Fresh Finds: Class Of 2025 – Aussie Acts To Add To Your Playlist

Steve Bell, Journalist

Steve Bell

Many, many moons ago Steve Bell was unassumingly writing a small fanzine for the inner-city Brisbane record store where he worked when on one otherwise normal day he was poached into the cutthroat world of street press, embarking on an eye-opening journey interviewing bands and banging on about music for the street press publication Time Off. It's an association that's now existed for well over 20 years - including a decade full-time as the print editor for Time Off/The Music - and one which still provides him with immense enjoyment and satisfaction, even though in recent times it's nestled alongside other music-related vocations such as co-owning a record store and indie label, radio broadcasting and navigating the podcast world.

Reviews / Album
Album Review: Violent Soho - WACO
"Aussies have always loved an underdog and WACO will ensure that Violent Soho's triumphant renaissance continues unabated."
Features / Music
Photo by Kane Hibberd
Why Music Is Never Easy And The Story Behind 'WACO'
"We can't play a record like Hungry Ghost was played at that time, because we're just not those people anymore."
Reviews / Live
Live Review: Sleater-Kinney, Bloods
"Their songs are thick and sinuous and throbbing with built up angst and resentment, the union and simpatico between the three key players almost tangible."
Features / Music
Reflections On Mortality And Family Connections
"It just kind of grew out of this experiment to see if I could do everything, but I'm a terrible drummer so I felt lucky that I'd grown one."
Features / Arts
Why The Aim Is To Laugh Your Balls Off For An Hour
"If they find a theme in it, fucking great work. If you just laugh your balls off for an hour: that was the aim from the start."
News / Music
Your Guide To The QMA Album Of The Year 2016 Finalists
Everything you need to know about the five stellar records
Reviews / Album
Album Review: Violent Femmes - We Can Do Anything
"...the Femmes still possess a surplus of substance to augment their undeniable style."
Reviews / Album
Album Review: Nada Surf - You Know Who You Are
"The arrangements become more expansive but there's still plenty of breathing room."
Reviews / Album
Album Review: M Ward - More Rain
"There are subtle contributions from Neko Case, Peter Buck and kd lang but it's Ward's lazy elegance which brings it all home."
Features / Music
Why Topping The Billboard 200 Chart Wasn't "A Sudden Seismic Shift"
"I think we released the record at the right time and for whatever reason it struck some sort of nerve."
Features / Music
Much Of Built To Spill's New Album Stemmed From Sessions With The Halo Benders
"It was a real shame we couldn't get those recent sessions to fruition."
Features / Music
Even Pete Shelley Doesn't Know How Buzzcocks Are Still Around
"I don't know, if I knew that I could bottle it and sell it."