Directed by Eshom and Ian Nelms, Small Town Crime is a neo noir that isn’t here to reinvent the wheel, rather attempt to perfect itself as a genre piece. Not that it can be pigeon-holed. Part western, part crime fiction, part family drama, and a lot of noir, the film doesn’t cut any corners for…
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Hot on the heels of the news that the global streaming rights to his new horror film Madre had been picked up by Netflix at SXSW 2017, our own Larry Heath sat down with the film’s director Aaron Burns for a chat that spans his career-to-date, his process, a never-ending desire to create and the influences that…
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The second season of HBO’s animated series Animals just premiered, and in anticipation of its release I sat down with the series creators Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano at SXSW to talk about its return, Bill Cosby, warping minds, The Duplass Brothers (the series’ Executive Producers) and taking acid on 3-11. So I just came…
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Norway’s own SLØTFACE came to SXSW with a fiery live show to be brandished and brandish they did over their trip to Austin. We were lucky enough to sit down and chat with the band – Halvard Skeie Wiencke, Tor-Arne Vikingstad, Haley Shea and Lasse Lokøy – to find out how their SXSW had treated them as well as their…
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While at SXSW, we caught the brilliant documentary Through The Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film (read our review HERE). The film documents a Land Art project by Post Commodity, situated on the border between Mexico and the United States – the future home of Trump’s proposed border wall. I sat down with the film’s Austin based…
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We’re excited to reveal the winners of the AU review’s 4th Annual SXSW Awards, which celebrates the best performances and events we caught at the Austin, Texas festival – and some of the disappointments too. BEST AUSTRALIAN GROUP All Our Exes Live in Texas There was no shortage of great Australian bands at SXSW this…
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While SXSW continued to boast big name performances and branded events in 2017, it still remained a platform for new music discovery and for fresh artists from around the world to play their cards on stages right throughout Austin. One such artist is Jain. The Toulouse born singer came to Austin as one of the music festival’s…
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When it came to the trends of SXSW 2017, there was a lot of take note of. Firstly, there were the hordes of concerts that championed nostalgia (Hanson, Weezer, Smash Mouth etc.). Then there was (what felt like) the larger-than-ever focus on hip-hop (T.I., Gucci Mane, Vince Staples, Wu Tang etc.); something that has been…
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Hanson performed at the Tulsa Showcase at SXSW last week after revealing the details of their 25th Anniversary Middle Of Everywhere World Tour, which includes just-announced a stop over in Australia in June. After a small delay due to sound issues the three original brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac hit the stage at a packed…
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One of the highlights among the many premieres at SXSW this month was the documentary Behind The Curtain: Todrick Hall, which took us on a behind-the-scenes journey of the creation of Hall’s record Straight Outta Oz, its music videos and a subsequent tour – all put together in an impressively short amount of time. While…
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Canadian indie rock legends, The New Pornographers, were back in Austin for SXSW recently and we were lucky enough to get some time with vocalist and guitarist, Carl ‘A.C.’ Newman. No strangers to the chaos of SXSW, Newman reflects on his previous visits to the city with the band and the development of their music right through to…
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Chances are, if you haven’t yet become familiar with the name Starley, you’ll know what she sounds like. Her single “Call On Me” has transformed from a pop hit into a club chart demolisher thanks to Ryan Riback‘s remix last year and since, the Sydney native has been embraced by territories all over the world. When we…
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Jacob Collier may not have visited Austin, Texas prior to this month but best believe, the UK buzz artist left SXSW reeling with his presence. The 22 year old has been catapulted to global fame over the last year in particular; with two – yes, two – Grammy Awards to his name, the multi-instrumentalist and producer…
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The first teaser for upcoming SEGA title, Sonic Forces has been revealed at the annual SXSW festival. The trailer features a break-neck journey through a city under siege, with Sonic dashing his way through a gorgeous landscape.
