Frankly speaking, this solo debut is gold

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By Ronald Brown

Ronald Brown

26 April 2025

Hits: 255

Living Between The Lines - Frank Meyer (Kitten Robot) 

Hello Barflies! Have I got a ripper album for you...“Living Between The Lines” is the first Frank Meyer solo album and it is a wonderful record  

Frank, of course, is a founding member of The Streetwalkin Cheetahs, and guitarist for Handsome Dick Manitoba (ex-The Dictators), legendary LA punk band Fear, and vocalist for James Williamson (Iggy and the Stooges) in  James Williamson & The Pink Hearts.  

His other bands include Spaghetti & Frank, Trading Aces, Highway 61, Sweet Justice, and Thor. So he has lots of form.

• bellrays
• james williamson
• cherie currie
• streetwalkin' cheetahs

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Lest We Forget: Sydney salutes The Stems

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By The Barman

The Barman

25 April 2025

Hits: 450

 _{Dom Mariani and Jules Matthews.}

The Stems
The Rinehearts
Sydney Crowbar
Thursday, April 24, 2025

An annual run of shows by The Stems should be inscribed indelibly on the Australian musical calendar. Better still, make it bi-annual.

Last year, The Stems notched their 40th anniveresary and marked it with gigs all around Australia, and a tour of Europe. This show, on the eve of Anzac Day, the national day of remembrance, brought out a crop of (mostly)  rock and roll soldiers, keen to relive their 1980s youth. All looked comfortable in the knowledge that a public holiday the next morning meant most wouldn’t have to front up at a workplace. 

More than most of their peers, The Stems have a sound that’s timeless. Rooted in the ‘60s, riddled with hooks and melodies, the songs ride on the back of a powerful engine room of co-founders Jules Matthews and Dave Shaw, wrapped in Dom Mariani’s rich vocal and peppered by guitars.

• sydney
• dom mariani
• the stems
• ash naylor
• crowbar
• dave shaw
• rinehearts
• jules matthews

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Original Alice Cooper group premieres "Black Mamba" from forthcoming album

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 April 2025

Hits: 361

_{Jenny Risher photo.}

Just in case the news has evaded you so far, the original Alice Cooper group is reuniting to release a new studio album, "The Revenge of Alice Cooper," on July 25 via earMUSIC, the same people who have delivered a slew of studio and live Blue Oyster Cult releases.

There have been part reformations (without the late guitarist Glen Buxton), most notably for a scorching 2018 live release “Live From The Astroturf”, but this is the group’s first full album in 50 years.  Buxton will be present, via a guitar part tracked from a demo,

The first single from the album, "Black Mamba," is out now and features Robby Krieger of The Doors.  Click MORE to see the video.

• bob ezrin
• alice cooper
• dennis dunaway
• neal smith
• michael bruce
• earMUSIC
• black mamba
• robby krieger

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Post-punk revelation: The Institutionalist is Real (Ernie) O Mind

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 April 2025

Hits: 704

Adjustment Disorder – The Institutionalist (self released)

The Institutionalist is a post-punk creation from the sonic laboratory of Ernie O, a gifted but unassuming producer, engineer and musician from the fringes of Melbourne.

 At this point we’ll declare that The O Man is the mastering wiz-of-choice for many discerning labels, I-94 Bar Records, among them. His  playing history includes Suburban Urchins, The Photon Belt, The Undecided By Default and Vocabularinist, none of which are household names. That’s what you get for misspending your youth in Tasmania. In a fair and just world, however, “Adjustment Disorder” would change that.

• post-punk
• slug
• dwarfthrower
• mick medew and ursula
• The Institutionalist
• adjustment disorder
• vicious circle
• no mans land

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A look back on the Wonderful Life of Damien Lovelock

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By Earl O'Neill

Earl O'Neill

22 April 2025

Hits: 1379

_{Damien at one of the final Rifles gigs at Narrabeen RSL.}  

The loss of Damien Lovelock to cancer in 2019 left a yawning gap in more than just Australian rock and roll. The frontman for the cherished Celibate Rifles had by then become an cookbook author, a sporting commentator,  a father, a yoga teacher and a raconteur.

