Past articles, reviews and pictures
Nice guys finish first
Sean Palmer Zaac Margin sounds young - surprisingly young. He is only 21 after all, and as the middle brother in a band whose debut album entered the ARIA charts at number three, he still sounds star-struck and very enthusiastic.
San Cisco reaping the rewards
Rachel Packham One of the advantages to being signed to a label, according to San Cisco's Josh Biondillo, is how smoothly a tour can run.
Q&A
On the road ...
Phil, Gus, Pete and Scott from indie rockers Hailer tell us what life is like on tour.
Success more about swagger than singing
Kate Kingsmill The idea of sex is vital to popular music. And the ability to channel sex through musical performance is a massive part of what makes a great frontman.
ALBUM REVIEW
The Still and the Steep
Arne Sjostedt This soulful release tells you, with Heath Cullen digging deep into his soul, to kick back and feel.
ALBUM REVIEW
Universus
Douglas Fry Universus is a loud and brash arrival, to be sure, a debut album full of redline drum and bass, dubstep, and electro — but to call it unsubtle would be inaccurate.
ALBUM REVIEW
Disarm the Descent
Arne Sjostedt Soaking in Killswitch Engage's many hooks has left a warm imprint on my feeding nodes. Really tidy guitars shed the light into the darkness within.
Bronx, via LA, with a touch of mariachi
Kate Kingsmill What do you do if you're a punk band and you're creatively stuck? If you're the Bronx, you simply re-invent yourselves as a mariachi band.
Reyne and friends light up an Aussie era
Amelia Dale It's a line-up from the golden age of Australian rock that would make even the most cynical baby boomer quiver with excitement - James Reyne, Daryl Braithwaite, Ross Wilson and Joe Camilleri.
Williams goes it alone to make connections
Sean Palmer The deep, resonant voice of Hayward Williams is soothing. There is blanketing warmth to his tone, whether he is in the wood-paneled bars of the American Midwest, city and country pubs around Australia, or small clubs across Europe.
Feeling like a Cub again
Chris Johnson It's Anzac Day, so let's be patriotic and talk a little about some great Australian rock - starting in our own backyard.
Mosquito
Sean Palmer When you delve into the past decade or so of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs it is hard to get past the raw energy and animalistic antics of their debut album. Now, enter Mosquito and YYY play ballsy rock music open to innovation.
To Be Loved
James Baldwin Canadian crooner Michael Buble is back with his eighth studio album, which is sure to have fans worldwide singing for joy. The album takes one word to sum up: perfect.
Reservoir Drive
Arne Sjostedt With Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford on axe and production dishing up some tidy guitar work, musically Krista Polvere strikes at the heart of good alt country rock/folk.
Cloud Appreciation Society
Arne Sjostedt Coming from the songwriting-performance culture that has given us many a girl and her guitar - Melanie Horsnell sits comfortably in the background of a more hectic music market place.
Mitchell strokes his alter ego
Naomi Fallon It's ironic that it's taken an alter ego for Kevin Mitchell to produce some of his most personal work.
At the heart of soul revival
Kate Kingsmill The Saskwatch story is the kind of ''struggling musicians done good'' tale that could have been written by a Hollywood scriptwriter.
DJ's success Shocks no-one
Douglas Fry Karl Thomas agrees drum and bass has been marked by consistency, free from the identity crises that have affected so many electronic genres.
Looks like it's still bloody good fun
Arne Sjostedt Suffice to say there are more laughs than questions during an interview with international comedy export Kevin Bloody Wilson.
The Magician's Daughter
Arne Sjostedt Opinion Imbued with rock'n'roll's romance and mystery, and informed by Mama Kin's deep, womanly spirit - this is a rich, creative and rewarding album.
The Beast in its Tracks
Arne Sjostedt Opinion With all its gentle guitar and tidy construction, Josh Ritter has a knack for writing poignant, touching, and on Evil Eye and Nightmares, sometimes slightly creepy little songs.
The Terror
Sean Palmer Opinion Nothing here is accessible - bleak psychedelic tunes meld into one another and atmospheric clutter and sampled fragments adjoin songs that don't really need titles, but sound like a morbid film score.
Sometimes change is the name of the game
Simon Tatz Opinion Here's a philosophical question: what constitutes a band, the parts or the whole?
Pedestrian Verse
Amelia Dale Don't let the quirky name and faux-vintage appearance of the album cover scare you away from Pedestrian Verse.
All This Time
Andrew Benson The Magnets are without doubt some of the world's best proponents of the style and on All This Time they get off to an exceptional start with a beautiful and powerful rendition of Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill.
Amok
Sean Palmer When he's not making alt-electro, idiosyncratic music with Radiohead, Thom Yorke sometimes likes to dabble in minimalist and surreal activities with others.
Rock god proves he's forever Young
Chris Johnson Neil Young and Crazy Horse played the Sydney Entertainment Centre last Sunday night and I had nothing better to do so I went along.
Always on road to career in music
Naomi Fallon A love of family, music and the country we live in was instilled in Tania Kernaghan from a young age.
Hundred show valentine
CHRIS JOHNSON When bluesman Chris Smither was last in Canberra, he was headlining the National Folk Festival in 2010.
Drumming up success
Peter Krbavac Three days out from their Australian tour, the members of Dutch psych-rock trio DeWolff have turned their attention to the more practical side of preparations.
Grinning from year to year
Joni Scanlon Canberra's inaugural comedy festival is proving popular before it has even begun. Extra shows have already been announced after some sold out weeks ahead of the event.
Drapht heads in a new direction
Kate Kingsmill Perth hip-hop artist Drapht used to make music just for the love of it. Once it became his livelihood, making music felt different.
