Music

the AU interview: Sun City (Perth)

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…

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Sydney Festival Live Review: Sharon Van Etten – The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park (06.01.12)

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…

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Festival Review: Sydney Festival Day One ft. The Daptone Super Soul Revue – The Domain (05.01.13)

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…

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Live Review: First Aid Kit – Sydney Opera House (03.01.13)

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 &…

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The OzFest India Diaries: Part Ten – The final two BBQs and a farewell.

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…

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Sydney Festival to launch tomorrow with Day One: An Opening in Three Acts

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…

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Best of 2012 Countdown: Top 40 Songs – Part 2: 30-21

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…

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Live Review: Bombay Bicycle Club + The Paper Kites – Factory Theatre (02.01.13)

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…

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Best of 2012 Countdown: Top 40 Songs – Part 1: 40-31

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…

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13 Sydney Festival shows you can't miss for 2013

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…

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The OzFest India Diaries: Part Nine – The Orphanage and The Comedy.

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….

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The OzFest India Diaries: Part Eight – A Safari in Mumbai.

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…

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the AU interview: El-P (Brooklyn)

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….

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Live Review: Morrissey – Enmore Theatre (21.12.12)

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…

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The OzFest India Diaries: Part Seven – An afterparty at the Hard Rock.

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…

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My Favourite Album of 2012: Sun City on TEED and Miike Snow.

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…

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Hello Asia! Interview: Jun Kung at Clockenflap 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

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Interview: Jesse Johnson from Motion City Soundtrack (USA) is very excited to share the stage with Metallica

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…

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Best of 2012 Countdown: Top 40 Albums – Part 4: The Top Ten!

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…

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the AU interview at Clockenflap: The Rubens (Sydney)

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

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The OzFest India Diaries: Part Six – the business of it all…

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,…

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Best of 2012 Countdown: Top 40 Albums – Part 3: 20-11

We continue our top 40 albums of 2012 countdown with the third part of our journey to the number one spot… Lana Del Rey – Born To Die When I first heard the song “Born To Die” I was blown away. I felt liked I was hearing something different, something I had been craving to…

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Live Review: The Living End – Corner Hotel, Melbourne (16.12.12)

Upon entering a gig where The Living End are playing, you will notice one thing initially – there is always a huge crowd drinking and then you will notice throughout the night the passion that leaks into each punter about this band that reigns above all else and you will find it electrifying. Fans just…

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the AU interview at Clockenflap: !!! (Chk Chk Chk – California)

While at Clockenflap in Hong Kong, Johnny Au caught up with Nick from !!! (Chk Chk Chk) to talk about their plans for the next record, the festival, Primal Scream, what he hears other people think about his band, past experiences at Laneway Festival in Australia and much more…

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Sydney's Big Day Out: Chow Town Previewed

As it’s been previously reported, the Big Day Out is going to be joining the world’s elite festivals this Summer by introducing Chow Town to their festivals – a celebration of some of Sydney’s finest food. These are the sort of restaurants you couldn’t get bookings to even if you tried (and believe me, I…

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Best of 2012 Countdown: Top 40 Albums – Part 2: 30-21

We continue our Top 40 Albums of 2012 list with 30 to 21… These albums were voted by 42 of our fine contributors and the list that has resulted is an eclectic mix; from local indie, to international chart toppers, Australian Black Metal and all the way back again. We hope you enjoy our annual…

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New Music Video: Bertie Blackman "Stella" (2012)

Having just finished up a tour around the country supporting Gotye, the wonderful Bertie Blackman is definitely on our minds at the moment. She has just released a new music video for her track “Stella”, which was directed by Andrew Kavanagh, the 2012 Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards winner of the Film Category. It’s a…

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Album Review: The Milk – Tales From The Thames Delta (2012 LP)

It may be hard to believe that Tales From The Thames Delta is actually the debut album from The Milk. The album can mistake you into thinking it came from a band who have been releasing music for years. Opening track ‘Broke Up The Family’ has hints of The Black Keys about it, then follows…

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Live Review: Femme Locale – The Gladstone Hotel (13.12.12)

My favourite showcase returned for round two the other night, bringing with it the music of Ivi, Jenna Murphy and Zana Rose, and Rascals & Runaways. Once again, it was a great night of female talent — the kind of event that doesn’t happen anywhere near often enough.

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