It’s always going to be tough for a new festival to break into a seemingly saturated market and also have a line up that would rival just about any other festival across the world. Thankfully, the team behind Sydney City Limits know a thing or two about booking, curating and planning a successful festival in…
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There’s definitely something enigmatic about The National. They’ve been a band for twenty years, are all seemingly grounded family men, and manage to always find themselves in the upper echelons of festival bills. And yet, they don’t rest on their laurels. They’ve just won their first Grammy, and have returned to the Sydney Opera House…
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When you’ve got a performer such as Ben Folds seated at a glistening piano overlooking a sea of thousands, eagerly tuned in to every word? You know you’re in for a great night. The first of two shows at the Melbourne Zoo for Twilights series 2018, Friday night with Ben Folds was a night for nostalgia,…
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The charmer of smoking viceroy cigarettes and cooking up something good, Mac DeMarco, settled down on Australian soil for yet another rendition of simplistic love songs and a boogie. After the release of his fourth studio album “This Old Dog”, featuring hit tracks “On The Level” and “My Old Man”, the 27 year old set out on tour…
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Melbourne Zoo Twilights has already kicked the 2018 series into high gear, recently hosting The Cat Empire, Sunnyboys and Painters And Dockers. On Friday, the offerings continued with Ali Barter and The Preatures joining the stage to help punters start their weekend the way all weekends should be started- dancing in a park, with a…
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If there was anything to take away from The Internet’s Friday night show, it was that Sydney loves The Internet and it’s reciprocal; and it isn’t just because Syd’s name is in the city’s name. The reception was nothing short of euphoric when Syd took the stage to join her bandmates. Every hand across the…
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With the recent 15th Anniversary of Get Rich or Die Tryin, it was perfect timing for once-dominant rapper 50 Cent to hit Australia with a brief but welcome tour. Yes, musically 50 is nowhere near as relevant as he used to be, but even non-fans would agree that Curtis Jackson is one of the most indelible…
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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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Anderson .Paak and The Free Nationals would have been one of the only drawcards of this year’s Laneway Festival for me, with Malibu easily coming in as one of my favourite records of 2016. Thankfully, I was one of the few (well, one of almost 2000) who managed to secure a spot inside Melbourne’s 170 Russell…
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A few years ago, no R&B fan would have expected a comeback so strong from SWV, but thanks to a hugely popular reality TV series and two strong albums – I Missed Us and Still – one of the best selling groups of the 90’s was welcomed back into the modern era with open arms….
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Returning once more to the Sydney College of the Arts, the Laneway Festival again made its presence felt throughout Sydney’s inner west. With a line up packed from front-to-back, it promised to be a stellar day as the early clouds cleared to a warm, but pleasant, Sunday afternoon. Obviously a cost cutting measure, having a single…
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Returning to Australia to add their charismatic funk to this year’s Laneway line-up, LA-based collective, The Internet, has gifted us with two sideshows as part of The Internet Presents The Internet Tour. They kicked things off at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre, delivering a set that uncontrollably moved your hips, re-emphasising that their love affair with Australia…
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Like many Aussie music fans who spent their teen years or early 20’s with the likes of The Presets, Midnight Juggernauts and PNAU filling up their chunky iPods, Cut Copy was one of the bands at the forefront of Australian dance music in the early 2000s. Bright Like Neon Love brought us “Saturdays” and “That Was Just a Dream”,…
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Another year, another Laneway Festival has come and gone. With the closure of Neon Lights last year, St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival remains the only up-and-running premiere indie festival in Singapore – surpassing the short-lived likes of counterparts Hostess Weekender, The Gathering, and Camp Symmetry. And yet, this year’s edition of Laneway presented a mixed bag….
