Music

I blame the digitisation of music, and its push for a singles-oriented market, for the host of bands who have been releasing albums this year that aren’t records in the true sense of the word, but merely a collection of tracks with no unifying purpose, featuring a couple of incredibly catchy singles buffered by mundane…

Can you believe it’s that time of year again? We can’t… but here we are bringing you the first part of our mammoth fortnight of eclectic “best of…” lists. First up we announce The AU Review’s Top 40 tracks of 2011, as voted by our fine contributors around the country. 40. We kick things off…

As part of a larger reissue campaign, Pink Floyd have released a remastered edition of Wish You Were Here with an additional second disc containing several tracks from live performances at Wembley in 1974 and some alternative studio versions of “Have a Cigar” and “Wish You Were Here” Not much needs to be said about…

Playing the Sugar Mountain Festival in Melbourne next month are Fox & Sui, the Melbourne & Sydney duo who have been making waves around the country since their formation just over a year ago. We managed to catch up with Andy Fox of the group to see what’s led them here and what we can…

Originally from Brighton and now based in Berlin, acclaimed techno producer and DJ Radio Slave aka Matt Edwards, is returning to Australia in the New Year, for shows as part of Summadayze and a stint at Space Ibiza at Greenwood Hotel in Sydney on New Years Day. While Matt was in Mauritius (it’s a hard…

the AU review catches up with Daniel Merriweather backstage at Homebake 2011. Daniel chats about forthcoming material, living in New York, being back in Australia, Amy Winehouse and much more. Interviewer/Editor: Larry Heath, Camera: Yaya Stempler.

Claire Knight from the AU review catches up with Tim and Ben from Cut Copy backstage at the 2011 Homebake Festival in Sydney. They chat about successes overseas, their Grammy award, ARIA win and much more…. Interviewer: Claire Knight, Camera: Yaya Stempler, Editor/Producer: Larry Heath.

Backstage at Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie, NSW, Larry Heath from the AU review catches up with Andrew from The Medics (QLD). They chat briefly about the festival, their year of awards (QMAs, Deadlys, Next Crop…) and more! Camera: Yaya Stempler, Interviewer/Editor: Larry Heath.

Backstage at the 2011 Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie, Larry Heath of the AU review catches up with Danny and Nick of Brisbane band Pigeon. They look back at the massive year and find out what’s next for the group… Camera: Yaya Stempler, Interview/Editor: Larry Heath

The Phoenix Public House is quickly becoming my favourite band room in town with their cheap liquor selection and eclectic mix of both local and international talents that grace the stage. Saturday night they played host to two of the more interesting acts that operate far outside the boundaries of Triple J’s far reaching, commercially…

The Necks are known for their sprawling, long, simply hypnotic tones that melds itself into one soundtrack of noise which really isn’t noise. More a sporadic burst of improvisation that goes for more than forty to fifty minutes. An amazing aspect of this kind of performance is a powerful idea in the live sense. On…

Kicking off on the Gold Coast on January 5th, Arizona based outfit Lydia is making tracks down to Australia for a massive tour. Rhiannon Harper chatted to Leighton Antelman of the group to talk the new album Paint It Golden, coming back from hiatus, the tour and much more… Your new album “Paint It Golden”…

Many, many years ago I randomly brought an FBI 94.5 FM mix CD called Kill Your Idols and became smitten with a relatively new act at the time called Expatriate. The Sydney based four piece later released a fantastic record and then promptly pissed off to Berlin for three years and completely dropped off the…

Ahead of their whirlwind four city tour next month – which includes a set as part of Sydney Festival – Larry Heath caught up with Sons and Daughters‘ vocalist and guitarist Scott Paterson, to chat about the tour, the new album Mirror Mirror and much more. Your latest record Mirror Mirror was released back in…

The Once have been around doing a whole heap of touring with a basic lineup of harmonic voices and acoustic instruments, and they’ve gradually grown a large following in their homeland with original stories woven within the lyrics of their songs. In the second of our interviews with artists playing up in Woodford this year,…

In February 2012 three of the nations hottest upcoming outfits – millions, Nantes and Northeast Party House – are combining their indie-rock sounds for a co-headline tour around the country – The Triple Treat Tour. MILLIONS Brisbane brings to the table garage-pop marvels millions. They were barely six months old when they were hand-picked by…

When it comes to music festivals in Australia, so many are too keen to expand, try and make more money and move away from their roots. Though still arguably boutique, in many cities there isn’t a laneway to be seen at the Laneway festival (not that this is necessarily a bad thing, in this particular…

For your Monday evening enjoyment we have the new one from Clare Bowditch, and the track “Are You Ready Yet?”, which was co-written by Gotye. Clare has a few words to say about the track which you can read below… Last summer, I went to my friend Wally’ de GOTYE Backer’s house, to write some…

On the final leg of the last Australian tour for a while, we caught up with Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo himself to discuss the new sound we should expect from The Bloody Beetroots and much more… How has the tour been so far? It’s been pretty fun. I couldn’t imagine such a big tour for…

Even in the midst of a torrential downpour, a large crowd gathered in the band room refusing to let the miserable weather dampen their enthusiasm for the music. First up was solo act Kikuyu a.k.a Sez Wilks who you may have already seen playing keys in Aleks & The Ramps. Her solo shows are far…

Two worlds collided and formed “Seven Stars”… that is, the new track from chillout supremos Air and Victoria Legrand, distinctive vocalist from Beach House. Have a listen below: If this is a taste of what we should expect from the French duo’s upcoming release, Le Voyage Dans La Lune (out in February 2012), then the…

A few brave souls withstood the sweltering heat to witness Brisbane’s DZ Deathrays in action. The two piece have a massive sound that goes off live and while it’s obvious they’ve digested a lot of DFA1979, there is enough of their own personality in the music to overcome their influences. Their set was very polished…

Over the next few weeks at The AU Review we will be featuring a series of chats with performers playing the Woodford Folk Festival. Woodford Folk Festival has been is a quiet institution over the many years it’s been around, and while in more recent years the grounds of Woodfordia has hosted Splendour In The…

When you watch Dave Grohl running around the stage, wearing a massive grin, you can’t help but imagine he’s channeling his 15 year old self, going – “hey buddy, look how cool it is! Your dreams are totally do come true!” Maybe that’s how Dave has kept it real all these years. But however he’s…

The night opened up with Kill City Creeps, a band who have spent the last six months working hard to make their mark on the Sydney seen. Made up of ex-Dolly Rocker Daniel Darling and two-thirds of Dora Maar, the band play old fashioned (perfect for any 60’s beach party) rock and roll in every…

Lights Poxleitner is a Canadian (Ontario) electro-rock/ synth pop artist. Her previous releases include the self titled EP and The Listening 09 the latter of which she received a Juno award for ‘Best New Artist’. Her previous releases have been very ‘Pop’ but with this new album she has evolved in a different and gritty…

Tomorrow, up-and-coming Melbourne based sextet The Hello Morning will be releasing their new single “Stone Cold Lover”, and in advance they’ve been kind enough to send it over to the AU review for you to enjoy! The guys played 3 killer Sydney shows at The Annandale and Manly Boatshed last week. The band continue their…