Corrosion of Conformity @ Crowbar

The night started with a few local acts to entice the crowd. And the taste of emerging talent certainly had punters’ hair swinging. First off was Royal Artillery. The act boasted a blend of solid stoner-blues riffs and echoing vocals, laying down song after song without so much as a minute’s break. There’s a lot to admire in their tight style, like their ability to move from one song to the next via feedback.

Mountain Goat Valley Crawl (15.2.20)

It was love, love, love, as the Mountain Goat herd descended on Fortitude Valley for the 2020 edition of their annual Valley Crawl. The free event showcased some of Australia’s top talent with six-and-a-half hours of original tunes across nine venues in Fortitude Valley. Kicking off at 5:30, acts played right through to midnight and then kicked on into the early hours at the Black Bear Lodge afterparty.  Some of the performers included: Great Sage, Tia Gostelow, Dopamine and many, many more - too many to see in one night. 

Private Function, Being Jane Lane, Ascot Stabber and the Unknowns @ The Bearded Lady (15.2.2020)

Over the last few years, Private Function have established themselves as one of the most chaotic, engaging, memorable live acts in the Australian punk scene, and beyond. The Melbourne band bring forth top-quality, raucous punk music that is also highly entertaining, and oftentimes downright hilarious. They headed into this tour off the back of their brilliant debut full-length album St Anger, and a hosting gig on rage which saw them feature legendary artists like Limp Bizkit and Crazy Frog.

4ZZZ Top 20

1. Eliza & The Delusionals - Swimming Pool (Single)

2. Adele & The Chandeliers - Love You More (Single)

3. Good Boy - Extended Heavy (Single)

4. The Double Happiness - Wild Bikini (Single)

5. Steve Spacek - Houses (Album Of The Week)

6. Jaguar Jonze - Rabbit Hole (Single)

7. Cable Ties - Self-Made Man (Single)

8. EGOISM - You You (Single)

9. Tame Impala - The Slow Rush

10. Ella Fence - All I Do Is Think EP

11. Val Flynn - Deep Water (Feat. Kaylah Truth) (Single)

Jeremy Neale - 'We Were Trying to Make it Out'

Since his 2017 debut album release, Neale has had some great wins, he took out the 2018 Queensland Music Award for Song of The Year for single Dancin’ & Romancin’, signed a global publishing deal with GAGA International / Rough Trade Publishing, received extensive play across US college radio and was the recipient of the Grant McLennan Fellowship.

As part of this fellowship Neale spent three months in NYC during 2018, attending a songwriting masterclass at NYU, collaborating with local writers and as it turns out, most importantly, resetting his life. Many years stuck in a cycle of ever-changing work, relentless side-hustling and various degrees of financial ruin had taken a toll and the opportunity to escape the pressure cooker for a brief period of time helped immensely to cure the burnout.

We Were Trying to Make It Out is a record written across two cities and two years. Early Jeremy Neale recordings might have read as a tribute to those who came before him, but here on his second record - he has found his sound and his voice.

Review: Opera Queensland presents Hayley Sugars 'Songs of Desire'

It was the night of Valentine’s Day as the audience gathered in the Conservatorium Theatre, South Bank for an intimate performance that celebrated ‘Songs of Desire’. Although I was looking forward to witnessing the Opera Queensland Studio for the first time, the change of venue (due to unforeseen maintenance at the time) still made for a cosy night ahead where the audience could appreciate the talented mezzo-soprano Hayley Sugars.

 

Grimes: Miss Anthropocene

- A noticeable trend in these stream-heavy times is the tendency for artists to release a multitude of singles in advance of an album release. Tame Impala had four singles out prior to last week’s release of The Slow Rush, while Grimes has already released five singles from her brand new record Miss Anthropocene.

Wilsen: Ruiner

- I first discovered Wilsen in 2017 via a seemingly random YouTube auto-play algorithm. Their first full length album I Go Missing In My Sleep came out the same year. As a hazy series of quaint, yet fully realised vignettes, the Brooklyn trio were a welcome surprise. Approaching their second album Ruiner, it was clear that Wilsen would continue to dive deeper into their songs about the natural world.

King Krule: Man Alive!

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>- At this stage, there has already been a lot of thought and words laid out over King Krule’s musical whims. All that are interested hear it clearly: an effortless blend of genre, a <em>woozy</em> production style, his commanding vocal delivery - bring out your <strong>Clash</strong> references or any other street-savvy UK band between here and the '80s and you can crack a <strong>King Krule</strong> conversation in a minute.