Rick Chesshire cartoon.
Australian underground rock and roll has suffered another loss with the passing of former Bored! leader Dave Thomas, aged 56. Thomas had been fighting cancer.
Thomas co-founded Bored! in Geelong a satellite city of Melbourne, in 1987. The band was an early blend of punk rock and metal, and spawned a scene dubbed "Geetroit" for its trademark power and high-energy.
The much-anticipated return of Endless Boogie and the Australian debut of Howlin’ Rain will happen, and has now been moved from April to late October and early November.
Both bands will be appearing at the rescheduled Boogie festival (October 30-November 1) in rural Victoria and at the same East Coast venues they were originally booked into. All existing tickets will be honoured.
Endless Boogie & Howlin' Rain
OCT
29 - The Tote, Melbourne, Sydney
NOV
5 - Crowbar, Sydney
+ feedtime
Endless Boogie only
6 - Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
7 - Eltham Hotel, NSW
The bad and unavoidable news is that Died Pretty has joined the ever growing list of bands impacted by Coronavirus. The good news is that the band has re-scheduled all but one of the four shows for later in the year. The Perth gig unfortunately cannot be re-booked due to member availability, so has been cancelled.
I-94 Bar promoted shows involving the New Christs (Marrickville Bowling Club, April 17) and Mick Medew and the Mesmerisers (Marrickville Bowling Club, March 27) have been regretably cancelled due to the Coronavirus crisis. The Mick Medew and the Mesmerisers show at Mayfield Bowling Club (March 29) has also fallen victim to the outbreak.
Pre-purchased ticket refunds for the Marrickville shows are available from Oztix.
Amongst the silly hype that Record Store Day now brings there are glimmers of hope. The Hoodoo Gurus will release their latest single, "Answered Prayers", as a limited edition 7" for RSD on April 18 and it's said to hark back to the band's punk rock roots.. Its release will coincide with the digital issue of an expanded Deluxe Edition of their 2004 album “Mach Schau”, which will combine the track listings from both the local and US editions in a new 16 track running order.
The RSD single, which is already available digitally, is the first new music from the band in 10 years, not counting 2014's "Gravy Train", a newly-recorded EP of lost tracks from the band's early days. "Answered Prayers" is a said to be a stark and visceral track addressing a certain type of abuse propagated by a particular type of male. It's also a reminder of the Gurus' roots in the original punk rock of the '70s.
Indeed the track follows the release in the US of both old and new material by The Victims, the band that head Guru Dave Faulkner formed with drummer James Baker in Perth in 1977, some four or so years before the pair reunited in Sydney to form the Gurus.
"Song of the Year", which will feature on the RSD single's B-side. Written and sung by guitarist Brad Shepherd, the flat-out screamer of a song obliquely references in its chorus two of Brisbane's legendary punk-era bands, The Fucken Leftovers and The Survivors. Brad, of course, fronted his own group as a teenager in Brisbane at the time, who begun as The Aliens, before evolving into the legendary Fun Things. "Song of the Year" will also appear on the digital Deluxe Edition of “Mach Schau”.
We’re glad you asked…
Fred Negro (pictured) is one of Australia’s most unusual talents. An artist, satirist and musician, he’s also a diarist who’s chronicled his own life, and the cultural pulse of the Melbourne Bohemia of St Kilda, for more than 30 years in his “PUB” comic strip. His musical credits include The Editions, I Spit on Your Gravy, Gravybillies, The Band Who Shoot Liberty Valance, The Brady Bunch Lawnmower Massacre and the Fuck Fucks.
Ex-Radio Birdman guitarist Chris Masuak’s Aussie-Euro band The Outside embark on their short and sharp French tour this week. Featuring Masuak on guitar and vocals, expat Aussie and former tennis professional Gregory Bowen on guitar, Frenchman Bruno Mondo on bass and Spaniard Juan Martinez El Kara on drums, their five-show run includes a support to Supersuckers in Rennes. This is the film clip for their Bowen-written 2013 single “In The Class”.
FEB
13 - L'Armony, Montreuil
14 - Piano Bleu Saint Brieuc
15 - Le Galion, Lorient
17 - Mondo Bizarro, Rennes (with Supersuckers)
18 - Nantes, La Cour
San Francisco will be the place to be in February when a stack of friends and former bandmates pay tribute to the late Roy Loney.
The original lead singer for the Flamin’ Groovies passed away in December at the age of 73 after complications from surgery. Loney was with the band for two of its greatest albums, "Flamingo" (1970) and "Teenage Head" (1971) and went on to a long solo career.
One of his bands, The Phantom Movers, will be part of the tribute gig, as well as the current line-up of trhe Flamin ' Groovies, frmted by Cyril Jordan. Jello Biafra, Peter Case and Yo La Tengo members Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley are among other guests.
Mick Medew and The Mesmerisers bring their killer brand of rocking powerpop to New South Wales in March for just two shows.
Catch them Friday, March 27 at Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney and Sunday, March 29 at Mayfield Bowling Club in the Hunter.
The only Sydney show pairs them with Peter Simpson and his Vanity Project, the rock machine par excellence led by Peter Simpson of The Dubrovniks and his hand-picked line-up.
Opening proceedings will be local psychedelic-garage rock super-group Jupiter 5, with members of Psychotic Turnbuckles, Buffalo Revisited and Sheek the Shayk. Tickets are on sale here.
It’s 4pm doors at Mayfield where the supports are Imaginary Things, The Stoids and The Perils. The Mesmerisers hit the stage at 9.30pm.
“Open Season” is the latest album for Mick Medew and the Mesmerisers (on I-94 Bar Records) and it’s full of clever, hooky song-writing, a soulful engine room and driving guitars.
And of course there’s the unique voice of Mick Medew, front-man for the Screaming Tribesmen, the Brisbane-born and Sydney-bred pop-rock legends who topped independent charts in Australia and the US in the ‘80s.