Fresh Friday Countdown #15 - Friday 29 April 2016 - Pop Week Starts Sunday x Lemonade

20 - AlunaGeorge - I Remember

19 - SAFIA - Make them Wheels Roll

18 - Temper Trap - Fall Together

17 - Northland & In Hearts Wake - Refuge

16 - Odd Mob - So Into You {Feat. Starky}
15 - Kiiara - Gold 
14 - Coldplay - Hymn for The Weekend
13 - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Dance Off {Feat. Idris Elba & Anderson .Paak}
12 - Flume - Never Be Like You {Feat. Kai}

11 - Beyonce - Don't Hurt Yourself {Feat. Jack White}
10 - Anne-Marie - Do it Right

9 - Hilltop Hoods - 1955 {Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum}

8 - Broods - Free
7 - Beyonce - Freedom {Feat. Kendrick Lamar}
6 - Sia - Cheap Thrills
5 - Beyonce - Six Inch {Feat. The Weeknd}
4 - Blink 182 - Bored to Death 
3 - Beyonce - Hold Up

2 - Flume - Say It {Feat. Tove Lo}
1 - Drake - One Dance {Feat. Wizkid & Kyla}

Classic Aussie Album of the Week | Tame Impala | Innerspeaker | The Facts

It's been great featuring one of WA's biggest exports all this week and their debut album from 2010 was a cracker. It concludes the month of all Australian music for a second month in 2016.

Australian music is at it's finest right now with Flume, Sia and Hilltop Hoods all in command of the charts. Tour wise Rufus, Violent Soho and a team of local acts on Australian and international festival line ups are killing it with festival sets.

Australians are also at the top of the electronic music game with producers like Flume, Anna Lunoe, Nina Las Vegas and more storming the Global obsession with EDM.

Now back to Tame Impala this debut album did not disappoint for the the 3 piece. The album was a huge hit with critics and fans alike.

FACTS:

1. The 11 track record was released in May, 2010.
2. All songs had Kevin Parkers signature name all over them.
3. The album reached number 4 on the Australian charts and number 5 on the Dutch alternative albums chart.
4. The album was nominated for three ARIA awards, won the J Award that year and Rolling Stones album of the year.
5. The album sold 35,000+ copies in Australia and feature 4 big singles.

Excellence in Australian music {2016}: HILLTOP HOODS - Awesome Aussies #2016

It's been a huge past few months for the Hilltop Hoods, touring massive arena's nationwide, having their biggest single to date with 1955 and having their second restrung album debut at number one and already pass 35,000 sales.

The Hilltop Hoods have been a regular feature on the Australian music charts for a few years now, polled well on Hottest 100's and been a regular feature at the ARIA awards.

If in 1999 you would have said one of the biggest Australian groups would be a hip hop outfit out of Adelaide I would have laughed, but the Hilltop Hoods are all killer and absolutely no filler.

I'm so excited for the Hilltop Hoods future and I really hope some more top quality new music is on the way.

The Hilltop Hoods, what a killer outfit and easily one of the most awesome Aussies in 2016 and I am so happy they are featured on this list. Well done boys.

Tuesday Australian (Classic) Album of the Week

Classic Aussie Album of the Week | TAME IMPALA | INNERSPEAKER

The debut album from the brilliant Tame Impala blew music lovers minds globally. In 2010 this brilliant local release set the Perth four piece up for Global domination.

Innerspeaker featured some truly excellent cuts, Solitude is Bliss, Lucidity, Expectation & Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind to name a few.

I am saving the best to almost last for Australian Music Month Version 2.0. This week it's all about Tame Impala.

Sunday Spotlight: The Living End

One of Australia's most loved bands are about to release their 7th studio album. The Living End's Shift will be released on May 13th with the lead single Keep on Running is on the radio now.

Today we celebrate their long standing career as we continue Australian Music Month Version 2.0 for another one week only.

