Sydney’s modern rock heroes Middle Kids have released the first cut from their upcoming album with “Mistake”. Like previous successes “Never Start” and “Edge of Town”, the new track showcases the powerful vocals of front woman Hannah Joy with a crazy catchy chorus. It’s a tantalising tease of their upcoming album Lost Friends out May fourth. The…
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On “The Strangest Thing” The War on Drugs‘ Adam Granduciel sings, “Am I just living between/ The beauty and the pain” – it’s a strong statement of the War on Drugs and their chief songwriter’s appeal. The six-member band has an innate ability to convey emotion and atmosphere. Lonesome guitars swirl around a steady beat conveying…
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South Australia’s wine region is renowned for its top quality drops and in recent years, the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale districts have been jumping into the music pond, hosting concerts by some stellar Australian and international artists. The Bird in Hand winery out in the Hills has thrown down the gauntlet for…
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Starting on Friday, A Weekend in The Gardens is giving Melbourne music lovers three days of prime live music. From one of Australia’s greatest songwriters in Paul Kelly, to some of the country’s best hip hop artists and songwriting collectives, the three-day festival event is not like your usual branded series of shows. Playing to the likes…
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It’s slightly hard to believe but over the weekend, Paul Kelly achieved a career first in gaining his first #1 charting album. The latest from one of Australia’s most iconic songwriter’s, Life is Fine, debuted at the top of the ARIA Album Chart, following a week of acclaim surrounding the album coming from all corners of the…
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The 13th edition of Lollapalooza kicked off with a bang Thursday night before ending on a slight sour note. Over 100 thousand people braved the rain and cold temperatures to catch the many highlights of Thursday. The day was filled with great sets and the threat of major storms almost held off until after the…
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The biggest names in rock, hip-hop, pop and more will take over Grant Park for the 13th edition of Lollapalooza in Chicago next weekend. The four-day festival is headlined by Chance the Rapper, Arcade Fire, The Killers and Muse, but that is just the start of the packed lineup. Australia and New Zealand will have a…
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Earlier this week, we unveiled our list of the 20 Best Albums of 2017 so far – as voted by our team – with The Smith Street Band reigning supreme with their acclaimed album, More Scared of You Than You Are of Me. Breaking things down even further, today we throw the spotlight on some of the…
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If there is a personification of the word “chill”, it’s US singer-songwriter, Ryan Adams. His hidden-eye mop hairstyle, mumbling presence and sizable discography took to a security-laden (and now-controversially named) Margaret Court Arena on Friday night and delivered a slick, calming performance. Supporting Adams were popular Australian up-and-comers Middle Kids, who were an absolutely killer…
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Sydney trio Middle Kids, who are about to tour Australia with none other than Ryan Adams, are set to return to North America in July, announcing a massive headline tour in September that accompanies the already announced festival dates that litter their calendar through October. The dates follow on from the inclusion on lineups such as…
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The Great Escape festival returns to Brighton and Hove this year, bringing with it over 450 new and up and coming bands. Here at the AU, we love Australian music, and couldn’t be prouder of the Aussie acts that have been selected to perform, in the midst of such a sheer volume of talent. Honourable mentions to…
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The Sounds Australia crew return to the UK for The Great Escape this year and once more, they have curated some incredibly showcases for the British to see what the Australians have going. Two showcases have been planned for Brighton – the Sound Gallery returns to Komedia on Thursday, May 18th, while the Aussie BBQ hits…
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Only hours ago, Jay Z was squeezed onto the Austin City Limits festival line up ahead of the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chance the Rapper, The Killers and sis-in-law Solange – an exciting return from the New York King who is currently popping up on a few huge stages throughout the year. Of course, ACL is a huge drawcard for…
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It’s SXSW time again and as Austin gears up for the influx of thousands upon thousands of people from all over the world ready to call the Texan city home until March 19th, we’ve got our sights firmly planted on the global music program that has once again, pulled together hundreds of artists primed for…
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YouTube has announced their massive plans for the South by Southwest Conference, expanding to their largest SXSW present to date. What’s set to be one of the absolute highlights of their SXSW events will be their return to downtown Austin’s Coppertank, where YouTube will host a major three-day showcase. The showcase is set to feature…
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Joining the likes of Courtney Barnett, DMA’s, The Griswolds and Marlon Williams, Sydney’s Middle Kids have joined the slew of artists from Australia and NZ to be breaking into the US TV market. Currently in America as Cold War Kids‘ latest tour mates, the band stopped by Conan to perform “Edge of Town”, from their self-titled debut EP….
