Woke Up and Seen my Reflection - M.J. Halloran (Torn & Frayed Records)

Well, it's been nearly a month since I was almost not here at The Bar anymore. And here I am, finally getting to a few reviews before I shut down again and get on with “my book”. 

MJ Halloran's “Woke Up and Seen my Reflection” was recorded in Melbourne live to two-inch tape with his long-time collaborators Steve Boyle (Moler, Hungry Ghosts, Rowland S. Howard, Brian Henry Hooper, among others) and Tim O'Shannassy (The Paradise Motel, Penny Ikinger, Belle Phoenix, Brian Henry Hooper, among others) with the addition of Andrew McGee (the founder of Shock Records), and guest performances from Kim Salmon (who you've never heard of, right?). 

There's a good back story to how it came about too.

Steve, Tim, Andrew and MJ decided to try, in Melbourne, what they'd done previously with Steve Albini in Chicago. That is, recording in one room without overdubs. So, they'd better get it right first go. MJ's press notes remark that Link Wray was a good reference point, as Wray did something similar with his 1971 self-titled record from 1971, which he recorded in a converted chicken barn.

Proby And Me. A Howling Tale of a Falling Star – MJ Cornwall (BookPOD)

The label doesn’t lie. “Proby And Me” is a runaway train of a story, a rollicking saga of a disastrous “tour” down under by the trouser-splitting, UK-exiled Texan-born ‘60s pop star who was, briefly, as big as the Beatles.

The context: Ex-publican Brett Stevens (aka Brett Eldorado) and former Hoodoo Guru Clyde Bramley had lured the man to Sydney - and he barely made it past the front door of the Hopetoun Hotel.

By 1990, Proby’s currency as anything but a cult item had well and truly faded. He was plucked from a housing estate in the north of England where his performing stocks were low, his live appearances limited to a circuit of scrappy workingman’s clubs and seaside summer resorts.

Proby’s would-be promoters flew him to Sydney, put him up in a Bondi hotel and paid his considerable bar tabs. At least his food bill would have been minimal. PJ sounds like a graduate from the Eating Is Cheating School.

Attempts to match Proby with a backing band were fraught - his preference was a full orchestra - musicians who “read” - and his promotional appearances in media were sporadic and booze-sodden. A warm-up gig in Newcastle and an inner-city stand at Paddington RSL that sparked a mini riot were the only shows.

Author Mark Cornwall tells the story through the eyes of Eldorado - or should that be ears as Proby never shuts up. It’s 321 pages of staccato chatter and patois - delivered like machine gun fire in the style of James Ellroy.

It’s a story that’s exceedingly well told, with grim humour and massive swathes of colour.

Proby namechecks everybody from Jimi Hendrix to The Doors, Marc Almond to Elvis and Kim Fowley to Jimmy Page, in recounting a storied life mostly spent clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. What’s more, the yarns have all been verified to be true, and their common denominator is that when it turned to shit, it was always somebody else’s fault.

The pain will be real when the Psychotic Turnbuckles emerge from their palatial luxury homes in Pismo Beach and go on a two-city rampage in New South Wales in July.

The Turnbuckles play La La La’s in Wollongong on Friday, July 28 and Marrickville Bowling Club on Saturday, July 29 as preparation for a Japanese tour in October.

Lame-brain failed gym flunkies, The Dark Clouds, and limp-limbed Brisbane bovver boy pretenders, Shandy, are making up the numbers on both bills .

Prepare to see them out-classed in two no-holds barred elimination bouts, courtesy of the Turnbuckles, who are rightly hailed around the Intercontinental Rock and Roll Team Champions (undefeated).

“We’re heading to Japan to ‘say no to sumo’ but first we’ll practice our moves on The Dark Clouds and Shandy,” said Turnbuckles manager Chester Chitworth.

“We visited Australia for a training camp in a remote rural location earlier in the year and worked in our new bass man, The Infliktor, but this time is the real deal.

