Vale Brian Henry Hooper. His ship has sailed.

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 April 2018

Hits: 8407

_{Brian Hooper at last week's Melbourne gig. Carbie Warbie photo.}

Much-loved Beasts of Bourbon bassist Brian Henry Hooper has passed away peachefully in a Melbourne hospital.

Brian’s wife Ninevah Hooper made an announcement on his Facebook page earlier today:

Brian’s ship peacefully sailed this morning. I was with him during that departure. It’s the hardest thing a partner could ever do but to say good bye.

I told my three year old twins that mummy and doctors could no longer bring daddy home. Daddy was flying away like s free bird in the blue sky.

Ava, Charlize, Matthew, Nina and Lana are all grieving the loss of their beautiful father. The Haddad and Hooper family are also experiencing their pain.

Cinzia Cozzolino and Michelle Rowe also cherish their memories of Brian.

Thank you for the support.

Hooper had been fighting lung cancer. Just a week ago, he appeared at his own benefit concert in Melbourne, playing with a reformed Beasts of Bourbon. Brian was accompanied by a team of nurses and breathing through an oxygen mask.

• beasts of bourbon
• kim salmon
• surrealists
• brian-henry-hooper
• i get up

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Brian James – Brian James (Easy Action)

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 April 2018

Hits: 6847

Brian James recorded this in 1990. That’s post-The Lords of the New Church, when his co-founding of The Damned was a shrinking image in his own career rear vision mirror. It was his debut solo album when it came out on French label New Rose, yet it barely rates a mention in summaries of his back catalogue.

Cue: UK label Easy Action to right that wrong and drop a big, fat vinyl re-issue.

If Brian James had only played on all (and written most) of “Damned Damned Damned” and then pulled a Jim Morrison by growing a beard and a beer gut and bunking off to live in obscurity in Africa, he’d still be remembered as one of British punk’s great progenitors. The guy was equally integral to The Damned's second album, “Music for Pleasure”, too but the band disowns that one for its lame production.

• easy-action
• saints
• chris bailey
• the damned
• brian james
• new rose
• music for pleasure
• damned damned damned

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In Too Much Too Sun - Kevin K and the Krazy Kats (Rankoutsider Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 April 2018

Hits: 6397

Kevin K has been plying this trade for 40 years and almost as many albums. His latest American crew, The Krazy Kats, are in synch with his modus operandi of gritty but melodic rock and roll.

As the title reveals, Kevin's latest studio album takes a generous leaf out of the New York Dolls book while slyly alluding to his longtime adopted home of Florida. 

Kevin K was always going to end up back on Rankoutsider, the label run by ex-Lazy Cowgirls frontman Pat Todd. Like Todd’s current band, The Rank Outsiders, the label specialises in down-to-earth, streetwise rock and roll music - of which Kevin K is the embodiment. 

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that there’s a distinctive Kevin K Sound: It’s no frills, guitar-laden punk rock, with a very tough edge, informed by life in the dives and gutters of New York City’s Lower East Side. Kevin’s plaintive vocal sits oddly but comfortably with the gritty sound of his bands. 

• new york punk
• cbgb
• kevin k
• new york dolls
• alice cooper
• rankoutsider
• too much too sun

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Blues Trash - Reverend Beat-Man and The New Wave (Voodoo Rhythm)

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 April 2018

Hits: 6785

After 30 albums or so under a variety of monikers, Beat-Man could take the easy way out and keep churning out records of garage skronk. You know, music to kill any party, as the label slogan goes. Instead, he’s continuing to take chances.

The Swiss madman's brief with this project was simple: Pick a collaborator and play them a song once. Set the tape running. Use the first or second take. No overdubs. No arguments. 

The Reverend describes the album as “a mix of blues trash, new wave folk and dark no wave garage punk and rock'n'roll”. No arguments. Stylistically speaking, “Blues Trash” IS all over the shop. The bands behind him and his friends range from minimal duos to full-blown folk groups.

• beat-man
• dead brothers
• voodoo rhythm
• new wave
• reverend beat-man
• Nicole Izobel Garcia
• Mario Batkovic
• Julian Sartorious
• Resli Burri

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Kevin K and the CBGB Years - Kevin K (Realkat Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 April 2018

Hits: 5312

CBGB is, of course, no more. It’s a designer clothing store run by Detroit old boy John Varvatos. 

At this point, permit me a personal aside.

No matter how many times the new owner’s rock and roll cred and commitment to “tastefully” preserving elements of the old club on The Bowery are thrown at me, I can’t come to terms with this particular march of progress. 

My own CBGB experiences may have only been as a beer-swilling tourist living vicariously through the sounds of those on-stage, but turning a rock and roll hovel into a shop selling $300 T-shirts will only get you so far. 

