Almost 24 years after making an Australian debut to hardly anyone, Simple Plan are back, playing some of the biggest local shows of their career as they continue to get bigger and bigger.

With the playlist, Friday Finds: This Week’s Best New Music, The Music’s team gathers the best new songs you need to hear every Friday. Here are our picks released this week, August 21, 2026.

After a former Parkway Drive associate pleaded guilty to historical sexual abuse, a larger investigation has been launched into the area's toxic abuse culture of the early '00s.

Australia is debating who owns yesterday’s songs while ignoring who can afford to make tomorrow’s, writes UNIFIED Music Group Artist Manager Matt Walters.

Two original '60s members step down, bringing an end to one of rock music's longest-running touring careers.

Extreme rain hit the Mundi Mundi Bash, so artists are taking over Broken Hill with free pop-up gigs.

Hypersonic Festival returns to Melbourne and Sydney in November with Armin van Buuren leading a massive line-up of international and homegrown dance music stars.

"We have always loved it down under, which is why it’s been The Dandy Warhols’ second home for almost 3 decades," said singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor.

"This has been the most gut-wrenching decision I have ever had to make," said Mundi Mundi Bash founder and organiser, Greg Donovan.

After enjoying breakout success with their self-produced 2022 debut, the Sydney psych quartet hit a wall while recording the follow-up. The solution? To strip everything away to the bare essentials.

It was released 50 years ago today.