chris masuak

Ex-Radio Birdman guitarist Chris Masuak’s Aussie-Euro band The Outside embark on their short and sharp French tour this week. Featuring Masuak on guitar and vocals, expat Aussie and former tennis professional Gregory Bowen on guitar, Frenchman Bruno Mondo on bass and Spaniard Juan Martinez El Kara on drums, their five-show run includes a support to Supersuckers in Rennes. This is the film clip for their Bowen-written 2013 single “In The Class”.

FEB
13 - L'Armony, Montreuil
14 - Piano Bleu Saint Brieuc
15 - Le Galion, Lorient
17 - Mondo Bizarro, Rennes (with Supersuckers)
18 - Nantes, La Cour

Six years after his last visit to Australia, former Radio Birdman guitarist Chris “Klondike” Masuak is returning with his hand-picked local band, Dog Soldier, for a select run of East Coast shows.

Masuak and Dog Soldier will play a three week tour with shows in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.

Masuak’s musical history reads like a muscle car ride through the mean streets of Australia’s rock and roll underground.

The Canadian-born prodigy achieved notoriety as teenage guitarist for Australia’s legendary Radio Birdman, and then waged a War Against The Jive with the country’s hardest working rock and roll band, The Hitmen.

Next came a stint with the original live version of the New Christs, followed by international prominence with the chart-busting Screaming Tribesmen.

A member of the ARIA Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Masuak has an impressive back catalogue of rock, pop and blues releases under his own name and fronting the Viveiro Wave Riders. He is now based in Galicia in northern Spain.

Dog Soldier comprises bassist Tony Bambach (Aberration, Green Spiders, ex-Lime Spiders) and drummer Stu Wilson (Aberration, Leadfinger, ex-The Rivers, ex-New Christs,ex-Lime Spiders).

Their tour will re-trace Klondike’s storied career, drawing on material from his key bands - with a few surprises thrown in.  

I-94 Bar Records & Promotions presents
Chris Masuak & Dog Soldier 2023 Australian Tour
MAY
19 - House of Music & Booze, St Peters, NSW + Starcrazy + The Dark Clouds + PocketwatchTickets
21 - Link and Pin, Woy Woy + The Silver Dragons (1.30pm)Tickets
26 - Northcote Social Club + River of Snakes + Electric PurrsTickets
27 - Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong + Baby 8 + Sacramento SweatersTickets
28 - Smiths Alternative, Canberra + Il Bruto (7pm)Tickets
JUN
2 -Stag and Hunter, Newcastle + Joeys Coop + East Coast LowTickets
3 - Federal Hotel, Bellingen + Nikki Websters
4 - Vinnies, Gold Coast + The Square Tugs + Mick Medew & UrsulaTickets

_{Jon Schofield leading The Grooveyard through a set with (fron left to right) Ian Little,  Richard Lawson and Bob Wackley.} 

A little piece of Australian underground rock and roll history was rescued from relative obscurity in April when the modestly-proportioned back catalogue (one 45 and an EP) of 1980s Sydney band The Grooveyard was re-issued digitally.

Grooveyard played ‘60s-influenced power pop in and around Sydney in the 1980s. Their recorded legacy kicked off with their Chris Masuak-produced “Avalanche of Love” single in 1984 and ending with the posthumous 12-inch “Grooveyard" EP in 1989. 

The Grooveyard was something of a supergroup. At various times, its ranks included future Paul Kelly and Messengers, Chinless Elite and Hell To Pay member Jon Schofield, Lime Spiders drummer Richard Lawson, ex-Razar member and future Screaming Tribesmen Bob Wackley, Geoff Rhoe (ex-Minuteman), Ian Little (Bambalams) and Sean Maguire (ex-Minuteman).

Sydney is in lockdown so local bar MoshPit and I-94 Bar are re-running last year's Monday Evenring Gunk series. Here's Episode 7 "Address to the Nation from Chris Masuak" that went to air on November 3.  This episode saw Gunk going international with ARIA Hall of Famer and ex-Radio Birdman guitarist Chris Masuak joining by Zoom with Sydney Rock asnd Roll Mzarklets founder Tiffany Palmer and Bob Short (from Sydney’s first punk band Filth) co-hosting. Watch Chris and his Spanish band The Viveiro Wave Riders give us a face melting set of originals and classics from lockdown in Spain here.

