Reviewed by
Trio Dali
Clive O'Connell MAKING every post a winner, the Trio Dali is touring Australia with one program only but playing it with such mastery that even this hoary chamber music veteran is tempted to go back on Saturday to hear the recital again.
Sigur Ros return with a new sense of calm
Bernard Zuel GEORG HOLM, the bearded, steely-eyed and once almost criminally reticent bass guitarist in Iceland's Sigur Ros, is a little embarrassed as he launches into his confession. The activity that elicits this shot of shame? Not any drink- or drug-fuelled escapade, nor some late-night Twitter explosion; it is finding himself so enjoying the new Sigur Ros album that he, gasp, plays it at home.
Four fabulous rarities bridge the centuries
Wendy Frew LAST year, one of the world's most precious stringed instruments - the 1721 ''Lady Blunt'' Stradivarius violin - sold at auction for a record $US15.9 million. Returns for such high-end stringed instruments are outstripping stock markets, which makes it all the more amazing that the Australian String Quartet has assembled the first and only matched quartet of instruments in Australia made by the Italian master craftsman Giovanni Guadagnini.
Spotify: the evolution of music consumption
EARPHONE HEAD 4:26pm Like the change from vinyl to cassette or CD to MP3, Spotify represents another paradigm shift in the way we consume music.
Fiddling with formality to jazz folk up
John Shand FIFTY years ago the idea of distinctly Italian jazz would have been laughable. Back then Italy's jazz generally aped its American precursors, but now Luca Ciarla can lead a quartet drawing on the region's folk music to make jazz that sounds like no other.
The Diary
Butler triumphs over yoghurt
Matt Buchanan and Scott Ellis WITH his tribal tattoos, whispy beard and long dreadlocked hair, John Butler looks exactly like what he is, a laid-back indie-rocker who takes things pretty easy. But he's shown he can be a tough businessman too, announcing he has taken on - and beaten - the American ad agency that produced a commercial to run during the American Superbowl football game this year which featured actor John Stamos and a song that sounded very, very similar to one of Butler's.
Gurrumul to sing for Queen
Indigenous singer Gurrumul will perform a specially commissioned song at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert in London as part of a chorus of stars.
Kimbra making her mark in US
New Zealand singer Kimbra has been the subject of a New York Times feature story, describing how she made an 'electric' impression on fans at her first New York concert.
Spotify launches in Australia
Online music service Spotify has become Australia's first free streaming music provider after launching in Australia today.
Concert controversy
Gaga rocks Philippines, defies critics
Lady Gaga has rocked the Philippines, defying critics and state censors as thousands of fans, many of them dressed as outrageously as she was, roared their approval.
What a score
Dream job puts shows on the right track
Clare Morgan FOR fans of the TV show Six Feet Under, the last six and a half minutes of the final episode were made even more emotional by Sia's song Breathe Me.
A life in music celebrated with a gathering of friends
Robin Usher ONE of the central figures in Melbourne's musical life for more than 30 years, Stephen McIntyre, is organising ''a little bit of entertainment'' to celebrate his 70th birthday with friends who include some of Australia's most acclaimed performers.
Reviewer
The Exchange
Cameron Woodhead THE biennial Next Wave Festival celebrates new, boundary-pushing work from younger artists. The problem it faces is one of curatorship: how to guide audiences so they get the most from a program packed with experimental offerings - some unsuited to traditional venues, many fleeting and ephemeral.
Reviewed by
Florence + The Machine
Michael Dwyer THE flounce belongs to Florence Welch. It's her physical signature on the big stage she's made her own in just two albums. Look at her hurtle from stage left to right, skipping in her pointy ballet pumps, her glossy auburn tresses and diaphanous layers, well, flouncing. It's enough to have the rammed arena in near ecstasy from go to whoa (oh-oh-oh-oh).
The quiet man in the middle
Anthony O'grady, Michael Dwyer Robin Gibb, the taciturn Bee Gee, died in London on Sunday.
Robin Gibb
More than a bandmate: Robin Gibb's place was at his brothers' side, writing chart-topping hits
Bruce Elder An integral member of one of the world's greatest pop groups, Robin Gibb was a masterful songwriter.
Rockin' the suburbs, not that they'd know
Dan Nancarrow Wedged between car yards and workshops on a Bowen Hills industrial strip is an ordinary black building most wouldn't give more than a passing glance to any day of the week.
The Wiggles
My day as a Wiggle
Daniel Fallon Standing in for a Wiggle requires more than just donning a coloured skivvy. Metro editor Dan Fallon recalls his one, horrible day as a Wiggle.
