Occasionally the musical universe offers unexpected gifts that we might never have thought to ask for and had no right to expect. Strange Love, the debut album by new Melbourne supergroup Bleak Squad, is one such gift. The names speak for themselves: Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Harvey (the Bad Seeds, the Birthday Party), Mick Turner […]
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Ollie Olsen, the maverick Australian post-punk and electronic music innovator, died on Wednesday after a long struggle with multiple system atrophy, a rare neurological disease which he “fought like a Viking”, according to a statement shared on his social media accounts. He was 66. Olsen – who changed his name legally from Ian Christopher Olsen
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Mick Harvey is looking back on the showreel of his life. It’s the video for his song When We Were Beautiful And Young, where startlingly intimate images – of his parents, backyard cricket, through to lifelong partner Katy Beale and their children – are mixed with footage of old friends, collaborators, the much-missed and dearly
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In 1981, at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Melbourne, a band is making a video. The idea is to recreate a vision of hell. A cartoon death’s head with six limbs flashes on the screen. We see a young and scrawny Nick Cave – “a fat little insect” – pole-dancing in the middle
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A few days ago I bumped into an old friend in the city. He manages a well-known local band here in Brisbane, and he asked me if I’d be prepared to participate in the making of a documentary about the group. He wanted to do something a bit edgier than the standard rock doco, though.