Box Set – Radio Birdman (Citadel Records)

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By Bob Short

Bob Short

03 January 2015

Hits: 11616

Reviewing the new Radio Birdman box set is an absolute poisoned chalice. You know I’m going to give it five bottles, right? It contains most of the great recordings by the greatest band to have sprung from these shores. Bar none.

I include everyone in that statement from the Easybeats through AC/DC and onto whatever crap that is currently passing itself off as popular music. Forget your Hoodoo Gurus and your Sunnyboys, your Birthday Party and your assorted Johnny Come Latelys. This band was Ground Zero and Year Zero. Accept no substitutes.

"Radio Birdman. Box Set. Seven CDs. One DVD. One hundred Aussie bucks. Five Bottles. Yay. It’s great."

And that has been the extent of the reviews of this thing. Nobody has wanted to prod it with a stick and turn it on its side. And with several good reasons. Radio Birdman have always put the fanatic into fans. No more surly beast has ever walked the earth than a Radio Birdman fan.

• Citadel
• radio
• box set
• paddington town hall
• living eyes
• burn my eye

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Run Yourself Ragged EP - Dan Brodie & The Grieving Widows (Fat Swine)

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By Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

31 December 2014

Hits: 5706

You all know who Dan Brodie is, right? He’s released several LPs and EPs and yeah. You need this lil’ gem in your collection.

Why? Apart from the songs, it’s a fine little story of r’n’r excess, consequences, surgical procedures and ends with a damn-the-consequences romp in sterling style. I’ll quickly add that the production on the EP is damn fine too - that’s Glen Hewer, and the mastering is raucous and clean: David Briggs.

• spencer
• dan brodie
• ian rilen
• grieving widows
• run yourself ragged
• hell to pay

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Psychotropic - Los Tones (Off The Hip/Groovie Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

31 December 2014

Hits: 5872

Here it is folks - this is the sound the “cool kids” make these days. “Cool kids” being what the wearers would dismissive as a totally pejorative term, but essentially being a title for whatever constitutes a “scene maker” in these musically fractured times. “Scene” being another pejorative word.

It’s hard to keep up with contemporary music once you pass a certain age - even when you’re consciously trying to cock an ear to what seeps out of cracks in the footpath and shuns daylight. Of course it’s a given that you shouldn’t pay attention to just about ANYTHING that makes it to commercial radio airwaves, but in this case "contemporary" means the underground shit, maaan. And Los Tones are under the commercial radar by any measure.

• psychedelic
• punk
• garage
• off-the-hip
• mikey
• young
• sydney
• psychotropic
• los tones
• groovie records
• straight arrows
• owen
• pengils

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Movement / The Marianas - Deep Where All Drown (Deep Where All Drown)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

22 December 2014

Hits: 4477

Although this intense Melbourne, moatly-instrumental, punk rock band (containing two ex-members of Venom P Stinger) has placed "Movement" first, "The Marianas" was recorded some four years earlier, so I decided to listen to that first.

Yes, this is a double CD set, and it’s not one of those purple burns either. Properly recorded (by Rick Ferrara) in a real paid-for studio, mixed by the band and mastered by head Spook Loki Lockwood, the band spent some time and serious dosh on this. They wanted us to hear it.

Er, yes, well, I do apologise for taking a little while to get to it, it arrived in my inbox a few months ago. (It came out in 2009 and - mea culpa - I lost it down the back of the lounge - ED.) Which turns out to be a good idea, as I don’t enjoy "Movement" as much as "The Marianas". I’m pretty sure the Drown’s pack is a four bottle item, so stop picking your nose and pay attention at the back.

• deep where all drown
• marianas
• movement

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Memory Deluxe: I Knew Buffalo Bill 2 - Jeremy Gluck/Robert Coyne (Flicknife)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

22 December 2014

Hits: 8190

This LP you’re gonna sink into like a warm bath on a winter’s day… This is one sexy album. In a way, it’s got ‘make-out disk’ pencilled all over it…

It’s a sequel to Gluck's 1987 cult classic, “I Knew Buffalo Bill”.

Get this, though. Jeremy Gluck - ex-Barracudas singer and collaborator with Nikki Sudden, Rowland S. Howard and Jeffrey Lee Pierce - is hugely talented. Here we have a man who’s found another way to get our attention and make us smile and cry and dance… all to his trademark confessional style… hard to pull off, yet so easy for Gluck …

• howard
• robert
• memory deluxe
• gluck

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Williamson takes Re-Licked live

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 December 2014

Hits: 5022

You’ve heard a lot about Stooges guitarist James Williamsons’ stellar “Re-Licked” album here but you may not know that he’s playing it live. The first of what are expected to be selected dates only is at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles in January.

Williamson will be joined by guests including Alison Mosshart, Lisa Kekaula, Jello Biafra and Carolyn Wonderland on January 16. Tickets here. 

Straight James did a guest spot with The Icarus Line earlier this month, joining vocalist Joe Cardamone on “Pinpoint Eyes.” 

• stooges
• re-licked
• james williamson
• icarus line

Detroit - Sonic’s Rendezvous Band (Easy Action)

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 December 2014

Hits: 6726

What do you think we’d say? Sonic’s Rendezvous Band was truly The One That Got Away. It’s a crime they weren’t signed, recorded and backed to the hilt by a major label and elevated to a household name, but rock and roll is seldom fair. That’s why you need to hear everything you can of this great lost band.

Never heard outside a small circle of alumni and fans, this short but sweet five-song set comes from the January 14,1978 show, on the undercard to the Ramones and the Runaways at the Masonic Temple in Detroit. Maybe.

The opening act was un-billed and surviving band members (that would be Gary and Scott) can’t agree that they played it. All but one song (“City Slang”) has remained in the vaults and the label thought it had issued the gig as part of its splendid box set. But that disc wasn’t even from one entire show, if that makes sense.

• rock
• easy-action
• detroit
• sonics rendezvous band
• scott
• morgan
• asheton
• action
• fred sonic smith
• gary rasmussen

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CJ Ramone tours Oz

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By The Barman

The Barman

11 December 2014

Hits: 6329

If you have to ask which band he played with you’re in the wrong place. We're talking about xx-bassist for the greatest rock roll band in the history of the world, CJ Ramone, who will undertake his first solo band Australian tour in February to support a new record.

The extensive run by the ex-Ramones bassist takes in the ACT and all states except WA.

• australia
• tour
• ramones
• cj ramone

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Sunnyboys sell out Brisbane show, put on another

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 December 2014

Hits: 4543

The Sunnyboys and Riptides show at Brisbane's Tivoli has completely sold-out. Due to this clearly overwhelming demand, both bands have agreed to a second Brisbane show, this time at the city's latest hot-spot, the all-new The Triffid, in Newstead on Thursday 12th March.

Tickets for this inspired pairing go on-sale on Friday from www.thetriffid.com.au or www.feelpresents.com and all OzTix outlets.

• live
• sunnyboys
• riptides