• Altiyan Childs is back with a brand new single. Entitled ‘Water’ (cover image left), the new track was released on Thursday; the singer recently giving his followers a little taste of the production process behind it in a Youtube clip. It’s Altiyan’s third single release this year.
• Marina & The Diamonds has released the second track from her forthcoming album ‘Froot’. Incredible haunting and stripped back, ‘Happy’ follows on from the release of the album’s uptempo lead single and title track last month. Listen to it HERE.
• US singer songwriter Kat Edmonson will release her new album ‘The Big Picture’ in January and, as the title suggests, we should be expecting a big-sounding orchestral piece when it hits on the 23rd. “There’s no particular theme, but there are some commonalities, one of which is my ever-underlying influence from motion pictures and film scores,” the singer said in a statement.
• More albums have been announced as finalists in the 10th Coopers Australian Music Prize. Bertie Blackman’s ‘The Dash’ is in there, along with Lanie Lane’s ‘Night Shade’ and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s ‘I’m In Your Mind Fuzz’. A shortlist will be announced on January 21, with the winner (who’ll pick up a cool $30,000 for their troubles) crowned on March 04.
• Chet Faker’s 2015 tour continues to get bigger by the week. Now the gang at Frontier Touring has announced additional shows in both Sydney and Melbourne for the February/March jaunt across the country. There’s second Sydney show at the Hordern Pavilion on March 03 and a fourth Melbourne show at the Palais Theatre on Thursday March 05. Pre-sale kicks off on Monday, before general public tickets go live from 10am local time on Wednesday December 17.
• The Deni Ute Muster is ready to fire again in October next year and there’ll be some big names along to celebrate the event’s 17th anniversary. Birds Of Tokyo are already locked in, along with The Sunny Cowgirls and The Wolfe Brothers. A swag more acts will be announced before the October 02/03 event.
• Victoria’s Between The Bays Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2015. To be held at the Penbank School on Saturday February 28, organisers have revealed that it’ll be headlined by the likes of James Reyne, Mark Seymour, Custard, Wagons and more. For more information and tickets, hit www.betweenthebays.com.
• Grammy-winning songstress Kasey Musgraves has been added to the line-up for next year’s CMC Rocks Queensland event. It’s being held at the Willowbank Raceway, Ipswich from March 13-15 and already features an impressive roll call of country stars including Lady Antebellum, Big & Rich, Chris Young, John Williamson, Catherine Britt and many more.
• Ms Taylor Swift continues to dominate on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week with her latest tune ‘Blank Space’. It’s wedged in the No.1 position for a fourth consecutive week, with Hozier and Meghan Trainor swapping places, now in positions two and three (respectively). Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars continues its rise up the charts (No.8 to No.5), while Meghan Trainor’s ‘Lips Are Movin’ now joins ‘All About That Bass’ in the top ten and Nick Jonas’ ‘Jealous’ is also back in the top ten mix.
• On the Billboard 200 Albums chart, it’s Taylor Swift again shining brightest back in ‘1989’, after reclaiming the No.1 mantle from One Direction last week. Pentatonix’ Christmas set is steady at No.2, with the new AC/DC album ‘Rock Or Bust’ scoring the week’s highest debut Stateside; No.3. Idina Menzel’s ‘Holiday Wishes’ adds a little more ‘festive’ into the countdown at No.6; so too Michael Bublé’s ‘Christmas’ (No.7). Mary J Blige’s ‘The London Sessions’ debuts at a healthy No.9.
• Now that your chart whistle is well and truly whet, best you join us for Chart Watch tonight from 6pm AEDT. In it, we’ll bring you a look at the ARIA top 100s. It’s what we do every Saturday. Catch you later!
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