Blues Trash - Reverend Beat-Man and the New Wave (Voodoo Rhythm) and In My Room - The Gun Club (Bang! Records)

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

10 May 2018

Hits: 6017

You've all been subjected to that “name 10 LPs in 10 days” stuff on Facebook like me, I suppose? 

I stopped partly because I had to go interstate and didn't think I'd have access to FB, and partly because, on the trip over I wrote down another list of those records which I considered to be watershed, groundbreaking, jaw-dropping and influential to me personally.

Noted thug-about-Sydney's-buses Bob Short is still going strong (at the time of writing he's approaching 50 days, and if he keeps going he might finish in 2021) and I think that's the problem.

• bang! records
• jeffrey lee pierce
• gun club
• voodoo rhythm
• new wave
• reverend beat-man
• in my room

Read more …

Ex-Stooge James Williamson's new album looms

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

08 May 2018

Hits: 6730

The debut album from ex-Iggy and the Stooges guitarist James Williamson and his new band, The Pink Hearts, comes out on June 22 and we’ll have a review live in about a week.

“Behind the Shade” by James Williamson and The Pink Hearts will be on Williamson’s own Leopard Lady Records and is a diverse but powerful effort, with Frank Meyer (Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) and Petra Haden (That Dog) sharing lead vocals. 

Haden was one of the feature vocalists on Williamson’s album of previously unreleased studio versions of Stooges songs, “Re-Licked”. She also contributed violin to “The Departed” on the final Stooges album. “Ready To Die”. 

On “Behind The Shade”, Williamson supplies all of the riffs, guitar parts and most of the bass. The album also includes a host of accompanists.

They include Michael Urbano (Smash Mouth, Bourgeois Tagg, Todd Rundgren, John Hiatt) on percussion, Gregg Foreman, Hervé Salters, Paul Roessler, Nick Hart, and Audrey Vera on keyboards and piano, Jason Carmer on bass, Don Rooke on lap steel, Geoff Yeaton and Tony Peebles on saxophone and Steffen Kuehn on trumpet.

Click Read More for a video teaser and the tracklist.

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

Read more …

Sydney to celebrate 45 years of Volcanic Rock

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

06 May 2018

Hits: 4953

It’s been cited as one of the most influential hard rock albums in Australian music history. Buffalo’s “Volcanic Rock” turns 45 this year.

To mark the occasion, vocalist Dave Tice is playing some special shows with current band, Buffalo Revisited, playing the album and a handful of other hand-picked highlights from the band’s five-album career.

The first will be presemnted by the I-94 Bar at Sydney’s Bald Faced Stag Hotel on Saturday, June 30.

Recorded mostly live at United Sound in Sydney, “Volcanic Rock” appeared in August 1973 on the Vertigo label, also home to Black Sabbath.

Attracting minimal airplay, it was critically-hailed and tracks like “Freedom”, The Prophet” and “Shylock” wrote the template for stoner rock.

• dave tice
• buffalo revisited
• 45 years
• volcanic rock
• bald faced stag

Read more …

Follow Your Instinct - Guttercats (Pop The Balloon/Ghost Highway/Beluga Records)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

05 May 2018

Hits: 6667

It’s four albums into the game for French band Guttercats and it’s with an almost entirely new line-up. Vocalist Guts Guttercat is the sole original member. Before you ask, he sings in English - and with more than a little sense of drama in his delivery.

Not to be confused with the UK Gutter Cats (punks) or their L.A. counterparts (sleaze-glam), both contemporaries using the two-word form of the name, this crew cites The Only Ones, Rowland S. Howard, Nikki Sudden, Chris Bailey and Gun Club as influences. 

That’s a varied bag and so is their music. It runs the full gamut - from Bohemian semi-acoustic, dark pop to garage-style rock rave-ups. I’d throw the Bad Seeds and Dream Syndicate in there, too, or even final days Johnny Thunders.

• garage
• french
• guttercats
• babyshakes
• pop the balloon
• beluga records

Read more …

Revealed: Ed and The Aints delivering two albums for the price of one

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

03 May 2018

Hits: 7109

By the time you read this, Ed Kuepper and his new favourite band The Aints will be ensconced in Phil Punch’s Sydney studio, recording their new album.

“The Church of Simultaneous Existence” was previewed on the recent runs of Aints shows across Australia, and will consist mostly of old songs intended for a fourth album by the early (definitive) version of the Kuepper-Bailey Saints.

The Aints lineup is Peter Oxley (bass), Paul Larsen (drums) and Alister Spence (keys) with Kuepper on vocals and guitar, backed by a three-piece horn section. The photo at right of Peter Oxley in the studio yesteday is courtesy of Feelpresents. 

