Two claim the Buttercup booty

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

07 November 2017

Hits: 2660

The winners are in for our Buttercup Records giveaway of an ME 262/Trans 262 LP pack. 

Jason Simond of Mascot, NSW, Australia and Stephen Halpern of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in the USA were drawn electronically at random from entries who correctly named an ME 262/Trans 262 member and one of their future bands. 

If you missed out, make sure you grab a copy of the limited run LP before they go. It's reviewed here and available from the label.  

Neath A Shin Ei Sun - Neptune Power Federation (Erotic Volcano Records)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

07 November 2017

Hits: 5504

Goblins shit me. Witches and bats, too. The intrinsic silliness and - now, let's be honest - pomposity in the most excessive heavy metal music bred in me a disdain for much of that musical form from a very young age. So where does a band with a garish album cover with a skull wearing a helmet adorned by stag horns stand?

Good question.

Imagine a woman in gothic chiffon dress and Melbourne Cup headpiece singing in front of a band that’s a cross between a metallic version of Funkadelic, Fu Manchu and Sabbath.

• stoner
• frenzal rhomb
• daredevil
• neptune power federation
• Neath A Shin Ei Sun
• erotic volcano records
• heavy metal

Read more …

Two Hundred Years - Cub Callaway and The Revolutionnaires (Dominion Records)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

06 November 2017

Hits: 4014

Want the short version? A collection of veteran, all-star Australian underground luminaries (and one bankable Hollywood star) make a thought-provoking and at times surprising album, packed full of solid songs.

You deserve better than that, and so does "Two Hundred Years". So try this: Playing "Two Hundred Years" is like digging through an attic full of relics and finding things you remember, and things you never found the first time.

Mainman Bruce “Cub” Callaway should require no introduction but a few of you may have been sleeping, so here goes: He’s a former member of The Saints (post-Ed) who toured Australia extensively in the early '80s with The Bard, Bailey, and his merry men.

• saints

Read more …

Drunk and Disorderly: Episode 32

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

06 November 2017

Hits: 6833

The podcasts are coming thick and fast now. Episode 32 of Drunk and Disorderly is live, with music from Donald Trump, The Damned, Flamin ‘ Groovies, Sator, The Hellacopters, The Godfathers, The Volcanics, Dion Lunadon, James McCann and The New Vindictives, Leadfinger, P76, X, The Hip Priests and The Dream Syndicate.

• leadfinger
• hellacopters
• volcanics
• james mccann
• flamin' groovies
• Donald Trump
• the damned
• p76

Drunk and Disorderly: Episode 31

Details

By The Bar Staff

The Bar Staff

06 November 2017

Hits: 5718

Everybody's favourite drunken ramblings from mine host is back with a vengeance. Featuring hits and misses from Thee Wylde Oscars, The Bible Bashers, ME 262, The On and Ons, The Murder City Devils and more. This is the podcast for the I-94 Bar where The Barman dispenses Real Rock Action From Sydney, Australia, via The Bowery and The Motor City.

Strange Birds - Giant Moths (self released)

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

06 November 2017

Hits: 4716

A 30-minute EP. Four songs. Melbourne band. Bring ‘em to your town. However…caveat emptor, baby.

The Giant Moths ain’t for everybody. They are, frankly, a little peculiar, and rather endearing. I’ve heard this EP quite a few times since it was thrust into my hands, and I tell you now, not only is it a grower as well as an immediate smacker, you’ll seek out Giant Moths to see them live not just once, but over and over.

I’m sure the band would not be happy if I were to imply that the band is Andrea Scarlett’s baby - and I suspect that the rhythm section described on the back cover, the lynchpin of the outfit, would be at great pains to protest.

• melbourne
• giant moths
• andrea scarlett
• strange birds

Read more …

Spine 96 - Spine 96 (Off the Hip)

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

06 November 2017

Hits: 3878

What a great cover! I mean, what a fucking great cover! And the inside is really interesting too. Now for the music. 14 songs of it.

I had no idea what to expect other than it’s on Off the Hip, and that apparently there’s a Green Circles connection, they’re from Adelaide, and this was recorded 20 years ago and there will be no reformation, no live gigs. There’s also no bio, no lyric sheet, no other info bar a negative-style image of the band, so … if I get these lyrics wrong, blame the band. Bastards. 

So you’d better dig it ‘cos this is all there is.

• green circles
• adelaide
• spine 96

Read more …

Yesterday's Town - Suzie Stapleton (self released)

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

06 November 2017

Hits: 5453

"Yesterday’s Town" is huge. You think you know where she’s going, but she doesn’t take you there. The lyrics are like a stripped-back novella. Suzie really nails the slow/uptempo dynamic with her romantic guitar and sweet and smoky (by turns) voice.

Suzie’s been going about her career the right way (photos, film clips  bios and downloads

). She's moved from Melbourne to London and is building a profile. Her production on "Yesterday’s Town" is superb, and the song itself begs for mainstream airplay, and I can only assume the majors are scampering with intent toward her right now.  

• melbourne
• london
• spencer p jones
• suzie stapleton
• yesterdays town

Read more …

From Barracuda to Unbeing Sage: The art of Jeremy Gluck

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

05 November 2017

Hits: 12330

The more art I make, the more persuaded I become that there is no other art than mine, and no other artist than I. - Jeremy S Gluck

Currently Artist-in-Residence at Eltham Hill School (Greenwich, London), ex-Barrcudas member Jeremy S. Gluck is piloting a pioneering new digital art project, "Game of Memes". The first exhibition opens in London on Saturday November 11. The Barman owes me a huge backlog of wages so I’ll be there too. 

Now cast your eye over this pin-up, a centrefold from "Smash Hits" (one of those dubious teenage mags which proliferated in the late 1970s and early '80s). Observe the mop-top hair, the sharp shirts with snappy lines and the aw-shucks expressions. Not to mention that banana-coloured surfboard.

Not quite as dangerous as the gang in The Archies. Never mind the Barracudas being squeaky enough to take them home to meet Mum, you could take these boys to meet Granny.

She’d chuck them under the chin, pinch their cheeks and call them "lovely" before making them all nice cups of tea (from a teapot in a home-made tea-cosy) with a digestive biscuit.

• jeremy-gluck
• barrucudas
• rowland s. howard
• nikki sudden

Read more …