Features
Live Review and Gallery: Hoodoo Gurus, Princess Wharf, Hobart, 31/12/2024
The Hoodoo Gurus set off their own blistering fireworks show at their end of year gig in Hobart, as part of the Tasmania’s Taste of Summer Festival. Of course, the Gurus have carved out a very special niche in Australian indie scene – they were part of an innovative underground movement in Perth, along with …
Feature: Backseat Downunder’s favourite Australian gigs and photographs from 2024
2024 represented a return to full service – and more – in the live music scene in Australia where the Backseat Mafia’s Backseat Downunder Team are located. With an ever expanding range of shows attended, we covered everything from international superstars like Taylor Swift to local bands plying their trade in small corner pubs. It …
Feature: Ugly Mac Beer Gives Us A Track By Track Of New Album Broken III
French hip-hop producer Ugly Mac Beer, with over 20 years of experience in the industry, returns to his youthful passions and ventures into synth-punk production for the first time with his new album titled ‘Broken Ill’. Three decades later, he brings to fruition an album he has dreamed of making since the age of 16, adopting a “Rick …
Northern Kin Festival. Thornley Hall Farm, Durham. 9th/10th/11th August 2024.
Back for it’s sixth year and in a new ‘venue’ Northern Kin 2024 certainly had some organisational issues to deal with prior to the weekend. Last year the weather caused chaos with the old site turning into a mudbath. This year the festival, on it’s new site at Thornley Hill Farm, was originally scheduled for …
Feature: Rumin Give Us A Track By Track Of Their New EP Horizontal/Vertical
HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL is a collection of the first three songs that have been created by RUMIN. It is a totally self-produced recording, done on a zero budget. Drums were captured by Andy Ellis in a rehearsal room in Pirate Studios, Hove. Bass, guitar and vocal tracks were all recorded in Andy’s home studio in St Leonards, East Sussex. …
Feature: Simon Scarlett Of Barbarian Hermit Gives Us A Track By Track Of Their New Album ‘Mean Sugar’
Manchester’s leading purveyors of groove-laden, stoner/doom metal, Barbarian Hermit, have returned with their new album, Mean Sugar, out now via APF Records. Written over a three-year period, ‘Mean Sugar’ is a cathartic creation set against a backdrop that has seen people endure a global pandemic, endless political turmoil, a cost of living crisis and war. …
Live Review plus Gallery: Underground Lovers with Youth Group, Corner Hotel, Melbourne, 27.07.2024
It is a rare and wondrous experience to see two of Australia’s most exciting and iconic bands (Underground Lovers and Youth Group) together at the legendary Corner Hotel on a bitter cold Melbourne night. It was one of those special nights that capture something unique. Of course it was made extra special by it being …
Meet: If Einsturzende Neubauten was the backing band for The Shangri-Las – we have a chat with Jim Reid from The Jesus and Mary Chain about the music, sobriety and offending Scarlett Johansson.
The Jesus and Mary Chain are about to embark on a tour of Australia as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations, and I caught up via Zoom with singer Jim Reid. The question I have always pondered was how the iconic album ‘Psycho Candy’ came into existence with its bizarre marriage of sonic chaos and …
Feature: Fin Greenall Provides A Track By Track Of Finks Highly Anticipated New Album ‘Beauty In Your Wake’ Which Is Out Now
From the wilds of intercontinental DJ-sets as a Ninja Tune original to nurturing the songwriting gifts of Amy Winehouse and on to becoming a teacher, producer, partner and father, Fin Greenall’s exploration of life and music brings he and FINK to a place of grounded self-assurance on the band’s new album, Beauty In Your Wake. As their eighth studio album is given to …
Live Gallery: Pond at Altar, Hobart with 208L Containers, 15.06.2024
Like a patient etherised on a table, prior to the iconic Dark Mofo Festival it has been alleged that winter in Hobart showed little signs of life, with only a discernible pulse. And to push the analogy more than is strictly necessary – this year, Dark Mofo was undergoing restorative surgery – it was not …