Some sad news out of Brisbane with the tragic death of music writer and musician Brendon Annesley yesterday, aged 21. Annesley helmed two influential fanzines: Dirty Alleys, Dirty Minds , which he started as a teenager in 2007, and later Negative Guest List , which he edited up until his death. He published 33 issues of Negative Guest List since starting it in 2009, covering acts such as Kitchen’s Floor, Ghosts of Television, Naked on the Vague, Total Control, Pink Reason and Blank Realm. Annesley was also a member of Meat Thump and Brisbane’s “only punk band” White Cop with ...

In the first installment of a two-part interview, DOUG WALLEN talks to producer de jour and one-time Gerling member Burke Reid about his relocation to Canada, working on The Drones’ ‘Havilah’ and the Yass estate that gave birth to recent albums by Jack Ladder and Gareth Liddiard. Colour photos by DANIEL CAMPBELL , black-and-white by MCLEAN STEPHENSON . A native Canadian who moved to Australia in 1994 at age 14, Burke Reid has done all too well in his adopted home. Since his fruitful years in the spacey Sydney trio Gerling, Reid has amassed a dream CV as a producer. Following EP ...

New music has finally emerged from the long-awaited Royal Headache debut. (You know – the record everyone from Pitchfork and Rose Quartz has been gagging for since the band emerged from a western Sydney boatshed in 2009.) Thanks to the good folk at R.I.P Society, we’ve got first dibs on album track ‘Really In Love’, a soon-to-be garage classic in under two minutes that sounds (as always) like Voices">Guided By Voices fronted by Cee Lo Green. Recorded and mixed by the dream team of Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring) and Owen Penglis (Straight Arrows), the band ...

Pub closures, protests, tragic deaths and a little band called Circle Pit – we look back on an eventful first half of 2010. Tomorrow, the last six months of the year. January St Kilda Farewells Favourite Son Howard: Five-hundred mourners pay tribute to Rowland S Howard at his funeral at the Sacred Heart Mission in St Kilda, just up the street from where he played his last ever gig . Howard is eulogised by long-time friend and partner Genevieve McGuckin, brother and bandmate Harry Howard, filmmaker Paul Goldman and collaborator Mick Harvey. In the weeks following his death, M+N ’s Trevor ...

The Holy Soul speak to A.H. CAYLEY about a 10-year career that almost wasn't. Photos by LYNDAL IRONS . “The band started as a joke,” says The Holy Soul's lead singer Trent Marden. “This band comp had come up, we'd seen all the other bad fuckin' punk bands playing, it was like, ‘Alright, let's just see how good we are. Let's go onstage, not practice, be shit, and [act like] the MC5 and Blues Explosion and shit like that.’ We watched too many James Brown videos. It was like, let's do that. Just be ...

SHAUN PRESCOTT laments the loss of Sydney’s Ghosts of Televison, who played their final show in a claustrophobic room at the Oxford Art Factory last week. Despite five years playing the east coast, there are probably less people in the world who’ve seen or heard Ghosts of Television than you can jam into the Hordern Pavillion. Tonight, the group managed to tightly fill the gallery bar at the Oxford Art Factory, a claustrophobic adjunct to the main room of the venue where popular treadmill dancers OK Go played earlier this evening. I offer you this lazy statistic because ...

Pikelet’s second album, Stem , is out this week. And to celebrate, the diminutive pop hero is playing an in-store at Polyster Records in Melbourne’s CBD tomorrow (February 17), 6.15pm. Branching out beyond her loop pedal aesthetic, Stem is a full band affair featuring Shags Chamberlain (synths), Tarquin Manek (bass, clarinet, backing vocals) and Matthew Cox (drums). A co-release between Love+Mercy and Chapter Music, its been accorded feature album status on 2SER, FBi and RTR FM and its debut single ‘Weakest Link’ is currently on triple j rotation. Fledgling Melbourne label Two Bright Lakes has joined forces ...

Ahead of their final show, Sydney’s Ghosts of Television have spoken about their decision to call it quits. After five years and a handful of releases, including a 2008 EP and last year’s debut album Forsaken Empire , the band have called time on their post punk-ish endeavor following the imminent relocation of drummer Adrian Clarke to Berlin. But speaking to M+N this week, singer Nic de Jong said their demise was inevitable. “Everyone's focus and priorities have gradually shifted away from Ghosts. It's an organic end,” he said. De Jong said he had a sense ...

