Brisbane’s Quintessential Doll has followed up her 2014 EP Let Not The Monsters Destroy Me with the huge new single “Beautiful Violence”. A solo project of songwriter and producer Steph Linsdell, Quintessential Doll‘s production draws comparisons to Homogenic-era Björk with its warping, intense beats juxtaposed alongside perfectly restrained and delicate melodies. The track was mixed by Haxx from…
Rainbow Chan has proven time and time again that she is a shining light of Sydney’s interesting music set and with her debut album coming out this year, there’s no doubt we’re about to see more layers from this entertaining pop artist. Her latest single “Nest” now has a music video and it’s got everything we’ve…
Melbourne’s Dear Plastic have inched another step forward in preparing for the release of their anticipated sophomore EP Heaven Machine, with the release of the music video for their single “Zero” – premiering today with the AU! For those who have been following the quintet’s antics since their debut album Thieves Are Babes dropped back in 2014, “Zero”…
This afternoon at The Basement, a jam-packed venue of artists and music industry professionals gathered to find out who would be taking away the 11th Australian Music Prize (the AMP) after a panel of judges had spent months deliberating over the hundreds of submissions to pour in. The winner, perhaps unsurprisingly for some, was Courtney Barnett,…
This Friday, the SXSW (South by Southwest) Film and Interactive conference and festival kicks off in Austin, Texas… then the Music Mayhem starts next Tuesday! We’re just days away from flying to the great city ourselves for the 7th consecutive year of coverage, so we thought we’d share with your our top nine festival tips in this…
The Courtyard Sessions at the Seymour Centre continue this Friday, with the free live music series seeing William Crighton, plus a special support set from Baghead, taking to the stage. The music is kicking off from 6:15pm on Friday, with Crighton performing two sets at 7:15pm and 8:15pm, respectively. Ahead of the show on Friday, Crighton recaps some highlights of…
When British alt-pop band The 1975 came into prominence with the release of their self-titled debut album, their name became synonymous with teenage hipsters across the globe. After two years of touring and tracking their pop rock beats across the world, the band promised a reinvention in the wake of their second album – and…
Bag Raiders have been responsible for some certified club hits to come out of Sydney over the last however many years and this new track they’ve produced is no different. Linking up with SAFIA vocalist Benjamin Joseph on “Checkmate”, Bag Raiders have leaned towards a softer, almost delicate indie-electronica direction for the tune, but it’s got all the hallmarks of…
This week, the SXSW festival kicks off in Austin, Texas – and as part of it, organisers have put together one of the most ambitious and impressive collections of music focused films ever seen at the festival. Under the “24 Beats Per Second” program, over a dozen music focused documentaries and films will be lighting…
She may be based in the US now, but Australian musician Lo Carmen definitely hasn’t lost any of her Australian music charm in her time away. Since her debut album release in 2002, the artist has been performing and producing music representative of not only an eclectic music taste, but a talented level of musicianship too….
Ibeyi kicked off their Australian tour on Friday night, with a performance at Perth’s Chevron Festival Gardens as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. The twin sisters, Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Diaz, gave the crowd a crash course in the Yoruba culture, beguiling and entrancing the gathered audience with their infectious enthusiasm and their soulful…
Henry Rollins may be in Sydney tomorrow for a quick appearance (delivering a keynote address at the 11th Australian Music Prize ceremony), but fans can look forward to the iconic US musician, author, actor, spoken word performer (and everything else, really) returning to our shores for a full tour in September! The tour will be…
Your team at the AU got a chance to chat with Tiga about his upcoming album No Fantasy Required. Besides the album itself, we dug into nostalgia and why it’s bad, the sad farewell to David Bowie and growing up in Goa’s drug culture. This is your first album in seven years. What was the…
It’s been a minute or two since Adelaide fans have had an Art vs. Science show roll through town and to be brutally honest, I was a little worried about how it would fare when I arrived at The Gov on Friday night. KLP was a few minutes off emerging for her support set and the amount of…
Grammy winners Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are currently on the road through Europe with their new album This Unruly Mess I’ve Made after blazing through the US on a successful run of shows, so it’s not entirely surprising that the Seattle duo have now announced the Australian leg of their world tour for 2016! August will see Macklemore &…
