Top Ten for 2023: Matt Ryan of Melbourne zine Munster Times

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By Matt Ryan

Matt Ryan

26 January 2024

Hits: 2970

1. Collingwood- having done these Top Tens at the Bar for a few years now, I had to make a best team category, just so I could get my beloved Pies in. Now we won the flag, no need. The Magpies take their rightful spot as the best of the best of 2023.
   
   
2. Test Cricket- great series of cricket from the Aussies in India and England, and a ripper series between England and New Zealand, as well as the Kiwi’s against Pakistan. And while some controversy dominated the headlines (Johnny, what were you smoking?), at least people are talking Test cricket again.
   • top ten
   • munster times
   • matt ryan
   • 2023

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I-94 Bar Top Tens for 2023: Bob Short of The Light Brigade, ex-Filth, Blood and Roses

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By Bob Short

Bob Short

25 January 2024

Hits: 2066

El, Top Ten list in no particular order.

A lot of folk around the Bar profess a love of professional wrestling often adopting a pastiche of suitable attire and somewhat dubious accents and title belts.  But most of them talk about wrestling like it was something that happened 40 years ago.  Like their record collections really.

But wrestling is currently in a golden age with many of the highlights arising from the women's division (which has really dragged its way out of the two minute gimmick match that used to stink the joint out).

Here's my Top Ten of favourite wrestling related moments and people.  I know some of you folks will be yelling “But Bob!  It’s all fake.”  To which I say thank fuck for that.  If people really did stuff like that, you’d have to arrest them.

And besides, both the Stooges and the Dictators happily acknowledged their love of professional wrestling.  Who am I to disagree?

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Doctors orders: James Baker has been prescribed more rock and roll

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 January 2024

Hits: 3853

The Beasts are back. The band whose core membership is drawn from surviving members of The Beasts of Bourbon is undertaking an Australian tour...and have revealed that it’s under doctor’s orders. 

• beasts of bourbon
• kim salmon
• james baker
• tex perkins
• charlie owen
• australian tour
• the beasts

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Richie's solo album takes seed as weed

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 January 2024

Hits: 2171

Richie Lewis is branching out from his best-known day job - that'd be frontman for Tumbleweed - to record his first album, under the name Richie Weed.  He's delivered the first taste of the recordings with a digital single, "Pure Evil", that you can stream right here.

While Tumbleweed continued to write, record and perform, Richie spent a large chunk of last year concentrating on solo endeavours, curating a captivating show titled "Spirit Songs and Stories", and recording.

• tumbleweed
• lewis
• richie
• richie weed

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Ahoy! Ahoy! The Skids are coming

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By Don Simon

Don Simon

18 January 2024

Hits: 3910

More than 45 years since they first formed during the froth and frenzy of punk in Scotland, the Skids are coming to Australia for the first time for a “greatest hits” tour.

I lived overseas and saw them quite a few times in the 2010s, and each gig was a triumph. The last time I saw The Skids, in December 2019 in Glasgow, was the best of the lot.

• big country
• richard jobson
• the skids
• stuart adamson
• armoury show

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Seeing in a Sydney summer through beer-coloured glasses

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 January 2024

Hits: 2514

_{Ross Knight.}  

COSMIC PSYCHOS
+ ZEKE 
Metro Theatre, Sydney
Saturday, January 13 2024

Nice Day To Go To The Pub? Aren’t they all during an Australian summer? Tonight in Sydney it’s muggier than a brickie’s armpit and there’s no reason to break convention, but, fuck me, The Sir John Young Hotel on Sydney’s George Street sure has changed. 

It’s been re-named “The Resch” (gee, wonder where they dug up that one), the front bar has been opened up and there’s not a TV set in sight. All that polished concrete makes for a brutalist existence. Of course, it lacks live music, with a DJ setting up while we sip our beers, and the usual crowd of pre-Metro gig people absent. The schooners have not unexpectedly crept up close to the $10 mark. That’s life in Sydney!

• sydney
• cosmic psychos
• metro theatre
• zeke

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Top Tens for 2023: Edwin Garland, I-94 Bar writer and ex-member of Waxworks and Dwarf Thrower

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

14 January 2024

Hits: 3015

I have been making lists and, damn, it has been a huge year of music for me; so many records and so many gigs.  I cannot think of a year so jam-packed.  I could have made a Top Ten list by August this year. Best that I don’t count these off or it could be limiting.

