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Magpie Diaries is a band hailing from the Hunter region of NSW. Its well-crafted tunes could be loosely described as contemporary-country and blues-influenced-folk rock (stated influences include Grateful Dead, Neil Young and Van Morrison). They also bring other sensibilities, such as a fair whack of sax to the table on their debut album Sanctuary. The band is fronted by Matt
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Last year I reviewed legendary indie band, The Pixies’ excellent performance at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney for Daily Review. In some quarters, the band that played that night at the Horden was a Clayton’s version of The Pixies; it didn’t include original bass player Kim Deal, who was replaced by Paz Lechantin, who does
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Nils Frahm is a classically trained German pianist whose contemporary classical and ambient records and concerts are produced via an astonishing array of synthesisers, especially Rolands and Moogs, and of course piano. I enjoy experimental music, especially live if it’s good, but at home, if I put anything on that isn’t “song” based (verse, chorus,
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The late food writer and raconteur Anthony Bourdain featured Mark Lanegan in an episode of his program Parts Unknown shot in Lanegan’s native Seattle last year. Bourdain, who famously took rock n roll seriously, was a great fan of Lanegan. His voiceover began,“Mark Lanegan is to my mind one of the greatest living singer songwriters making music
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In the ’90s, Australia’s love affair with local no frills pub rock bands expanded to embrace “alternative” rockers Silverchair, as well as eclectic acts like Spiderbait and industrial rock rabble rousers, Insurge. There was an alternative rock revolution going on around the world at this time. Doubtless, the most popular act of the weirder fringe
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There was electricity in the air at Melbourne trio Camp Cope’s performance at the Opera House on Wednesday night. There has been quite a buzz about the group in the media too. The positive press around the all-woman trio is well deserved as the quality of their take on “alternative/indie rock” rises above most of
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I went to primary school with Sarah Blasko and we were in the same class in Year 6. When I got her to sign a copy of her first album on her first tour, I brought up the fact that we were in Mr MacCarthy’s class together. “I thought you looked familiar,” was her reply.
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Maynard James Keenan founded Tool in the early ’90s. After dropping out of the military, he became involved in the LA music scene and joined bands, including Green Jelly, before hitting the jackpot with Tool. Tool are massively popular. They’ve also been creatively dormant. Over the 12 years since their last album, 10,000 Days, there have
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1995 was a big year for me. I attended my first festival, The Big Day Out, in January and my second, Alternative Nation, in April. Alternative Nation was headlined by Nine Inch Nails and Faith No More. Other acts included Tool, Ice T & Body Count, L7 and a couple of others that didn’t quite
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I saw Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters on their first tour of Australia in 2013, before Plant had released his first album backed by the group, Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar (2014). That performance at the Sydney Entertainment Centre (sometimes derided as the Empty Space Centre), mostly featured Led Zeppelin tunes, given a
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