The first thing you hear when the stylus drops on Radio Birdman’s “What Gives?”, “Aloha Steve & Danno”, ”Descent Into The Maelstrom”, “Do The Moving Change” or The Visitors’ “Hell Yes” are the drums.

Solid, to the point, perfectly simple, lots of swing and dead on the money, That drummer’s name is Ron Keeley, who also played with Radio Birdman precursor The Rats (with Warwick Gilbert and Rob Younger), The Other Side (with Rob Younger) , The Hitmen (with Chris Masuak and Warwick Gilbert) and Comrades of War. 

I wanted to hear Ron’s story first-hand and have a beer or three with him in his adopted home of Woking, Surrey,l just outside of London. It's only a short, 17,000-mile trip from Sydney, Australia. We met in The Crown, a wonderful old-style “wet pub” (no food, no gambling, no TV - just drink, so what’s not to like?) in July 2023.

Read on at your own peril.

Canberra label Vicious Kitten is releasing a previously unheard 1991 live album by Hitmen DTKwith special guest Deniz Tek of Radio Birdmanthis week.

“Tonight We Ride: Official Bootleg Live in Sydney November 13 1991” is a warts and all recording from a Sydney show at lost venue Toucan Tango. Tek guested to promote the “Moronic Inferno” album by Hitmen DTK that he’d participated on.

Chris Masuak is back on the road with his Anglo-French-Spanish band The Outside in France in February.

The Outside features Gregory J Bowen, expat Australian, on guitar, Juan Martinez El Kara on drums and French bassist Bruno Mondo. As the tour billing says, this will be the last time. Watch chrismasuak.netfor updates. 

FEB
13 - L'Armony, Montreuil
14 - Piano Bleu Saint Brieuc
15 - Le Galion, Lorient
17 - Mondo Bizarro, Rennes (with Supersuckers)
18 - - Nantes, La Cour

 

The newest band for former Radio Birdman guitarist Chris Masuak, Los Revelators, were born in a garage behind the ancient Roman walls of Lugo in Galicia and raised on a diet of scratchy seven-inch singles. 

With members from three continents, Los Revlators are a band with international bloodlines and bound by a shared love for hard-edged ‘60s and ‘70s rock and roll. They play it hard and fast, churning out mostly original songs steeped in psychedelia,   surf, garage rock and punk and laced with intricate guitar and the unmistakable tones of a Hammond organ.

The debut EP "Revelation" is available here.

Tract Home Chippy - Chris Masuak & Dog Soldier (I-94 Bar Records/Gaga Digi)

Chris Masuakhas been shredding guitar on Australian stages since he was a teenager with Radio Birdmanin the mid-‘70s. It’s still hard to grasp that by the time he'd made his mid-20s, he'd played with Birdman, the Hitmen, the New Christs and the Screaming Tribesmen, surely four of the most rocking and influential acts to emerge from Australia in any 10-year period.

Fast-forward to 2023 and Masuak now lives in Spain; in recent years, he’s released a couple of stunning, riff layered, street level yet melodic albums in “Bruijita” and “Address To The Nation”. The new digital single “Tract Home Chippy”, released to concide with his first Australian tour in six years, is no different.  

With a weaving, melodic guitar hook that crosses several scales, it’s a clever lead-in that sparks off a pumping rhythm section that’s as tight as an ant’s arse. The song gets along like a roller-coaster, aided by solid backing vocals that add spark. Masuak’s own vocals is in fine form, and it’s wrapped in a shower of hooks. The song carries the classic Masuak trademark: a slab of guitar power with a hard edge that nods nod to garage rock and toll.

Lyrically (and

Tonight We Ride: Official Bootleg Live in Sydney November 13 1991 – Hitmen DTK with special guest Deniz Tek (Vicious Kitten)

Hello I-94 barflies! Ain’t life grand? A new official bootleg recording of the magnificent Hitmen DTK, with special guest Deniz Tek, ripping through a few choice cuts from the Birdman catalogue, How good is that? 

But first, the back story.

