Two Hundred Years - Cub Callaway and The Revolutionnaires (Dominion Records)
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 3691
Want the short version? A collection of veteran, all-star Australian underground luminaries (and one bankable Hollywood star) make a thought-provoking and at times surprising album, packed full of solid songs.
You deserve better than that, and so does "Two Hundred Years". So try this: Playing "Two Hundred Years" is like digging through an attic full of relics and finding things you remember, and things you never found the first time.
Mainman Bruce “Cub” Callaway should require no introduction but a few of you may have been sleeping, so here goes: He’s a former member of The Saints (post-Ed) who toured Australia extensively in the early '80s with The Bard, Bailey, and his merry men.
Drunk and Disorderly: Episode 32
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 6272
The podcasts are coming thick and fast now. Episode 32 of Drunk and Disorderly is live, with music from Donald Trump, The Damned, Flamin ‘ Groovies, Sator, The Hellacopters, The Godfathers, The Volcanics, Dion Lunadon, James McCann and The New Vindictives, Leadfinger, P76, X, The Hip Priests and The Dream Syndicate.
Drunk and Disorderly: Episode 31
- Details
- By The Bar Staff
- Hits: 5292
Everybody's favourite drunken ramblings from mine host is back with a vengeance. Featuring hits and misses from Thee Wylde Oscars, The Bible Bashers, ME 262, The On and Ons, The Murder City Devils and more. This is the podcast for the I-94 Bar where The Barman dispenses Real Rock Action From Sydney, Australia, via The Bowery and The Motor City.
Strange Birds - Giant Moths (self released)
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 4283
A 30-minute EP. Four songs. Melbourne band. Bring ‘em to your town. However…caveat emptor, baby.
The Giant Moths ain’t for everybody. They are, frankly, a little peculiar, and rather endearing. I’ve heard this EP quite a few times since it was thrust into my hands, and I tell you now, not only is it a grower as well as an immediate smacker, you’ll seek out Giant Moths to see them live not just once, but over and over.
I’m sure the band would not be happy if I were to imply that the band is Andrea Scarlett’s baby - and I suspect that the rhythm section described on the back cover, the lynchpin of the outfit, would be at great pains to protest.
Spine 96 - Spine 96 (Off the Hip)
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 3460
What a great cover! I mean, what a fucking great cover! And the inside is really interesting too. Now for the music. 14 songs of it.
I had no idea what to expect other than it’s on Off the Hip, and that apparently there’s a Green Circles connection, they’re from Adelaide, and this was recorded 20 years ago and there will be no reformation, no live gigs. There’s also no bio, no lyric sheet, no other info bar a negative-style image of the band, so … if I get these lyrics wrong, blame the band. Bastards.
So you’d better dig it ‘cos this is all there is.
Yesterday's Town - Suzie Stapleton (self released)
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 4987
"Yesterday’s Town" is huge. You think you know where she’s going, but she doesn’t take you there. The lyrics are like a stripped-back novella. Suzie really nails the slow/uptempo dynamic with her romantic guitar and sweet and smoky (by turns) voice.
Suzie’s been going about her career the right way (photos, film clips bios and downloads
). She's moved from Melbourne to London and is building a profile. Her production on "Yesterday’s Town" is superb, and the song itself begs for mainstream airplay, and I can only assume the majors are scampering with intent toward her right now.From Barracuda to Unbeing Sage: The art of Jeremy Gluck
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 11156
The more art I make, the more persuaded I become that there is no other art than mine, and no other artist than I. - Jeremy S Gluck
Currently Artist-in-Residence at Eltham Hill School (Greenwich, London), ex-Barrcudas member Jeremy S. Gluck is piloting a pioneering new digital art project, "Game of Memes". The first exhibition opens in London on Saturday November 11. The Barman owes me a huge backlog of wages so I’ll be there too.
Now cast your eye over this pin-up, a centrefold from "Smash Hits" (one of those dubious teenage mags which proliferated in the late 1970s and early '80s). Observe the mop-top hair, the sharp shirts with snappy lines and the aw-shucks expressions. Not to mention that banana-coloured surfboard.
Not quite as dangerous as the gang in The Archies. Never mind the Barracudas being squeaky enough to take them home to meet Mum, you could take these boys to meet Granny.
She’d chuck them under the chin, pinch their cheeks and call them "lovely" before making them all nice cups of tea (from a teapot in a home-made tea-cosy) with a digestive biscuit.
Part Time b/w The Day That Cribb & Munday Got Away - Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes (Stanley Records)
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 4118
Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes is a Sydney band that plays both sorts music - Country and Western - whose debut single recalls T Tex Edwards, the maverick punk-country artist from Dallas, Texas.
Band leader Dave Favours used to be in The Delivery and has been at this alt.country thing a while. Like T. Tex, Favours has an appreciation for country’s less-travelled roads and a bit of punk in his background.
“Part Time” has a laconic, resigned feel, with pedal steel bleeding through the lyrics about demons, deep inside, and drinking. Dave Hatt (bass) and Simon Li sit in the pocket nicely.
Original 7” Tracks /Demos LP - ME 262/Trans 262 (Buttercup Records)
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 6761
Most serious musicians would have an aneurysm if someone wanted to release recordings from their callow youth. They’ll tell you they’ve been hidden in a sock drawer for 40 years for good reason, and that demo recordings are just that.
Of course, people with OCD, completists and the truly curious and/or obsessed - and any or all of these descriptors could apply to most of us - vehemently disagree. This release from the amazing Buttercup Records label in Melbourne satisfies our shared jones.
Page 171 of 281