NEW SIGNINGS AND TEAM UPS

TONIGHT ALIVE SWITCH TO UNFD, HOPELESS

After scoring a couple of Top 10 albums with Sony Music, Sydney band Tonight Alive(pictured) have gone the indie route. They signed with UNFD for A/NZ and Hopeless Records for all other territories.

Marking their new journey is single World Away which vocalist Jenna McDougall calls “a continuation of our quest for self understanding and empowerment, but this time through developing a personal relationship with darkness.”

The band is currently touring the UK tour with You Me At Six before appearing on Slam Dunk Festival. They’ll make a new album in winter. They were last seen in Australia supporting A Day To Remember last December.

RESIST UNCOVERS BARE BONES

Long before they formed Sydney’s Bare Bones, its member had cut their teeth on punk and hardcore bands who recorded for Resist. So you can imagine the excitement they’re going through with being signed by the label.

“Being asked to be part of the Resist family was extremely humbling, and feels like the perfect label for what Bare Bones is about,” they say, all swagger and reckless.

Their debut album Bad Habits has a May 19 release date (they’ve previously issued two EPs, Villains and Cut Throat Living) and a lead off single Thick As Thieves.

VIVID SYDNEY CONTINUES TO SEE RED

Vivid Sydney continues with Red Agency as its PR partner for a second year. It supports Destination NSW’s festival of ’light, music and ideas’ 2017 strategic communications program.

It includes its March launch as well as intensive media activity in the lead-up to the lights-on moment on Friday 26 May and throughout the festival which runs Friday 26 May to Saturday 17 June.

HOTEL MOTEL RECORDS

Hotel Motel Records is set up by Big Scary’s Jo Syme. While her other label Pieater Records, founded and run with the band’s Tom Iansek and manager Tom Fraser, is more about building careers, this one is more an outlet for music that she finds exciting and simply deserves to be released.

Its first two signings are Orlean, the vocal and electronic music project of Terry Mann and Bella Li, and Tasmanian guitar pop band Quivers.

LADY GAGA SHINES IN TIFFANY

US jewellery brand Tiffany & Co, which last month announced Lady Gaga as its new face, is featuring the singer in its latest campaign.

Shot by fashion photographer David Sims and styled by former Vogue editor Grace Coddington, she’s sporting pieces from the new 18k gold and sterling silver collection, including a chain link necklace, wrap link bracelet and sculptural three-tiered drop earrings. It comes online May 2.

NICHE ADDS RIC RUFIO

Niche added R&B singer-songwriter Ric Rufio to its agency roster. Starting out backing Adele, Nick Murphy, Daniel Johns and Kirin J Callinan, he struck out on his own. Debut EP Rewind, forthcoming on Mirror Records,comes with electro-R&B single So Wonderful’.

JESS LOCKE ENTERS POOL HOUSE RECORDS

Melbourne’s Jess Locke has been signed to The Smith Street Band’s new label Pool House Records, distributed by Remote Control Records.

Dreamy guitar pop single Better/Bitter gets it sound from the unconventional places she’s performed in, including water parks, cemeteries, roundabouts, bookshops and back porches. She is on tour in May and an album is out later this year.

REMOTE CONTROL ADDS REPTALIENS

Remote Control has Portland, Oregon’s dream pop purveyors Reptaliens for this territory. The deal, through their signing to Brooklyn-based label Captured Tracks, is marked with new single Prequel and Olive Boy.

The latter for the latter track was directed by their drummer Tyler Vergian. It is, they told Under The Radar, “about the life and making of a serial killer. It takes you through the Olive Boy’s childhood, his adult life, and into a frenzy of his uncontrollable urge to kill. It was inspired by the beautiful olive groves of SoCal.”

NOVA AND GOOD FRIDAY APPEAL

In its second year of partnership with the Good Friday Appeal, Nova Entertainment stations Nova 100 and smoothfm 91.5 will be providing on-air support and active involvement in key fundraising activities.

