Pilerats

WAM Conference: Things We Learned This Weekend.. WAM Festival wasn't just about the awards and block parties - the WAM Conference chalked up a successful two day stint of incredible knowledge-sharing this weekend. Over Friday and Saturday, curious music fans, band members, producers, music journalists, managers, bookers, label owners and more gave up their free time to jump into some lecture theatres and hear experts from all over Australia have a chinwag about hot topics in the music industry, as well as share their practical insider tips. It was kind of like a voluntary music university! Big props out to WAM for putting together such a relevant and stimulating program of panels and giving us a leg up on our never-ending journey of discovery. We relayed the best truth bombs to those playing at home via our live Twitter stream (follow us HERE) - here’s some of the stuff that really stuck with us:  Despite popular opinion, getting your music played on triple j is not going to ‘make or b

The debut release from new house crew Medium Rare Recordings is a good'un.. Around six months ago four young lads met at a local coffee spot, amongst the hipsters & soccer mums they sat down to chat business. That's what they say anyway. Knowing these four gentlemen - Benson, Terace, Tom Piper and Mike Metro - we refuse to believe these discussions didn't happen somewhere at 4am in DJ booth whilst some serious house bangers were going down in the clurb. Regardless, from these chats the four house-men of the apocalypse decided to combine forces and create Medium Rare Recordings. And from those combined forces come the record label's debut single release, a collaborative effort between LO'99 (who we got to know a little better a couple of months BACK) and his partner in crime Marshall F. The duo lured them in with "tea and scones" (again, I refuse to believe these lies) and left the Medium Rare team with Take Me Back. A deep, deep cut which wobbles along so smoothly it almost hurts. LO'9

The WA electronic-pop duo return from the US with some great new music.. WA-based electronic duo GRRL PAL have arrived back from a recent stint in the US living and working with producer Parker Ighile (G-Eazy, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj), and the results are already paying off with the first of a few new tunes to come - Paradise. In the group's words - "We wrote about dating someone who likes their phone more than you... kind of like Her but mainly because we love Scarlett Johansson." As fellow lovers Scarlett Johansson we're definitely not ones to argue, but ScarJo obsessions aside, Paradise definitely feels like the duo of Danny K and Jay Lekat have come back with a more refined sound, erring a little further away from their previous pop leanings, and into a very cool focus on future-beats, still pinned down by the cooing vocals of singer Lekat, and with a mean ilttle breakdown towards the end. They're looking to release a new song a month, and we can't wait to hear what other fruits co

If you're gonna update an R&B classic, this is how you do it.. Melbourne experimental electro-pop twosome De̊ǰa have had a pretty great 2014 that most recently saw them tour their latest EP Infinite Ecstatic around Australia, and just a couple of weeks ago we were pretty chuffed to premiere their chiller remix of Allday's Always Know The DJ. Now they've followed it up a with remix/re-do/cover of Aaliyah's timeless tune Try Again, and the results are a sonic pleasure worthy of your headphones or the dancefloor. It adds a bit of that darker/mysterious De̊ǰa vibe, but also gives it plenty of bump'n'grind that elevates it to something else entirely. The guy I sit next to in my office (hi Pierce) considers himself a bit of a king when it comes to the DJ world, and he was massively vibing this as soon as it started - which is a pretty strong rating on the barometer of the vibes you're about to get:

Indian Summer do America the only way they know how - half nude..

When Planet Earth meets porn..

Perth Festival 2015 has some epic and inspiring music, theatre and film in store. Check out our picks!. I can't imagine what summers in WA would be like without Perth Festival. The things I experience from around the world, at Perth Festival every year, are enough to keep me culturally inspired, and in love with the Arts, for the whole remaining year to come.  Having been to seven or eight Festivals now, my Festival memories exist less as thoughts and more as collections of really good feelings: like the time after the 2011 production of Out of Context: For Pina, where I just sat in my chair at the State Theatre for maybe ten minutes after the show finished, unable to get up and exit, so floored by what I'd just seen - a dance piece that blew out of the water everything I thought I knew (/hated) about contemporary dance. I'll likewise never forget the exhilaration of being under the stars with an icy cider in my hand as a music angel I've loved since forever, How To Dress Well, sent hi

Some thoughts on the terminally ill brain cancer patient and the right to euthanasia.. By Hannah Valmadre Earlier this week, 29-year-old terminal brain cancer patient Brittany Maynard ended her life on her own terms. She moved with her family from California to Oregon where she could legally access The Death With Dignity Act, which is only available in certain states of the USA. Maynard’s story went viral, and she decided to share her story with the world in the hope that all Americans would one day be able to access the same public policy she was able to. In a video recorded not long before November 1, Maynard expressed that, “my goal of course is to influence this policy for positive change and I would like to see all Americans to have access to the same healthcare rights.”  It is my personal hope that Maynard’s story and her bravery will help influence other countries to embrace compassion and legalise regulated voluntary euthanasia and/or physician assisted suicide for terminally i

AKA SHENANIGANS: The Movie.. A couple of months back Dune Rats went around the country for a bunch of shows celebrating their latest single Superman, from their debut album released earlier this year (buy HERE). Part of that tour saw them go on a jaunt to the south west of our neck of the woods with the good lads at Hooch, and the video below documents those times. And times they most definitely were. Before the end of the year you can catch them at the Festival Of The Sun Festival alongside the likes of Violent Soho and The Jezabels (details HERE), before they join the ever-on-point St Jerome's Laneway Festval in February next year (details HERE). In the meantime please enjoy the very approprately titled Dune Rats South West Rampage Tour video. I could try and summise what you're about to see, but if you've ever been to a Dunies show, or watched a Dunies video clip, you know what you're in for:

A sublime collection of beats from the Melbourne producer.. We've been feverishly anticipating Thrupence's Lessons Mixtape 4 since he dropped his first tune with Future Classic last August in Don't You Mind. And he hasn't disappointed. I could lazily apply an Avalanches-esque descriptor to his sound (and I just did), but there's also a lot more to it that makes Thrupence one of the most interesting and unique producers in a very busy Australian scene. You can stream Lessons below, or buy it for the paltry sum of $7 via Thrupence's BANDCAMP. Money well spent:

The seven-piece we'd like you to meet.. You may have heard of a groovin' new band gaining prominence around the gig circuit lately. Koi Child are a seven-piece jazz-fusion project hailing from our own port town of Fremantle. Emerging from a collaboration between nu-jazz band Kashikoi and hip-hop trio Child's Play, they've been busy readying a single for your ears set to launch on Monday via Rolling Stone [update - this is now live, and it's an absolute killer - listen HERE]. Landing their second gig together opening for homegrown psych-rock outfit Tame Impala earlier in the year and co-headlining youth festival Norfolk Lanes last fortnight, Koi Child have gone from strength to strength. They're about to head into the studio over the summer to record with none other than local-turned-international legend Kevin Parker.You can catch them playing the James Squire stage at the Beaufort street Festival next Saturday. For now, we'll leave you with tunes from their constituent part, Child's Pl