Yeasayer have given us another taste of their new material in the first official single from their 2016 album Amen & Goodbye in “Silly Me”. For fans of their early material, you’ll note that in this tune there are hints of “O.N.E”-era Yeasayer filtering through in the melodies and unashamedly warping pop sound threading it all…
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Violent Soho have been selling out shows for their forthcoming WACO album quicker than you can utter a ‘Hell fuck yeah’. In less than six hours, the Brisbane rockers sold out two shows in their hometown, two Forum dates in Melbourne and their Enmore Theatre show in Sydney. SIX HOURS. To meet demand, the band have managed to fit…
HÆLOS are a trio of musicians that have kinda come to my attention in a similar way London Grammar did a few years ago. The first sounds of theirs I heard indicated that the trio were something more than just a flash in the pan Pitchfork/Stereogum favourite, there was something more in their darkly seductive percussion and…
In our 109th instalment of “Stumbled Upon”, we meet the UK’s Blank Bibles, chat about meeting at university, their love of Tame Impala and get a sneak peak at their latest release, “Abigail West”. Name: Blank Bibles Website / Social Media: Facebook / Soundcloud / Instagram / Twitter Genre: Rock Members & their roles:…
In our 110th instalment of “Stumbled Upon”, we meet New York’s Jo Kroger, chat about collaborating with Dalton Deschain, her diverse influences and her new EP, The Simplest. Name: Jo Kroger Website / Social Media: Facebook / Soundcloud Genre: Acoustic Members & their roles: Jo Kroger, vocals, guitars, writing (frequent collaborator and producer on this…
Seeing a band like the great Sleater-Kinney at a venue as prestigious as the Sydney Opera House is something of a strange experiment; because when the band are at their best, they’re one who make you want to jump up and down, and throw yourself all around. This is something hard to do from a more conservative,…
Sydney electronic dance pop trio Art vs. Science hit up Perth as part of their ‘Off The Edge Of The Earth…’ tour on Saturday night with KLP in tow, returning to Capitol nightclub for a party of a night. Local Catlips appeared for a brief DJ set, packing out the background sound for doors open…
The Rubens have had what could be described as the perfect start to the year; winning the Hottest 100 with their track “Hoops”, spearheading the Groovin the Moo line-up, and announcing their biggest headline tour yet. It’s going to be a busy year for Australia’s favourite rockers, so keyboardist Elliot Margin gives us the lowdown…
Kendrick Lamar‘s To Pimp a Butterfly has been hyped as much as it has for some very good reasons and we’re still yet to see how that album will continue to grow, influence, and inspire the next generation of discerning emcees, who will hopefully seek a similar impact to the one Lamar has had over…
QPAC Concert Hall – seemingly as tall as it is long and with 1800 seats – is a bloody big venue and needs some big noises to make it feel full. It’s clear within seconds that Sydney’s Ngaiire, supporting Sufjan Stevens on this tour, is a singer who is more than up to the task. Diminutive…
Parquet Courts are like that crush you had in high school – they’re smarter, cooler, funnier and more interesting than you and all you can really do is bow down to them and hope their cred will rub off on you. They’ve had a career that would make any discerning punk rock fan blush and…
This week in the music industry, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield is pushing for deregulation in the media industry, the Queensland Government is putting money into the arts in search of talent to showcase at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Chinese Government is introducing strict online publishing laws tying the hands of foreign competition. Government…
Rock n’ roll frontman Max Savage and his band The False Idols will be hitting the road in April to celebrate the release of True Believers, which comes out on April 9. Leaving their Americana influences behind, True Believers delivers a rock sound unique to the Aussie band, evoking sounds from the Go-Betweens, Noiseworks, Paul Kelly and The Church….
Following the death of one of the world’s most celebrated music legends, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will be paying tribute to David Bowie at the Sydney Opera House. David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed will unfold over two nights only, May 19 and 21 at 8pm, with the likes of iOTA, Tim Rogers, Steve Kilbey, Deborah…
Many well-known Australian figures have faced a tirade of online abuse in response to naming and shaming those who think it’s appropriate to don blackface to a party. Recently, a photo of two young Victorian men dressed up as Indigenous Australians, complete with blackface, surfaced on Facebook. The post, which was shared by Victorian woman Sis…
