Polaris Oblique - Seedy Jeezus (Blown Music)

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By Robert Brokenmouth & Patrick Emery

Robert Brokenmouth & Patrick Emery

26 May 2018

Hits: 4376

Melbourne band sell out. Again.

Seedy Jeezus: "Polaris Oblique". Rhetorical question: how do three hairy men make so much bloody racket? And why is it so damn good?

Patrick Emery's given this one four bottles in the review below, but you know what? bugger him with an awkward object, it's five or more easy. Thwack this on the car stereo and you'll be making sharp turns and mounting sidewalks in no time. 'Polaris Oblique' is big, heavy, and soaks like alcohol into a villain's hanky.

The Seedies know their shit, they know their rock'n'roll; Lex Waterreus (gesundheit) (he's the talented swine with the voluminous guitar and the brilliant artwork) sounds like Plant on a good day, and one must assume he has the whacking great dong to match.

• seedy jezus
• polaris obluque
• Lex Waterreus
• blown music

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April 4th, 1978 – Sonic’s Rendezvous Band (Easy Action)

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 May 2018

Hits: 6862

This recording is where it all started for recent Sonic’s Rendezvous Band fans. Originally issued in 1998 as “Sweet Nothing”, it was the first non-bootleg, live recording that stood up, sonically speaking, and both the CD and LP pressings sold out quickly.

A second disc of live and tweaked studio stuff (“City Slang”) surfaced a year later and we’ve been fairly spoiled with a flow of material since then.

“Sweet Nothing” was an ear-opener in all senses of the term. No longer did you need to listen to “Strikes Like Lightning” or any of the other lamentably poor quality boots and ponder why nobody in Detroit in the mid-‘70s owned a boombox with a decent microphone.

The steady stream of releases peaked with Easy Action’s lavish 2006 “Sonic’s Rendezvous Band” box set, a six-disc CD collection that included rehearsals, other live recordings and a spruced-up version of this show. Now, this vinyl release has arrived as part of the annual Record Store Day hoopla.

• sonics rendezvous band
• fred smith
• fred sonic smith
• gary rasmussen
• scott asheton
• rock action
• scott morgan
• april 4th 1978

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Power to burn on the LP version of "disasterpiece"

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By Staff writers

Staff writers

22 May 2018

Hits: 5041

It’s said every great CD release deserves to come out on vinyl and the folks at Buttercup Records have been listening.

They’ve obliged by making Melbourne band Powerline Sneakers’ wonderful “disasterpiece” album, originally issued by Kasumuen Records on CD only, available on wax.

“disasterpiece” was one of The Barman’s choices in his 2017 Top Ten and it was easy to hear why. Gritty, hooky and raucous tunes from veteran survivors of bands like Powder Monkeys, Splatterheads and Ripe, it’s spent lots of time in the CD player and is reviewed here.

Limited to 300 hand-numbered copies on vinyl, it’s the usual bang-up Buttercup job - three colour variants, spectacular new artwork by Glenn Smith, double-sided insert and download card. Follow this link to order a copy before they're gone. 

• buttercup records
• powerline sneakers
• disasterpiece

The Ark - The Vacant Lot (Damn You)

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 May 2018

Hits: 5650

It’s said that the only good thing to come out of Australia’s national capital is the Federal Highway, but it’s not true. Canberra’s also spawned some decent punk rock, and here’s more evidence. 

It’s not a hanging offence if you’ve never heard of The Vacant Lot. Molly Meldrum never made their acquaintance either. If he had, he would have hated them. Take that as a plus. 

The Vacant Lot grew out of the Australian National University campus in 1978. Canberra had a small but energetic punk or new wave scene by then. Wearing less Detroit leather than Sydney, not as ragged and oppressed as bands from Brisbane and not as artfully smacked out as the Melbourne crew, it was a community that tolerated - no, encouraged - music that didn’t fit with convention. 

• canberra
• the ark
• the vacant lot
• thought criminals
• doublethink

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Paradox – Neil Young and The Promise of The Real (Reprise)

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 May 2018

Hits: 4040

Neil Young shouldn’t be allowed near a Super 8 movie camera, let alone a big screen. If his girlfriend, The Mermaid Lady, wants to make her own movies, she’s rich enough to go right ahead. Just be merciful and don’t make them compulsory viewing.

This is the soundtrack to a Mermaid Lady movie. Her directorial debut, no less. Apparently, the fillum is a rambling, plot-less Netflix download in which Neil and his band (aka The Spawn of Willie Nelson) appear as outlaws and cowboys, who "pass the days digging for treasure while they wait for the full moon to bring its magic, the music and let the spirits fly."

