2 September 2014
Anberlin have been around for quite a while now: since forming in 2002, they’ve put out six albums, two EPs and have toured the world multiple times. They’ve also completely flown under my radar until now, which is a damn shame as Lowborn is their seventh and final album.
2 September 2014
New Zealand rockers The Datsuns will release their new album in October. The album, Deep Sleep, will be the band’s sixth effort and clocks in at a fast-punching 34 minutes.
31 August 2014
Listening to Cold World, the latest release from Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens, is like jumping in a time machine and heading back to the golden age of soul music. In the last six years, since the band recorded the previous album, they have played some of the biggest music festivals around.
29 August 2014
Lacey corsets, body contortionists, circus tricks and top hats sounds like descriptions of scenes in a movie, but they’re a firm reality at the Gangsters’ Ball. Forte had a chat to MC extraordinaire, Aurora Kurth, ahead of the event.
29 August 2014
Moments before calling, The Delta Riggs frontman Elliot Hammond shared a sauna with Steve Kilbey, lead singer-songwriter and bass guitarist from The Church, where they talked about their upcoming performances at Queenscliff Music Festival later this year. If that wasn’t enough coincidence, whilst touring London the band hung out with Kilbey’s daughters, who formed a pop band called Say Lou Lou.
29 August 2014
Okay ya’ll, it’s time to hurry, hurry, hurry before Earthcore tickets increase to their third-tier prices.
29 August 2014
The Melbourne Fringe Festival has announced its 2014 program. Now, with over 400 shows to take place across 150 venues throughout the near three-week extravaganza, I have no idea where to start.
27 August 2014
Hill…Top…! Hill…Top…! This will be what the entire hip hop community will be chanting for the new Hilltop Hoods album – an album, for all those who listened intently to the lyrical hints in their last album Drinking from the Sun, knew was coming. This album isn’t just new; it’s an extension of Drinking from the Sun, which only makes it even more spectacular.
27 August 2014
A simple smile can work wonders. It can make someone’s day, soften the heart of the cruellest dictator and set your brain abuzz with endorphins. Paul Hogan is just one of the people making all these things possible in his stand-up show touring regional Australia. Put simply, Paul knows his work is done once every face in the crowd has a smile from cheek to cheek.
27 August 2014
It may seem like Rainbow Serpent Festival is still a million miles away, but before you know it you’ll be packing up the car and making your way to Beaufort for four days of music, arts and lifestyle.
26 August 2014
In sad news, Tumbleweed’s Jay Curley has died. An announcement was made through the band’s Facebook page: “It is with deep sadness that we inform everyone of a great loss in the Tumbleweed family, our brother, friend and bass player Jay Curley passed away suddenly in his home yesterday.
26 August 2014
Here at Forte Mag we love fresh music, and if Melbourne hardcore band Hope In Hell were any fresher they would fall off the vine! Although they’ve been gigging around the city for a little while now – with a new drummer in the mix and the release of their debut EP – things are heating up for Hope In Hell.
26 August 2014
Sometimes it feels like we’re stuck down here in the antipodes, miles from the action of the mainstream blues scene. But it’s not so! The 31st International Blues Challenge is on in January 2015, and it’s time to get ready! The Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society has called for bands and individuals to nominate for our Victorian Blues Challenge.
25 August 2014
New Zealand’s Die! Die! Die! are closing in on another round of raucous shows. The noise-punk makers will be launching their new album S W I M in all the glory we have come to know and love about the band. From the presser: “S W I M is an 11 track opus formed from the wall-sweat of Europe’s best clubs, scratched off the tour van floor and from down the back of the couch-surfed accommodation.
25 August 2014
Batucada Sound Machine, Benny Walker, Black Indie, Bongeziwe Mabandla, Bonjah, Bustamento, Finding Albert, Frank Yamma, Glenn Skuthorpe, Hailey Cramer, Leah Flanagan, Louis Baker, Marlon Williams, Melbourne Ska Orchestra, Mighty Duke & The Lords, Radical Son, Santa Taranta, Tha Feelstyle, The Ska Vendors and Timberwolf have joined the already impressive AWME line-up.
25 August 2014
Tim Hulsman grew up in a close-knit community where he learnt to play homegrown music. Rather than an introduction via 12-bar blues and Dylan his musical experience and expression was restricted to Christian tunes. Like many treading the alt-folk path, the lapsed Jehovah’s Witness turned a defiant early ear towards the dreaded world of ‘rock and/or roll’.
25 August 2014
With the release of their latest single ‘Afterglow’, Sydney indie rockers Creo are hitting the road once again to play a stack of shows. With fearsome drumming, malicious guitar tones and devious indie-pop hooks thrown in the mix for good measure, over the next few weeks Creo are touring all around the country in support of their latest single. Hold fire though folks, because they are not your average indie-pop rock band.
25 August 2014
Who doesn’t love Deadpool? It’s hard not to, really. Despite starting out as a blatant Marvel parody of DC’s Slade Wilson (aka Deathstroke), the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ has (arguably) gained a popularity beyond that of Deathstroke himself. Depending on the situation, Deadpool can be funny or utterly vicious – usually a satisfying combination of both. I’m a huge fan of Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn’s run on the current Deadpool series – having Deadpool re-kill zombified US presidents was just nuts!
24 August 2014
As far as Australian television goes, any way you slice it Working Dog is our number one success story. Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy, Tom Gleisner and (behind the scenes) Michael Hirsh have been making television for twenty years – longer if you count their work as part of The Late Show and The D-Generation – and they’ve been making a lot of different television at that, from the sitcom Frontline to the panel show The Panel to game show Thank God You’re Here…
24 August 2014
They’re at it again, those King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard noise-makers. The band recently spent time in the US and Canada, taking in the Austin Psych Fest and Canadian Music Week among other gigs.
24 August 2014
My friends, we’re on the eve of what will arguably be the biggest and best all-Australian hip hop tour of 2014. In a nod to the exceptional work by Melbourne photo-journalist Michelle Grace Hunder, our country’s brightest lights have joined forces to celebrate the launch of her debut book release ‘RISE – A photo-documentary of Hip Hop in Aus’.
23 August 2014
If there’s one thing Kingswood does well, it’s good ol’ fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. Their debut album, Microscopic Wars, is no exception. The 13-track LP takes their signature brand of fuzzy rock and takes it to next level. There’s no middle ground; from start to finish you’re hit with thudding, high energy rock.
23 August 2014
While my musical tastes constantly shift and change, there are a few artists and genres that I find myself coming back to. I keep coming back to high-energy, distortion-fuelled rock acts, like the Foo Fighters, Airbourne and Guns N’ Roses. Strathmore definitely fit that mould, and their debut album Time Well Wasted is absolutely bursting with energy.
22 August 2014
In a music scene that seems so overrun with alternative indie bands, we’ve forgotten the beauty in the soulful funk tunes discovered decades ago. Thanks to the mysterious duo known as J and T, who form the band Jungle, they’ve reintroduced the genre and added a new sound to today’s airwaves.
