reunion shows to release his debut self-titled album Everyday Robots. The album, while well received, essentially ensured that Blur wouldn’t be making it to Australian shores anytime soon. But hope remained that Albarn –…

From the opening track where he exclaims “the golden age is over” with a sort of Antony gravitas, French artist Woodkid – the moniker of Yoann Lemoine – has you in the palm of his hands. And that’s before the production kicks in. Trumpets, piano, strings… It’s like something out of the instrumental realm of…

Sometimes brand activations create a lot of “wow” factor. Other times confusion. Sometimes there is confusion mixed with “wow” and you know that you’re being given a rare experience. Over Halloween weekend in Sydney, Toshiba partnered with Intel to deliver a free event that had crowds lined up around the block. Taking over District 01…

It never ceases to amaze me how some bands manage to stay far below the radar of the average music fan. In spite of no less than six critically acclaimed full length records, international touring (including a visit to Australia for Harvest Festival back in 2011) and ticking all the boxes that an “underground success…

We partnered with hotel brand Ibis to start a music reviewer program which will gave one lucky winner the opportunity to review Stereosonic Festival in Brisbane earlier this month. The winner, Michelle Gianotti, looks back at her experience: The second weekend of Stereosonic’s epic 2014 stopped in at none other than Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds. The…

As parts of Sydney’s CBD remain in lock down as a result of the siege in Martin Place, the Sydney Opera House have “decided to cancel tonight’s performances at the Opera House. This is to minimise pressure on transport networks and to provide as much notice as possible to staff and patrons.” The cancelled performances…

Wow, has it really been eight years since Modest Mouse last released a record? Apparently it has. But the band will return in March with the much anticipated Strangers to Ourselves. And now today we get our first taste of the record with the single “Lampshades on Fire” being premiered today on The Current’s website…

Against all odds, expectations and forecasts, Festival of the Sun lived up to its name this weekend in the coastal NSW town of Port Macquarie, delivering two days of great music, excellent vibes and, indeed… a great deal of Sun. Though people start camping from much earlier – enjoying their BYO drinks, limited capacity (3,000)…

Hardly a year goes by without the release of new Beatles related material. Be they compilation albums, books, covers, gimmicks… it seems there’s always something to keep fans of the iconic British band happy. At this point though, unless McCartney or Ringo bring out some new auto-biography, filled with never before known details, is there…

There were some great releases in 2014, locally and internationally. Instead of wafting on about them and throwing in Pitchfork reviewer wanker buzzwords, I thought it would be easier to list the albums that I enjoyed in 2014: AUSTRALIAN RELEASES 1. Mink Mussel Creek – Mink Mussel Manticore 2. Dan Sultan – Blackbird 3. Blank…

If you read my review of Clockenflap festival in Hong Kong last week, you may remember I mentioned that there were quite a few bands saying that this was the first time they’d played together on a stage… in front of a crowd. Coming from Australia, you can’t help but think that this is the…

Ahead of his return to Australia next month, playing Sugar Mountain, MONA FOMA, Sydney Festival and more, we caught up with Baltimore electronic artist (and one of the greatest live acts you’ll ever see) Dan Deacon while he was in Hong Kong to play Clockenflap Festival. We get the latest on his much anticipated new…