1. Loud Hailers at the Hollywood Hotel, Surry Hills, NSW
Ben Fink is one of the most tasteful and sonically powerful guitarists in town, evoking Blind Lemon Jefferson and Jimmy Page. Then there’s drummer Jordon. And vocalist Christa Hughes, who mixes it up, referencing everyone from Nina Simone to Lydia Lunch to a deranged Lisa Minnelli. Confrontational and soulful. Their gigs at the Hollywood set the place on fire. The Sydney inner city band to catch in 2024.

2. Fabels at the Hollywood
Ben Alyward and Hiske Weijers have been making music together for 13 years and have developed a cult following both in the inner city and Europe.  It’s a creative, surreal form of shoegaze with a huge palette of influences. They sit in their own space and avoid the pub rock tradition, forging their own identity and sound.

• ed kuepper
• mad macka
• pat todd
• chris masuak
• the birthday party
• steve earle
• amyl and the sniffers
• osees
• loud hailers
• fabels
• yolanda ingley
• yard act
• full moon flower band
• the darrens
• sojic garage

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Top Tens for 2023: The Barman from The I-94 Bar

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 January 2024

Hits: 3955

_{The Barman on tour in Japan at Mr Death's Crampstore with The Grand Wizard of the Psychotic Turnbuckles.}  

Top Ten Albums and Other Things In No Particular Order (with a qualifier that I never review gigs promted by the Bar but, fuck that, it’s my Top Ten.)

Ten Albums
1. Dark Country – Sonic Garage (self released)
This turned up on the eve of an overseas trip so a full review from yours truly isn’t among the glowing tributes already posted. A step up on the debut (which was pretty good in its own right) with lots of weaving guitars and classy keyboard textures. Sydney Old Man Rock and Roll. Just buy it.

2. Hackney Diamonds – The Rolling Stones (Rolling Stones Records)
You might have wanted to hate it. Lead “single” “Angry” was so-so but turned out to be one of the parts of a sum that’s much better than it could have been. There's a formula here but it's not a negative when it's in the hands of its inventors. Trust your own ears: It sounds contemporary but this is still The Stones being the Stones, even without Charlie.

• iggy pop
• top ten
• sunnyboys
• died pretty
• the dogs
• mad macka
• psychotic turnbuckles
• black bombers
• pat todd
• chris masuak
• rank outsiders
• the barman
• dog soldier
• steve gardner
• the monaros
• sonic garage
• chimers
• pocketwatch
• 2023
• the strike-outs
• ROCKS
• feeftime
• another tunless racket

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Top Ten for 2023: Mark Roxburgh of Joeys Coop, formerly of Decline of The Reptiles

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By Mark Roxburgh

Mark Roxburgh

11 January 2024

Hits: 2360

_{Mark Roxburgh fronting Joeys Coop. Murray Bennett photo}

In no particular order a bunch of music and music related things that have grabbed my attention. Some of it is shit and some of it I’m ambivalent about but all of it has fed my passion for music.

A.I. and music @ Skynet
I was researching AI and design about five years ago and saw that much of what designers did would soon disappear and design would split into two camps – bespoke design “crafted” by people or mass-produced design generated using AI via the prompts written by people. I suspect music will follow a similar path. 

People will still write and play songs the old fashion way and it will probably be a bit of a niche / bespoke activity. A lot of mediocre mass-produced music will be generated using AI via the prompts written by people. We’ll probably hear more of it in things like corporate videos or ad jingles and the ubiquitous Tik Tok videos to begin with but I suspect it will eventually dominate the popular music landscape. The precursor to this is of course sampling. 

The advent of sampling has led to a huge growth in genres of music that is not written so much as it is cut and pasted together. Honing one’s prompt craft to get a song out of AI is the next logical step. The soundtrack of Skynet. Meantime I’ll still write and sing songs no one will listen to apart from 15 blokes of a certain age in a dodgy bar somewhere.

• top ten
• kraftwerk
• mark roxburgh
• john kennedy
• 2023
• joey coop
• lewis goldmark

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