“We’re a hot commodity in demand around the world so who knows when your sad little country will see us again? I’m outta here – we’re going surfing.”

The shows are I-94 Bar promotions. Tickets for both are on sale via Moshtix (Wollongong) and Oztix (Marrickville.)

Tract Home Chippy - Chris Masuak & Dog Soldier (I-94 Bar Records/Gaga Digi)

Chris Masuak has been shredding guitar on Australian stages since he was a teenager with Radio Birdman in the mid-‘70s. It’s still hard to grasp that by the time he'd made his mid-20s, he'd played with Birdman, the Hitmen, the New Christs and the Screaming Tribesmen, surely four of the most rocking and influential acts to emerge from Australia in any 10-year period.

Fast-forward to 2023 and Masuak now lives in Spain; in recent years, he’s released a couple of stunning, riff layered, street level yet melodic albums in “Bruijita” and “Address To The Nation”. The new digital single “Tract Home Chippy”, released to concide with his first Australian tour in six years, is no different.  

With a weaving, melodic guitar hook that crosses several scales, it’s a clever lead-in that sparks off a pumping rhythm section that’s as tight as an ant’s arse. The song gets along like a roller-coaster, aided by solid backing vocals that add spark. Masuak’s own vocals is in fine form, and it’s wrapped in a shower of hooks. The song carries the classic Masuak trademark: a slab of guitar power with a hard edge that nods nod to garage rock and toll.

Lyrically (and

Last drinks beckon for the many devoted followers of inner-western Sydney institution John Kennedy and his band The New Originals. Kennedy is poised to say adios to Australia this month and relocate to Spain. 

Coming off the back of an incredible run of six albums in as many years, he'll play his final Australian show for the forseeable future at Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney on Saturday, May 13.

Along for the final ride are New Originals bandmates Peter Timmerman on drums, bassist Phil Hall and Murray Cook and Matt Galvin on guitars, Kennedy will be performing a career-spanning set with songs from his bands JFK and the Cuban Crisis, John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong and John Kennedy's 68 Comeback Special.
 
The Urban and Western music hits will be featured along with song from the new John Kennedy And The New Originals album.

Joining Kennedy will be special guests Joeys Coop (featuring Brett Myers of Died Pretty and Mark Roxburgh of Decline Of The Reptiles), and mostly girl garage-pop sensations The Jane Does. Tickets are moving fast here.

Charlie Owen is a legendary Australian guitarist who has made his mark on the country's rich musical landscape.

Through service with the ("Distemper" era) New Christs, Beasts of Bourbon, Tex, Don & Charlie, Divinyls, Tendrils and Working Class Ringos, he is regarded as one of the greatest guitarists in the country and his skill on stage is both ferocious and tender.

Owen is undertaking a tour through Queensland that will be a a retrospective journey through his storied career. Dates are as follows and tickets can be procured through Oztix.

Thursday June 22 // Vinnies Dive Bar, Gold Coast
w/ The Windy Hills

Friday June 23 // The Bearded Lady, Brisbane
w/ Hillsborough (duo) & Shifting Sands

Saturday June 24 // Norton Music Factory, Caloundra
w/ Zac Gunthorpe & Leichhardt

One of the Greater Sydney region’s most rocking bands (OK, Wollongong actually), The Dark Clouds, are determined to give the vinyl edition of their wickedly great album “My Way Or The Highway” the welcome it deserves.

The CD’s been out for a while (you can find multiple reviews from us here) but it always sounds better on vinyl, doesn’t it? 

TheDeanov and Terry agree and that’s why they’re hosting a free gig at The Crowbar in Leichhardt in Sydney’s inner-west on Saturday April 24, with their Evil Tone Records labelmates The Strike Outs in tow.

It’s an early show in the front bar, kicking off at 6pm, so you can kick on and party to your liver's delight into the night afterwards.