A Short Break in Aus Music Month Version 2.0 to pay Tribute to...

The one and only Prince. He was remembered on my Fresh Friday Countdown yesterday, I briefly remembered him on my other BLOG and yesterday just felt surreal.

Waking to the news of a great artists passing you grew up with is just strange, it makes you think you are not as young as you once were. And Prince man he was still young, apparently fit and healthy living as a vegan.

Prince died aged 57 in Minnesota, the same as his birthplace leaving behind a musical legacy and tonne of heartbroken fans. The world paid respect to Prince yesterday and today I will via some of his best videos.

RIP Prince, you helped me love music and become the mad music fan I am today. Thank U

Fresh Friday Countdown #14 - Friday 22 April 2016 (RIP Prince Edition)

20 - Anne-Marie - Do it Right

19 - Drake - Pop Style {Feat. The Throne}

18 - Vera Blue - Settle
17 - Shakehips - All My Friends {Feat. Tinashe & Chance the Rapper}
16 - Troye Sivan - TALK ME DOWN
15 - AlunaGeorge - I Remember
14 - SAFIA - Make them Wheels Roll
13 - DJ Snake - Middle {Feat. Bipolar Sunshine}
13 - Temper Trap - Fall Together
12 - Coldplay - Hymn for The Weekend
11 - Flume - Smoke & Retribution {Feat. Vince Staple & Kucka}
10 - Flume - Wall Fuck

9 - Kiiara - Gold 
8 - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Dance Off {Feat. Idris Elba & Anderson .Paak}

7 - Broods - Free

6 - Northland & In Hearts Wake - Refuge

5 - Flume - Never Be Like You {Feat. Kai}

4 - Hilltop Hoods - 1955 {Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum}

3 - Sia - Cheap Thrills

2 - Drake - One Dance {Feat. Wizkid & Kyla}
1 - Flume - Say It {Feat. Tove Lo}

RIP Prince, here are is his Top 5 Tracks Charting RIGHT NOT on iTunes Australia:

1 - Prince - When Doves Cry (#5 on iTunes, Australia)

2 - Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain (#7 on iTunes, Australia)

3 - Prince - Little Red Corvette (#12 on iTunes, Australia)

4 - Prince & The Revolution - Kiss (#18 on iTunes, Australia)

5 - Prince & The Revolution - Raspberry Beret (#22 on iTunes, Australia)

And for the ANZAC Day Long Weekend Australia, a summary of this week's TOP performing Aussie tracks:

1 - Flume - Say It {Feat. Tove Lo} (#4 on iTunes, Australia)

2 - Sia - Cheap Thrills (#17 on iTunes, Australia)

3 - Hilltop Hoods - 1955 {Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum} (#25 on iTunes, Australia)
4 - Flume - Never Be Like You {Feat. Kai} (#27 on iTunes, Australia & Album Pre-Order version #57)
5 - Northland & In Hearts Wake - Refuge (#28 on iTunes, Australia)

Thursday Australian (Classic) Album of the Week

Another day, another two great classic Australian cuts for you, it's almost the long weekend and coming up on the weekend another great Australian rock band will be celebrated on Sunday as part of my Sunday spotlight:

Excellence in Australian music {2016}: VIOLENT SOHO - Awesome Aussies #2016

It's been a great start to the year for Australian music and Waco from Violent Soho is definitely one of the rock highlights. In line and aiming straight at this years ARIA Award for best rock album. Maybe even album of the year?

Not only is the album rad but the above artwork is so inline with all those crazy ass comic book movies, these boys know what is so hot right now.

The album Waco debuted at Number One on the ARIA charts upon it's release whilst 10 of their 11  May 2016 album tour have now sold out! That is an incredible effort. They will also play Splendour in the Grass 2016 to what is expected to be another sold out crowd.

