A bat symbol in the Melbourne night

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

27 July 2021

Hits: 3283

Spooky Bootleg Tapes Volume 2 – Various Artists (Spooky Records)

Bats get a bad rap. They’re part of nature and humans – some of the stupider members of the human race, at least – feel an idiotic desire to tame nature. Nature will always win; unlike humans, nature plays the long game.

There’s a local politician whose electorate covers the poor, marginalised and disenfranchised inner-eastern Melbourne suburbs where the local population can barely rub two four-wheel drives, a private school education and an annual ski trip together. He doesn’t like bats, probably since he had an involuntary bowel movement after reading “Dracula” at school.

He wants the bats out of the trees in Kew. Dirty, filthy, disease-ridden pests, he reckons. Plus, they might have conspired to unleash COVID on the world, working in cahoots with devious foreign governments, copies of Mao’s “Little Red Book” stashed under their wings…

• spooky
• movie star junkies
• sun god replica
• brian-henry-hooper
• spooky records
• bbq haque
• spooky bootleg
• crocodile boogie

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Brian's loving legacy

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

24 July 2021

Hits: 4103

I Won't Bend For You - Brian Henry Hooper (Bang! Records/Incubator)

First, it's a damn good LP, the kind you put on repeat all day when it lands in the letterbox. Second, it's so damn moving you'll find yourself tearing up in decades to come. Third, there are songs here which you'll put on at parties and have people scampering up, eyes wide, 'Who THE FUCK is this? It's brilliant!'

This has been a difficult last few years. The stupidvirus has not, of course, helped, but as far as I'm concerned it's just a gentle reminder of what awaits us all, one way or another. One dilemma which confronts some of us is - how best to remember the creative? A novelist, well; in George Macdonald Fraser's case, because he'd left the manuscript in a very prominent place, his family arranged for his very first book to be published. In a musician's case - what have they left for us?

• bang! records
• beasts of bourbon
• kim salmon
• surrealists
• spooky records
• spencer p jones
• ninevah hooper
• ii wont bend for you
• incubator records

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Bored! lost tracks pre-empt re-issue

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 July 2021

Hits: 3458

She’s Back b/w The Other Side – Bored! (Fantastic Mess Records)

Discerning people like their diamonds ijn the rough. These are cast-off gems from Bored!’s “Feed The Dog” album sessions, released on a short run 45 by Fantastic Mess in the run to their re-issue of the 1991 record on vinyl. It’s the three-piece version of the band, led by the late Dave Thomas.

“She’s Back” sits back on the groove and shows off Thomas’s singular guitar tone. The vocal is buried deep in the mix but audible enough to give you the idea. Keep it sleazy! “The Other Side” is an obvious nod to Dead Boys with more steamroller guitar and a tsunami-like feel from the ending room propelling things along.

Issued in clear and pink vinyl (the latter is already sold out) with the usual Fantastic Mess trimmings of inserts, sticker and postcard, it won’t be around long. Glenno Smith’s stark artwork suits it to a ‘T’.

Buy it 

• bored!
• the other side
• fantastic mess
• geetroit
• she's back

The Datsuns stun with fuzzfest "Dehumanise"

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 July 2021

Hits: 2867

Kiwi comeback kings The Datsuns are making a noise with the second single from their new album "Eye to Eye". Part of the so-called New Garage movement of the '00s, The Datsuns disappeared off the map for seven years and as the video for "Dehumanise" shows they're still capable of cooking up a fuzz-spattered aural shitstorm. 

• new zealand
• the datsuns
• dehumanise
• eye to eye

Covered in punk and glam bruises

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

20 July 2021

Hits: 3021

Songs from a Haunted Ballroom - Skids (Cleopatra)

Glam via Bowie, Roxy, Ultravox! and original punk, this LP is intense.

I don't like cover bands as a rule. Very few get close to improving or mimicking the original (even if they did write the original). And as for the Australian series “Like a Version' - what a rubbish gimmick.

In case you didn't know, The Skids reformed in Scotland more or less as a fun thing a few years ago, and in 2018 released a new LP ("Burning Cities" on No Bad Records) which I also have ordered from my long-suffering record shop.