Adele, LMFAO big winners at Billboard
Adele and LMFAO were the big winners at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas overnight, with the British soul sensation winning 12 trophies, including Top Artist and Top Female Artist.
The end of summer show that grooved and 'moo-ved' Bunno
Jeff Kitt An electric atmosphere laced Bunbury’s Hay Park as more than 15,000 punters spewed through the gates for the city’s third instalment of the Groovin the Moo festival at the weekend.
A centenary tribute to Glanville-Hicks
Reviewed by Peter McCallum BUT for the efforts of a few, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, born 100 years ago, would have earned the dubious title of being the best composer Australia never had.
Gershwin with some fancy footwork
Reviewed by Harriet Cunningham THERE was a wild instability about the Sydney Symphony's opening number, Cuban Overture, in this all-Gershwin program. The textures were muddy, the connections were loose, the expected tight-weave seemed dangerously frayed.
Supafest embroiled in debt chase for unpaid royalties
KARL QUINN Urban music festival could be about to topple as royalties company chases debt.
The evolution of Karen O
Andrew Purcell The metamorphosis of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' frontwoman continues, this time for her ''psycho opera".
The Wiggles
I'm no dictator, says Blue Wiggle
CHRISTINE SAMS Blue Wiggle Anthony Field gets straight to the point: "You don't stay together for 21 years and have a dictator at the front."
Composer goes solo with glove songs
SARAH WHYTE With the slightest movement of the second finger on her left hand, Imogen Heap can conjure the sound of an entire orchestral brass section. A twitch of her left thumb can solicit a complicated drum rhythm, while a flick of her middle finger will summon a guitar riff.
Pinning a song to canvas for a cause
ANDREW TAYLOR When Nicholas Harding first heard Megan Washington's funereal Underground, the song sounded joyful to his ears. ''I get the darker side, but it made death sound not that bad,'' the artist said.
Crowded House drummer dies
Crowded House drummer Peter Jones has died of brain cancer, according to reports.
Missy Higgins interview
Out of the dark
Thrust into the spotlight while barely out of her teens, Missy Higgins’s sudden success resurrected old demons. She talks to Chris Johnston about why she quit music – and why she’s back with a new album.
OPERA
Interview: Danielle de Niese
Jane Wheatley "I don't speak too much about the unfair reviews, the times I spent weeping on my mum's lap," says Danielle de Niese.
Photos
Long live disco
A look back at the lives of dance-floor pioneers Robin Gibb and Donna Summer.
Queen of Disco
Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco who ruled the dance floors with anthems like Last Dance, Love to Love You Baby and Bad Girl, has died. Her family released a statement, saying Summer died Thursday, May 17, 2012. She was 63.
Mosh Pit: San Cisco
Mosh Pit: San Cisco at The Standard.
Top 10 Australian guitarists
Australian Guitar magazine has released its list of the top 50 Australian guitarists of all time. Here are the top 10.
Kimbra Brisbane Show At The Tivoli
Kimbra performs at the Tivoli in Brisbane on May 15, 2012.
Video
No yoghurt for John Butler
John Butler has made a 'satisfactory settlement' with an ad agency over claims a yoghurt commercial which aired during the 2012 Super Bowl, plagiarised one of his songs.
Karen O's sensual horror show
Preview the unique live experience of Karen O's performance in Stop the Virgens.
An Officer and a Gentleman
The world premiere of new musical An Officer and a Gentleman moves the 1982 film about working class heroes, to the Sydney stage.
The Chieftains celebrate half a century
The grand-daddy of all Irish bands, The Chieftains, are out with a new album to mark a half century of work.
Pete Murray cops the bird in Bundy
Pete Murray describes his encounter with "the first locals we had come across" before a gig in Bundaberg when a woman gave him the finger as "a welcoming sign".
Best of Big Day Out: Nick Cave and Kylie
1996's Big Day Out saw the unlikely appearance of pop queen Kylie Minogue, who sang a duet with Nick Cave.
Best of Big Day Out: Silverchair '95
Silverchair explodes onto the scene in 1995, leaving BDO organisers wishing they'd booked on a bigger stage.
Best of Big Day Out: Urge Overkill '94
Enjoying a smash hit on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, Urge Overkill added their clean-cut performance to a fairly grungy lineup at 1994's Big Day Out.
Duran Duran heading down under
English rockers Duran Duran are heading back down under for their first Aussie shows in 3 years next March. AAP's Elise Scott reports.
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