- Stereotypes are hard to shake. Once something gets into popular consciousness, the standard viewpoint is all that is seen, whereas what may be the more correct or appropriate truth is unable to be seen clearly. In Western culture the figure of “Lucifer” is taken to be the personification of evil – Satan, the Devil, Beelzebub – when all of those figures are actually different and have far more diverse beginnings and connections to the collective cultural belief system.

<p><span><span>- <em>Skakes</em> is the fifth release from roaming Australian singer-songwriter <strong>Emlyn Johnson</strong>, and it's his most straight forward yet. That's not a bad thing.<br />

<p><span><span>- In 2001, American punk band Strike Anywhere released their debut album and announced their intentions with the classic line “<em>We live in defiance of empty times</em>”. It was a lyric that reflected radical politics in that pre-War On Terror world - where the aim was to highlight the spiritual emptiness and the social and environmental costs of the American consumerist dream.</span></span></p>

<p><span><span><em>- </em>Pandemics don’t suck, usually. If you aren’t directly affected by the particular malady usually the societal side-effects don’t invade one’s personal space. However, 2020’s pandemic <em>assoluta</em> has not just touched everyone’s lives but it’s thumped them into a shape barely resembling recognisable forms. Every creative arts worker has been dealt a blow that might produce some extraordinary literature, music and art in years to come – if any creatives survive this year and the next.

<p><span><span>- It has been a hot minute since I’d given much from Seasick Steve<strong> </strong>a burl so when <em>Love &amp; Peace </em>rolled around, the feeling was much the same as catching up with an old friend. 2008’s <em>Started Out With Nothing </em>was the modern entry point for me to retroactively dive into blues and when reports surfaced in 2016 about Seasick Steve’s narrative being a fabrication, it seems like a kayfabe breaking would put a pin in the train-hopping tale. Well, it didn’t.

- On last year’s breakthrough, self-titled album, Brisbane synth-pop four-piece Cub Sport redefined their status as a band, moving from being indie-pop darlings to a group with the potential to reconsider genre and gain an international cult following. Now they’re back with their fifth studio album LIKE NIRVANA, which not only looks past the visions of their previous records but transcends them entirely.