With a strong focus on the Australian music scene, Australian Guitar is a rich source of information on playing techniques, styles, the wide range of instruments available and all the technology that guitarists have to consider in the 21st Century.
NEWS Fender has teamed up with Epic Games to bring two instruments, the Stratocaster and the Precision Bass, to Fortnite. The free-to-play video game is one of the most popular in the world, with over 221 million active players, and has already teamed up with the likes of Marvel, Disney, and Stranger Things to bring instantly recognizable characters to its virtual battlefields. This latest collaboration, however, is its first with an instrument brand. The in-game add-ons are available in the Item Shop, and can be used in Epic's brand-new music game, Fortnite Festival. Launched in early December, the Fortnite Festival lets users play in a band with friends, or as solo acts, in a Guitar Hero-esque game. The game features playable songs by Jimmy Eat World, Darude, and Katy Perry,…
Enya Music may just have given guitar fans a glimpse of the future with the unveiling of its Nova Go Sonic electric guitar – a forward-thinking, all-in-one single-cut six-string. Functionally fashioned in a similar vein to Vox's “live rig in a gig bag”, the APC-1, the Nova Go Sonic looks to take things one step further, with a feature-packed, space age take on the classic Les Paul-style template. Made from a single cut of carbon fiber composite, it looks and presumably feels like a 21st century guitar, but that feeling is further ‘futurized’ with a raft of tech that takes it to the next level. It boasts dual humbuckers and onboard effects, which are controllable via an app, as well as a range of outputs and a built-in 10-watt wireless…
Though posthumous Jimi Hendrix releases have been fairly regular in recent years, even though the Acoustic Ladyland recordings still haven't officially surfaced for release, the impression is that there isn't much left in the vault. But a new report by Mojo suggests that could be about to change, as there's reportedly an ‘untouched archive'. It's part of the estate of Mike Jeffery – the late manager of The Animals and co-manager of Hendrix attached to more than his fair share of controversy. His office at 39 Gerrard Street in London's West End was said to be crammed with memorabilia and recordings but when bailiffs visited they weren't interested in their potential value and it was all left on the floor before being discovered by Jeffery's former assistant and their current…
INTERVIEW Initially shunned by radio and record labels yet beloved by many, Radio Birdman embraced their outlaw status in a mission to challenge the zeitgeist of ‘70s Aussie rock. Their oppositional MO was built on a passion for high-energy rock ‘n’ roll and backed by assertiveness and artistic integrity, which helped them emerge from the Sydney underground scene and onto ABC TV in 1977, three years after their 1974 formation. 1977 was also the year in which Sydney's Trafalgar Records released the first version of their debut album Radios Appear. After catching the attention of Seymour Stein, who had visited Australia to sign The Saints, Stein's label Sire Records released an expanded version of Radios Appear in 1978. Although briefly labelmates with The Ramones and Talking Heads, Radio Birdman were…
Jess Ribeiro spent her childhood in the ambience of regional NSW Chinese restaurants, where her father worked as a chef, before decamping to Darwin in 2007 to pursue study and music. There she founded Jess Ribeiro And The Bone Collectors, and released her debut EP Pilgrimage in late 2008. This was followed by 2012's My Little River, her first and only full-length album with The Bone Collectors, a gentle collection of “unhurried, beautifully melancholy folk”. From that debut full length came ‘Truckyard’, whose clip was filmed in a 1970s-style Chinese restaurant in Melbourne's inner suburbs. Ribeiro released her first post-Bone Collectors album in 2015, titled Kill It Yourself, which demonstrated a darker and more ornately orchestrated approach to country adjacent songwriting. Another stark departure followed with 2019's LOVE HATE, which…
INTERVIEW Velvet Trip's origins can be traced back to a house party in Sydney's inner west six years ago, where Clayton Allen and Zeppelin Hamilton first met. Not long after that first meeting, the duo recorded their debut EP at Leichhardt's Parliament Studios, where they likely discussed their formative musical influences together, such as the recordings of Jimi Hendrix and Hamilton's namesake, Led Zeppelin. After playing guitar in Byron Bay-based hardcore and thrash bands such as Prowler, the next stage in Hamilton's creative evolution began with the release of Velvet Trip & The Six Moon Skies in 2019. Its six tracks were recorded completely live by their long-time collaborator Phan Sjarif (Middle Kids, Birds Of Tokyo), with Sinj Clarke on keyboards and Nick Savvas on bass. The EP's hallucinogenic atmosphere…
