Two Car Garage – Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes/Formula Juan – Grand Pricks b/w Chronica Majora – The Tall Stories (Stanley Records)

You’d like a dollar for every two-bit punk that ended up playing bastardised country, wouldn’t ya? How about three songs for the price of two?

Which brings us to this spilt single featuring always productive Sydneysider Dave Favours and his well-travelled Roadside Ashes and recent Newcastle match-ups Grand Pricks and The Tall Stories. The three bands crossed paths in a saloon off the Pacific Highway one boozy night and this EP is the by-product.

“Punk Grandma” is a bubblegum-flavoured piece of punk fun from Brisbane icon Mick Medew (Screaming Tribesmen) and his musical and life partner Ursula (nee Collie, ex-Ironing Music). and it's out on all digital platforms including Bandcamp today.

The first single from “In The Zone”, the forthcoming album by Mick Medew and Ursula, due on 1 November on I-94 Bar Records, is an anthem for anyone who believes in growing old disgracefully.

Sung by Ursula, its pop-punk levity is laced with some stinging guitar from Mick Medew, backed by bassist Lois Andrews and drummer Stu Maclaughlin, who make up the live band, The Mick Medew and Ursula 4.

Says Ursula: “’Punk Grandma’ was written while I was in the house with the grandkids and Mick was on the deck working on the melody on his guitar. I ran out singing the chorus: ‘I feel young, I have fun. I’m not done!’”

The Mick Medew and Ursula 4 will launch “Punk Grandma” with special guests The Glycereens and Gen Jones at PFR Lounge in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, on Saturday, October 19. Tickets via Humantix.

I'm one of the aging old arthritic punks who grew up on bands like the Adverts, Lords Of The New Church, the Clash, Disciples Of Soul, and The Godfathers, who all had vital and socially conscious messages about injustice in their rebel songs, so I was never that gung ho about all the corny and cliche, '90s skinny tie, booger rock exploitation the big corporations pushed upon the gullible public, that kinda just seemed to be squeaky clean, upper class rich people going through the motions of dyeing their hair green and rippin' off the Ramones some more.

Hard-Ons - currently undertaking the European leg of their 40th Anniversary tour - have released their new album “I Like You A Lot Getting Older”.

It’s the third album by the band's current line-up of Blackie, Murray, Ray and Tim, and follows 2021's ARIA top 5 debuting “I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff's Been Taken” and last year's “Ripper '23”. 

It’s on CD, digital format and in several coloured vinyl editions.  An exclusive limited edition green vinyl pressing (250 only, with different color on the cover) is available via the album's UK distributor. 

The new album's release precedes the recently announced 40th Anniversary Australian tour, and the Sydney SXSW premiere of the feature length documentary about the band, “The Most Australia Band Ever”. Additional screenings have been announced and all you need to know is below.

 _{Smoked Salmon (Melbourne) (from left) Jeff Hooker, Claire Birchall, Kim Salmon and Doug Galbraith.}

Kim Salmon's Smoked Salmon is the latest project for the Scientists/Beasts of Bourbon co-founder member and internationally revered avant-garde art rocker Kim Salmon.

Kim recently premiered a new video for "How Did They Ever Manage", the first single from the forthcoming new album on Cheersquad Records & Tapes. "How Did they Ever Manage" debuted at #1 on the AIR 100% Independent Singles chart earlier in the month.

The video was put together by Benny J Ward (of Rinehearts fame) at Pink House Productions, featuring images captured by Maxine Pryce. 

Robert Brokenmouth jumped at the chance to put Kim on the spot and ask questions about his latest project. 

Van Ruin
+ The Cants
Link and Pin Café, Woy Woy, NSW
Friday, September 21, 2024
Photos; Tony McNamara

 The Link and Pin has become a special venue that has created its own scene and mythology. It has own mix of outsiders, rock pigs’ mis-fits, eccentrics and those that you will not find at the local RSL club poker machine room.  

It’s located outside Sydney at Woy Woy on the New South Wales Central Coast. In its own unusual way, the venue has been celebrating Octoberfest in September and I say, why not?  Bavarian lederhosen and Ramones tee-shirts make for a great look.

Iggy and The Stooges. The Authorized Biography
By Jeffrey Morgan
(New Haven Publishing)

Did we need another Stooges book? Rhetorical question but slap yourself if you answered in the negative. This is a pared-down and re-cut variant of the coffee table format “The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated History” published by Abrams in 2009 under the authorship of Jeffrey Morgan and Robert Matheu. 

This version is prominently attributed to Morgan although Matheu is acknowledged on the cover and at length throughout.

“Iggy and The Stooges. The Authorised Biography” is still in hardcover and runs to 140 pages as opposed to the original 180-odd. It’s illustrated by the photos of  Matheu, John Catto and Jeff Magnum (yes, the onetime Dead Boys bassist) and others, although the reformatting has resulted in much of the original imagery beinbg deleted or replaced.

John Catto’s and Robert Sikora’s 1974 Toronto shots of Iggy and the Stooges are amazing additions but so were Craig Petty’s St Louis photos.  

The original book was the brainchild of Morgan and Mattheu after both had been co-opted by Italian uber fan and magazine editor Rosano Ciccarelli to contribute to his own Fun House publication in 2005. They tossed the idea around over some beers, let it slide and revived it a year later with Matheu in the driving seat.

Cowboy Logic – Garry Gray & Sacred Cowboys (Kasumen Records)

Just when you through it was safe to go back into the corral, those ornery Sacred Cowboys are back on the reservation. 

Molly Meldrum once called them the worst band he’d seen in five years and the Cowboys - or more correctly sole constant member Garry Gray - has worn that critique as a badge of honour ever since. And why not? Molly didn’t know his arse from his elbow and wasn’t likely to be converted, and his dissing the band on national TV played right into their ethos of confrontation.

X-Ray Words - The Prehistorics (self-released)

Aussie-based perenial European tourists The Prehistorics return with their sixth album. three years in the making and starting just after their last release "Racket du Jour" (2001). The core of the recording band for the last few records, Brendan Sequira (songwriter, vocals, guitar), and Michael Carpenter (drums, production, and plenty more things this time around), enlisted some great guitar players to help out along the way.

It's exactly what you'd expect from a Prehistorics album:  great playing and production, and just that little bit better than the previous offering.