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“It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you look like or where you are from…never be too scared to express yourself. “ A woman in her late thirties had planted herself down next to me, as I sat resting my feet. She told my friend and I that today was her day off from…
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I’ve loved Kelela‘s music ever since first listening to her Cut 4 Me EP back in 2013 or 2014. Her voice – followed by FKA twigs a few years later – signalled a great resurgence of sultry, rich female driven R&B that now, we’ve seen fully embraced by artists from the US and UK in particular. Where twigs’…
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You should start the new year off celebrating and having fun, so what better than to dance in a field with over 26,000 fellow friends? With three stages at The Domain, I did exactly that on January 1st at the Sydney’s Field Day. Starting the day early in full sunshine on the Centre Field stage was E^ST, who…
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I’ve never heard a Vince Staples song I didn’t like. The tough, nihilistic tone of his own brand of no-frills hip hop is perfectly placed over just about any contemporary production with even the slightest bounce to it, frantically transforming each beat with his elastic flow and nasal cadence whether it lean towards EDM or…
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With their fourth record A Fever Dream, Manchester outfit Everything Everything delivered what ended up being my favourite release of 2017. Taking what they’d done with Get To Heaven, the band refined it into a perfect body of work; an album in the classic sense of the word, a well articulated effort that embodied everything…
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Run the Jewels – the acclaimed project of US rappers El-P and Killer Mike – are currently in Australia for their first tour of our country in three years, and their first since the release of their third LP Run The Jewels 3. The duo were quick to point out how much bigger the shows…
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Entering the last day of Falls Festival Byron Bay, you could sense festival fatigue was starting to hit the masses en masse. The campground was quieter for longer in the morning, the toilet blocks were giving off a lovely earthy odour, and security started to be less hands on than they’d been in the previous…
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Here for its 25th instalment, the Falls Festival has become a staple diet for the many punters up and down the east coast of Australia who enjoy listening to quality tunes to bring in their new year. Returning for its fifth edition at the North Byron Parklands, Falls managed to put in place what has…
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With heads pounding and only the cicadas and Kookaburras making noise, the eerie silence of a camp ground at 6am on New Years Day is something to behold. Making the seemingly genius decision to get up early and have a cold shower was the kick start needed to get 2018 underway. What wasn’t envisaged was…
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Just hearing YelaWolf spit a verse live is a show in itself. The Alabama emcee has an innate talent for the kind of machine-gun rap very few can do so well, making it look easy as he confidently, and clearly, spins verse after verse with head-spinning proficiency, jumping from word to word without ever losing…
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After four very long years, Muse made an extremely welcome return to Australian shores at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Saturday night for their first of only two shows in the country this year. Having skipped Australia on the recent Drones World Tour, it was wonderful to get the opportunity to see them on this…
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Armed with her acclaimed debut album Telefone, Chicago rapper and recent Australian live music scene debutant Noname attacked her final show in the country (her second sold out show in Melbourne) on Monday with the finesse and confidence of an artist older than her 25 years. Noname’s 170 Russell show was kept tight, with the music wrapping…
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British India returned to The Metro with songs from their latest album Forgetting the Future and two support acts, Deadlove and Planet, in tow. First support act Deadlove were loud and energetic, their set could be heard from the bar at The Metro. Playing to a small crowd that gradually grew throughout the set, the…
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The Pleasure Garden is what I imagine tea with the Mad Hatter would be like. Sitting on a couch in the middle of a garden, sipping on gin, greeting people dressed as exotic birds who offer you lollipops whilst Fat Freddy’s Drop plays in the background. Add Hula Hoops, delectable street food, a smooth musical…
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Wednesday marked the second and final performance of the legendary Sir Paul McCartney in Sydney, as he continues his One by One Tour around the country. By now, you’ve likely heard just how brilliant these shows have been, cramming in upwards of 40 songs in 3 hours – the vast majority of those tracks Beatles…
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Ari Lennox, EarthGang, J.I.D and Bas. North Carolina emcee J. Cole, now one of the most commanding names in hip hop, is certainly chiseling his Interscope imprint Dreamville Records into something truly impressive, and positioned to grow well beyond 2018. It’s nothing new for a successful rapper to start fielding and fostering their own roster…
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