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The 2016 FBi SMAC Awards were held at Carriageworks in Sydney overnight, celebrating the city’s arts, culture and music communities. The recognition of Sydney performers, musicians, artists, events and restaurants – and their impact on the creative network – was immense, with thousands of Sydneysiders having their say in the publicly voted categories. At the awards…
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As we reach the end of another year, the question of what has been the best album/s of the 2016 has been thrown around. While up at Festival of the Sun recently, we posed the question to some of the artists backstage. From Mesa Cosa‘s Blood & Brains, Skegss‘ Everyone Is Good At Something, D.D Dumbo‘s Utopia Defeated and A.B….
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With just a few weeks left in 2016, the Australian music industry is by no means slowing down and heading into any type of hibernation for the holidays. With our summer festival season just ramping up, the last few months seem to have been all about celebrating some amazing talent doing amazing things both in the studio…
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Hospitality juggernauts Merivale and Summer Bright Lager have officially kicked off their returning Sunday Sundown series, a free live music program which will last across Sydney’s scorching summer with some of the country’s best acts showing out at the group’s best venues. This time around, the shedule has grown to include sixteen free events from…
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The Great Escape returns to Brighton in the UK next year, taking over the British seaside from May 18th – 20th. Lauded as the festival for unearthing some of music’s most exciting talent from around the globe, The Great Escape will be celebrating its twelfth year with some of the best established and emerging artists. Amongst the…
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Summer is well on its way in Australia and what better way to celebrate the best season of the year than attending the Fairgrounds Festival in Berry? The festival is held on the first weekend of summer across two days, hosting 18 musical artists who will showcase some of their best music. If you’re off…
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SXSW Music has continued to deliver the goods for 2017 with their latest artist announcement. Continuing to focus on the unearthing of some of the music world’s soon-to-be breakout names, this latest artist reveal shows that SXSW has once again stepped up in its curation of a line up that encourages artists from many different areas…
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The Falls Music and Arts Festival has added to its summer east coast line up today, with the addition of a smattering of great Australian and international talent! If you’re still on the fence about whether or not to be getting on the Falls train this New Year’s, Marion Bay and Fremantle events are still on…
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Supporting last year’s extremely successful debut LP In A Restless House, City Calm Down seem more at home than ever. Straight off the line up from Splendour in the Grass, the electronic-rock band excitably rounded out their month of touring with a string of homegrown gigs at Melbourne’s own 170 Russell. Although a gradual crowd welcomed City Calm…
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The few days we spend at BIGSOUND in Brisbane is best described as an annual escapade into a fine slice of the best in Australian music – a sample of what’s been round the traps recently, what’s returned after some time away and what’s coming next. Across the three nights of live music – two official…
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Now that the BIGSOUND dust has settled and the industry has returned to some sense of normal; our on-ground team have been going back through notes jotted down on phones, ‘Definitely check out…’ style messages sent back and forth, in determining the selection of bands who stood out as strong winners across the board. With many of these…
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Well, I’m just about to jump on a plane up to BIGSOUND, and many of you probably are as well. So while your editor-in-chief Sosefina delivered her comprehensive nine picks earlier in the week, today I’m going to assume you’re as time poor as I am and just cut to the chase. Here are the…
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Add this to Middle Kids‘ ever-growing list of accomplishments made in a short period of time – they’re off to Iceland! Named the winners of FBi’s Northern Lights Competition today, the band have won an expenses paid trip to Iceland to perform at Iceland Airwaves alongside the likes of PJ Harvey, Santigold and Of Monsters and Men, not to mention the…
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An eclectic group of musicians have been selected as finalists for FBi Radio’s Northern Lights competition for 2016! The competition offers the winning artist the opportunity to fly to Iceland to not only performed at the esteemed Iceland Airwaves Music Festival this November, but also record at Sigur Rós‘ Sundlaugin Studio for a day before bringing the music they made…
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