Last Friday night at Sydney's Marrickville Bowling Club, The Aints played a bracket of the album songs in their entirety. They backed up that blistering show with an appearance the following night at the Gumball festival in the Hunter Valley..

Did we say recording “a new album” (singular)? The Aints are also recording a new Ed Kuepper album - with strings.

It’s the same “electric trio” configuration that appeared with Ed and the Nonsemble Strings at Leftys Old Time Musical Hall in Brisbane in December 2017.

No release dates have been announced for either album but mixing sessions have been scheduled, so watch this space.

• saints
• feelpresents
• ed kuepper
• peter oxley
• the aints
• paul larsen
• alister spence
• studio
• phil punch

This R.E.M. tribute goes out to the ones they love

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

03 May 2018

Hits: 2882

Tis the season to pay tribute, it seems. “The Ones We Love” is a unique series of concerts in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, celebrating R.E.M. and featuring an all-star line-up of singers, most of them drawn from the Australian semi-underground.

Jeff Martin (The Tea Party), Steve Kilbey (The Church), Ron S. Peno (Died Pretty), Trish Young (The Clouds), Alannah Russack (The Hummingbirds), Ashley Naylor (Even), Greg Atkinson (Ups & Downs), Peter Fenton (Crow) and Amanda Brown (The Go-Betweens) are sharing star billing. Backing will come from The Exploding Boys who, at last glance, comprised members of Glide and Died Pretty. 

THE ONES WE LOVE: Celebrating R.E.M.
AUG
31 - Brisbane, Tivoli Theatre
Sep
6 - Melbourne, Palais Theatre
7 - Sydney, State Theatre
Tickets - Pre Sale: Friday May 4th, 9am Local Times. On Sale -   Monday May 7th, 9am Local Times. 
From Metropolis Touring

Oldest Friend - The Painkillers (Off The Hip)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

02 May 2018

Hits: 7264

Of the four albums by The Painkillers since 2006, this is the first to feature a full band. It also reprises five of its nine songs from earlier recordings. 

The Painkillers were formerly a duo - guitarist-singer Joe Bludge, a bluesman, and drummer James Baker, a man who surely needs no introduction. 

Coming from Perth (yeah, yeah, the most isolated capital city in the world) kept them a secret from the rest of Australia. I remember rushing across town one Saturday night, after an opening spot by Wrong Turn at The Empire (RIP), to catch a rare East Coast Painkillers show at Sydney’s Excelsior Hotel (RIP again), and finding the band barely outnumbered by punters. 

• perth
• scientists
• painkillers
• dubrovniks
• james baker
• triffids
• joe bludge
• martin casey
• richard lane
• oldest friend

Read more …

Into The Sun - P76 (Off The Hip)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

02 May 2018

Hits: 5435

Vocal melodies and rippling guitars never get old. “Into The Sun” originally came out in 2000, on the ubiquitous US-Australian label Zip Records and has been re-issued by Off The Hip, 18 years later.

It sounds fresher than a couple of teenagers in the back row of a movie theatre on a first date sponsored by Colgate and Listerine, and could have been recorded a week ago.

Some context: Danny McDonald is only a little bloke but he’s a towering talent of Aussie powerpop. After doing his best to crack the mainstream charts while leading P76 and the preceding Jericho, as well as 18 months as a hired hand for Oscarlima, he took a step back, to life in rural Victora, and raise a family. And record and release three excellent albums under his own name.

• dom mariani
• danny mcdonald
• p76
• zip records
• into the sun
• oscarlima

Read more …

Hindu Gods, Dave's calling you

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

01 May 2018

Hits: 5779

_{Lipstick Killers precursors The Psychosurgeons.}

That finder of lost treasures extraordinaire, David Laing, is on the hunt for archival photos, handbills and posters relating to Sydney band the Lipstick Killers.

Formerly head of the Grown Up Wrong and Dogmeat labels and longtime footsoldier for Shock Records and more recently Universal, Dave is branching out on his own and his first project is a double CD of definitive Lipstick Killers goodness.

Working with Lipstick Killers guitarist Mark Taylor, Laing has already unearthed some unheard gems and now wants to do the packaging justice by adding unseen images. Says "Dogmeat Dave": “I’m especially keen to find decent promo shots, including good quality versions of the ones regularly doing the rounds. In particular I’m after photos and a contact for one, Gary Lane, who did a shoot in ’79 – one photo was used in RAM magazine.”

Drop Dave a lineThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

• psychosurgeons
• lipstick killers
• mark taylor
• david laing