Music

On the seventh day, God was having a beer and thought you know what, it would be nice to have some tunes to listen to, so he clicked his fingers and out popped The Shallows. Step Into: The Shallows is the 3rd offering from Perth indi-popsters following on from their debut EP Nostalgia Ain’t What…

You might recognize him as “the guy with a beard” you often see in festival pits around Australia (or even the world), and now Kane Hibberd (aka Kanye Lens) is releasing a book that captures his experiences photographing the Soundwave Festival since it went national in 2008. The book, Kanye Lens Vs Soundwave Volume 1…

There was a period – let’s say between October 2010 and February 2011, from the time their record Gorilla Manor broke until they played Laneway in Australia – that everyone was talking about Local Natives. Naturally they haven’t so much been in hiding since then, but rather working on new material. Late last year we…

Another year, another Southbound Festival and despite predictions of the opposite, attendance was up on last year, with the vast majority of the attendees opting to camp on site for the weekends festivities. Though this years line-up may not have been at its most buzz-worthy, it was still a fine collection of acts over the…

10. Cloud Nothings – Wasted Days “If your face was not melted off upon your first of many, many listens to this phenomenal grunge-rock jam, you were listening to a different song entirely.” – David Young 9. Jack White – Love Interruption 8. Frank Ocean – Thinkin Bout You “The lead single is as smooth…

It’s a big week here in Sydney. Every night there seem to be dozens of bands playing sideshows from their Falls, Field Day, Southbound, Peats and Woodford appearances – and there simply aren’t enough people in this city to fill every venue with a $50 ticket. Unfortunately this meant that the crowds were not out…

20. Collarbones feat. Guerre – Hypothermia 19. Alabama Shakes – Hold On 18. Of Monsters & Men – Little Talks 17. Mumford & Sons – I Will Wait 16. Grizzly Bear – Yet Again 15. Alt-J – Tessellate 14. Foals – Inhaler 13. Ball Park Music – Surrender 12. Jake Bugg – Lightning Bolt 11….

Fresh off a plane from Zimbabwe, Larry Heath sat down with Perth duo Sun City to talk about their shows in Africa, percussion instruments, their live shows, tours in 2013 and much more… What were the crowds like when you played in Zimbabwe? The people were amazing, the crowd was way more receptive than I…

One of the highlights of the Sydney Festival every year are the string of phenomenal, intimate performances that take place in The Famous Spiegeltent in Hyde Park. Helping kick things off last night for 2013 was Brooklyn based talent Sharon Van Etten, who was using Sydney Festival to not only launch her first ever tour…

Sydney Festival time is upon us once again and this year the festival passed on its usual “Festival First Night” branding and introduced us to “Day One: An Opening in Three Acts”, which was a rather artistic way of telling us there would be three events happening in the Sydney CBD on the first day…

Walking onto the stage to an eerie projection and soundtrack, the Swedish duo that make up First Aid Kit – aided tonight by two others and playing in front of a sold out Sydney Opera House crowd – launched straight into the “In The Morning”, before taking us through tracks from The Big Black &…

Having had a fair dose of laughter thanks to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival travelling roadshow, I headed to Shroom in New Delhi for the Second Aussie BBQ, which was part of a very jam packed final two days of my time in India. The show, in the futuristic surrounds of the venue – where…

What was once known as “Sydney Festival First Night” will tomorrow be rebranded as “Day One” – a day long event that runs throughout the city of Sydney. This morning at Sydney’s Town Hall, the artistic director of the festival, Lieven Bertels, walked media through tomorrow’s festivities that ends in a concert in the Domain…

We continue our countdown of the best tracks of 2012, as voted by our contributors! 30. Steve Smyth – No Man’s Land 29. Grizzly Bear – Sun In Your Eyes 28. Blood Red Shoes – Cold 27. Chance Waters – Young and Dumb 26. Iluka – Paper Doll 25. Kendrick Lamar – Bitch, Dont Kill…

In the first week of 2013 that begun traditionally with a stellar day at The Domain thanks to Field Day, it was time to kick off the Falls Festival sideshows with a string of events around the city. Though the following night would end up proving the most difficult for clashes, there was plenty on…

As we all start making our decisions for the tracks that will make up our votes for the Hottest 100, we had our contributors tell us their favourite tracks of 2012. Each contributor gave us their top 10 and the resulting 40 tracks are the highest rated from those lists! As usual, it’s a fairly…

It’s that time of year again: the world famous Sydney Festival is arriving this weekend – Saturday the 5th of January to be exact – and as usual there’s so many choices, so much great music and theatre and art to see, that making a decision on what to see and what to miss is…

For our second Aussie BBQ show, the four remaining bands – Jinja Safari, The Aston Shuffle, Big Scary and Sheppard – along with myself and the BBQ crew headed onto Delhi. Flying with IndiGO airways, we got off to a shaky start with us, collectively, sitting 130 kilos over the limit in terms of baggage….

With the first of the Aussie BBQs behind us, and Karnivool on their way back to Australia, we were all treated to a day off in Mumbai before we headed to Delhi for the second show. Having spent most of our time in a bit of a glass bubble – taken from one event to…

In the middle of his preparations to visit us down under as part of the Laneway Festival, El-P phoned Larry Heath to discuss everything from the process of making his latest album, to what he thought was the best record of 2012. So you’re about to return to Australia for the first time since 2009….

Morrissey is an artist whose music has always existed in the periphery of my mind. I wasn’t brought up on The Smiths; rather discovered their music in my late teens. His solo music, meanwhile, was something I knew from song to song, rather than album to album. This wasn’t so much indicative of any particular…

Having completed the business end of proceedings, it was now time to return to the focus of our trip to India: The Aussie BBQs. Having had all five bands play at the NH7 Weekender in Pune, our travelling circus was now in Mumbai, where the first of three Aussie BBQs was taking place following the…

Perth duo Sun City caught up with us backstage at the Beresford in Sydney last week just before they hit the stage and filled us in on their favourite albums of 2012…

Johnny Au meets Hong Kong based artist Jun Kung while at the 2012 Clockenflap Festival in his home city. Camera/Interview: Johnny Au Edit: Larry Heath

Podcast Producer and Host: Tiffany Britchford Industry News Segment: Phil Perez Interviews: Larry Heath

Larry Heath recently had the chance to sit down with Soundwave bound Motion City Soundtrack‘s Jesse Johnson, while he was at home in Brooklyn, to talk about playing the festival in the past, surviving Hurricane Sandy, writing on the road (and off), favourite records of 2012, plans for 2013 and more… How is everything in…

As the triple j Hottest 100 opens up its digital doors for voting in its 2012 edition, we come to an end of our top 40 albums list with ten phenomenal albums. Stay tuned for our top 40 songs of 2012… they’ll be launching tomorrow and running through to the New Year! Mumford & Sons…

We talk to Sydney’s The Rubens at Hong Kong Festival Clockenflap about Asia, winning the J Award, plans in 2013, life on the road, the end of the world and much much more… Interview/Camera: Johnny Au Edit: Larry Heath

With the festival under our belts, we were now looking forward to the three standalone Aussie BBQ shows that would take us around the country. The first, in Mumbai, served as an official after-party of sorts for the Nokia Music Connects Conference held nearby; a two day event that looked at the business of music,…