When the live music industry is not doing so well this is outstanding news for the boys from Brisbane. Like our Classic feature stars Powderfinger, Violent Soho are top of the Brisbane band list right now. With tracks like Like Soda and Viceroy all over the radio, the album doing great guns and their live shows selling like hot cakes, Violent Soho are a well addition to this month's Awesome Aussies list.

Tuesday Australian (Classic) Album of the Week

Two albums, two awesome Aussie videos for Tuesday! Tomorrow another addition to the list of Excellence in Australian Music.

Classic Aussie Album of the Week | SILVERCHAIR + POWDERFINGER

To celebrate their big double tour back in 2007, it's a big week of classic Australian Albums. Here is this week's two big releases:

The classic tour poster from 2007, the tour went from August to October that year and went to all major capitals and regional spots. This tour would go down in the record books for sales and sheer hype of these two Australian greats hitting the road together.

Throughout the week you will get cuts from both albums ahead of the Anzac Day long weekend! Thank god for the weekend! And a long one at that.

Sunday Spotlight: 90's World - Australian Icon's from the 90's

Next week I have a special feature for the Classic Australian album(s) of the week and here is a wee little clue.

Today as part of Australian Music Month Version 2.0 it's time to look at some 90's classic Australian acts. Last week we took a peek at some of the new breed of Aussie talent so let's hear where they may have discovered their distinctive Australian sound.

Splendour Saturday's

So this line up dropped during the week! Splendour in the Grass returns in 2016 after news of Stereosonic skipping 2016 (and maybe for good if you ask me), music profits up for the first time in Australia since 2012 and lockout laws, it's a weird time for live music and music as a business in general.

So it was with great pleasure we got the news of a huge line up.

The most exciting thing is their is a lot of top notch Aussie and international talent on the line up, as it's Aussie Music Month Version 2.0 let's focus on the outstanding Aussie's on the list:

Fresh Friday Countdown #13 - Friday 15 April 2016

20 - Halsey - Castle

19 - L D R U - Keeping Score {Feat. Paige IV}

18 - Troye Sivan - YOUTH
17 - Troye Sivan - TALK ME DOWN
16 - Duke Dumont - Ocean Drive
15 - Vera Blue - Settle
14 - Shakehips - All My Friends {Feat. Tinashe & Chance the Rapper}
13 - DJ Snake - Middle {Feat. Bipolar Sunshine}
12 - Sneaky Sound System - I A'int Over You
11 - What So Not & Ganz - Lone {Feat. JOY.}
10 - SAFIA - Make them Wheels Roll

9 - Coldplay - Hymn for The Weekend

8 - Drake - Pop Style {Feat. The Throne}

7 - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Dance Off {Feat. Idris Elba & Anderson .Paak}

6 -  Kiiara - Gold 
5 - Hilltop Hoods - 1955 {Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum}

4 - Broods - Free

3 - Flume - Never Be Like You {Feat. Kai}

2 - Sia - Cheap Thrills
1 - Drake - One Dance {Feat. Wizkid & Kyla}

Classic Aussie Album of the Week | Sia | 1,000 Forms of Fear | The Facts

# 1,000 Forms of Fear was Sia's 6th Studio record and her most successful to date in 2014.

# Sia appeared on both Ellen and Jimmy Kimmels respective shows to grow the albums popularity.

# Sia released four singles from the album, Chandelier being the biggest.

# The longest song on the album is Dressed in Black which clocks in at 6 minutes, 41 seconds.

# The album reached number one in her home country Australia, Canada and the US. Number five in the UK and number two in Norway.

# It shipped half a million copies in the USA and 70,000 in Australia. In the UK it sold over 120,000 copies.

# This is where many meet Maddie Ziegler and along with her caused a stir with the Elastic Heart video, featured earlier this week.

Mid Week Australian (Classic) Album of the Week

Today's SIA track has over 1 billion views on YouTube, was an instant worldwide smash and my personal Number One track back in 2014. It was a great year for South Australian artists that year with SIA number one and the Hilltop Hoods number two.

