Aaaand the countdown to the 2017 ARIA Awards is officially on, with not only the full list of nominees announced in Sydney today, but also the winners of the Fine Arts, Artisan and Comedy categories revealed too. Statistically speaking, 2017 is Paul Kelly and Gang of Youths‘ year, with both artists striking out against the pack with Kelly…
Read MoreAPRA AMCOS have released their shortlist for the 2017 APRA Song of the Year, with 20 Aussie songwriters making it to the final round, as voted by APRA AMCOS songwriter and publisher members. Newcomers Amy Shark, Julia Jacklin, Tash Sultana and D.D Dumbo enter the shortlist for the first time, while A.B. Original and Flume lead the Top 20 charge with two nominated songs featuring…
Read MoreLast week we delivered our Top 40 Albums of 2016, as voted by our contributors – some huge albums from chart dominating artists entered in, as did some breakthrough records from bands on the homefront we were still getting to know. We go another level deeper and look at the Top Australian releases as part…
Read MoreTop 20’s are always hard to pull together. As we saw with the first part of our Best Albums of 2016 countdown, the list was looking to be a varied one, with records from bands including Descendents, The Hotelier, Julia Jacklin and NO ZU all making the cut. As we look to the Top 20 records (as voted by our…
Read MoreBringing Skeleton Tree home to Australia, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have announced an unmissable run of shows next January. The tour will see the band head to New Zealand as well, with shows lined up for both Auckland and Wellington mid-January. Understandably, this tour is going to be one of the band’s biggest and arguably,…
Read MoreSometimes a piece of art becomes so intertwined with a contemporaneous event that true, unbiased analysis becomes impossible. Just as Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was erroneously seen as a response to 9/11, and Bowie’s Blackstar became his swansong, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Skeleton Tree comes in the wake of a tragedy. Halfway through the writing of the album’s material, Cave’s teenage son died in…
Read MoreToday, we find ourselves at the top end of our 101 Greatest Songs of All Time countdown. We’ve already seen some classic gems mixed in with some older favourites further down the list but as we look at this eclectic Top 25, there are definitely some tunes in here that might surprise. When it came…
Read MoreWhat makes a good song great? What is it about that one song from the 80’s that still resonates with you now, in 2016? What was it about that artist’s debut single that still stacks up with material they’re releasing now, four or five albums deep? These are the sorts of questions we’ve been asking ourselves recently in…
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