July 22, 2026By Penny Brand
WHIPLASSH and VERATIE perform at Blackflag Brewing Mooloolaba. Photos: Penny Brand. From existential crises and teenage pressure to deliberately imperfect recordings, the songs reaching YELO’s weekly ABC Sunshine Coast segment reveal a local scene that is becoming harder to define, and far more interesting. The Coast has long had a strong folk and indie identity,
July 20, 2026By Penny Brand
The Jungle Giants play Blackflag Brewing Coolum with The Tullamarines and Tear Drive on August 21. Photo: Meg Siejka. With The Jungle Giants and JET on the way, a production brewery in Coolum’s industrial estate is emerging as one of the Sunshine Coast’s most important live music rooms. Known as The Compound, Blackflag Brewing Coolum
July 19, 2026By Penny Brand
The Meanies, with frontman Link Meanie second from left. Photo: Jo Forster. Australian pop-punk favourites The Meanies are heading to South East Queensland with Dad Fight armed with a new split seven-inch and more than three decades of stories. The rare national run includes shows with Spiderbait in Adelaide and Canberra, before the Melbourne punk
July 14, 2026By Penny Brand
A packed crowd fills Blackflag Mooloolaba during The Drop Beers at Punk Piss Up earlier this month. Photo: Lewis Venz. You could walk straight past it if you didn’t know it was there. But a back-alley taphouse in Mooloolaba is filling up with free live music, and people are noticing. Penny Brand writes. Reached by
July 11, 2026By Penny Brand
One finger on record, one ear on Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 and absolutely no patience for anyone talking over the intro. Three decades later, the cassette player is gone, but the urge to catch songs, keep them and pass them around has never left. Penny Brand writes. Imagine this. It is 1993. School is
June 26, 2026By Penny Brand
Intercooler at Easy Tape Studios in Burnside, where the band has been working on a new 10-track album. Photo: Supplied. Nambour-raised Powderfinger drummer Jon Coghill has officially joined Queensland rock band Intercooler with a new album almost complete and their first live show together set for Mapleton. Coghill announced the news on social media after
June 14, 2026By Penny Brand
The best live music on offer on the Sunshine Coast right now might be the easiest one to say yes to. We are talking about the free ones. Force-fed, if you will. They’re the kind of shows that put a proper band in front of people who may not have come looking for live music
May 20, 2026By Penny Brand
Photos: Dirty Moes / Facebook A Mooloolaba live music venue has turned a noise complaint into a bigger question for the Sunshine Coast: what kind of town do people want it to be? Dirty Moes shared a one-star review this week from a nearby resident who described its weekend live music as “crappy” and “unprofessional”,
April 27, 2026By Penny Brand
Modern life promised freedom. But somewhere in the middle of all that convenience, a lot of people ended up lonelier, more scattered and less connected to the places they live. We can work from anywhere, move anywhere, stream anything and stay connected all day. But for all that connection, a lot of people still feel
March 15, 2026By Penny Brand
Photos: The Wolston Butchers by Dameeka Middleton. The YELO See More Music Challenge is about helping more people discover local artists, one band at a time. With so much music discovery driven by algorithms, major releases and big touring names, local artists can be easy to miss. Across the Sunshine Coast and beyond, venue closures