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The 2017 Grulke Prize winners have been announced as SXSW turns in for another year, recognising three artists across the categories of ‘Developing US Act’, ‘Developing Non US Act’ and ‘Career Act’. In 2017, the ‘Developing US Act’ prize has been awarded to The Lemon Twigs, recognising the band’s creativity and potential off the back of their…
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With La La Land having recently dominated the Oscars, its story about 2 hopefuls trying to make it in Hollywood uncomfortably lingered in the back of my mind while watching California Dreams. Both La La Land and California Dreams share a similar premise of “dreams are built on sacrifice”, however the films attack their subject…
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Long Strange Trip is a documentary about the Grateful Dead that feels just like being at one of the band’s concerts. It is a sprawling, swirling psychedelic affair that lives up to its name as it celebrates a band that has notched up over 50 years in the music business as the reigning kings of…
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Hot on the heels of winning the SXSW Audience Award for the “Visions” programming, we sat down with Aussie actor Josh Lawson, Director Josh Greenbaum and Australia’s own 007 George Lazenby to talk about the film Becoming Bond, which premiered at the festival last week. This pseudo-documentary tells the story of Lazenby, the only Australian…
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Horror films aren’t like they used to be. Gone are the days of chainsaw wielding psychos with mummy issues and hockey mask wearing killers…. with mummy issues (I’ve stumbled upon something here). Indeed, the genre has become less about horny teenagers getting gutted in creative ways and more about utilising tropes to symbolise prevalent issues…
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Stop and take a moment to think about what you were doing at the age of 27 or what you will do if it’s yet to come. If you’re a musician it is likely that you are dead but if you were working at NASA during the Apollo era then you had a hand in…
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It was a slightly different agenda for Pandora at SXSW this year as the digital radio service concluded their annual Pandora House at Austin venue The Gatsby earlier tonight. Running from Monday to Thursday and crossing into both Music and Interactive programming – as opposed to concluding on Saturday as in past years – Future…
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For the past two days, the iconic Austin venue Mohawk played host to the annual House of Vans, featuring a mix of primarily rock and hip hop acts – some well established and plenty emerging. But it was the surprise addition of At The Drive-In during the event’s first night that proved to be the…
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Austin, Texas based outfit Spoon proved to be one of the hottest tickets this week at SXSW as they performed a residency of intimate shows at The Main (Formerly Emo’s) in the heart of their hometown. Across three nights at the venue, which wrapped up earlier tonight, the band played different setlists featuring tracks old…
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The MTV Woodies were hosted by Rick Ross for SXSW 2017, as punters were treated to some performances by established and emerging artists from across the hip hop, pop and rock realms. Taking out the four awards for this year were The Chainsmokers (“Woodie of the Year”), Ed Sheeran (“Cover Woodie” for his cover of Little Mix‘s “Touch”), Khalid (“Woodie to Watch”) and PARTYNEXTDOOR (“Songwriter of…
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This week, the annual SXSW Film Festival took place, with award winners just announced. Featuring an all-star jury including Kristen Bell, Becky Cloonan and more, the jury selected winners across a variety of categories including Narrative Feature, Film Design, Short Film Making, Documentary Feature and Excellence in Poster and Title Design among others. The 2017…
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Saint Heron descended upon the Coppertank for SXSW 2017, with Solange herself performing a brilliant headline set to mark the first day of YouTube’s programming. Joining the Saint Heron queen on stage throughout the day were some of 2017’s buzz names including Aminé, JAIN, James Hersey and Earthgang – sticking to YouTube’s directive of spotlighting some of…
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When I was nineteen I spent three straight days without sleeping. I had just moved to Tokyo and couldn’t cope with the light pollution or the sounds from the trains that ran behind my flat. I would spend the nights listening to relaxing music and watch films during the day. On the third morning at…
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Media Temple hosted their annual SXSW Interactive Closing Party on Tuesday night at Austin, Texas’ prolific Stubbs’ concert venue. The event was filled with a lot of rock, rage and the perfect dose of nostalgia. Pennywise and Jimmy Eat World headlined the annual close out to the Interactive portion of the festival. Past headliners have included…
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The SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event is designed to give 50 young startups the opportunity to pitch their ideas and potential killer apps to a live audience and get instant feedback. This year’s contestants were broken down into groups of five across ten categories, and we now have the winners.
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This one looks saucy! The first trailer for action thriller Atomic Blonde has been released ahead of its SXSW debut and it looks brilliant. Starring Charlize Theron as Lorraine Broughton, the film sees the undercover MI6 agent sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list…
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