Shake and Bake - Left Lane Cruiser (Alive Natural Sounds)

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 July 2019

Hits: 4334

Fort Wayne, Indiana’s favourite blues duo is back and while they’re not making any seismic shifts in their music, it sure sounds good on “Shake and Bake”.

What's here? Ten songs. No fat. Mostly foot stomping punk blues. That giant-sized space cake on the cover sure ain’t gluten-free. Is it studio album 10 or 11? Who cares. The formula works. 

Left Lane Cruiser remains Freddy “Joe” Evans IV (guitar and vocals) and Pete Dio (drums and percussion), the latter on his third straight record, and opening track “Two Dollar Elvis” makes an immediate impact. Dio lays down the time to signal Evans’ stuttering guitar and trademark hoarse ’n’ gritty vocal. 

• left lane cruiser
• alive naturalsound
• pete shelley
• shake and bake
• freddv evans IV

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Russian Spy b/w Many Secrets - The Neighbourhood Strange (Strange)

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 July 2019

Hits: 3414

The latest in a spate of singles. Just when you'd pegged these veterans as a freakbeat-psych band, the A side has a vaguely surf sound to the guitars; the B side is ’60s-infused pop with a reedy keyboard texture and a slightly dark edge. Welcome to the sound of The Neighbourhood Strange, the English quintet from Salisbury.

“Russian Spy” references the Skripal poisoning scandal that put their home town in the news in a way that the Druids never could. Marcus Turner’s elegant yet edgy vocal gives the song a touch of cool reserve while the guitar lines play tag. “Many Secrets” takes a couple more spins to make an impact and then makes itself right at home. The guitarwork is a stand-out.

There’s a CD edition that adds three bonus tracks: “Mary Mary” is a moody chugger. “Walk on Water” is a lost love tale with spacey guitar and an impassioned, out-of-sorts vocal. “Desert Sand” is a rambunctious near-instrumental and the pick of the bonuses. With this sort of variety, you have to wonder where the album will land. 

Buy it 

• the neighbourhood strange
• russian spy

ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? - Dave Graney & The MistLY (Cockaigne)

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 July 2019

Hits: 4719

There are more musical and cultural references in the latest Dave Graney album than a shelf-full of fourth year undergraduate sociology theses. Over a baker’s dozen songs, “ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS?” - we’ll call it “ZIPPA” for short - is a wander through the backblocks of Graney’s singular musical mind.

It’s self-described “classic rock” but don’t expect Journey or Van Halen to spring out of the speakers. “ZIPPA” is in-the-pocket, pop-rock played by a well-drilled ensemble. Drumming national treasure Clare Moore, consummate bassist Stu Thomas and jazzy guitarist Stuart Perera have been in more trenches together than the cast of “Hogan’s Heroes” and Graney’s respect for stylistic boundaries is on a par with Nancy Pelosi’s affection for Donald’s pipe-dream Wall. 

Opener “Baby I Wish I Could Have been a Better Pop Star” is classic Graney: There’s more piss being taken here than in the bathroom of a highly-paid Macquarie Street urologist, and you don’t have to wait for the results from the lab to know who Dave’s talking about. 

• dave graney
• clare moore
• mistly
• ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS?

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An act of Sedition to celebrate Sydney music's glory days

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 July 2019

Hits: 5500

Sedition 2019 is a Celebration of Public Art and Protest in Sydney during the 1970s, running across various venues and spaces this August-September. To celebrate, Feel Presents have put together a live music component featuring some musical giants from Sydney’s fertile post-punk scene of the late 1970s.

Mark down Saturday, August 31 at Paddington RSL for a show by The Aints!, Flaming Hands, Shy Impostors and The Professors. DJ Dr Rock with be providing the soundtrack between sets. Tickets go on-sale at 12 midday today here. 

Ed Kuepper needs little introduction; as a founding member of Brisbane world beating proto-punks The Saints - residents of Sydney for a short four months in Jan-April 1977 - and Sydney’s post-punk giants the Laughing Clowns (1979-1984) Kuepper is almost single handedly responsible for igniting two musical movements. 

The Aints! is a continuation of those both projects having lain dormant for some 35+ years but reignited with a passion in 2017 that has thus far seen the release of two full lengths albums, a mini-album and a series of scorching live shows.

Flaming Hands and Shy Impostors both sprung from the ashes of Sydney's exclusive Detroit scene headed by the pioneering Radio Birdman during their reign of 1974-1977.

