Magnificent tale from the Wrong Side of the Road

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

22 April 2023

Hits: 2681

No Fixed Address by Donald Robertson (Hybrid Publishers)

“No Fixed Address” is a magnificent achievement. It's also readable, interesting, engaging and fucking disgusting.

We'll get to the latter comment in a bit.

As you know, one of the few benefits of lockdown was that some great work has emerged - but we're damn lucky it's Donald Robertson who decided to write about No Fixed Address. He was there at the time, was an aware chap, and wrote extensively about the scene he was so much a part of in Roadrunner magazine. Also, Robertson's approach resembles that of a historian approaching The Rolling Stones. 

Why? Well, while you may not have seen them, or even heard of No Fixed Address, the band's importance in Australian Aboriginal history is bloody enormous. Robertson gets this so well that, in the opening chapter, we discover that NFA would not have existed but for the determination of a number of significant people to encourage, enthuse and integrate Aboriginal people into the Adelaide arts culture, long before the band had learned to play.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was fairly unheard of; so it is, in a way, no surprise that names like Leila Rankine, Catherine Ellis, Ted Strehlow and Veronica Brodie all turn up as incidental characters. 

Don't recognise the names? Go to the “Australian Dictionary of Biography” (aka the ADB online); you don't get an entry in there for sitting on yer bum watching “Drone and Away”, “Australia's Got Alkies”, “These Kitchen Fools” or “Married at First Fart”. (ED: You left out “The Farmer Wants a Root”.)

• no fixed address
• donald robertson
• roadrunner
• bart willoughby
• hybrid publishing
• reggae

Read more …

Perth really is a culture shock as The Victims announce their last show

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

20 April 2023

Hits: 2783

West Australian punk rock trailblazers The Victims play their final show at Perth’s Rosemont Hotel on June 10.

Original members Dave Faulkner, James Baker and contemporary recruit Ray Ahn are also preparing to release the line-up’s last recording, made with the legendary Ed Stasium (Ramones) behind the desk.

Formed in May 1977 by Baker (The Geeks, The Scientists, The Painkillers, The Rockin Hendy, Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts of Bourbon, The Dubrovniks), and Dave Flick aka Faulker (Hoodoo Gurus, The Manikins, Midget and The Farrellys, Antenna) with original bassist Dave Cardwell, the band’s best known for its sizzling debut single “Television Addict b/w I’m Flipped Out Over You”, which has been covered by You Am I, The Hellacopters and Teengenerate.

In August 1978, The Victims released a five-track extended play, The Victims (also known as “No Thanks to the Human Turd”), with: "I Understand", "Open Your Eyes", "TV Freak", "High School Girls" and "Disco Junkies". A compilation album, All Loud on the Western Front” (1989), “Sleeping Dogs Lie” (2011) and “Culture Shock” (2014) have followed.

2019's “Horror Smash” EP was recorded by the Faulkner-Baker-Ahn line-up and was a suberb addition to the catalogue.  

Supports will be The Shakeys and The Volcanics and tickets are here.

• perth
• james baker
• ray ahn
• the victims
• dave faulkner

It's a pisser! SuburbiaSuburbia battle against bullshit

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

20 April 2023

Hits: 1560

Brisbane-Sydney rock dogs SuburbiaSurburbia have let loose another Oz Rock dissertation on the state of life and in their own inimitable style it's called "Don't Piss In My Pocket". It's an ode to being free of bullshit. It goes live on streaming services on April 28. 

• brisbane
• sydney
• oz rock
• suburbia suburbia
• don't piss in my pocket

This album blows

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

15 April 2023

Hits: 2122

Blown Again - Blowers (Spooky Records/Chaputa! Records)

The Spooky Records website asserts; “Capitalising on their triple vocal attacks, blistering guitars and fast-paced tunes, ‘Blown Again’ is a tongue-in-cheek earworm of a ride laced with sick humour and shit-stirs. The album is chock full of “fuck you” themes, with tracks like ‘Shut The Fuck Up’, ‘Wipe My Ass’, ‘Slice’n’Dice’ and ‘Bad 4 U’ that jump off the record and grab you by the throat.”

Spooky also reckons: “For fans of The Spits, Jay Reatard, Wipers, Mean Jeans, Oblivians, The Cavemen, Wet Ones”. Mind, I gotta say I'm somewhat ignorant there.

So, to this bad-tempered old goat, what do Blowers sound like?

