Oz Music Scene favourite The Last Town Chorus is back with a brand new single and another Aussie visit.

Her latest single “Loud and Clear” is a beautiful tune which perfectly shows off lead singer Megan Hickey’s ethereal vocals and haunting slide guitar skills. You can hear the new song now on The Last Town Chorus’ MySpace page.

If you like what you hear, make sure you get along to one of The Last Town Chorus’ gigs next month. They’ll play Sydney’s Hopetoun Hotel on March 18, and Byron Bay’s East Coast Blues and Roots festival on the 20th and 21st.

Image source: Yannfalkenberg at Flickr

Last night I headed out to ACER Arena to catch living legend, Carlos Santana. Before entering the venue I had one big question on my mind: “How would he handle the duets?” There’s no doubt that Santana’s recent star studded duets album are the key to his latest wave of popularity, but without the likes of Rob Thomas, Chad Kroeger, and Steve Tyler on the tour I wasn’t sure how they’d work, or indeed whether they’d make the set at all. I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

As is typical when you’re contending with Sydney traffic, we were running late and missed most of Blue King Brown’s set. I’m not sure it was a great loss though. They’re clearly accomplished musicians, but the three songs I heard tended to sound the same. I can imagine how the early part of the set sounded based on that.

Anyway, Carlos was the main event, and after a confronting look at the pain of war on the big screen we were ready for a concert of hope. Carlos was clearly the star of the show. I’ve seen a few brilliant guitarists in my time: John Mayer, Tommy Emmanuel, Pete Townshend, and more. But as good as those guys were, Carlos is in a completely different league. The sounds he gets from that instrument are phenomenal. Dad said he heard somewhere that he has the fastest handspeed of any guitarist, and I think that could be true. Wow.

Read the rest of this entry…

This week was 70s week on American Idol, and Aussie hopeful Michael Johns opened the show with Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way.” I’ve got to be honest, this performance has me worried. Again the judges seemed fairly positive, but from where I sat it was vocally pretty weak and a little bit pitchy.

I’d hate to think we’ve seen the best of Michael Johns in the preliminary rounds, because this is where the performances really matter. I just hope his fan base is strong enough to get him through. I’m not sure he deserves it based on this performance, but I do believe he’s got a lot more to give us.

Here’s this week’s vid!

Ben Lee has just finished working on the soundtrack of Nash Edgerton’s upcoming movie The Square.

But you won’t hear Ben sing any of the tracks. That job will be handled by Jessica Chapnik, who you may know from her role as Sam on Home and Away.

“I’m really happy with these recordings,” Ben says in his online blog. “Apparently they showed a sneak preview of the trailer that features a song of mine at Tropfest last week, and people liked it.”

The Square sounds like it’s going to be pretty fantastic with a script penned by Nash’s brother Joel. It stars Bill Hunter, Peter Phelps, and The Chaser’s Julian Morrow.

Image source: Pinkbelt @ Flickr

Delta Goodrem’s bid to break into the US market has faced a major setback after she was dumped by the American arm of SonyBMG.

The record label had originally planned to release Innocent Eyes and Mistaken Identity as a double album. However now, according to The Sunday Telegraph, they claim Delta is not a viable act in America.

But Delta’s not going to let that stop her. She’s apparently in talks with other labels, and is likely to sign with Universal.

“I strongly believe I’ll have a career there one day,” she told The Sunday Telegraph. “I certainly haven’t admitted defeat. I feel I haven’t even started the battle.

“I’m completely new over there … it doesn’t matter that I’ve sold records anywhere else. You have to be a new artist, take the good with the bad, build strong bonds, with the people you’re working with.”

Image source: Toby Forage @ Flickr

Congratulations to Kezin, the lucky winner of the Guy Sebastian giveaway! Kezin has won a copy of Guy’s latest CD, The Memphis Album.

Kezin, who is from Singapore, said “I want this album for my best friend … she’s CRAZY about him. We pop in any and every CD store we pass so that she can ask about the album. We’ve got no clue as to when The Memphis Album is arriving which means this endless loophole will continue until she gets her hands on one!”

It looks like your friend can stop searching Kezin!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and keep watching Oz Music Scene for more great competitions!

Image source: Kriss Szkurlatowski @ Stock.xchng

The buzz surrounding Perth rockers Gyroscope is massive at the moment as they prepare to release their third album Breed Obsession next month.

