Music

Since its first ever episode in 1975 featured a live performance from Billy Preston & Janis Ian, the iconic US sketch show Saturday Night Live has featured an established or emerging musical guest every episode. For as long as I can remember, the show has featured two performances per episode – and tonight it was…

Amidst keeping busy with Spirit Club projects, a Cloud Nothings collaboration and a split single with Weezer, Nathan Williams has just dropped a pair of shiny new singles from the forthcoming Wavves album set for release May 19th via Ghost Ramp imprint. The LP is titled You’re Welcome and the first two singles, “Daisy” and “You’re Welcome” capture the…

Amarina Waters is a Melbourne-based songwriter, whose earnest voice delivers soulful indie folk. Her album debut is due later in 2017, and we are lucky enough to be giving you the first glimpse of her upcoming release, with the single and video “A Sense Of You”. The track faces the confusion and absurdity of living with…

The Smith Street Band have levelled up for their next Australian tour, set to hit some of their biggest venues yet this May and June. The band’s forthcoming fourth album, More Scared of You Than You Are of Me, mirrors the boldness of the tour – possibly the band’s most ambitious record to date, the new album…

The Keston Cobblers Club have followed up on the gorgeous melodies and earnest lyricism that thrust their 2015 album Wildfire onto the radars with many, with a brand new record in Almost Home. The record isn’t out until the end of the month but in the album’s title track, we have been treated to some simple songwriting tailored with…

The Sounds Australia crew have come out guns blazing for their annual line up of showcase events for SXSW this year. Always renowned for their curation of stellar emerging and established Australian talent at events the world over, this SXSW foray is not to be missed if you’re soon to be Austin-bound. The massive four showcases include…

Sydney’s Food Court have been on our radar for a few years now and we can’t wait to see them make their overseas debut at the big playground that is SXSW. Ahead of their trip to Austin, the band tells us how they’re anticipating the trip and what’s coming up for them once SXSW wraps. Have you…

Bendigo trio Fountaineer recently dropped a new single on us in “Words With Friends” – a return to form from the band who had taken time out of the spotlight momentarily following on from a fruitful bout of touring off the back of 2016’s Still Life. “Words With Friends” echoes the almost drowsy indie rock stylings of…

A Novocastrian at heart, musician Beth Brown has found herself Stateside exploring a music career brimming with potential. Fusing blues with soul, folk and rock n roll, Brown will be bringing her entertaining set to Austin for SXSW this month. Before her official showcases, Beth tells us some more about her time in Nashville (where she is…

SXSW is weeks away and while we pack our bags for another chaotic trip of music discovery out in Austin, we’re checking in with some of the Australian artists bound for the music festival. One member of the local contingent we’re keen on seeing out in Texas is Running Touch. Having had a brilliant 2016, the musician looks…

There are a tiny handful of artists who are so prolific and wonderful, and have had such an enormous impact on the wider music community, that they deserve to be celebrated. But perhaps none are quite as significant, influential or prolific as the incredible Carole King. Carole’s magnificent life as a writer, musician, and artist,…

If you like your pop-punk bright and brimming with fresh talent, look no further than Melbourne’s Terra. The band’s debut EP, Wasted Days, is a long awaited, five-track release packed with low-end rhythms and powerhouse vocals. Following Terra’s debut single “Talk is Cheap”, the second cut from the EP, “Watercolour”, has just been dropped ahead of the album’s…

Continuing to warp some clean cut pop edge with well-crafted psych elements, Melbourne artist Blyolk returns with a new single in “Artshole”. When we were first introduced to Blyolk in 2016 through the gritty “Don Wowry”, there were indicators that this was just the beginning for the interesting producer and vocalist. “Artshole” expands on those initial…

Sad times for Tegan and Sara fans anticipating the Quin sisters’ return to the country next week; illness has forced the duo to pull all their forthcoming dates. We last saw Tegan and Sara out this way for Splendour in the Grass last year, a celebratory trip for the girls with their eight record Love You to Death…

British group The Big Moon are transported to the Wild West in the new music video for their catchy single “Sucker”, released this week. Taken from their forthcoming debut album Love in the 4th Dimension, “Sucker” is an ear worm of a track; the chorus filters into your head while the melody is inescapable. So too memorable…

