Features

CMJ's Top 5 Artists of May 2012.

CMJ – or College Music Journal – is a weekly print publication and website that looks at the College Music scene, as well as throwing an annual music industry festival in New York in October. Always keen to discover new music, the folks behind CMJ have been kind enough to exclusively share their favourite new…

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Exclusive Video Feature: Ray Mann's Sketches 4, 5 and 6

In September 2011, Australian soul singer/songwriter Ray Mann relocated to Berlin and began recording and releasing his new album Sketches, online, one track at a time. Instead of disappearing for 12 months and then resurfacing with a finished album, Ray is completing each song – and its accompanying video – online, month-to-month, with audience participation….

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Exclusive Video Feature: The Experiment (Wayne Coyne at the 4ZZZ Studios in Brisbane)

When Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips was in town for Harvest last November, he stopped by the 4ZZZ studios in Brisbane to partake in a bit of an experiment… it’s hard to explain exactly what happened, so maybe let’s leave that to the video – in the first video in our new documentary series.

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Our Top 6 Coachella 2012 Moments… and a few honourable mentions.

Whether you were at the festival itself, or you were glued to your computer screen, this past weekend was all about the first weekend of Coachella, which featured one amazing performance after another, for three jam-packed days. Gotye held the flag up high for Australia (though pulled the live stream last minute), and impressed, but…

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Splendour Single Stream: Zulu Winter "Key To My Heart" (2012)

In just a few hours we’ll be finally hearing the 2012 Splendour in the Grass lineup. But so far we do know ONE artist who’s making the journey: UK’s Zulu Winter. From their forthcoming record Language, which is due out locally on May 11th, here’s the latest single “Key To My Heart”. Let’s see what…

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Our 5 favourite Newton's Nation Unsigned Artists Entries (so far…)

Newtons Nation and bandit.fm Records are searching for an unsigned artist to perform at Newtons Nation Festival on Sat April 28th April. This competition closes TODAY at 5pm with the winner being announced tomorrow. Just in case there were any of you out there still thinking of entering, we thought we’d have a look at…

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Live Footage: DZ Deathrays get kicked offstage at the SXSW Convention Centre 2012

Brisbane duo DZ Deathrays cranked up their music to 11 during the annual Block Party at SXSW’s convention centre, so much so that the festival organisers had to tell them to end their set. Thankfully they let them finish the song… here’s the footage! Cameras: Larry Heath and Andrew Wade Edit: Larry Heath

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Exclusive Trailer Premiere: We're Sorry There Weren't More Strobes – A Short Film About DZ Deathrays.

In celebration of the release of their debut album Bloodstreams (out now), the AU review is premiering, exclusively, the official trailer for an upcoming short documentary film about DZ Deathrays: We’re Sorry There Weren’t More Strobes. The film focuses on their August 2011 support tour around Australia with Children Collide, during which time they won…

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A SXSW Retrospective: The AU Crew’s 12 SXSW Highlights of 2012.

Just before we all headed off to Austin for the 2012 SXSW Festival, we told you our 12 picks for the festival. Well some of them we saw (and were impressed by), others we missed, and of course at the other end of the spectrum there were plenty of surprises. Here now are our 12…

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The Pre-SXSW Diaries: Emma Louise and The Aussie BBQ in Los Angeles + Interactive Events in Austin (09-12.03.12)

The trip to SXSW is always fraught with adventure, and this year was no different. Flying into Los Angeles on Friday afternoon – and arriving earlier that morning thanks to the wonders of the international date line – we hit the ground running and enjoyed the spoils of the Universal Studios to keep ourselves from…

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The 12 artists you shouldn't miss at SXSW 2012.

Andrew Wade: SXSW has rapidly become my favorite event of the year. Travel, free booze, music, free booze, partying, good friends and… free booze. There’s also a massive opportunity to meet and watch some of the best musicians and groups in the world today. Here are my highlights for the 2012 event; I’ll be endeavoring…

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National SLAM Day taking over 100+ Venues this Thursday, 23rd February.

More than 100 music venues from around the country will celebrate Australia’s thriving live music scene at National Slam Day on February 23rd 2012. The day comes exactly two years after 20,000 passionate music fans marched down Melbourne’s Swanston Street for the inaugural SLAM Day in response to crippling Victorian liquor licensing laws, creating the…

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Exclusive Single Stream: Oh Ye Denver Birds "Sea Other" (2012)

One of our favourite bands here at the AU review is Oh Ye Denver Birds, and they’ve just announced that their debut album Good Ivy – will be available for online purchase on March 20th through Inertia. Exciting stuff! In celebration of this, they have made their opening track “Sea Other” available for online streaming…

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Exclusive Video Feature: Ray Mann's Sketches 1, 2 and 3

In September 2011, Australian soul singer/songwriter Ray Mann relocated to Berlin and began recording and releasing his new album Sketches, online, one track at a time. Instead of disappearing for 12 months and then resurfacing with a finished album, Ray is completing each song – and its accompanying video – online, month-to-month, with audience participation….

