COUNTER CULTURE

A quick trip across to New Zealand, and next week you can join Ben and myself in conversation at Yours & Owls festival talking all things record label.

Today sees the release of the debut album from Steve Bourk via the Silhouette label! You man Steve from his band Step Panther or as the touring bass player with Hockey Dad, but on his own record he gets more personal and reflective. In his own words “I was writing most of the songs during a transitional period when I moved from Melbourne to Wollongong. I had a temporary living arrangement in a warehouse space which was also a rehearsal space so there was a bunch of instruments there’d it was a good place to work on music. A lot...

It’s been a short and busy week so it’s just a quick Counter Culture column this week to highlight some more playlists I have on-line and hopefully guides you to either some new music or reminds you of a tune you’d forgotten about!

Last time I saw Amyl & The Sniffers in Wollongong they were playing Farmer & The Owl Festival just across the road from the shop here at McCabe Park back in 2019 (this week’s feature pic, taken by Illawarra Mercury). The Melbourne band have had a few huge years since, playing huge shows across the world and last year releasing their third album, that really established them as not just one of Australia’s biggest rock bands, but one of the world’s biggest. On Monday to return to Wollongong to play Waves and it is already sold out! Amyl & The...

This week for the column I continue to look ahead for 2025, with some ins for the year incuding print magazine, compilations, the Go-Betweens box set and Magdalena Bay.