After the lackluster Annabelle last year, fans of the 2013 supernatural-horror The Conjuring have been anxiously waiting to see what Director James Wan would do for the direct sequel, The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist. Now, we get to a glimpse at what’s in store as the original’s stand-outs, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return…
Ahead of the 23rd annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference Festival in Austin, Texas this March, a handful of films set to screen have been revealed, including four World Premieres. This includes Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, directed by John Lee and produced by Judd Apatow and Paul Reubens featuring Pee-wee Herman on a new adventure, produced…
Now that The Force Awakens is well and truly embedded in our cinemas, it feels like we have finally come to the end of a period of one anticipated film after another. It was a record breaking year, too, with Jurassic World, Furious 7, Minions, Star Wars VII, Inside Out and the final Hunger Games working hard…
You probably already know director Adam McKay from his extensive catalogue of cringe-comedy – Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Talladega Nights, amongst others. The Big Short is the most recent film from McKay, and one that completely redefines the joker perspective that he is often associated with. It’s hilarious, but at its core The Big Short is an intelligent tragedy about the gruelling effects of…
Sydney Festival is back for their huge 40th year anniversary, once again propping up their central hub in the leafy surrounds of Hyde Park, this year presenting a re-brand of sorts as what was once known as Sydney Festival Village now becomes Meriton Festival Village. Not much has changed aside from the name though, and…
It has been awhile since we’ve properly heard from Brooklyn band Yeasayer and their fantastically weird experimental indie-pop. Following a round of curious song previews over the holiday period they’ve decided that now seems a good a time as any to start rolling out new material from forthcoming album Amen & Goodbye. Titled “I Am…
Kieran Hebden’s Four Tet project has long been at the core of contemporary, experimental music, delivering some of the most meandering and diverse productions of this past decade, displaying a rare ability to direct emotion with subtle shifts of melody and rhythm. We’ve seen it on albums like Rounds and There is Love in You,…
The release of Disclosure‘s 2015 record Caracal saw the UK brothers elevated to yet another level of global success and attention. Continuing to play with sounds within the house/dance genre, as well as branching out into R&B and pop music with collaborations with diverse artists including The Weeknd, Lorde and Australian vocalist Jordan Rakei, Disclosure…
Sydney Festival officially kicks off tonight, and with it are hundreds of incredible performances across some three weeks. Here are the nine shows we think you can’t miss… 9. Girlpool When? January 26th Where? The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park Cost? $39 (plus booking fees) What? The LA duo bring a dynamic blend of instrumentation, raw…
New Zealand band Ghost Wave are getting ready to release a new album, Radio Norfolk, via Flying Nun and have perked interest with the project’s first single “Blues Signal ’79”, presenting with a heavily psychedelic sound. “Everybody’s missing the countdown to the meltdown” is the refrain here, crafting a hook that fits in perfectly with…
Brisbane-based The Creases arrived on stage with no fuss or introduction and set to warming up the crowd at 170 Russell prior to The Maccabees‘ Falls Festival sideshow. Despite a litany of technical glitches – including microphones attempting to electrocute them to the point they needed to protect themselves with shirts from their merchandise line,…
Dubbed “the next great Canadian singer-songwriter”, The Weather Station is the project of Toronto’s Tamara Lindema, whose delicate and beautiful yet precise and complex music has been acclaimed all over the world. And last night she had the pleasure of showcasing it in the first Sydney Festival performance for 2016; opening The Famous Spiegeltent in the festival’s…
Leon Bridges‘ debut run of Australian shows have been wildly praised, just as the 26 year old’s debut album Coming Home has through 2015. Arriving in Australia at the end of last year to perform at both the Falls Festival events down the east coast and in Tasmania, as well as his own headline shows,…
“Told through the lives and music of a ragtag crew of South Bronx teens, The Get Down is a mythic saga of the transformation of 1970s New York City.” This is the synopsis for the new Baz Luhrmann series coming to Netflix later this year. It’s set to take us into the music world of NYC…
After it took years to get Netflix in Australia, it seemed to take just moments to expand the popular streaming platform to 130 new countries around the world, when the company simultaneously announced the expansion and sent it live during Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings’ keynote at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. “Today you…
One would think that teaming Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on the big screen would have incredible results. Both are some of the funniest, wittiest, and charming comedians of our time, each scoring big on their respective breakout TV hits, with Fey lighting up 30 Rock and Poehler on Parks & Recreation. Though, their unmistakable…
In great news for the local gaming convention scene, the first RTX Australia gaming convention has officially sold out ahead of its January debut according to Rooster Teeth Productions and Hanabee.