Still a man at work
Amelia Dale Colin Hay uses two words to describe his upcoming tour: long and expensive.
Party time aboard the Gravy train
Naomi Fallon Canberra's late-night party-goers could be fooled into thinking they've been transported to New Orleans when they stumble across local jazz group Party Gravy.
Feraude finds his groove
Douglas Fry Canberra DJ-producer Ashley Feraude is mystified by the global reach of his music, an indie-disco-synthpop hybrid.
FILM REVIEW
Best western
Philippa Hawker Quentin Tarantino foreshadowed his new, confronting, exhilarating movie in his previous one. There is a scene in his alternative-universe-of-World War II film, Inglourious Basterds (2009), in which a Nazi officer playing a parlour game, not only gets the right answer - King Kong - but also hands out a lesson in allegory. King Kong, he says, brought to America in chains, is the very emblem of the African-American experience.
What's after the happily ever after
Roger Moore Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is a silly mash-up of horror and hilarity produced by Will Ferrell's team.
FILM REVIEW
Zombie overkill
Jake Wilson After Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, this is the second recent stop-motion 3D horror-comedy in which a precocious youngster enrages his narrow-minded neighbours by crossing the border between life and death.
Film review
Interviews produce new shades of grey
Jake Wilson Sex work fascinates many filmmakers, but the Polish director Malgoska Szumowska tackles the theme from a bold, individual point of view.
Some take their jams too seriously
Chris Johnson We all know musical snobs abound in the classical world. Even jazz has an element of snobbery and elitism. But folk music?
Banks
Sean Palmer In calling this a distinct Paul Banks record that's not to say there aren't any dark, stormy soundscapes of the Interpol variety lurking beneath the surface.
Signed and Sealed in Blood
Arne Sjostedt If you've heard their name, but not checked them out, the Dropkicks play a feisty, male-dominated brand of rough and tumble Celtic punk.
The Death of Green Lake
Chris Johnson This CD is a mix of original works and earthy covers of some wonderful traditional songs.
Dead in the Boot
Sean Palmer As good a band as Elbow are, the sombre musical arrangements and immediately recognisable scruffy-yet-intense vocals of Guy Garvey can't save all of Dead in the Boot.
Back where it all began
Joni Scanlon Timomatic is set to realise an early ambition by performing at Parliament House in the Australia Celebrates Live concert.
Lavers pave their way
Naomi Fallon Going to university was meant to be a back-up plan for Dom Lavers. But, as he gets set to return as part of O Week celebrations, he concedes the back-up plan was probably one of his better ideas.
A little shush for Sheeran
Melissa Ruggieri Unlikely heartthrob Ed Sheeran has been honing his musical skills in pubs and pockets of Nowheresville since 2005, releasing 11 digital EPs before his 2011 album debut.
Clubfeet gain momentum
Amelia Dale Melbourne's Clubfeet started making waves in 2011 with their first record Gold on Gold, and since then they've been hard at work touring, travelling and recording their latest album Heirs & Graces.
R3hab rises to fame
Douglas Fry R3hab had a massive 2012, which saw him nab the breakthrough artist award at the Miami Winter Music Conference and earned him remix duties for Calvin Harris and David Guetta.
It's a wild life on Mars
Naomi Fallon Fans would be forgiven for thinking that Bruno Mars' cancellation of his recent Australian trip had something to do with swigging moonshine and partying with young girls.
Wild about Impala
Sean Palmer In the two years following the release of Tame Impala's debut studio album InnerSpeaker, hype regarding this Australian band has been building here and abroad.
Robinson rides the riff of American life
Naomi Fallon He has long been touted as an Australian guitar virtuoso, but Joe Robinson wants more.
Drive off the beaten track
Arne Sjostedt With the release of Atlas, Parkway Drive reach album number four.
On the road...
With Sean McMahon Sean McMahon's Western Union tell us what they get up to on the road.
Kristen exits the Twilight zone
Roger Moore It's been five years since Kristen Stewart was plucked from supporting actor/indie-film obscurity and thrust into the spotlight as the female face of the Twilight franchise.
MOVIE REVIEW
Fifty years and still hitting the mark
Ron Cerabona For James Bond's 50th anniversary as a hero on the cinema screen, the filmmakers have gone all out.
Record companies cash in on box sets
Simon Tatz If you're looking to buy that special musical gift for Christmas, one that screams excess and extravagance, you're in luck; there's a ridiculously lavish, incredibly expensive and unnecessary CD box set out there catering for every well-resourced fan.
The Evolution of Man
Sean Palmer In part, Example's new release is a ''come down'' record, where life's realities come into full context.
Heart of a Lion
James Baldwin Sydney seems to be a factory for solid Australian bands, who have churned out some musical masterpieces in 2012. The Griswolds are no different.
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Hilltop Hoods @ UCU, August 16
Hilltop Hoods @ UCU, August 16
Jinja Safari @ ANU Bar, August 15
Jinja Safari @ ANU Bar, August 15
Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens @ Transit Bar, July 28
Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens @ Transit Bar, July 28
Honky Tonks, July 28
Honky Tonks, July 28
Frenzal Rhomb @ The Basement, July 21
Frenzal Rhomb @ The Basement, July 21
Ladyhawke @ ANU Bar, July 20
Ladyhawke @ ANU Bar, July 20
Honky Tonks, July 6
Social photos from Honky Tonks in Garema Place, Friday July 6
The Arachnids at Transit Bar, July 5
Socials photos from The Arachnids gig at Transit Bar, July 5
Academy June 29
Punters dance up a story at Academy in the city, June 29.