Hitmen DTK were fresh back from recording the underrated album “Moronic Inferno” in the USA. They hit the road to promote said record in Sydney, Australia, for a handful of gigs.  

Revelation – Los Revelators (Los Revelators)

Kamloops? Sounds like what a car mechanic has for breakfast, right?

Nope. It is, in fact, a place. In Canadaaaa!

Placenamesa? Australia has a few beauties: Grong Grong, Iron Knob, Woy Woy, Sydney. 

But, I mean, Canada, right? They really know how to give a town a name, don't they?

Chris Masuak and Dog Soldier
The Silver Dragons
Link and Pin Café, Woy Woy
Sunday, 21 May 2023

We still want to cling to memories of our youth and for some it’s easier than others. Some say this music thing is an affliction. Others joke that it’s a curse and others consider it fun.

When we were teenagers or aged in our early 20s and seeing bands I don’t think we would have imagined that some of us would still would still be doing so 40 years later. In fact, I used see the musos on stage aged in their late 20s and think they were really old farts.

Well here I am on a Sunday afternoon, on the noisy express to Newcastle full of screaming kids and even louder adults bellowing, as the train weaves snake-like past the Hawkesbury River, on my way to another afternoon gig at the Link and Pin in Woy Woy. Heading to see Chris Masuak and one of his rare Australian tours these days.

The Link and Pin is venue of another time: an oasis that exudes an old-time vibe as you walk in. It’s like you stepped into a place not quite rural and certainly not inner-city despite its rock posters and wall full of underground records. The beer garden is rustic and packed as the drinks flow. I have never have not had a good time there.

Catch Monday Evening Gunk on the MoshPit Faccebook at 7.30pm every Monday or catch up here every Tuesday. Next up on Gunk: Chris Masuak of Radio Birdman, the Scraming Tribesmen, the Hitmen and the New Christs who will be interviewed by Bob Short (Filth) and Tiffany Palmer (Sydney Rock and Roll Markets) and play a set with his band, The Viveiro Wave Riders. 

We now have stock of "Address to the Nation", the new album from Chris Masuak and the Viveiro Wave Riders, after a slight delay in the manufacturing process. You can score a copy on CD here. If you prefer bricks and mortar shopping, try Redeye Records in Sydney and Off The Hip in Melbourne next week. 

The new album from Chris Masuak and the Viveiro Wave Riders is out in early August on I-94 Bar Records and we’ve opened pre-orders. The lead-off track "1776" is embedded above. Place an order here.

“Address to the Nation” is full of trademark Masuak melodies and power with harmonies, a wide-ranging record where powerpop gems rub shoulders with bristling, muscular rock and roll, and punk. It’s in a similar vein to its predecessor, “Brujita”, but a touch harder-edged and more pointed, with lyrical insights about life, love and the sorry state of geopolitics, all powered by Klondike's ace Spanish band There’s also a healthy dose of satire, lurking deep in its grooves.

If you pre-order, your copy of the CD will be sent the day the album arrives back from the pressing plant. You’ll also receive a full digital copy, with bonuses, shortly before. If you're in the market for vinyl, we'll keep yuou posted. 

Here’s the official film clip for "Gun Song", the politically-charged track from the Chris Masuak & the Viveiro Wave Riders album "Address to the Nation" on our own I-94 Bar Records. Find it for sale here. The clip was produced by Jonathan Sequeira of Living Eyes Productions/Cheap Music Videos who is also the man behind the Radio Birdman documentary, “Descent into the Maelstrom”.

Faith and Practice in Bedlam
By Chris Masuak
(High Voltage)

The rock and roll biography, usually ghost written within an inch of near life, seldom rises above the squalor of tabloids in terms of literary merit. A chronological narrative structure occasionally framed as a flashback is as good as it gets.

Think of sports biographies with guitars.

Unsurprisingly, reviews of Chris Masuak's new book have been thin on the ground. Firstly, because the book will probably upset his old band mates and their wrath has become legendary.

Secondly, I suspect, because - like its author - this book is quite the odd duck.

When confronted by the unusual, most pundits wait for someone else's opinion before voicing their own. Especially when they don't want to miss out on the chance of potential support slots.