Sony’s new year batch of PS Plus games are almost available with owners of all three systems getting a couple of games each. PS4 owners are the clear winners here. The beloved Grim Fandango has been remastered and PlayStation owners can pick it up for free this month on PS4 and Vita. Also for current gen…
As we look ahead to the Golden Globe Awards on Monday and another year of amazing TV, we have compiled a list of our ten favourite series from 2015. With an incredible amount of competition, this was not an easy list to put together, but here we go… 10. The Weekly with Charlie Pickering Australian TV…
When I look back on Season 1 of Ash vs Evil Dead, I realise how fantastic the writing has been; how each trivial little plot point has culminated here, in the season finale of this impressive new series. If you’ve followed my reviews over the course of these ten episodes, you may have labelled me bias…
Shocking, humorous, provocative and purely interesting, Ondi Timoner’s latest documentary Brand: A Second Coming looks at the life and rise of one of Britain’s most unique comedians, Russell Brand. The film takes us, in particular, through his journey to produce a changed spiritual mind-self and his motivation for a socialist way of life. Brand, a self-defined narcissist,…
MasterChef fan favourite Reynold Poernomo has achieved what many of his fellow contestants have yet to do, and opened up his own restaurant within a year of appearing on the popular reality TV show. His venue, Koi Dessert Bar, in the Kensington Street, Chippendale quarter of Sydney, is a two-level dessert-focused restaurant, with a ground…
Ice Cube will be returning to Australia after coming down here with his son, O’Shea Jackson Jr, last year to promote Straight Outta Compton. However, this time the legendary rapper will be accompanied by comedian Kevin Hart, his co-star for the forthcoming Ride Along 2. Arriving on February 8th, Cube and Hart will be doing…
The music video for Metz‘s track “Eraser” here and damn. Directed by Nathan Joyner, the visuals are a distorted and brilliantly dizzying accompaniment to one of our fave tunes from the indie punks last year. The song is a no holds barred riff/percussion-frantic affair and the music video follows the same tone: blurry, frenetic and…
Another US unearthing today, we take a look at the new music video from Milwaukee synth-pop purveyors, GGOOLLDD, “Dance Through the Winter”. The group recently released a brand new EP entitled For The Night and this cut is just one of the cool cuts from a release that sets the band up as an exciting…
What is probably one of the most anticipated releases of 2016 (yes, already called it), David Bowie‘s new album has just been hyped a little more with the release of a cheeky teaser reel for the single “Lazarus”. Now available to view online, the video has Bowie seemingly blinded in a hospital bed. It doesn’t…
It was a bit of a mad 2015 for Sydney’s Gang of Youths. Successful tours, acclaimed debut album, ARIA nominations and multiple AU Live Music Award nods down and these boys still had enough energy to throw down some brilliant end-of-year festival sets down the coast and in Tassie for the Falls Festival. After their…
The return of Bloc Party in 2015 saw much of the band’s fandom and indeed, the industry, draw a sharp breath. With the departure of founding members Matt Tong and Gordon Moakes leaving a sizeable gap in the band’s line up, Bloc Party have continued to move forward, with the addition of Louise Bartle and…
WILD are a three piece indie-folk group out of LA making some sweet tunes. Taken from their debut album, current single “Back To You” is a tune evoking that rousing sing along vibe groups like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Grouplove and Of Monsters and Men have made popular over the past few years….
Headlining the final night of the Falls Festival at Mt. Duneed Estate, Foals were understandably a large drawcard for many in attendance. The band’s frontman Yannis Philippakis sat down with us before they brought in the New Year to chat about the success of their latest release, What Went Down, and how they’ve been enjoying…