• scotland
• skids
• songs from a haunted ballroom
• big country

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They wanna be well

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 July 2021

Hits: 2689

Can’t Wait To Be Fine – We Hate You Please Die (Buttercup Records)

Don’t attempt to pigeonhole this band. It won’t do you any good. We Hate You Please Die play what you could broadly term lo-fi garage rock, but that’s where the preconceptions end.

There’s a whimsical fragility to these 12 songs that make them odd and compelling. There’s also sharp musical ability and some keen song-writring.  

“Can’t Wait To Be Fine” is the second long-player for the two girls/two guys band from Rouen in France (their first “Kids Are Lo-Fi” came out in 2018) and it’s evidently a kick against the twjn pricks of brainwashing and society’s demands to confirm.

• french
• buttercup records
• can't wait it to be well
• we hate you please die

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Dishing the Dirt

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 July 2021

Hits: 3868

Free Dirt – Looch Lewis (Nebraska/MGM)

With beginnings as a guitarist in the high energy scene for Zen Genies, and more recent  service as drummer for bush punks Handsome Young Strangers, indie band Wifey and country act Dave Favours and the Roadside Ashes, ubiquitous Mark “Looch” Lewis  has as much claim as anyone to being a Sydney musical fixture. 

Now fronting his own Looch Lewis and The Press Gangsters instead of playing in other people’s bands, dropping this a solo single seems a logical progression.

Yes, it is that “Free Dirt”, the Died Pretty song from which they took their debut album’s name and that ended up on their second LP, ”Lost”, and while it might initially seem a bold choice, it’s done so well that it raises the question why more people haven’t tackled the much-loved music of Ron, Brett and Co.

• solo
• died pretty
• mark looch lewis
• looch
• handsome young strangers
• free dirt

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Lipstick Killers Peter Tillman and Mark Taylor in conversation

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By The Barman

The Barman

15 July 2021

Hits: 4523

The I-94 Bar iinvited Lipstick Killers members Mark Taylor and Peter Tillman to front up for a chat on Friday, to mark the release of their band’s killer posthumous compilation “Strange Flash!” on Grown Up Wrong! Records. Fan Steve Lorkin and Tillman’s former Filth bandmate Bob Short were hosts for this wide ranging chat reflecting on the band’s rise through the Radio Birdman-inspired Sydney underground scene to their disintegration in Los Angeles. You'll find our review of the album here. 

• lipstick killers
• mark taylor
• grown up wrong
• strange flash
• peter tillman
• youtube

Those ch-ch-changes just keep coming

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By The Barman

The Barman

11 July 2021

Hits: 2741

More COVID changes:  Ed Kuepper and Jim White have re-scheduled seven shows.  

Tickets from all previous gigs will be honoured or a refund can be obtained at the point of purchase. Contact your relevant outlet for precise details and conditions affixed to each performance. Keep an eye on NSW gigs especially as there may be more changes. All the latest news and tickets for the new gigs can be found at edkuepper.com

Ed Kuepper with Jim White
(New Hobart dates TBA)
JULY
15 -  Archies Creek, Caravan Music Club, VIC    
16 - Meeniyan, Town Hall, VIC    
17 - Macedon, Railway Hotel – SOLD OUT    
23 - Melbourne, Brunswick Ballroom, VIC    
24 - Melbourne, Brunswick Ballroom, VIC    
AUG 
13 - Cairns, Tanks Art Centre, QLD    
14 - Gold Coast, The Sound Lounge, QLD   
15 - Bellingen, No.5 Church St, NSW    
16 - Bellingen, No.5 Church St, NSW    
19 - Sydney, The Factory, NSW    
20 - Wollongong, The Music Lounge, NSW    
21 - Milton, Milton Theatre, NSW
SEP   
12 - Adelaide, The Gov, SA    
14 - Fremantle, Freo.Social, WA    
15 - Margaret River, The River Hotel, WA

• saints
• ed kuepper
• dirty three
• australian tour
• jim white
• covid