_{Sean St Leone. Keith Claringbold photo.}

10 things that made me hoppy this year (in no particular order) 

Mudhoney at Wollongong Uni
A band I’ve wanted to see for many, many years and every time I’ve been close to seeing them, something has gone wrong, so I was stoked just to make it to this show. I was even more stoked when they played an amazing set, chock full of classics. Not showing their age in the slightest. 

Descendants at the Metro, Sydney
Another band I’d always wanted to see but always missed - been a fan ever since someone put "Everything Sux" in my hand sometime in the late ‘90s. Didn’t know what to expect given Milo had a heart attack less than two months before the gig, but i needn’t have worried. They started and just kept going till the end - pretty much no breaks - just one killer song after another. Tight and more than alright. 

The Mark of Cain at the Metro, Sydney
Playing their album "Ill At Ease" from start to finish (and throwing in a few from “Battlesick” and “This Is This” to close out the night). Tight as a fishes arsehole. One of the best things I’ve seen in years. crowd loved it and every song was spot on. Brutally good. If there was any justice in the world this band would have been huge. 

THE DAMNED

PAT TODD AND THE RANKOUTSIDERS

REV. PAUL S. CUNNINGHAM

Rev. Paul S. Cunningham's YouTube channel

BILLY MOTHERFUCKING IDOL & STEVE STEVENS
I just love those guys with all my little black heart, exactly what I set out to do with my own little rebel rock amigo,s before they got seduced by the dark side of the force! They still write killer songs from the heart and can rock with anyone. Hope to meet 'em before I die!

BOOTSEY X & THE LOVEMASTERS

THE CULT

THE GOLDEN RAT
I was pen pals with Hiroshi The Golden Arm way back in his Remains days, he is the Johnny Thunders Of Japan. The World Famous Mister Ratboy has been one of my guiding lights since we first met at a Thunders benefit when I was about 21. I love the guy. He taught me a lot.

HANGMEN
Bryan Small and Jimmy James from the Comatones are like, the coolest motherfuckers in the world. Comatones are my #1 soul brothers.

MIKE MONROE
So Lordsy, little bit goth, little bit new wave, right up my alley!

HOZAC BOOKS & RECORDS
This label or publishing imprint is a juggernaut of non stop cool as fuck rock 'n' roll action. Book after book, record after record, few people are delivering this much dynomite goodness in this ever darkening age.From Jeff Drake of The Joneses autobiography to Bebe Buell and James Calvin Wilsey books. i loved their essential history of Floridian underground music scene,"Punk Under the Sun". Every little thing they do is da nazz!

HoZac Books – HoZac Records

GUERILLA TEENS
The highlight of my own personal, long dead rock ‘n’ roll misadventures was when one of my many set-to-sel-destruct-before-our-fifteen-minutes, suicide and glam rock punk gangs opened for The Humpers on their "Positively Sick On Fourth Street" tour, way back in the day. They taught us lowlife hoodlums a thing or two about how to rock the shit out of a namby pamby poseur college bar. You know Scott “Deluxe” Drake from a long procession of badass punkroll bands like Suicide Kings and Vice Principals. His latest, the Guerilla Teens finds him in his second or third angry youth, he is as punk rock as it gets, and a fearless frontman, like few others.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
,,,is an amazing artist and my favorite contemporary writer, she comes from Australia - like so many of my favorite things like the Divinyls and Cosmic Psychos and Rowland S. Howard and Beasts Of Bourbon. An absolute treasure, poet, truth teller and flat out soulful, motherfucking public intellectual. FREE ASSANGE!

Caitlin Johnstone - YouTube

Assange Exposes The Empire’s True Face: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix – Caitlin Johnstone

GENE LOVES JEZEBEL
As a notorious local yokel new wave fag fronting some glammish garage bands in the long gone ‘80s, I took boatloads of shit from dumb redenck assholes for being way into Gene Loves Jezebel, Prince, the Cure, and Flesh for Lulu. They are still absolutely holy, in my book.

MY FAVE MODERN NEW WAVE SINGER
Laur, from Veglam, is so talented and I love all his bands! 

Bandcamp

Facebook

RICHARD DUGUAY
Most talented rocknroll motherfucker in decades. If you like Lou Reed, Thunders, Bowie, the Dolls, old Alice, or even Jim Morrison, this dude is the black cat. heroic! He's so good at everything! When I reunite the band and my ship comes in, I'ma get him to produce me. 

BLACK BOMBERS
Featuring ex-members of The Godfathers, Gunfire Dance and Dave Kusworth's bands! They kick a lot of ass.

ROLLING STONES
England's Newset Hitmakers! One of my most cherished old collaborators turned me on to this!

THE LOVELESS
Marc Almond, another childhood role model, joins forces with my guitar hero, Neal X from Sigue Sputnik. One of my best hairdays was in 1988 when a chick named Mickey McCarcken sent a limo to pick me and my old guitarist up to attend her graduation at one of the many high schools I was expelled from, primarily for "chronic dresscode violations" and where they pressed charges against me for, get this: "Malicious Destruction Of County Property Felony 4"...for drawing new wave logos in my history book and challenging the wrestlling coach's racist whitewash settler colonial narratives. He used to put me in the classroom closet as an expample to the squarse. Fuck you, Mister Heimer.