FULL-ON FUCKYOU FUZZ HAMMER THOR CHORDS CRUSH DESTROY

Read more …

The Church returns with a masterwork

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

15 April 2023

Hits: 2416

The Hypnogogue - The Church (Communicating Vessels/Easy Action Records)

Confession time: never really paid much attention to The Church. Cost of having other stuff to do is that you miss a lot.

Conclusion first, though: you're gonna enjoy this. "Ascendance" is the first track and you're gonna go all gooey and lose it from there, taken as you are into a beautiful, well-sculpted world. The band have put a huge amount into "The Hypnogogue" - the music isn't standard throw-away rawk by any stretch; the more you listen, the more exquisite layers you'll discover.

• the church
• ash naylor
• steve kilbey
• The Hypnogogue
• communicating vessels
• tim powles
• ian haug

Read more …

Let Ya Hair Down should flip your wig

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

14 April 2023

Hits: 2256

Let Your Hair Down – The On and Ons (Citadel)

Short on time? Here's all you need to know in fewer than six paragraphs:

“Let Ya Hair Down” is album number five for The On and Ons and finds them exploring new sonic textures and invoking a slightly tougher approach. The hook-laden song-writing, lockstep playing and uplifting harmonies remain intact, but there’s a sense of the band pushing fresh envelopes, too.

Let’s say that thing that every band hopes/strives for, and declare, without hyperbole, that it’s the best thing The On and Ons have recorded.

If you don’t know already, The On and Ons feature singer/songwriter/guitarist Glenn Morris, his brother Brian (drums and harmony vocals) and bassist Clyde Bramley (bottom end and harmonies). The band is based in Sydney and their combined pedigree includes recording and touring internationally with Hoodoo Gurus, Screaming Tribesmen, Kings of the Sun, and Paul Collins Beat. 

• powerpop
• clyde bramley
• the on and ons
• citadel records
• glenn morris
• brian morris
• let ya hair down

Read more …

Chimers give you choices as Mudhoney supports loom

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

11 April 2023

Hits: 1772

Noisy Wollongong duo Chimers - whose self-released and self-titled album has found fans among the likes of Henry Rollins, Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, and members of The Mark Of Cain and Mudhoney – have released a new single to coincide with a host of shows up and down the Australian East Coast.

The band is about to support Mudhoney on selected dates and has issued “Turn On The Lights” b/w “Closure”  on “translucent transfusion red” and “recycled marble love” wax on boutique label Soundpressing.

Pick up a copy at the gigs or here.

• mudhoney
• chimers

Little Murders bottle some pop sunshine

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

10 April 2023

Hits: 2124

Wait ‘Til The Summer Comes b/w Tonight Tonight Tonight - Little Murders (Off The Hip)

The formula is as simple as it is timeless: Verse-chorus-chorus. Melody lines and a hook or two. Melbourne’s Little Murders have it down pat and this 45 is another object lesson in powerpop.

“Wait ‘Til The Summer Comes” is the tough pop rocker, “Tonight…” its lighter reflection. The former swoops early and replicates its own melody line in a short but effective blaze of guitars. Rob Griffiths’ agreeably distinctive vocal suits the song’s summery mood. And it is always summer, somewhere around the world.

Flip it over and “Tonight Tonight Tonight” is a simpler but no less catchy gem. Griffiths and lead guitarist Rod Hayward do a little sparring the song kicks back into its chorus. Hayward takes it out. Finito. Simple and effective.

Bonus: Buy the vinyl single and you’re gifted another four digital tracks. An easy call, really.

    3/4

Buy it 

• little murders
• wait til the summer comes
• tonight

A match made in Newcastle

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

10 April 2023

Hits: 1840

Nothing Is For Everyone – Drugs in Sport/Sound of Speed – Lachlan X Morris (Outtaspace)

Split records can be problematic. Too often the vehicles of economic convenience for cash-strapped but otherwise disparate bands who pool their money and patch two sides together in order, just to get a release out. And there are splits like this one where some pop-rock magic works together.

Drugs in Sport and Lachlan X Morris both come from Newcastle in Australia. A onetime hotbed for blue collar rock and roll, the former Steel City has gentrified and diversified. This shared release on Central Coast label Outtspace is five songs from DIS and four from Lachlan X over two sides of 12-inch vinyl, and proves that there’s still rock and roll life in Newie.

• newcastle
• outtspace records
• drugs in sport
• lachlan x morris
• sound of speed
• nothing is for everyone

Read more …