Four years into their re-birth, Australian pop-rock champions the Sunnyboys are unleashing a live album on CD. “Best Seat In The House” was recorded at Enmore Theatre in March 2015 and will be released on February 27 through Feel Presents and Inertia.
You can read our live review here but rest assured that the band was in blistering form, playing with as much energy and vitality as they did in their first life more than 30 years ago.
Tracks include live favourites “Tunnel Of Love”, “I’m Shakin’” and “The Seeker” plus the hits “Happy Man”, “Show Me Some Discipline”, “You Need A Friend” and “Alone With You”.
About that band name: These guys hail from Ballarat in regional Victoria, Australia. Their touring schedule is unlikely to include the USA after they unwittingly named themselves with a derisive term for African Americans. You Yanks may know the term but it's almost unheard of in Australia. The faux pas is a pity because this album is a cracker.
“Should’ve Stayed Home” is a big step up from the debut record, “Devil’s Road”. It’s fuzzier, dirtier, nastier and more in your face. There’s a foot planted in rock and roll’s nursery (that’d be the 1950s) but they’ve taken it to a new sonic level.
Originally a member of South American garage band Los Peyotes, Rolando Bruno is now a solo artist in his own right. He’s peddling the weirdest brew of salsa-garage-exotica heard outside of an Buenos Aires coke den.
Los Peyotes were on Dirty Water Records. Rolando dipped his toe in the solo artist water while still with them. Voodoo Rhythm Records is his new home. The label has a habit of signing weird and wonderful one-man bands (case-in-point: its owner Beat-Man) and Bruno is no exception to the rule.
This autobiography by American pop-cum-punk-rock guitarist Frank Secich is a charmer. It’s big on warmth and doesn’t dish the dirt.
Its vignettes sometimes run to less than two pages apiece and are served canape style rather than in large chunks. Its 200 or so pages won’t suck up more than a few days for most people to consume.
Polite charm and gentle humour shine through.
You’d never guess its author spent two years touring with one of America’s most notorious punk bands.
Frank Secich cut his musical teeth in a bunch of Mid-western garage and teen hop bands in the ‘60s, almost cracked the big time with major label signings Blue Ash and was a sideman on bass for the latter-day Dead Boys, with his good mate Stiv Bators.
Secich worked with Stiv in his time as a solo artist for Bomp Records, retired and went on to a second career with Club Wow (with Jimmy Zero) and garage rockers Deadbeat Poets. He’s paid his own dues and those of several other people.
Sydney Northern Beaches-based ambassadors for rock and roll, The Overtones, have scored a coup by landing themselves a spot on the Meatstock barbecue festival at Olympic Park this Saturday.
Always making the most of any opportunities - and playing in front of 5000 people has to qualify as one – The Overtones will use their 3pm spot to launch their debut album.
They’re playing with The Beards, Snowdroppers, Henry Wagons and Blind Ray but too bad if you want a ticket – the first day of the all-weekend event has sold out.
To those who witnessed Ed Kuepper’s live shows last year in which he first aired this new crop of songs, we were set afloat in a dimly-set world and intimate setting.
Ed was sitting on his throne; his approach was self-absorbed, ambient and ethereal, yet focused. With the odd Scotch on the rocks being downed, Kuepper was in fine form.
Want to know what the classic line-up of Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers sounded like live? Most of us missed them the first time around and with three of them no longer with us there’s no chance whatsoever of them reforming - at least in this life.
So you’ll just have to settle for listening to “Live At The Village Gate”.
Glad you asked.
“Live At The Village Gate” is a newly-minted album on Los Angeles label Cleopatra Records. It’s out on LP and CD. It was recorded at the legendary jazz venue, The Village Gate, in New York City in 1977. Our review is here.
To many ears, it represents the ultimate recording of the infamous Heartbreakers at their highest peak. No slop, no pop. Pure power and energy that’s powerful enough to level a New York City block. It captures the notoriously drug-addled quartet in clear-eyed form and totally on their game. Out to impress and definitely Down To Kill.
Radio Birdman's 2015 European tour made enough successful noise for them to gain spots this coming June on several European festivals, most notably Spain's Azkena Rock Festival and Belgium's Sjock Festival.
The impact of their sold-out London show was such that they have been invited back to the UK with Manchester and Leeds added onto the itinerary and several other shows being slated.
The good news for Australian fans is that prior to their return to Europe, the band will play a limited number of local shows over the first two weekends of June. These are expected to be the band's only Australian shows for 2016.
Tickets go on sale Monday, 1st February from 12PM AEDT:
RADIO BIRDMAN
AUSTRALIAN TOUR
Friday, 3rd June 2016
The Factory, Sydney NSW
Tix: http://bit.ly/1JDGYd7
Saturday, 4th June 2016
The Triffid, Brisbane QLD
Tix: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=59587
Tix: http://tickets.thetriffid.com.au/?Event=59587
Friday, 10th June 2016
The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart TAS
Tix: http://brisbanehotel.oztix.com.au/?eventId=59552
Tix: http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?eventId=59552
Saturday, 11th June 2016
Max Watts, Melbourne VIC
Tix: www.maxwatts.com.au or 1300 724 867 or www.oztix.com.au
Sunday, 12th June 2016
The Gov, Adelaide SA
Tix: http://thegov.oztix.com.au/?Event=59520
Here we have Javier Escovedo's new release, "Kicked out of Eden", courtesy of Saustex Records in San Antonio, Texas, and it's a good one.
We probably all know Javier from his work with The Zeros and The True Believers. He co-founded The Zeros (the so-called “Mexican Ramones”) and was a leading light in the West Coast punk scene. Surprisingly, "Kicked Out of Eden" is only his second solo recording.