• new york punk
• cbgb
• kevin k
• new york
• alan k
• road vultures
• new toys
• lone cowboys
• realkat records

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LAX - Fast Cars (Method Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 April 2018

Hits: 6838

Where they’ve come from is academic; it’s where Fast Cars are now that counts. The onetime ‘80s Sydney mod-power-pop band has been a creative duo since reforming in 2015, working on opposite sides of the globe. “LAX” suggests distance only makes the creative muse all that much stronger. 

“LAX” is what people used to call a “concept album” - back when single song downloads weren’t the staple currency of the musical economy. I know what you’re thinking: Concept equals Pretentious. Wrong. “LAX” stays well away from that precipice. It’s 12 songs of classy psych pop, alternately dreamy and lush, occasionally funky or wrapped in strings, and framed loosely on the theme of seeking your dreams in a big city. 

“LAX” is also a Dropbox record. Dropbox is the cloud app that’s become stock-in-trade for projects like this. With vocalist-guitarist Di Levi based in Bristol, UK, and guitarist-songwriter Fabian Byrne living in Sydney, Australia, the swapping of ideas, sketches, recorded parts and, ultimately, fleshed-out songs, had to occur online.

• los angeles
• fast cars
• di levy
• fabian byrne
• lax
• dream pop

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Win a cruisy time on Saturday with Sydney's Tombstone Ramblers

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 April 2018

Hits: 4916

Sydney Harbour and rock and roll cruises go hand-in-hand, especially in times of good weather. That’s why dirty, Morricone-influenced garage-psych rockers Tombstone Ramblers (members of The Dolly Rocker Movement, The Escapes and The Dunhill Blues) are determined to hold up the tradition by launching their new single on the waves this weekend.

They’re commandeering The Rhythm Queen ferry for a harbour cruise with their mates Stone Cold Fox, purveyors of dirty, slow grindin' blues, and Wollongong’s Baby Machine, personal favourites of the Hard-Ons and expert proponents of the loudest and filthiest rock.

The cruise leaves King Street Wharf Number Six at 11.45am on Saturday, returning at 4pm for an after-party at a venue to be announced. Tickets are selling fast here.

You can win a double pass by emailing us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and naming a brand of beer that might be served on a cruise on Sydney Harbour. Entries close at 6pm on Friday and you must be able to be at King Street Wharf in time to set sail.

Sydney is enjoying an Indian summer and last time we looked it’s going to be 26 degrees and fine on Saturday. Get onto it now!

• contest
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• free
• tickets
• baby machine
• stone cold fox

He Gets Up Again

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

15 April 2018

Hits: 16783

_{Brian Henry Hooper being attended to by his angels, his nurses. Carbie Warbie photo.}

Four weeks ago Brian Hooper lay in intensive care, surrounded by family and his closest friends. The tumour doctors had found on Hooper’s lung just before Christmas was preventing Hooper from breathing without medical and mechanical assistance. Specialists suggested the even Hooper’s short-term survival was in the realm of miracles.

It wasn’t the first time Brian Henry Hooper had been told to fear the worst. Just over 14 years ago Hooper was told by specialists he may never walk again, after the balcony he was standing on at a gathering in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula collapsed, sending Hooper crashing to the ground, his back mangled from the fall.

Over the next 12 months, Hooper pulled himself back from the edge of permanent paralysis. Hooper’s resilience and psychological strength astounded all around him. In late 2004 Hooper limped back on stage with the Beasts of Bourbon for a gig at the Greyhound Hotel. Towards the end of the set, his battered spine unable to withstand the trauma of standing any longer, Hooper lay on the ground. His bandmates, save for Tony Pola on drums, followed suit, three battle-hardened rockers lying prostrate on the stage in sympathy for their comrade-in-arms.

• beasts of bourbon
• scientists
• kim salmon
• clare moore
• penny ikinger
• st kilda
• boris sudjovic
• hugo race
• six ft hick
• tex perkins
• spencer p jones
• mick harvey
• tendrils
• brian hooper
• carbie warbie
• rosie westtbrook

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Folk me! Rustic America meets Melbourne

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

07 April 2018

Hits: 5153

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s ascendency to the American presidency, political sociologists scratched their heads trying to explain the emergence of the Trump vote. While some fumbled for the convenient crutch of a conspiracy theory, others acknowledged that there had been, maybe only temporarily, a seismic shift in the American voting demographic.

For those outside of the comfort zone of institutional politics, economic security and politically correct discourse, Trump’s colourful rhetoric was a beacon of hope.

Michael Hurley is a product of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960's. Back in the day, the Village was a haven for earnest singer-songwriters whose blend of poetic lyrics and folk melodies laid the musico-cultural foundations for the more celebrated counter-cultural movement that peaked toward the end of the decade. Some, like Bob Dylan, mutated into pop cultural icon; others, like Hurley, remained on the fringes.

• australia
• michael hurley
• darren hanlon
• northcote social club

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