Ever wonder why so many emerging bands coming out of the gum trees down under lately? Well, for one, like Sweden, they get lots of community and governmental support to assist them in their formative stages. For example, The Seed Fund, founded by John Butler (John Butler Trio) and Danielle Caruana in 2005 and is more recently funded by the who's who of the Australian Music Industry was formed in the last 5 years to help emerging artists. The Seed aims to help Australian artists from any background, creating art and music across any genre, to establish [...]

Australian trio Otouto made their first visit to the United States last fall, joining Casiotone for the Painfully alone in a nation-wide tour. In addition to performing their own set each night, they also backed Owen during the Casiotone performances. Otouto 9.11.2010 Hi-Dive, Denver, CO Source: [Microtech Gefell M300's > Lunatec V3] + [SBD > 1/4"] > Oade Mod Edirol R44 @ 24/48 > SDHC > Adobe Audition 3.0 > Mixdown > Resample to 16/44.1 > CDWave Taped by: Lance Stack Setlist: [...]

Saturday was our two year immi-versary, the anniversary of our immigration to Australia. I stumbled off of a 24 hour flight into to the blazing South Australian with Dr. O'C and a seven month old Boy Z. I'd never been to Australia and despite befriending several natives (including the one I had lived with for seven years) and doing extensive research into my Antipodean future home, I hadn't a clue what to expect of the place. I was jobless, carless and clueless. It certainly wasn't my first move, it wasn't even my first international move. But I've never felt so [...]

No, not Christmas. Christmas can bite me. I'm talking about the time for end-of-year Top 10 lists. I love a good top 10 list and have always wanted a venue on which to present one. When I was thinking of starting a blog, and this is true, one of the things that motivated me to get it together was that I would finally be able to put together a list of my 10 favorite albums of the year . Just like the magazines. Except nobody cares about mine. Bit of a twist this year. Because of my [...]

Or Sheilas if I can continue with the vaguely sexist (and potentially hackneyed) metaphors. But it makes a catchy title for A Free Man's musical picks of the week, both of whom happen to be Australian women. I probably should have already heard of Missy Higgins , the 24 year old Melbourne based singer-songwriter. Her 2005 debut, "The Sound of White" got a fair bit of attention Down Under and last year's follow-up "On A Clear Night" went triple platinum here and got her an ARIA award. But, if you're outside the Antipodes and outside of that [...]