• flaming hands
• shy impostors
• julie mostyn
• penny ward
• warwick gilbert
• dr rock
• the professors
• stephen vineberg
• sedition
• jed kuepper

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You're never alone with a bulging back catalogue. Ain't that the truth

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By The Barman

The Barman

02 July 2019

Hits: 8413

 
_{Rob Younger at The Factory Theatre. Shona Ross photo.}

Radio Birdman
+ Mick Medew & The Mesmerisers
+ East Coast Low
Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, NSW
Friday, June 21, 2019

Radio Birdman
+ Mick Medew & The Mesmerisers
+ The Dark Clouds
Factory Theatre, Marrickville, NSW
Saturday, June 22, 2019

The Aints!
+ Colonel Kramer & The Eamon Dilworth One Man Brass Ensemble
Factory Theatre, Marrickville, NSW
Friday, June 28, 2019

Your own legacy is a hard act to follow. This is a tale of two bands.

On one hand you have Radio Birdman, a thoroughly re-tooled and different beast to its previous incarnations and still carrying a substantial reputation. They’re a prime reason why The I-94 Bar exists.

On the other, you have The Aints!, who are led by foundation Saints member Ed Kuepper and armed with a setlist partly planted in that band’s past, with the balance comprising songs that were written for the old band but never recorded.

• mesmerisers
• dark clouds
• radio birdman
• factory theatre
• mick medew
• east coast low
• cambridge hotel

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Tactics return for select Australian shows

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By The Barman

The Barman

02 July 2019

Hits: 3910

Seminal post punk group Tactics are playing their first Australian shows since 2008, with dates in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Emerging from the murky depths of Canberra's punk scene in 1977, this critically acclaimed underground band led by Dave Studdert released six albums over a decade. Studdert now lives in Europe but his band’s post-punk pop and stripped-down psychedelia was a staple on the Sydney underground scene of the 1980s.

On the eve of the release of their seventh album, Tactics will play Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney on August 9, The Foundry in Brisbane on August 10 and Melbourne’s Curtin Hotel on August 15.

• australian
• shows
• tactics
• dave studdert

The Past Came Callin’ - Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders (Hound Gawd!)

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 July 2019

Hits: 4720

Americana is a term that excuses all sorts of sins. It’s so sweeping as to be meaningless - and it’s been homogenised to the point of dross - so let’s not speak of it again.

Some folks call Pat Todd “Americana” and it doesn’t remotely cover what he and his Los Angeles-based Rankoutsiders play. They’ve been tagged “Mellencamp with the Les Paul turned right up” by one reviewer, which is a bona fide compliment if you ignore the stuff that charted in Australia…

So, the fifth Rankoutsiders album, “The Past Came Callin’”, is rootsy and muscular rock and roll, an amalgam of rock, country, blues and everything in-between, and a contender for their best yet.

What makes the 14 tracks on “The Past Came Callin’” stand out? The songwriting, for one. Pat Todd doesn’t do mawkish sentimentality and writes from the heart. These are a mix of old and new songs, stories about relationships and crimes - which we all know are sometimes one and the same thing.

The surging, urgent guitars of Nick Alexander and Kevin Keller are another distinctive plus. Like Thunders with a clear head or Keef with a new-found dose of inspiration and less noodling, these guys make you take notice of every lick and steamrolling riff.

• cowpunk
• lazy cowgirls
• pat todd
• hound gawd records
• rankoutsiders
• the past came callin'

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Top of the Food Chain – Prehistoric Douche (Surely Poor Records/Dirty Flair)

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 June 2019

Hits: 3564

A conundrum for you: If douche is a word for “an obnoxious or contemptible person” why don’t these guys suck harder than a top-of-the-line Dyson vacuum cleaner near a split beanbag?

The intent is obvious from the song titles and long before you first drop that stylus into the groove. The Douches want to wind music back to Flintstones days, stripping it bare until there’s just fuzz left on the bones. Thirty-somethings on drums, bass and two guitars. What you see in their artfully posed cover St Kilda Beach photo is what you hear.

Zappa rhetorically asked if humour belonged in music and the answer’s right here. Eight songs and there’s a droll dad joke in most of them. What’s not to love about the “primordial cordial” chorus in the song of the same name, especially when it’s about going on a bender?

Sonically speaking, Prehistoric Douche are Melbourne’s equivalent of Sydney’s Crusaders without masks and playing a little slower. The playground they’re both in is familiar but each brings something of their own to stand out from the rest of the kiddies.

• garage
• melbourne
• prehistoric douche
• top of the food chain

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Vale Sue Telfer, Sydney music icon

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 June 2019

Hits: 13393

^{Michelle Fabok photo}

Sydney’s live music scene suffered a body-blow last week when much-loved and long-time live music booker, musicians’ rights advocate and den mother to countless bands, Sue Telfer, passed away.

Sue had been conspicuously absent from a Deniz Tek acoustic gig she’d booked at Sydney’s Golden Barley Hotel last Tuesday night. Her employer, APRA AMCOS (the Australasian Performing Right Association and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society), raised the alarm when she failed to log-on remotely for work.

Police attended Sue’s inner-city unit and found her. There were no suspicious circumstances.

• vale
• sue telfer

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