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the AU [audio] interview at Peats Ridge: Oliver Tank (Sydney)

In our final Peats Ridge Interview from the New Years 2011 event, we caught up with Sydney based electronic artist Oliver Tank, to chat about the year past and the year ahead…

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the AU [audio] interview at Peats Ridge: Richard Cuthbert (Sydney)

We chat to Sydney’s Richard Cuthbert about playing Peats Ridge, his new record, and we look forward into 2012 – heading to Berlin and more… listen on!

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Video: Aussie artists tell us their New Years Resolutions for 2012…

Filmed at Peats Ridge Festival and at Festival of the Sun, we find out the New Years Resolutions of bands from around Australia for 2012. Including The Brothers Grim, The Medics, Pigeon, The Holidays, The Delta Riggs, Microwave Jenny, The Snowdroppers, Benjalu, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Minnie Marks, Thundamentals, Sietta and Richard Cuthbert. Camera: Yaya…

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12 Australian Bands to watch in 2012… and 5 from overseas…

Jumping on the bandwagon, here, in no particular order, are twelve Australian bands we’re looking out for in 2012… five bands from overseas we’re predicting big things for here in Australia… AND a couple of Australian bands the rest of the world should have their eye on! Madness! Read on… Deep Sea Arcade Why? The…

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Our 11 Favourite International Tours of 2011…

What an amazing year we had in 2011! We bring our 2011 “Best Of” retrospective coverage to an end with a look back now at our 11 favourite tours from the year, featuring the international artists we hope will keep coming back to Australia for more… 11. Future of the Left This is one crazy…

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the AU [audio] interview at Peats Ridge Festival: San Cisco (Perth)

Backstage at Peats Ridge Festival over New Years we caught up with up-and-coming Perth group San Cisco to find out more about their forthcoming EP Awkward, their thoughts on playing the Big Day Out and much more…

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Our 11 Favourite Local Tours of 2011…

What an amazing year we had in 2011! We’re taking a look back now at our 11 favourite tours from the year, featuring the local artists who dominated our live scene… 11. Jinja Safari Off the back of plenty of triple j lovin’, a fantastic EP and their debut LP Locked by Land, Jinja Safari…

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Our Favourite Festivals of 2011…

We asked our contributors to share with us their favourite festivals of 2011. We collected the votes and these were their TOP FIVE touring festivals of 2011… 5. Groovin’ The Moo A festival we love so much here at the AU review that it graced the cover of the 2010 edition of Australia’s Year in…

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the AU [audio] interview at Peats Ridge: Founds (Brisbane)

Backstage at the 2011 Peats Ridge Festival, Larry Heath catches up with up and coming Brisbane outfit Founds to talk about the festival, their forthcoming full length release Hadean and much more… check out their track “Holograms” below the interview, too! Holograms by Founds

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Ten songs we can't wait to hear at the 2012 Big Day Out.

In spite of lagging ticket sales, the 2012 Big Day Out boasts one of the strongest lineups in years. Sure, you’ve got a couple of frequent visitors, but from the top to the bottom, artists we’ve never seen in Australia litter the lineup, alongside the best in local talent. So we’ve put together 10 tracks…

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The 10 Shows we can't wait for at Sydney Festival 2012.

Sydney Festival is as ingrained in Sydney music culture as the Hottest 100 is to Australia Day, and every year it just gets better and better. This year the festival sticks with what’s worked so well over the last few years – from Festival First Night, to the Spiegeltent and the Keystone Festival Bar (Formerly…

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Best of 2011 Countdown: Top 40 Albums – Part 3: 20-11

We’re back with the top half of our top 20 countdown albums of 2011 list, and like all those before it, it’s an electic pile of music from around the world that our contributors have been loving over the last 12 months. Let’s get it started! Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee II “The most…

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Best of 2011 Countdown: Top 11 Music Videos!

As voted by the AU review contributors, here are our favourite 11 music videos of 2011, which continues Gotye and Kimbra‘s sweep of our 2011 awards. Unlike the last countdowns, we’ll let the videos speak for themselves…. 11. Bluejuice – Act Yr Age 10. Liam Finn – Jump Your Bones 9. Big Scary – Gladiator…

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Best of 2011 Countdown: Top 40 Tracks – Part 3: 20-11

Let’s dive right into the next batch of favourite tracks of 2011, as voted by AU review contributors! 20. In 2011, this Melbourne based band became fast favourites of the live scene, with their catchy riffs, energetic stage presence and tracks like this one, which stick with you long after you turn it off… The…

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Best of 2011 Countdown: Top 40 Tracks – Part 2: 30 – 21

Let’s dive right into the next batch of favourite tracks of 2011, as voted by AU review contributors! 30. We kick off the second part of our countdown with what is easily one of the catchiest tracks of the year, by a band who will have made no less than three trips to Australia in…

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Best of 2011 Countdown: Top 40 Tracks – Part 1: 40 – 31

Can you believe it’s that time of year again? We can’t… but here we are bringing you the first part of our mammoth fortnight of eclectic “best of…” lists. First up we announce The AU Review’s Top 40 tracks of 2011, as voted by our fine contributors around the country. 40. We kick things off…

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