Buckle Rash – Broham (Bad Apple/Dark Roasted)     

Country Music doesn’t rate much space around these parts but scratch the surface hard enough with a wooden nickel and you’ll find it, lurking like a grinning red-headed uncle in rock and roll’s family tree. The births of the modern versions of the blues and country appear on American timelines that run through the Appalachian backwoods and the mid-western dustbowls of the 1920s.

The Australian strain of Country Music, on the other hand, is much more bastardised. It rose to prominence in the post-World War II years. In the ‘70s, media maven John Laws hitched his wagon to it, telling a generation: “You’ve never been trucked like this before”.

Chinese Democracy Manifest: Greatest Hits Vol 2 – Mazinga (self released)

Born in the 1990s Basement Scene of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and honed in countless dive bars across the wide expanses of The Great Lakes State, cosmic punks Mazinga have re-emerged after a decade break with their second long-player. The title, “Chinese Democracy Manifest: Greatest Hits Vol 2”, is a mouthful but the record packs a big enough punch to make your teeth rattle.     

The band calls it "Maximum Cosmic Punk". Coffee farmer Deniz Tek labels it “tight as hell with great rhythm playing behind killer solos” and drums that remind him of the late Scott Asheton.

Good Times Gone Bad – Peter Simpson (Verified Records)

It was in a review of ex-Dubrovniks member Peter Simpson’s “Return of the Diletante” EP that we asked, ‘Where’s the full-length album?’, and “Good Times Gone Bad” is the answer. The good news is that it was worth the eight-year wait.

“Good Times Gone Bad” winds the sonic clock back to Australian underground rock’s halcyon days of the 1980s, when guitars were blaring out of pubs on every second inner-city corner and even permeating mainstream radio. A more simple time with simpler songs, and of course, most good times inevitably do go bad.

At times, “Good Times Gone Bad” sounds like The Dubrovniks with less of thefr latter-day gloss. Inevitable, really, with Simpson front and centre and old bandmates Chris Flynn and Boris Sudjovic along for the ride on backing vocals. That said, it’s a Peter Simpson record. He wrote all nine songs, plays guitars and sings.

This Masthead – Infinity Broke (Love As Fiction Records)

If Jamie Hutchings’ better-known band of the ‘90s, Bluebottle Kiss, was a child of grunge (at least in the ear of the major label to whjich it signed), Infinity Broke owes its parentage to something less well defined and commodified: Dissonance.

“This Masthead” is the band’s fourth album and now on Perth label Love As Fiction, usually a home for ‘90s re-issues. The quartet is loosely built on a drums-guitar base that brings a stack of influences to bear. The PR blurb says: “Hypnotic avant rock with teeth” and (for once) it’s accurate.  

Formed in 2013 by Hutchings (vocals and guitar) after Bluebottle Kiss wound down (for the time being, as it turned out), the rest of the band is his brother Scott Hutchings (drums and guitar), Tyrone Stevens (drums and percussion) and Reuben Wills (bass). “This Masthead” grew out of jamming, and the loose spontaneity at its heart is immediately apparent. Its nine songs balance noise rock with faint melodies. It’s not straight up rock. It is addictive. Take the plunge.

Big Hat, No Cattle – The Mezcaltones (self released)

Sydney’s Mezcaltones make Tex Mex music for people who’ve never been south of the Albury-Wodonga border. It twangs and pumps in all the right places with surf overtones baked in and a sprinkling of spice over the top.

These four guys and two gals (one of the latter on percussion and Flamenco dancing) in black and matching cowboy hats have been around the block more than once. They’re from the Northern Beaches - a place like the Shire in its insularity, only without functioning public transport -  but conversely, they’ve fronted more Aussie country-blues festivals than Barnaby Joyce on a Resch’s bender, sorry, study tour.  

Rise & Fall of the Last Civilization – Guttercats (Wishing Well Records/Lucinda Records)

Scratch the surface of the underground rock and roll globe and there’s a whole lot of goodness lurking deep underneath with its roots in myriad and unexpected places. France’s enduring and esoteric Guttercats are a case in point, and this is Album Number Six.

French rock and roll cops a lot of flak  – some of it deservedly so. The place is rampant in high culture and the low brow stuff like rock and roll frequently gets trampled on. Deep down, the French do love refinement. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so it doesn’t pay to judge every book by its Tri-colour cover.