sam

Australia’s one-man punk rock machine Brat Farrar (aka Sam Agostino, of Digger and the Pussycats, Russian Roulettes! and Kamikaze Trio) emerges from the Melbourne lounge room with another cracker release. This one’s a three-track vinyl single limited to 100 copies so you’re advised to move fast.

The title track (full name: “Being With You That Night”) is a pounding electric beat that’s really a stage for duelling twin guitars. It’s over in a minute-and-a-half but leaves a large scorch mark. “Let It Go” is just as frantic but the guitar sheen sounds like it's been sonically buffed to take the edge off. Don't worry. It’s still terrific.

For a musician who spends many of his recording hours in a bedroom, Brat Farrar is more Punk Rock than you or I will ever be. This is the second album of short and snappy homemade songs from Melbourne-via-Europe Sam Agostino (one-half of Digger & The Pussycats) and it delivers in spades.

There’s a lot to love about “Brat Farrar II” if only because it sounds like “Brat Farrar I”. In fact, you could interchange many of these songs on an iTunes mix playlist (or something similar) and be hard pressed to pick what came from where.

High Tides, More Crimes – MD Horne (Outtspace/FOLC/La Villa Nova)

Only a shit stirrer would start a review of an album with the rhetorical question: “How do you know you’re getting old? You start listening to bush bands”. Guilty as charged – on the shit stirrer charge, that is. Lock me up.

Yes, the second solo album from Sydney’s MD Hornecontains mandolin, didgeridoo, his own bass, a sprinkling of bush balladry, and even a sea shanty of sorts but, thankfully, no lagerphone. It’s also damned good.

Here’s my Lou Reed story. It’s long, but I’ve never written it down before, and so you’re getting the whole thing.