Music

In anticipitation of her performance at BIGSOUND 2018 next month, Brisbane singer-songwriter Sahara Beck has dropped her new single “Here We Go Again”. Produced by the ARIA Award-nominated Tony Buchen (Courtney Barnett, Montaigne), the track is a welcome blast of art pop brimming with attitude and swagger. “Here We Go Again” is a stirring proclamation of…

A long standing muso on the Sydney Music scene, we’ve long been friends and fans of Zane Banks here on the AU, from his Swing/Rockabilly project Cruisin’ Dueces, to his various solo and collaborative projects, he’s been one of the city’s most active guitarists for years noa. And this weekend, you’ll see him as part…

“Love Is The Message” is the superb debut solo single from the celebrated London-based Jazz drummer Yussef Dayes. As some of you may know Dayes came to prominance as one half of Yussef Kamaal, a creative partnership with keyboardist and producer Kamaal Williams, that resulted in 2016’s Black Focus. The duo have since disbanded in…

For a few months now, a gorgeous duet between Tia Gostelow and LANKS has been steadily winning fans over with it’s breezy tone and intimate vocal harmonies. That gem is titled “Strangers”, a dreamy pop record that has been buzzing around Gostelow as she dips into the second half of an already massive year, one…

Sydney musician Max C Bud is about the make a big name for himself as a solo artist with mellow indie gem “Temptress”, his debut single produced in collaboration with Boo Seeka’s Sam Croft. The song, which focuses around honesty in relationships, is a creative number crafted into a lane frequented by beloved acts like…

Fulfilling a dream of recording in the US, Adam Harvey’s tenth studio album The Nashville Tapes is inspired by country music of the 1970s and its icons. Off the back of last year’s tour of The Great Country Songbook Volume II alongside Beccy Cole, the eight-time Golden Guitar winner is again on the road, this…

Following a brief hiatus to escape to warmer climbs (completely understandable!) Perth’s Spacey Jane have returned with a brand new single “Cold Feet” and are all set to give it the offical launch treatment this Friday night. For those not already looped in, the band formed back in 2016, with mates Caleb & Kieran revisiting…

Taking place at Cronulla Beach between the 7th and 9th November, Australian Music Week is Australia’s most accessible grassroots music industry conference. Bringing together an 80-strong speaker line-up, Australian Music Week is about discovering real music and relevant industry knowledge from the artists and insider professionals who live and breathe all things musical. Conference manager…

We spent some time getting to know South African guitar maestro Derek Gripper while he was in Sydney for the sydney Guitar Festival. What was the first guitar you bought? Spanish Guitar from a guy at school for 100 dollars – not counting a Clear Sound bass Guitar somebody gave me Do you still have…

Starting in 2015, Snowtunes is hosting one of the countries most impressive and exciting lineups in one of the coolest (sorry) locations in the country. If 2018’s decent snowfall isn’t enough to get you to the slopes, we make the case why it’s not too late to book a last-minute road trip to the ski…

Since her last release Boneshaker in 2015, Catherine Britt has gotten married, given birth to her first child, won a battle with breast cancer and released her seventh studio album, Catherine Britt and the Cold Cold Hearts, alongside Michael Muchow and Andy Toombs. Recorded in her own backyard studio with engineer Jeff McCormack, this release,…

Music industry conference BIGSOUND is less than a month away from taking over Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley and is already bursting at the seams with 150 acts announced. But the event has made just made its final announcement, which includes more artists, speakers, and parties. Joining the line-up of up-and-coming performers includes G Flip, I Know…

Over the past couple of weeks, the internet has been awash with criticism around festivals like Bluesfest and Unity for offering limited diversity in their lineups. Today, Fairgrounds – the “carnival of music and discovery” that happens “a little south of Sydney” in Berry, NSW – showed just how to produce a lineup with true…

While we here in Australia wait patiently for a release date to be confirmed for Boots Riley’s stylish Sorry to Bother You, we can at least dip into another aspect of the film without delay. And it’s most certainly something we’re going to want to get around, as a project has sprung from two of…

They may have just announced – and then sold out – their own mini-festival in Brisbane, but before that happens, Sydney group Gang of Youths are heading to California in October to play Cal Jam 18, a festival curated by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. This is the second consecutive year the event has been…

