"
Rhyece O’Neill is an intense young man. A polemical folk singer, a producer of bass-heavy dance music, a protester, and a digital media worker for a major record label. He’s unlike anyone else in Australia’s dubstep landscape."
Cyclic Defrost interviews O'Neill, aka
electronic/dub/dubstep producer Westernsynthetics, and head of the
Sub Continental Dub label. You can skip the rest and hear
two streaming mixes from Westernsynthetics,
19 tracks from the Sub Continental Dub label, plus
the label's first three singles, or continue inside for background, context, and even more music.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 27, 2012 -
9 comments
There's a new crop of Australian bands that take inspiration from old blues, but twist the music in a strange fashion. The trend may have started with
CW Stoneking (Jungle Blues,
Love Me Or Die), who channeled the old bluesmen despite being a
young man. Its continued on to Sydney's
Snowdroppers, who started out as a
house band for burlesque shows and kept that dirty sensibility up with songs like
Rosemary ,
Do The Stomp, and their signature tune
Good Drugs, Bad Women (lyrics NSW). Frequent Snowdroppers touring partners
Gay Paris add a Southern horror twist (
House Fire In the Origami District, My First Wife? She Was A Foxqueen! ) and an antic stage energy. Some of the bands relay on gimmicks, like Adelaide's
The Beards, who sing about how
you should consider having sex with a bearded man and point out that
if your dad doesn't have a beard, you've got two moms. The Beards recently performed at the
World Beard and Mustache Championships. Horror-country-rockers
Graveyard Train have picked up the torch dropped when Sydney psychobilly masters
Zombie Ghost Train (
Graveyard Queen) disbanded. Graveyard Train tunes like
Mummy,
Ballad for Beelzebub ,
Tall Shadow and
Dead Folk Dance combine cheerful Misfits horror theming with stompy country. Most of the singers from this loose scene are joining forces in Sydney this week to
pay tribute to Tom Waits.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn
on Oct 4, 2011 -
32 comments
New Weird Australia is a not-for-profit, government-sponsored initiative promoting new eclectic & experimental music - plenty of free downloads & podcasts are available on the site.
posted by UbuRoivas
on Dec 4, 2010 -
6 comments
Ryan Strathfield has uploaded hundreds of rock and pop songs from Australia and New Zealand to YouTube, organized by year (full list inside). Here are some favorites, Marcia Hines'
Eleanor Rigby, The Boys Next Door's
Shivers, The Falling Joys'
You're in a Mess, Split Enz'
I See Red and Warumpi Band's
Blackfella Whitefella. Strathfield focuses on the period 1974-89 but it extends back into the 60s and forward into the 90s.
[more inside]
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 31, 2009 -
22 comments
50 years ago Johnny O'Keefe released
"Wild One" and Australia had its first homegrown rock'n'roll star. To commemorate the 50th year of Australian rock'n'roll The Age newspaper has asked various Australian music industry figures to pick the
top 50 Australian albums (scroll down for the Top 50 - or check the (more inside)).
[more inside]
posted by awfurby
on Jul 14, 2008 -
51 comments
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu doesn't speak much, but when he takes up his guitar, he
sings, literally and figuratively. He sings of growing up in an Aboriginal community on a remote island off the north coast of Australia; he sings of coming to terms with being born blind; and he sings the creation stories of his
Yolngu people.
posted by dhruva
on Apr 22, 2008 -
19 comments
If you who hear a symphony each time you open a beer,
here's a little Friday fun.
(Check out the 'Behind the Scenes' video too.)
NB: Flash and music.
posted by essexjan
on Mar 7, 2008 -
11 comments
Master of the 'didge' - after veins burst in his throat some years ago while he was playing the didgeridoo, doctors warned that continued playing would threaten his life. Admitted to hospital last week with bleeding on the brain, he died on Sunday from a brain haemorrhage. He was 40.
[more inside]
posted by tellurian
on Feb 28, 2008 -
18 comments
The Night Air is a beautifully constructed radio show broadcast on Radio National here in Australia. It's essentially cut up bits of documentary, music and audio art .. woven together into a one and half hour themed show. It makes great headphone listening at work.
posted by mrben
on Aug 11, 2003 -
7 comments
This site, for an Australian concert series akin to
Lollapalooza over here in the states, has one of the coolest flash intros I've seen. I love those clouds.
posted by mathowie
on Jan 12, 2000 -
0 comments