Songs don't get much bigger than this, so without further ado here is SIA's biggest track to date and a recent APRA award winning tune still in 2016.

Excellence in Australian music {2016}: SIA - Awesome Aussies #2016

As we feature SIA's monster breakout 2014 album this week, it's time to also look at what SIA is offering up in 2016. This is Acting was one of the first major albums to drop in 2016 and received amazing reviews.

Cheap Thrills has followed the success of Alive and been a massive smash hit. With the addition of the Sean Paul remix SIA has been getting even more reach proving she is one of the most AWESOME Aussie's in music in 2016.

SIA took out the APRA award for the most played work overseas for the anthem and my Number One track of the year a little way back Chandelier. Surely the 2017 APRA Awards and the ARIA's this year will be dominated by SIA and fellow SA group the Hilltop Hoods.

Australian music has had a strong start to the year with SIA leading this pack of strong artists. Both singles from This is acting have gone platinum whilst the album has achieved gold status in Australia and reached the Number One spot.

Along with Australia's top spot for the album, the album has also gone top 10 in over 7 more major music consuming countries.

It's an honour to have SIA on our honour list again for being an Awesome Aussie in 2016.

Classic Aussie Album of the Week | SIA | 1,000 FORMS OF FEAR

Only heading back a couple of years but easily one of the biggest Australian albums of the last decade and my own personal album of 2014.

SIA for years has built a huge following and with the release of 1000 Forms of Fear Sia went global.

The album featured many big hits and amazing videos and this week we are going to relive SIA in 2014.

An APRA award winning favourite and a songwriter to the stars this week it's time to celebrate Australian music as we near the middle of Australian Music Month V2.0.

Sunday Spotlight: New Australian Artists

As it's Australian Music Month V2.0 I thought what better way to celebrate than look at some of the up and comers of the Australian music landscape. Enjoy these great and diverse new finds, happy Sunday.

Weekend Australian (Classic) Album of the Week - Interview Feature (from back in the day)

Next week we are not going to far back in time for one of Australia's biggest exports but this week we have danced, remembered Empire of the Sun and had a mini Ladyhawke fan girl moment.

Here is Peter and Nick from way back in the day as this album exploded on the radio, the clubs and at music festivals around the nation.

Thanks PNAU for an awesome feature week!

Fresh Friday Countdown #12 - Friday 8 April 2016

20 - What So Not & Ganz - Lone {Feat. JOY.}

19 - Riton - Rinse & Repeat {Feat. Kah-lo}

18 - BABYMETAL - Karate
17 - The Temper Trap - Thick as Thieves

16 - L D R U - Keeping Score {Feat. Paige IV}
15 - Nicole Millar - Tremble
14 - Duke Dumont - Ocean Drive
13 - Shakehips - All My Friends {Feat. Tinashe & Chance the Rapper}
12 - Vera Blue - Settle
11 - DJ Snake - Middle {Feat. Bipolar Sunshine}
10 - SAFIA - Make them Wheels Roll

9 - Coldplay - Hymn for The Weekend
8 - Broods - Free

7 - Kiiara - Gold 
6 - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Dance Off {Feat. Idris Elba & Anderson .Paak}

5 - Hilltop Hoods - 1955 {Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum}

4 - Flume - Never Be Like You {Feat. Kai}

3 - Drake - Pop Style {Feat. The Throne}

2 - Sia - Cheap Thrills
1 - Drake - One Dance {Feat. Wizkid & Kyla}

Excellence in Australian music {2016}: FLUME - Awesome Aussies #2016

Flume continues his dominance in the Australian electronic world, his single with Canadian singer Kai Never be Like You has been one of the biggest singles of 2016 thus far.

