Hikikomori - HITS (Conquest of Noise)
HITS are an important band: for those who really care about Australia Rock, the history, the character and breathtaking urgency that some bands at certain times can produce.
Not My Girl/Goose Step b/w In My Jungle - Chinese Burns (Swashbuckling Hobo)
“Not My Girl” shakes like “96 Tears” free-falling out of a 30th-floor building. It takes just as long to hit the bottom. I like it best of the three tunes on this 45.
Everybody b/w Executive - The Dangermen (Swashbucklling Hobo)
No-nonsense gutter rock’s attack on society’s elites gets a little dirtier with this sterling 45 from Brisbane.
The Mountain b/w Supernatural - Stink Bugs (Swashbuckling Hobo)
Here’s a freaked-out, lo-fi, mindfuck of a 45 that does Brisbane’s reputation for sonic mayhem no harm. Ex-Hekawis and Shutdown ’66 bassist James Pierce leads the trio on this monstrous single.
Like Elephants 2 - The Movements (Crusher Records)
Barely six months have elapsed and that’s time enough for The Movements to release the second part of their “Like Elephants” psychedelic opus. It’s arguably more, um, psychedelified, than “Like Elephants 1” and thus demanding closer attention, but it’s no less less engaging.
Ed Kuepper goes mail order for new LP
The King of Reinvention, Ed Kuepper, is at it again. The ex-Saints and sometime Laughing Clowns guitarist recorded his first truly solo album in the mid-‘90s – just himself myself and a couple of acoustic guitars.
Open Your Eyes to Smoke - Nunchukka Superfly (Citadel Records)
It’s their fifth studio album and it’s tempting to say the lines have become blurred between Nunchukka Superfly and the Hard-Ons, from which two of its three members are drawn. That’d be convenient but also wrong.
Wolf Party - Various Artists (Voodoo Rhythm)
A compilation of 17 of the most bent, raucous and screwed up lo-fi musical artists from New Zealand? Sounds like a concept worth bottling and who better than Switzerland’s Voodoo Rhythm to bring it on?
Television turns workaholic
Sublime guitar band Television re-awakened after years of inactivity in 2013 with gigs all around the world - including its first in Australia. 2014 looks even busier with the band embarking on what looks like a world tour.