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New Mick Medew & Ursula album
Click for tickets
PO Box 334
Oatley NSW
2223 Australia
Get in touch: barman@i94bar.com
Los Chicos
Australian Tour 2024
NOV
8 - Marrickville Bowlo
w/ New Christs + Crankees * - tix
9 - River Rocks, Barwon Club,
Geelong - tix
10 - River Rocks Rehab, Barwon Club,
Geelong - tix
* plus Human Toys (FR)
"In The Zone"
CD Launch
The Mick Medew and Ursula 4
+ Lovejoy Surf
It's Still A Secret, South Brisbane
- Nov 16 (2pm)
Tickets
Kim Salmon’s Smoked Samon
How Did They Ever Manage Tour
NOV
9 - Merri Creek Tavern, Melbourne - Tix
Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders
Victorian Tour
NOV
6 – PBS live to air
7 - Shedshaker Taproom, Castlemaine, VIC
8 – The Tote, Collingwood, VIC
9 – River Rocks, Barwon Club, Geelong
10 – St Kilda Bowls Club, St Kilda, VIC
11 – Last Chance Bar, Melbourne, VIC
Mucho Sonar
"Flight of The Bandito Tour"
NOV
8 - Hamilton Station Hotel - Newcastle
9 - Marrickville Bowlo - Sydney
23 - Link n Pin - Woy Woy
Hard-Ons' 40th Anniversary
Australian Tour Oct - Nov 2024
NOV
3 - Red Hill Hotel, Castlemaine, VIC
4 - Barwon Club, Geelong, VIC
7 - Amplifier, Perth, WA
8 - Indian Ocean Hotel, Scarborough, WA
9 - Froth & Fury, Adelaide, SA
Tickets
Mark Steiner & His Problems
featuring Pavel Cingl
Australian Tour
NOV
21 - George Lane, St Kilda, VIC*
+ Kim Volkman (solo)
23 - Taproom at Shedshaker, Castlemaine, VIC
29 – Cave Inn, Brisbane, QLD
+ Mark’s Paranormal Disneyland
+ Socket
DEC
1 – Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide, SA
w/ special guest Romana Ashton
+ Brave Mistakes
2 – Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville, NSW
+ Simon & Graham of The Vandelles
4 – Brass Monkey, Cronulla. NSW
+ Simon & Graham of The Vandelles
6 – One Star Lounge & Gallery, Melbolurne, VIC
+ Rosie Westbrook
- 8 – The Tote, Collingwood, VIC*
+ Kim Volkman & The Whiskey Priests
+ JP Shilo
+ Julitha Ryan + Eden
Chimers Australian Tour
NOV
8 - Old Bar, Melbourne
w/ Bench Press + No Hoper
9 - River Rocks Festival, Barwon Club,
Geelong
10 - Poison City Records
in-store (afternoon)
20 - Freo Social, Fremantle
w/ The Saints ’73-’78
21 - Old Habits, Perth
w/ Spacerhead + Lounge Tourist
+ Ten Cent Tiger
23 - Princess Theatre, Brisbane
w/ The Saints ’73-’78
SOLD OUT
24 - Sonic Sherpa in-store (afternoon)
w/ Kellie Lloyd (solo)
24 - Princess Theatre, Brisbane
w/ The Saints ’73-’78
SOLD OUT
25 - Princess Theatre, Brisbane
w/ The Saints ’73-’78
29 - Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul
w/ The Saints ’73-’78
DEC
7 - Trocadero Room, Sydney
w/ Antenna + Cammy Cautious & the Wrestlers
+ The Sevilles
15 - The Tote, Melbourne
JAN
31 - La La La’s, Wollongong
+ special guests
“Hotter Than Donut Grease Tour”
Grand Pricks
+ Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes
+ The Tall Stories
NOV
1 - Link & Piin, Woy Woy
2 - Stag & Hunter, Newcastle
3 - The Junkyard, Maitland
9 - Golden Barley, Enmore
29 - Orana Hotel, Blacksmiths
JAN
21 - Tamworth Hotel, Tamworth
The Saints ‘73-‘78
NOV
13 - Adelaide Hindley St. Music Hall
+ Double Agents
15 - Castlemaine Theatre Royal (SOLD OUT)
+ Parsnip
16 - Melbourne Northcote Theatre (SOLD OUT)
+ The Double Agents
17 - Melbourne Northcote Theatre
+ Alien Nosejob
20 - Fremantle Freo Social
+ Chimers
22 - Sydney, Enmore Theatre
+ Kim Salmon & The Surrealists
23 - Brisbane, Princess Theatre (SOLD OUT)
+ Chimers
24 - Brisbane, Princess Theatre *NEW SHOW*
+ Chimers
25 - Brisbane, Princess Theatre *NEW SHOW*
+ Chimers
27 - Hobert, Odeon Theatre *NEW SHOW*
+ Liquid Nails
29 - Thirroul, Anitas Theatre *NEW SHOW*
30 - Byron Bay, The Green Room *NEW SHOW*
Tickets
“Pig Out On Punk #2”
I Hate People
+ The Owen Guns
+ Nunchukka Superfly
+ Flowers For Jayne
+ The Dark Clouds
+ The Pingers
Marrickville Bowlo, NSW
- Dec 14
The Stranglers
50 Years In Black
2025 Australasian Tour
MAR
NZ
13 - Powerstation, Auckland
15 - Meow Nui, Wellington
16 - Christchurch Town Hall, Christchurch
AUS
19 - Enmore Theatre, Sydney
20 - The Tivoli, Brisbane
22- Forum, Melbourne
23 - The Gov, Adelaide
25 - Astor Theatre, Perth
Tickets