The Singapore music festival Music Matters Live will be returning for its 13th year next month, returning to the city’s iconic Clarke Quay (among other venues), featuring more than 30 acts from 13 countries over 5 days – kicking off just as the Brisbane conference and festival BIGSOUND comes to an end. Taking place alongside…

Building towards their new album Solace, the unstoppable RÜFÜS DU SOL have today released their new single “Underwater”. Giving us deeper insight into their third album, which it said to be largely influenced by a contrasting Californian landscape, the complex and beautifully layered track is a noticeable step forward for the Aussie-bred trio who are…

Kicking off just as Brisbane’s BIGSOUND ends, Singapore’s All That Matters conference is Asia’s biggest entertainment conference. This year, the event is bringing some of the biggest guests from different entertainment industries back to Singapore’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Notable this year are the amount of new names the event will be hosting. In fact, this year’s…

Irish band The Coronas have been around for over 15 years which has included five different studio albums and many stops around the world. Their latest album, Trust the Wire, reached #1 on the Irish charts and the band has started to receive global acclaim and an ever growing fan base. On Sunday, the band…

Clockenflap, the biggest annual music and arts festival in Hong Kong, has just released the first round of its 2018 lineup. The world-class music program, which has built a reputation of featuring a large range of styles across both international and local musicians, will feature no less than 13 Hong Kong live debuts, 2 Asian…

Phantastic Ferniture is the project of old friends Julia Jacklin, Elizabeth Hughes, Ryan K Brennan and Tom Stephens. United by a love of fern puns, and born out of a (potentially) drunken vow made in 2014 to form a band, the group have recently released their debut self titled record, and will shortly be embarking…

Lollapalooza wrapped up in Chicago on Sunday with performances from the likes of Jack White, What So Not, Portugal the Man, Manchester Orchestra, Anderson East, Lykke Li, Morgan Saint, Superorganism, Rainbow Kitten Surprise and Mikky Ekko. Our photographer Taylor Mithelman was on ground and brings us back these photos!

There is a lot more than sticks out about Nashville singer/songwriter Morgxn than the x in his name. His soaring vocals, chill beats, and dynamic stage presence brings to mind comparisons to Jack Garrett, SOHN and Asgeir. With over 2 million YouTube views of his hit single “Home” Morgxn has quickly become one of the…

There are some record labels that always seem to be on the money. For me, Brooklyn’s Daptone Records are one such label. These are the guys that unleashed the talents of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and Charles Bradley onto the world, and reminded listeners of the power of soul and funk. Now they’re…

2018’s edition of Lollapalooza was very different from the ones that have come before. It was very much a music festival for the days we are in now. The lineup propped itself as a perfect capsule of what music is today with the biggest names in pop music, EDM and the best rock bands of…

Clever worldplay and a banging beat is usually all you’d need to move a hit between the increasingly thinning lines that once divided hip hop and pop. “Writing Away”, the debut single from Queensland’s ZEKIEL has that in spades, but on top there’s also a genuine, earnest expression of lost love, plenty of character, and…

Lollapalooza ended just as hot as it began in terms of temperature and excitement. Jack White led the bill competing against three very different options in Odesza, Excision and Playboy Carti. Threats of inclement weather forced some of the acts to begin earlier, but Jack White had his crowd ask God to hold off and…

On Friday, WA Singer-Songwriter Riley Pearce released his new EP Eastbound. If that wasn’t enough, currently he’s somewhere in Europe finishing off a run of shows that has seen him driving around the UK and Europe since May and play at the likes of The Great Escape, Latitude and Deer Shed Festival. Not to mention…

We got the chance to experience Taylor Swift in Toronto this weekend, and in anticipation of her imminent tour of Australia, we’re counting down the 5 reasons its a show not to be missed… and a look at the songs she played along the way. Indoor fireworks!! Selling out Toronto’s Rogers Centre two nights in…

On Saturday Lollapalooza forced its festival goers to make their toughest decision yet. It was a choice between two very different type of Weekends or one of the biggest DJs in the world. The Weeknd earned top billing on this years lineup, but it was the long awaited return of Vampire Weekend after a 5…