Nova 100 will also support Run for the Kids in one of the station’s biggest activations on Sunday. The station will have DJ activations set up throughout the course, creating a party atmosphere to inspire runners at the start zone on the conjunction of Swan Street Bridge and at the finish line.

In addition, Nova 100’s ‘Selfie Zone’ will allow participants to capture the moment they reach the top of the Bolte Bridge.

Chrissie, Sam & Browny‘s anchor, Dean ‘Deano’ Thomas, and Nova Entertainment staff, will participate in the run. Nova 100 will also broadcast the official Run for the Kids Playlist, with two hours of commercial free hits from 8am to 10am to inspire participants during the run.

Nova 100’s Ben Erbsland(pictured) will broadcast live from Royal Children’s Hospital from 7am to 9am on Good Friday

FEARLESS HAVE A HEART

Fearless Records/ Caroline Australia’s latest signing is Newcastle pop punk Eat Your Heart Out. “To have the opportunity to be on the same label as the bands that inspire us and to work with people so honestly passionate about music feels like a dream come true,” says singer Caitlin Henry.

The band formed in 2012 and released an EP in 2015. New single Carried Away is just out.

GREYSCALE REEL IN BELLE HAVEN

Melbourne band Belle Haven are all excited, announcing on Facebook they’ve been signed by Melbourne’s Greyscale Records. New single Selfmade is first cab off the rank for the mid-June album You, Me And Everything In Between.

JAZZ CARTIER MOVES TO MAJOR

Toronto rapper Jazz Cartier has been building his profile, with talked about showcases at SXSW and winning rap record of the year at Canada’s Juno Awards with Hotel Paranoia. Now he’s signed with Capitol Records, as he tours through the US in the northern summer..

NEW CHAPTER FOR SCHOOL DAMAGE

After releasing vinyl singles on Detonic and Moontown, Melbourne / Geelong outfit School Damage will go through Chapter Music to release their self-titled debut album in June.

Led by Carolyn Hawkins (Chook Race, Pronto) and Jake Robertson (Ausmuteants, Hiero-phants, Frowning Clouds), their “wobbly polp” recalls bands like Tronics, The Vaselines, and early ’80s Sydney outfit The Particles.

SCHOLARSHIP FOR PIANO WORKS

In memory of the late Peter Schodde, Recitals Australia has partnered with the Helpmann Academy to offer the Peter Schodde Memorial Piano Scholarship, valued at $5,000, to be awarded in alternate years.

It is open to pianists between the ages of 18 and 26 who want to undertake further study or development of a project, locally, interstate or overseas.

OPERA HOUSE GETS MORE GREEN

Last August the Sydney Opera House, energy supplier Energy Australia and CSIRO teamed up for its Sustainability Plan (ESP). It detailed a series of long-term sustainability goals including carbon neutrality, a 5-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia and 14% energy savings.

Now the three teams are to develop a new industry think tank. The idea is to deliver a strategy to enable the Opera House to achieve carbon neutral certification by 2023. It will also identify and implement sustainable energy solutions to be trialled by the Opera House as part of its long-term carbon-reduction strategy.

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE HEADS WEST

As he embraces sobriety, marriage and impending fatherhood, an uplifted Justin Townes Earle has signed to New West Records and is set to return with Kids In The Street on May 26. The set sees him work for the first time with an outside producer, namelyMike Mogis (Bright Eyes, First Aid Kit).

“This record also has more of a soul influence to it, and it’s got a deeper connection to the blues than anything I’ve done before,”Earle says.

CHARITY FOR ‘MY FAIR LADY’

Opera Australia and John Frost’s production of My Fair Lady, directed by Julie Andrews, has made Cure Brain Cancer Foundation its official charity partner. Frost is a long time friend with Marcella Zemanek and her late husband Stan, the radio announcer. Bucket collections will be held as the show plays Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne until late August.