New Masuak tour single "Tract Home Chippy" lands in time for Bandcamp Friday

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 May 2023

Hits: 1935

• new christs
• lime spiders
• radio birdman
• chris masuak
• australian tour
• dog soldier
• stuart wilson
• tony bambach
• tract home chippy

It's adios for JFK with a final Sydney show

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 May 2023

Hits: 2014

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.

• joeys coop
• marrickville bowling club
• john kennedy's 68 comeback special
• jane does
• John Kennedy and the New Originals
• J.F.K. And The Cuban Crisis

Charlie Owen hits the road in Queensland

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 May 2023

Hits: 2164

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

• beasts of bourbon
• new christs
• charlie owen
• tendrils
• queensland tour

A Dark Cloud forms over the Crowbar

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 April 2023

Hits: 2192

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.

• sydney
• launch
• the dark clouds
• crowbar
• my way or the highway
• the strike-outs

Magnificent tale from the Wrong Side of the Road

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

22 April 2023

Hits: 2702

No Fixed Address by Donald Robertson (Hybrid Publishers)

“No Fixed Address” is a magnificent achievement. It's also readable, interesting, engaging and fucking disgusting.

We'll get to the latter comment in a bit.

As you know, one of the few benefits of lockdown was that some great work has emerged - but we're damn lucky it's Donald Robertson who decided to write about No Fixed Address. He was there at the time, was an aware chap, and wrote extensively about the scene he was so much a part of in Roadrunner magazine. Also, Robertson's approach resembles that of a historian approaching The Rolling Stones. 

Why? Well, while you may not have seen them, or even heard of No Fixed Address, the band's importance in Australian Aboriginal history is bloody enormous. Robertson gets this so well that, in the opening chapter, we discover that NFA would not have existed but for the determination of a number of significant people to encourage, enthuse and integrate Aboriginal people into the Adelaide arts culture, long before the band had learned to play.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was fairly unheard of; so it is, in a way, no surprise that names like Leila Rankine, Catherine Ellis, Ted Strehlow and Veronica Brodie all turn up as incidental characters. 

Don't recognise the names? Go to the “Australian Dictionary of Biography” (aka the ADB online); you don't get an entry in there for sitting on yer bum watching “Drone and Away”, “Australia's Got Alkies”, “These Kitchen Fools” or “Married at First Fart”. (ED: You left out “The Farmer Wants a Root”.)

• no fixed address
• donald robertson
• roadrunner
• bart willoughby
• hybrid publishing
• reggae

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Perth really is a culture shock as The Victims announce their last show

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 April 2023

Hits: 2814

West Australian punk rock trailblazers The Victims play their final show at Perth’s Rosemont Hotel on June 10.

Original members Dave Faulkner, James Baker and contemporary recruit Ray Ahn are also preparing to release the line-up’s last recording, made with the legendary Ed Stasium (Ramones) behind the desk.

Formed in May 1977 by Baker (The Geeks, The Scientists, The Painkillers, The Rockin Hendy, Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts of Bourbon, The Dubrovniks), and Dave Flick aka Faulker (Hoodoo Gurus, The Manikins, Midget and The Farrellys, Antenna) with original bassist Dave Cardwell, the band’s best known for its sizzling debut single “Television Addict b/w I’m Flipped Out Over You”, which has been covered by You Am I, The Hellacopters and Teengenerate.

In August 1978, The Victims released a five-track extended play, The Victims (also known as “No Thanks to the Human Turd”), with: "I Understand", "Open Your Eyes", "TV Freak", "High School Girls" and "Disco Junkies". A compilation album, All Loud on the Western Front” (1989), “Sleeping Dogs Lie” (2011) and “Culture Shock” (2014) have followed.

2019's “Horror Smash” EP was recorded by the Faulkner-Baker-Ahn line-up and was a suberb addition to the catalogue.  

Supports will be The Shakeys and The Volcanics and tickets are here.

• perth
• james baker
• ray ahn
• the victims
• dave faulkner

It's a pisser! SuburbiaSuburbia battle against bullshit

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 April 2023

Hits: 1586

Brisbane-Sydney rock dogs SuburbiaSurburbia have let loose another Oz Rock dissertation on the state of life and in their own inimitable style it's called "Don't Piss In My Pocket". It's an ode to being free of bullshit. It goes live on streaming services on April 28. 

• brisbane
• sydney
• oz rock
• suburbia suburbia
• don't piss in my pocket

This album blows

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

15 April 2023

Hits: 2149

Blown Again - Blowers (Spooky Records/Chaputa! Records)

The Spooky Records website asserts; “Capitalising on their triple vocal attacks, blistering guitars and fast-paced tunes, ‘Blown Again’ is a tongue-in-cheek earworm of a ride laced with sick humour and shit-stirs. The album is chock full of “fuck you” themes, with tracks like ‘Shut The Fuck Up’, ‘Wipe My Ass’, ‘Slice’n’Dice’ and ‘Bad 4 U’ that jump off the record and grab you by the throat.”

Spooky also reckons: “For fans of The Spits, Jay Reatard, Wipers, Mean Jeans, Oblivians, The Cavemen, Wet Ones”. Mind, I gotta say I'm somewhat ignorant there.

So, to this bad-tempered old goat, what do Blowers sound like?

FULL-ON FUCKYOU FUZZ HAMMER THOR CHORDS CRUSH DESTROY

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The Church returns with a masterwork

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

15 April 2023

Hits: 2442

The Hypnogogue - The Church (Communicating Vessels/Easy Action Records)

Confession time: never really paid much attention to The Church. Cost of having other stuff to do is that you miss a lot.

Conclusion first, though: you're gonna enjoy this. "Ascendance" is the first track and you're gonna go all gooey and lose it from there, taken as you are into a beautiful, well-sculpted world. The band have put a huge amount into "The Hypnogogue" - the music isn't standard throw-away rawk by any stretch; the more you listen, the more exquisite layers you'll discover.

• the church
• ash naylor
• steve kilbey
• The Hypnogogue
• communicating vessels
• tim powles
• ian haug

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