On debut album, 'Forsaken Empire', Sydney’s sadly defunct Ghosts of Television refuse to neuter their creative vision for the sake of being understood, writes KATE HENNESSY . You don’t get the feeling Sydney band Ghosts of Television arrive at rehearsals shrugging. Ideas squirm forth from Forsaken Empire like maggots on month-old meat. But are they having us all on? Why, this is sunny Sydney – from what deep, dank pit does this darkness emerge? I wonder what kind of costumes they wear on stage? Leather? Capes? Neither of these, as it happens, but unlike label buddies The Laurels and The ...

You’ve had the chance to tell us your favourite local albums of the year in our fourth annual Readers Poll . Now, it’s our critics’ turn to strike back. Here’s the first installment (50-11) of our selections for Album of the Year ’09. Tomorrow, it’s the Top 10. 50.  Eleventh He Reaches London Hollow Be My Name (Good Cop Bad Cop/Inertia) 49.  Wolf & Cub Science & Sorcery (Dot Dash) 48.  Tucker B’s Nightmares in the Key of (((((WOW))))) (Low Transit Industries) 47.  Ghosts of Television Forsaken Empire (Magnetic Recording Council) 46.  Paul Dempsey Everything Is True ...

This fantastic swaggering bucket of noise is from the Melbourne trio's new record Dead Wood . You can catch them officially launching the album next Friday (November 20) at Goodgod Small Club (out the back of La Campana), with support from Witch Hats and Ghosts Of Television . The Brisbane launch is happening this Friday (November 13) at the Alhambra Lounge, with support also from Witch Hats. Dead Wood is out now via Spooky Records .

“This music is from the suburbs; borne of the frustration of watching affluent inner city hipsters – self-satisfied with their mediocre indie-pop and electro groups – get inexplicably big.” So said Shaun Prescott in an interview with Sydney’s Ghosts of Television last year. The band will make good on their early promise – a mostly instrumental demo Bi-Gong-Xin , a couple CD-Rs and an EP, Furthest Village From The Sun – when they release their debut LP this month. Dubbed Forsaken Empire , the album will be released on new Sydney imprint Magnetic Recording Council. And according to a recent missive, it’s sure to ...

Exotica, Doom and Brechtian waltzes. This is what listeners can expect from the new Holy Soul album, Damn You, Ra , which will be launched on an east-coast tour this month. Kicking off at the Oxford Arts Factory in the band’s hometown of Sydney on October 16, the tour will include support slots for The Mess Hall, as well as shows with Talons, Ghosts of Television, The Dirty Three’s Turner">Mick Turner and Late Arvo Sons. Released late September on Illustrious Artists, Damn You, Ra features guest contributions from Ralph Carney (Tom Waits, Jonathan Richman), Rui Pereira (ex-The Drones ...

Ahead of the release of their second album The Rip , Brisbane’s I Heart Hiroshima will support Japanese legends Shonen Knife on their whistle-stop Australian tour in September. IHH will perform with Shonen Knife in Melbourne at the Corner on September 24, at Sydney’s Annandale Hotel on September 25, at Brisbane’s Sounds of Spring Festival on September 26 and at Amplifier in Perth on September 27. Ouch My Face will be opening the Melbourne and Sydney legs, while The Novocaines will play first on the bill in Perth … Ghosts of Television (pictured) will return to the live circuit ...

Here's a transcript from an interview i did with Sydney electronica producer Stolen Boyfriend . He sounds dubsteppy, a bit loungey, a little snuggley, with tribal percussion and heartstring tearing vocal samples that are like metaphorical theft of Luther Vandross's KFC snack box. Omar : Hi Stolen Boyfriend. Stolen Boyfriend : Hi Omar. You’re taller than I expected. O : Tall genes, what can I say. SB : Cool. Got a lighter? O : Sure, here you go (passes lighter). Can I call you SB for short? SB : Why not. O : You know, SB could be an abbreviation for the Sultan of Brunei ...