Oh yeah, the hair! I achieved maximum Neal X like glory with a blow drier and a whole can of Aqua Net that day, and got to sit in the bleachers with the love of my new wave youth, who was there to see the trendy soccer kid she had ditched me for while I was in juvenile detention. The Loveless are like Spiders From Mars in an age of Fascism, censorship, and genocide. i love 'em to tears.

SHANE MACGOWAN FOREVER

_{Graham Steel (left) tries to convince Graham Hood from The Johnnys that the bar's shut and it's time to go home.} 

Earlier this year, Newcastle’s mainstream media reported that the closure of The Cambridge Hotel was going to have a huge impact on the Newcastle music scene. But, in fact, the opposite is happening. 

Newcastle is going off! 

2023 may have been marked by that venue closing but it actually reopened not long after, just up the road next to the King St Hotel, in a similar format of two band rooms. Then the virtually dilapidated “The Oaks” at Tighes Hill was quietly renovated and opened a month or so ago to a swagger of gigs already, and the Hamilton Station Hotel re opened the renovated larger back room mid-year to accommodate larger bands. 

Add in a few venues around Maitland, now keen to accommodate live original music, as well as the usual haunts, and the Newcastle music scene is in fact booming.(try booking a gig before April 2024!). 

CHRIS “KLONDIKE” MASUAK TOP SEVERAL FOR 2023

1.   APPARENTLY, THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY GENOCIDE.
This year has demonstrated beyond any possible doubt that the human race is blithely and psychopathically genocidal.

And if daily reminders of this sad and truly distressing reality aren’t enough, next to nothing has been effectively done to redress the horror because of the not entirely surprising confirmation that a great number of the people you know are …

a. Cruel and nasty.
b. Wilfully ignorant.
c. Racist.
d. Chickenshit.
e. All of the above.

Protest, agitate, donate … do something. Anything.

Let’s at least pretend to be interested in creating a better future.

1. In February, we played a gig at the now closed Platform 5 in Clayfield, Brisbane. This venue was always good to us and we were very sorry to see it go.

2. In March, we used our frequent flyer points to head to Melbourne to launch our 2022 album, “Love Is Calling”. (ED: WHAT NO RECORD COMPANY TAB?)Dave Graney and Clare Moore invited us to open for them at The Night Cat in Fitzroy. What an honour! And what a great turn-out. We then played on the southside at The Lyrebird Lounge with special guest Penny Ikinger. Thanks to Suzi and all our Melbourne (and even Tasmanian) friends and fans who made this trip so special for us. We'll be back!

Righto, Squatter the Cockatiel here with my Top Ten for 2023.  

For those of you who don't know how famous I am, I allow Chris Converse and Cathy, both of Punkfest Brisbane and 4ZZZ, to share a house with me so I meet a lot of cool people.  I would say cool cats, but I don't get on well with cats.

Five out of five chirps for the following (in no particular order):

Glitoris - Self titled album

The Go Set-- The Warriors Beneath Us album

Blowhard- All the Kings Horses 

Vicious Circle – “Split This Open” album

Dad Fight - “Guillotine” single 

The Owen Guns - “Monks in Sexyland” mini album

Whoroboros – “Consuming and Being Consumed” EP 

Piss Shivers - Self titled album

Painters and Dockers – “Advance Australia Where” single

Square Tugs – “One Minute Love Song” single

01 - L7 in Melbourne. 
This was a blast. Playing “Bricks Are Heavy” in full ,plus all those other wonderful tracks from the ‘90s. It’s number-one because it’s recent.

02 MONAROS – “Can’t Polish a Turd”.
As good as it gets. What a bloody great record with songs like “Kareen”, “Best Cop In Town” and the awesome “Mum Washed Me Cum Sock”. It’s a no-brainer for the #2 slot.

(Vale) Top Ten

10. Star Crazy. Great, rockin’ live band, cool humans and for me without doubt, the award for earworm of the year:."Egging Me On".  Check ‘em out.

_{Jo Forster photo}

PETER BLACK/ TIM STEWARD @Frank’s Wild Years…two of my local faves doing an intimate  double header.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS/ STEVE EARLE @Enmore Theatre…a master class in Americana from two of the best.

THE DELINES @The Great Club…Portland county soul comes to the Sydney Inner West, featuring one of my favourite authors aka Willy Vlautin.

JENNY DON’T & THE SPURS @Enmore Hotel…speaking of Portland, retro rockin, honky tonkin’ good times always guaranteed. Don't miss them when they return!

AMENDS @Mary's Underground...walked into a bar on a quiet Sunday night & these western suburbs kids blew my head off! Kinda like Husker Du meets Drive-By Truckers...the Los Angeles headliners were like lukewarm water in comparison. Bonus points for the singer rockin' a Flying V.