The album’s first single “Snakeskin” recently won WAMI Awards for best single and film clip. Its follow-up “1981″ is the most requested song on national radio network Triple J. And the band are whipping crowds into a frenzy on their Pre-Obsession tour.

I recently caught up with Gyroscope’s guitarist Zoran Trivic to chat about Breed Obsession, life on the road, and why Western Australian bands are some of the country’s best.

How would you describe your latest album, Breed Obsession?
We really tried to push the envelope of Gyroscope with this record. We have a feeling that this could possibly be the most important record of our music careers. So we wrote songs like our lives depended on them. This record has a lot of different shades from the super heavy to the really light and I’d like to think it tells a good story from start to finish.

You recorded Breed Obsession in the UK. What made you decide to work so far from home?
We didn’t really decide to travel afar purposely. We loved Dave Eringer’s work [producer on Breed Obsession] for his previous records with Idlewild. His sounds are broad and varied and raw but still precise. He lives in London so we had to travel to work with him. And he was a godsend to tell you the truth. A great experience.

Read the rest of this entry…

Neighbours hunk Dan O’Connor is leaving Ramsey Street to pursue a musical career.

Dan will film his last scenes as sweet single dad Ned Parker in April. He’ll then travel to Britain in June to launch his musical career. He hopes to have a pop/rock record ready to release by the year’s end.

“To try to do music and the show at the same time is really hard,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “I wanted to commit to it (music) 100%.”

I just hope he’s improved since his stint on Australian Idol in 2004. Even his good looks couldn’t keep him in the competition. He was booted in the second week of the finals. Even Millsy did better than that.

Earlier today I gave you a bit of a blast from the past with a collection of Australia’s finest one hit wonders. If you’re keen for some more one hit wonders, check out these posts all around the music channel.

• Stacey shows us that even hippies create irritating one hit wonders. “Afternoon Delight,” “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” and “Spirit in the Sky” are just some of the songs on her Hippie Sounds hit list.
• Bruce at Our Digital Sounds also gets cheesed off by one hit wonders, particularly gems by Nena and a-ha.
• Bruce is at it again at The Rock Dose, with a tribute to Richard Harris and his one and only hit, “MacArthur Park.”
• Dave takes us through five of the best at Killed by the Video Star. Of course, the very first song to air on MTV “Video Killed the Radio Star” makes the list.
• Scott at Metal Martyr’s twisted the theme a little to vent about the songs that get stuck in his head. Some of them are one hit wonders, some aren’t, but they’re all ridiculously catchy.
• Mike at Toronto Unplugged did the same thing with a list of super catchy Canadian tracks. If you don’t believe him, play the songs and find out!
• Deb at She Plays Music brings us the best of the girls. I was amazed to discover The Divinyls are considered one hit wonders by folks outside Oz!
• The Beatles definitely weren’t one hit wonders, but Gilan at The Beatles Invasion loves plenty of artists that are! Soft Cell, The Knack and Cornershop all make this awesome list.

Image source: Rodolfo Clix @ Stock.xchng

If you browse around the music channel today you’ll notice it’s all about one-hit wonders. I’ve got to admit, this list was a lot harder to compile than I first thought!

Firstly, it seems like the New Zealanders are the ones who really have the market cornered on the one hit wonders. It seemed like just about everything I thought of was released by a Kiwi! I know most Australians seem to claim the New Zealanders as our own anyway, but I resisted the urge to add the musical stylings of Bic Runga, OMC, Mark Williams, and Dave Dobbyn and The Herbs. 

Then I started to realise Australia seems to have a lot more two hit wonders than one hit wonders. Did you realise The Sharp, Radio Freedom, Rat Cat, and even Scott Cain graced our charts more than once? So you won’t find them here either.

I also restricted myself to one hit wonders I actually liked. No matter how desperate I got, “Strawberry Kisses” by Nicky Webster was not going to make my list! Here’s what did.

Weddings Parties Anything released plenty of singles, and were favourites on the Australian live circuit for more than a decade, but “Fathers Day” was their only song to achieve any sort of commercial success. This beautiful track about a broken home and a father’s love for his son deservedly won Song of the Year at the 1993 ARIAs. Their follow-up single “Monday’s Experts” was another great song, but it limped into the charts at number 45.

Melbourne’s The Ferrets struck gold in 1977 with their debut single “Don’t Fall in Love.” In actual fact, this song was supposed to be the B-side. But when they decided to sing it on Countdown, Australia went wild. It rocketed to number 2 on the charts. It may be older than I am, but this song is still so much fun.

Read the rest of this entry…