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.
CORT TAKES A LEAF OUT OF STRANDBERG'S BOOK AND BEGINS ITS TRUE TEMPERAMENT EXPERIMENTS WITH THE KX700 TT Cort Guitars has tapped into the magic of True Temperament fret design with its latest electric guitar, the KX700 TT. Having previously featured on Strandberg guitars at the request of Aussie maestro Plini, True Temperament frets work by fine-tuning the intonation of every note without impacting its playability. As a result, you get wavy, Salvador Dali-esque frets that, like a piano, are tuned one note at a time. Crafted with Swedish stainless steel for rugged resistance to wear and tear, the wonky frets sit atop a five-piece roasted maple and walnut neck. Navigating the fretboard is made easier thanks to Luminlay side dots. The neck pairs with a sleek and dramatically contoured…
INTERVIEW Currently powering through their 40th year as a live act on the back of their 15th studio album and their own band documentary, while including Prime Minister Albanese as one of their fans and Henry Rollins as a past collaborator, the Hard-Ons haven't wavered from their punk rock ethos of musical energy and creative independence. I Like You A Lot Getting Older is their latest release, and their third album to feature current lead singer and longtime H.O.'s fan Tim Rogers of You Am I fame. Rogers was chosen in 2021 by co-founding bassist Ray Ahn in a successful attempt to highlight the poppy melodies intrinsic to the group's approach. Some of the album's sweeter singles, such as ‘Buzz Buzz Buzz' and ‘Ride To The Station' hark back to…
A chance meeting and a surprise gig booking were the motivation that Small Town Romance needed to establish their foundations back in 2013. First emerging out of Melbourne's acoustic folk and bluegrass scenes as a cover band, their decision to adopt a country sound sprung from an urge to showcase the Telecaster talents of a guitarist friend from Texas. It wasn't long before Flora Smith and Jim Arneman wrote the nine original songs that made up their 2016 self-titled debut, which paved the way for an evolution in songwriting that can now be heard on Home Fires, eight years later. Existing as a loose concept album about the current realities of Smith and Arneman's shared life as married parents, Home Fires is bookended by its title track and ‘Ordinary Life',…
INTERVIEW It took Brisbane punk quartet Semantics four recording sessions to finish their sophomore LP I Feel It All At Once, so it's no surprise they're stoked and relieved. They were similarly stoked after the release of their 2022 debut album, Paint Me Blue, but as lead singer-guitarist Callum Robinson and guitarist-vocalist Zac Roberton tell Australian Guitar, the production of the songs didn't quite measure up to how it sounded in their heads. In order for the group to find the right sound of the album on their second LP – the one they'd envisioned for the first - they decided to take matters entirely into their own hands. After setting up, recording and editing everything themselves at Robinson's Twin Sound Studios, Semantics then sent the digital stems of vocals…
INTERVIEW After nearly 30 years out of the spotlight, avantgarde hard rockers The Jesus Lizard released their seventh album Rack in September. Their last studio album Blue released 26 years ago, at a time when COVID-19 and AI technology were 20 years ahead. In other words: it's been a long time between drinks. Grown from riffs gathered over the past several years and enhanced by the unpredictable vocal catharsis of savage frontman David Yow, Rack proves that time has added more idiosyncrasy to The Jesus Lizard's performance style. What Yow calls the “stupidly disgusting and equally hilarious” American political climate over the past eight years has given him sufficient creative ammunition for stoking a handful of Rack's new songs - songs created in the age of Donald Trump, whereas Blue…
Melbourne-coastal roots figure Sarah Carroll utilises her straightforward songwriting style to explore grief and change in her fifth solo album, NQR&B, released earlier this year. The first three letters of its title stand for ‘not quite right'. This represents the way Carroll was feeling for five years after the death of her longtime life-music partner, renowned blues musician Chris Wilson (solo, Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls) in early 2019. With the courage she gained through living through the effects of this massive change, Carroll's songwriting was emboldened with the strength to confront more tough issues head-on, while trying to see a lighter side at the same time. After all, in her 30+ year experience as a musician with past experience as a teacher, mentor and carer, the ups and…
