M83's latest album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, released last October, is a huge, melodramatic, pop soundscape filling two discs, richly layered and boldly drawn.

Indie pop duo Cults are the epitome of New Yorker-style coolness.

A sweet, artistic, free spirit, with a voice that rivals Enya and Bjork, New York-based Cameron Mesirow, who works under the artist name Glasser, is the kind of musician who dreams up the idea of a two-person organ, and then actually gets one made.

Belgian-born Australian indie pop artist Gotye (you say it like "Gaultier"), whose real name is Wally De Backer, is much loved in Australia.

Max Cavalera and his brother Iggor didn't speak to each other for 10 years after Brazilian metal legends Sepultura splintered into two camps.

Let's just say there is no love lost at all between former Battles singer, guitarist and on-stage crazy man Tyondai Braxton and his old band mates.

Like his good mate Noel Gallagher, Tom Meighan doesn't mind letting the world know how great he thinks his band - Kasabian - is, and for that matter, how great he is.

Who's the biggest star of tomorrow's Big Day Out? Noel? Chris?

The dismal holiday weather hasn't been kind to some businesses - but others can't stop smiling. Michael Dickison reports on the winners and losers of our damp start to summer

Photos from Rhythm and Vines 2011, an annual three-day music festival held at Waiohika Estate Vineyard in Gisborne.

For a week every year, the picturesque alpine village of Mayrhofen hosts the biggest, loudest snow festival in Europe.

Scott Kara's week of films, music, television and festivals.

The summer tour dates just keep on coming, and local lads The Datsuns are getting on board with a trip round the country, starting at the Waihi Beach Hotel on January 18.

The distinctive Senegalese voice of Baaba Maal has been added to the line up for Womad in March.

An intimate, relaxed affair set in the atmospheric surroundings of the Unesco World Heritage-listed Galle Fort.

Auckland could well do with more food-and-wine festivals, urges Don Kavanagh.

Rounding out the announcements for next year's Splore festival is the addition of powerful Texan neo-soul diva Erykah Badu.

With the tagline "Here for a good time, not a long time", you might think the annual Show Me Shorts festival aims to shock or entertain rather than delve too deeply into sophisticated stories.