It had been a long time between drinks with his first taste of the yet to be released second record Skin, Some Minds being released in May 2015. Following Never Be Like You, Flume played the Laneway festivals around the nation and released another buzz single Smoke and Retribution, this time with guests Vince Staples and Kucka.

Kucka is already one of my favourite singers from 2015 and I was extremely happy with this pairing.

With the release date of Skin being held under wraps it's only a matter of time before Flume explodes!

Flume, one of Sydney's finest and also the worlds, when Skin drops I think it will be a game changer for the young producer. Three solid singles in this could easily be an Album of the Year contender.

Mid Week Australian (Classic) Album of the Week + Ladyhawke

Tuesday Australian (Classic) Album of the Week x Side Project 1

And then Nick Littlemore joined forces with Sleepy Jackson's super talented Luke Steele for this perfect piece of POP! Being released in 2008, this album went on to sell over 140,000 copies around Australia. Empire of the Sun went on to release a second album in 2013 and I believe work on their third long player is taking place now. 

Empire of the Sun join PNAU during this special week looking at their superb third self titled record.

Classic Aussie Album of the Week | PNAU | PNAU

After my clue yesterday about dancing like it's December 2007, could you guess I was speaking about the double wonder of PNAU? Yes this week we will dance our ass off the charts as we feature this epic self titled release from Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes.

Alongside the two boys Nick Littlemore's brother Sam joined as the producer as did a few very special guests.

This their third album in eight years was easily their biggest to date. We saw another two albums in 2011 and 2012 repetitively. One recorded with big fan Elton John, who became a fan when this record was released.

There are singles galore on this album and this week, the first official full week of Australian Music month it's time to P-A-R-T-Y!

Sunday Spotlight: The Bennies

Melbourne's Party Machine's are this week's ALL Australian Sunday Spotlight. Smashing their way onto the radio with instant rock n roll bangers the Bennies are gonna turn you're Sunday up to 11. Happy Daylight Savings!

Seeya tomorrow with more Australian music and another Classic Australian Feature album, this time you will dance like it's December 2007.

Not only will you dance to the sounds of this duo but they have loads of side projects so we will glance over them as well.

Excellence in Australian music {2016}: RUFUS - Awesome Aussies #2016

Rufus had a spectacular 2015 (Highlights - HERE) there track You Were Right was my Number 17 song for 2015 whilst their second release Bloom dropped just ahead of Australia Day 2016, on January 22nd.

Along with the album being released "Like an Animal", "Innerbloom" and fourth single "Say a Prayer for Me"were all over the radio and a large tour, two nights at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion were announced. You can still grab tickets HERE for what is set to be a magnificent night on the dance floor.

Rufus my first in a series of Awesome Aussies in 2016, this Australian Music Month V2.0 there will be features dotted all over the month of excellence in Australian Music. Not only that on Monday another awesome classic Australian Album will be featured.

Until then here is the latest cut from Bloom and the amazing Sydney crew RUFUS.

All Australian April Countdown #1 - Friday 1 April 2016

20 - Sneaky Sound System - I Ain't Over You
19 - Vera Blue - Hold
18 - Hilltop Hoods - Higher {Feat. James Chatburn}

17 - DOPE LEMON - Uptown Folks
16 - Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP - From Me to You

15 - Vance Joy - Fire & The Flood

14 - Marcus Marr & Chet Faker - The Trouble With Us
13 - Flume - Smoke & Retribution {Feat. Vince Staples & Kucka}

12 - Vera Blue - Settle

11 - The Temper Trap - Thick as Thieves

10 - The Rubens - Hoops
9 - L D R U - Keeping Score {Feat. Paige IV}
8 - Troye Sivan - YOUTH
7 - Sia - Alive

6 - Nicole Millar - Tremble

5 - SAFIA - Make them Wheels Roll

4 - Rufus - You Were Right

3 - Flume - Never Be Like You {Feat. Kai}

2 - Hilltop Hoods - 1955 {Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum}
1 - Sia - Cheap Thrills