The above review comes from a friend and the media release. I can’t vouch for it myself. What I do know is that Neil needs to stick to making music. It’s his strength.

• neil-young
• promise of the real
• reprise
• paradox

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Behind The Shade – James Williamson and the Pink Hearts (Leopard Lady Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 May 2018

Hits: 11675

Plenty of people won’t “get” this record. That’s the inherent risk when you move forward and don’t stay comfortably treading water in one swimming pool.

It’s the second solo album for James Williamson (third if you count the live one with The Careless Hearts) and “Behind The Shade” doesn’t kiss-off his substantial Iggy & The Stooges legacy. More pointedly, it reinforces that Williamson is no one-trick pony.

Of course you should know James for inventing one of the most brutal guitar styles ever. Iggy himself paid him a back-handed compliment by saying that his former collaborator filled every possible space in their band’s soundscape. He did say it was to the point of claustrophobia, or words to that effect.

• james williamson
• the pink hearts
• leopard lady records
• behind the shade
• iggy and the stooges
• frank meyer
• petra haden
• streetwalkin' cheetahs

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Two Nights With Satan - 300 St Claire (Conquest of Noise)

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 May 2018

Hits: 6571

Yes, 300 St Claire were another of those noisy, intense and hard-as-a-cheap-pub-steak bands that were around in a crowded Sydney backyard at the cusp of the 2000s and never made a substantial mark anywhere else.  They self-released an EP, gigged around and more or less fell off the radar before the decade was half-done. 

My own memories include taking away tinnitus from a support they played to Asteroid B612 at the Iron Duke in Sydney one Friday night. By the time Johnny Casino and Co came on, the damage had been done, and every note The Big Fella played fell on ringing ears.   

As is the way these days, 300 St Claire has reformed - to have fun and sink a few beers, the members will tell you - so now is a good time for their long, lost EP to resurface on Conquest of Noise, complete with extras. It’s every bit as bludgeoning as you’d expect. 

• sydney
• conquest of noise
• asteroid b612
• 300 st. claire
• bored!
• powdermonkeys
• peter booges werth
• two nights with satan
• mark horne
• mick poole

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Butterflyin’ - New York Dolls (Easy Action)

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 May 2018

Hits: 7208

Riddle me this, Batman: In these digital times, why put out a CD of a live recording in a box set and split it over two discs? A strange attempt to mimick the vinyl exprience of flipping an LP over after it hits the run-out groove? Yes, Barflies, these are some of the weighty societal issues we trouble ourselves with at the I-94 Bar. Let’s back the truck up a bit here…

“Butterflyin’” is an upgraded version of a Dolls boot that’s been doing the rounds since Steve Jones was old enough to do time in an adult detention facility. Not that he’s the only one who swiped something from the Dolls’ output. It’s taken from a 1974 WLIR radio broadcast. An additional six live tracks, from another undated radio show, are the icing on the cake. More about them later. 

• new york punk
• new york city
• jerry nolan
• johnny thunders
• my father's place
• david johansen
• syl sylvain
• arthur kane

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It's 2018 and we still need Lunch

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

12 May 2018

Hits: 10115

_{Jasmine Hirst photo.}

Lydia Lunch doesn’t particularly care whether people are offended by her art.

From her beginnings in New York no wave outfit, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, to her spoken-word performances, to her collaborations with Rowland S Howard in Shotgun Wedding, Swans’ Michael Gira, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, Bob Quine (Richard and the Hell and the Voidoids), right through to her more recent profane expositions on the United States under Donald Trump, Lunch’s self-defined brief has been deliberately and avowedly confrontationalist.

In her own words, Lunch is a conceptualist, exploring concepts that highlight the exploitation and marginalisation of the individual in contemporary society, the typically patriarchal and oppressive discourse wielded by institutions of power.

If you can’t stand the heat in Lunch’s artistic kitchen, go find yourself a fast-food media joint and starve on the processed, intellectually bankrupt crud that masquerades as entertainment.

In May 2018 Lunch returns to Australia with her Retrovirus concept, trawling across her 40-year career with the aid of Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Chrome Cranks), Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers) and Algis Kizys (Swans). I spoke to Lydia Lunch in her sometime home town of New York City.

• richard hell
• sonic youth
• robert quine
• the birthday party
• rowland s. howard
• lydia lunch
• teenage jesus and the jerks
• shotgun wedding
• swans
• michael gira

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