Features

As well as delivering some of the biggest names in Australian and International music, the annual Splendour in the Grass festival continually delivers an impressive collection of ‘bands on the fringe’ – the sorts of artists you mightn’t be familiar with YET, but by the guestimate of the organisers, but the time you see them…

They say necessity is the mother of all invention – and out of the need for a consistent alternative rock and roll band night comes Gunslinger Nights. The once a month show will be held at the Sydney’s iconic Annandale Hotel, starting off with a bang on Saturday the 30th of April and continuing on…

Larry Heath heads to Canadian Blast at SXSW and chats to Jen Lane, Buck 65, Jenn Grant & learns about Herzio.

While I was unable to attend Coachella this year (a fact which continues to pain me), I was thankfully able to pretend I was there by moshing by myself, in the privacy of my bedroom, while watching the festival streamed on YouTube. Oh, the internets – you are so majestic! While this isn’t the first…

Adelaide indie rockers City Riots have brought us a video tour diary from their first nine dates with British India as part of their national “March Into the Ocean” tour. So far the City Riots boys have visited towns they never knew existed, braved grasshopper plagues and blown up PA systems, while still allowing time…

Ted Danson. Beastie Boys. Jack Black. Will Ferrell. Cowbell. Awesome. This is hilarious.

Sydney’s Chicks Who Love Guns have released not one but TWO music videos for their new single “God, Love & Satan”. We wonder which one you prefer? Take a peak… Don’t miss the launch for the single in Sydney – next Friday!

What the hell is SXSW!? A look back at SXSW 2010. from Larry Heath on Vimeo. As we approach the 25th anniversary of SXSW, we attempt to answer the age old question: What the hell is South by Southwest!? It’s not an answer easily provided to someone who hasn’t experienced it themselves, however back in…

Welcome to this dance flavoured edition of our Music Video postings… First up, a bit of a unique take of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” here, by Sydney outfit Circle. Quite intoxicating, really. The video is no Radiohead dance experience, but a cute accompaniment all the same. Enjoy! Find out more about this band here:…

Three of Australia’s finest bands are hitting up the East Coast of Australia for a co-headline tour this March. The “Triple Rainbow Tour” will feature Ball Park Music, Eagle & The Worm and We Say Bamboulee. We caught up with all three bands to talk about the tour. And rainbows. EAGLE & THE WORM: 1….

Adelaide based Your Take Sessions headed backstage at the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival to have a chat with the Sydney based band – as well as get in a beautiful acoustic performance of their Hottest 100 track “There’s Nothing In The Water We Can’t Fight”. Alister even gets in a bit of Led Zeppelin jam….

This year’s Tropfest will see the awarding of the “Tropscore” award. There are three nominees, all of whom are listed at the end of this article, alongside further information of the awards. To learn more from the horses mouth, however, we caught up with one of the judges of the award – Josh Fielder, and…

Oh how cool was Choose Your Own Adventure when you were a kid? Hell, it’s still cool now! And as proof, The Streets have released an interactive film based around their new (and ‘final’) album Computers and Blues. Get playing and enjoy!

Our good friends at Your Take Sessions have sent us this video for your viewing pleasure. They chatted with Birds of Tokyo backstage at the Big Day Out in Adelaide and the band performed an acoustic session of “Wild At Heart”. We look forward to bringing you more material from Your Take! Stay tuned! Producer…

While backstage at Peats Ridge Festival, we caught up with Pete and Matt from Sydney’s Decoder Ring, before they played a rare live performance for the festival. We talk about what’s coming up for the band and look back to events past…

Before wowing crowds with one of his first ever solo performances (which just so happened to be at Peats Ridge), Larry caught up with Evil Eddie, best known for his work as the lead of Butterfingers. They chat about his solo project, his Triple J hit “Queensland”, YouTube, what happened to Butterfingers and much more…

Last January, the Australian branch of Rolling Stone magazine launch the 1st Annual Rolling Stone awards – with artists like Dave Grohl and Sarah Blasko among those taking out the top honours. The magazine recently announced the awards would be returning later this month, and so I caught up with Rolling Stone’s Editor-in-Chief, Matt Coyte,…

The Peats Ridge Festival love continues! Today we take you back to our chat at the festival with Dean and Kane of Brisbane up-and-comers Hungry Kids of Hungary. Before they played someone teepee, they took some time to look back at 2010 and their debut album Escapades, look forward to SXSW and 2011 and much…

One of our favourite parts of Sydney Festival is the About an Hour program – which gives those short on time and cash the opportunity to catch some wonderful theatre. The premise is simple: The shows are round about 60 minutes, and the price tag is $30 for all performances and all tickets. Not bad,…

When we started this list, we mentioned that there were a few surprises along the way – this is no doubt thanks to the fact that we’re counting down tracks, not singles, that were released in 2010 in any form. What surprised even us, however, that the number one spot would not go to a…

We arrive at the business end of our top 40 countdown, kicking off the top 20 with a track sure to hit pretty high up on the Hottest 100 countdown. This is one of those bands that has some incredibly dedicated fans. But when you’re making music as good as this, it’s should come as…

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you had a lovely day yesterday. At AU HQ, we return with the next 10 tracks that blew us all away this year… 30. We kick things off with one of our favourite bands from Perth: The Novocaines. The Novocaines – Adhere To 29. It comes in criminally low on…

As we’ve been going through the top 40 tracks and albums of the year, I thought we should take some time out to recognise some of the best music videos of 2010. Although you’ll see a few familiar faces here, this is very much about the visuals – what were those standout “wow” moments of…

We were originally going to do a top 20 tracks of 2010, but the AU review crew delivered such a diverse range of tracks – in such a close race – that we had to expand the list to the top 40! Much like the Hottest 100, the only rule was that the track had…

We round out our Best Albums of 2010 countdown with the Top 10 of 2010. With all our contributors voting on this one, there were a few surprises as to the order they appeared – but the decision for number one was virtually unanimous. Enjoy and check back later in the week as we begin…

We begin part three of our countdown with an up-and-coming Australian talent that our contributors were very vocal in ensuring made the our top 40 countdown… Israel Cannan: Walk Have you have ever just picked something up and thought….. wow, this just sounds so right. Well, today I had the pleasure of finding such an…

We continue our look back at the year in music with part two of our annual albums of the year countdown! We kick things off with one of the heroes of this year’s international electronic touring circuit… Delphic – Acolyte My early pick for album of the year has held strong from January to December….

Ah yes, that time has come. Over the next week or so we’ll be unveiling our top 40 albums of 2010. We get the ball rolling with a beautiful local record which has tied with a more internationally known band, both squeezing in at number 40! As such, we’re technically giving you our top 41!…