After much anticipation, Sydney-based singer/songwriter Vera Blue has announced her debut album will be coming this year, after a few final touches. In the mean time, the first single “Private” has been released with an accompanying national tour this April. “Private” is a shift to a heavier electronic sound, experimenting with start/stop instrumentals that complement her elegant,…

South Australian musician and teacher Emily Retsas has been a part of the live music fabric of Adelaide for the last few years, throwing her bass talent behind a wide array of bands. A keen eye may recognise her from her work with Koral and the Goodbye Horses or Blush Response, while interstate heads may have seen her on…

2016 was a hard year, globally, politically, environmentally. People made half-hearted jokes last November that at least we’d be getting a lot of good punk music pretty soon – small compensation, honestly. But the genre that flourishes the most under backwards political regimes doesn’t actually seem to be punk – often, what we remember the…

Adam Dormand and James Keneally have been making some sweet and lush electronic sounds out of Adelaide as PINES for a minute now – 2016 was a fruitful year for the duo, supporting the likes of Kiasmos and Jai Wolf, not to mention doling out some great remixes for the likes of Urthboy and KLP along with their original…

Busby Marou‘s latest album, Postcard From the Shell House, debuted at #1 on the ARIA chart – a fantastic feat for the duo who, as Jeremy Marou admitted to us recently, poured absolutely everything into the making of the record. Speaking with Marou just prior to the album’s release the emphasis on the importance of the record for…

Philly group Pissed Jeans have been careening through their 13 year long career with ferocity and gnarly goodness, the essence of which has been captured brilliantly on new material for album #5, Why Love Now. The lead single taken from the album, “The Bar Is Low”, now has a funny music video released to accompany, seeing the…

It was a steamy summer evening when I first stumbled upon WHITE VANS, breaking guitars and tearing up the stage at The Old Bar, where their nearly maniacal music was a show-stealer. They oscillated between lo-fi, garage-rock moments, and face-melting walls of guitar-driven feedback; an unforgettable kind of sound, flagging themselves in the Melbourne music…

We’re a little over a month away from one of the year’s biggest music festivals and conferences, Canadian Music Week, which will be taking over the city of Toronto in Canada for six days of live music, comedy, panels and more. A slew of artists have been announced in recent weeks, and among those revealed…

With close to 100 acts submitting their interests in performing for the event, last Saturday saw a select group of 40 artists chosen to play 18 venues across Parramatta that ranged from bridal shops to cafes to restaurants and hotels as Parramatta City Council adopted an initiative not too unlike King St. Crawl in Newtown…

Ainslie Wills has been pegged as one to watch in 2017. Not only has she played Queenscliff Music Festival, Falls Festival, WOMADelaide and Splendour in the Grass, just to name a few, as well as a successful run opening for Grouplove in the UK last year; she, and key collaborator Lawrence Folvig, have signed on to…

Following up their critically acclaimed 2016 debut EP, Bloomington, four-piece Hoops have just announced their first full length will be coming May 5th on Fat Possum Records via Inertia Music. Titled Routines, the 11-track record will be a defining release for the band, being their first official recording in an actual studio (Rear House Recording in Greenpoint,…

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for jazz. There’s just something about it that really draws me in and creates this truly atmospheric experience. But I think as well, jazz as a genre is completely subjective, and the sounds, shapes and colours that the listening experience creates, is something pretty phenomenal. In…

One of the most influential bands of the 90’s alternative-country movement, Son Volt, are back and better than ever. The LP, Notes of Blue, is the band’s first since 2013, made up of 10 blues galvanised tracks, inspired by a glorious mix of Skip James and English acoustic guitarist Nick Drake. Having grown up listening…

Another Adelaide band to have come out of the City of Churches with a crunchy, alternative rock sound akin to the likes of HUM, Failure and Unwound, and even Silversun Pickups (to name a few), Siamese has twigged our fancy. Their debut single release, “Computer Patient”, has brought Siamese to the radars of many in Adelaide…

Finally. Ali Barter has announced the details of her debut album, A Suitable Girl. The album is out on March 24th and to celebrate, Barter is heading out on the road through April and May! Barter has been one of Melbourne’s musicians that we have been loving watching continue to develop and consistently push in terms of her live…