The records show that the Rifles formed in Sydney in 1979 and amassed nine studio and three live albums along the way, making inroads into Europe and the USA. The band did not achieve mainstream successs, but did forge a path for high-energy yet thoughtful rock and roll. They inspired countless others to follow and do things, as the Rifles had, on their own terms.

Damo’s dry wit, laconic vocal and powerful stage presence were uneniable. Away from the music, his ability to talk the (blind) ear off anyone who wanted to engage him in conversation made him similarly unforgettable.  

In October 2010, rusted-on Rifles fan Earl O’Neill sat down with Damien at a Narrabeen café. The interview that appears here was part of a planned book about the band (you can read a previous extract about the Rifles’ formative days here.) The book idea has long been shelved but the conversation stands up as a snapshot of the Rifles and the motivations of Damo himself. Peta Couvret transcribed the conversation.   

• kent steedman
• celibate rifles
• damien lovelock
• dave morris
• paul larsen
• jim leone
• mikey couvret
• earl o'neill

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Melbourne bill to say Happy Birthday to Link Wray

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 April 2025

Hits: 549

Missing Link, Australia’s only tribute to Link Wray, is back for its fifth year and will fall on what would have been the occasion of the guitar great’s 96^th birthday, May 3.  The venue is Shotkickers, in the hip Melbourne neighborhood of Thornbury, and it’s a high volume multi-band line-up.

Heading proceedings are The Bluebottles, laying claim to being Australia's #1 instrumental surf group. All female Link Wray devotees The Wraylettes are on the bill and will be launching a new seven-inch.

Honk are bringing the rhythm 'n' roots with a set blending country music with a side serve of Spaghetti Western drinking songs.  

Completing the bill is the country’s longest-running Link Wray combo, Sydney’s The Missing Link Band, headed by ex-Deadly Hume guitar high priest Stephen Bones Martin.

The evening starts at 8.15pm and it’s $20 at the door.

• the wraylettes
• shotkickers
• the bluebottles
• honk
• missing link

Killer collection does justice to the Motor City's heyday

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 April 2025

Hits: 576

Motor City Is Burning: A Michigan Anthology 1965-1975 – Various Artists (Grapefruit Records)

Proof positive, if it was actually needed, that a Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll existed in one of the 50 states of the USA other than Califonria and that it encompassed much more than just the Stooges and the MC5.

In Australia, of course, we have a skewed view of the so-called “Detroit Scene” (a name that almost no Americans of my acquaintance use, by the way.) We learned from the teachings of Radio Birdman leader and expat Michiganite Deniz Tek who landed here to study medicine in 1974, spreading the word about those bands in evangelistic fashion.

Of course Birdman were always much more than those two trace elements - they were just the ones on the high-energy scale that caught the imagination of most. If you’ve ever engaged the Kona Coffee Farmer in conversation for more than five minutes you’ll know his passion for the Stones and his knowledge of local acts like the SRC and the first band he saw live, Ann Arbor heroes The Rationals.  

• stooges
• mc5
• mitch ryder
• alice cooper
• cherry red
• bob seger
• Motor City Is Burning: A Michigan Anthology 1965-1975
• grapefruit records
• frigid pink

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It will be post-election Mayhem at Marrickville

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 April 2025

Hits: 930

It’s a recipe for Mayhem in Marrickville in Sydney on May 3: The night of the Australian Federal Election. Four rocking bands. Cheap drinks. Cheaper entertainment. Playing order to be decided by a draw on the night. All in a politician-free zone. 

"Mayhem in May" is presented by The I-94 Bar and features (in alphabetical order) The Jane Does, Jupiter 5, Moot and The Strike-Outs. Early-bird tickets are selling here. So here’s the rundown:

The Jane Does are two girls, two guys and a whole bunch of fun. Equal parts melodic pop and garage rock, they’ve been building a big base of fans in and around Sydney for a couple of years now and are threatening to release their first recordings. Jane Doe is a generic term for anonymity but their music is not.

• marrickville bowling club
• jupiter 5
• moot
• the strike-outs
• mayhem in may

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Buckle up and enjoy the ride with Broham

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 April 2025

Hits: 776

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”.

• simon chainsaw
• broham
• vanilla chainsaws
• buckle rash
• krysler broham

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