Rule My World b/w Phoenix - Datura4 (Alive Natural Sound)
Perth’s Datura4 grows in stature with each release and this single, issued in tandem with the latest album, kicks major sonic arse. “Rule My World” is a swaggering chunk of ‘70s raunch and only otherwise available on the CD version of “West Coast Highway Cosmic”. Warren Hall’s stuttering drum pattern summons the tune to life and Howard Smallman’s harp is the icing on the boogie cake. It's canny Dom Mariani pop with a ‘70s vibe.
The B side is exclusive to the 45 and is a suave instrumental, with some Bob Patient organ that’s cooler than a 1972 bottle of 4711 Ice Cologne on a February Perth aftwrnoon. Some wiry Mariani guitar lines take it out. There are just 300 numbered copies worldwide and you can find yours here if you’re in Australia, or here if you’re not.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 3743
Sonny Vincent: Primitive 1969-76. Diamond Distance & Liquid Fury - Sonny Vincent (Hozac Archival)
Some would hide their earliest bands’ recordings in a dark place and hope nobody found them. Thankfully, not Sonny Vincent.
As one of the last New York punks still standing, Sonny Vincent criminally remains a well-kept secret. The music he’s made under his own name, and with a string of bands - most notably, Max’s Kansas City and CBGB graduates, Testors - is some of the best primal sound around. This collection of songs from his pre-punk bands, spanning 1969-72, does nothing to detract from that track record.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 4284
The Third Degree - Mushroom Planet (Planet Records)
Anarchy in TwentyTwenty - Ben Gel (BadAss)
The Glue - Tom Redwood (self released)
Diarrhoea Part 2: The Shittening - Geezergosis (self released)
Saint John's Eve - Michael Plater (Hypostatic Union)
Nina Simone apparently once said, “I'll tell you what Freedom is to me. No fear.” She meant, of course, the everyday fear. That no matter what she's doing, or where, she could be attacked or killed just for being what she was.
We're a pretty intolerant, brittle lot, we people. We really are. One of the several reasons I refer to COVID-19 as "the stupidvirus" is that it seems to have brought out all the stupids in our assorted societies. Our cracks and inadequacies are there for all to see, and people die because of vanity, of an inbuilt reluctance to face up to ugly or inconvenient truths.
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- By Robert Brokenmouth
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The On and Ons streaming from Sydney venue The Moshpit.
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the music industry globally. As if the digital disruption of music sales in the post CD era wasn’t enough, the closure of venues has killed the oldest revenue stream known to musicians, the live gig.
As the first industry to close and most likely the last to re-open, the meagre incomes of musicians have collapsed and the outlet for their creativity has disappeared. But being resilient and creative thinking beasts, the music industry and has turned its hand to live streaming as a way out of this abyss.
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- By The Celebrity Roadie
- Hits: 4507
Bad Bad Barrel of Monkeys - The Meanies b/w Goodbye Man - Glenn Richards + House of Bassinet - Snout (Fantastic Mess Records)
Just a stab in the dark here, but it’s likely that anything on a short-run seven-inch single by Melbourne institution, The Meanies, will sell out faster than toilet paper during a second wave of Coronavirus. So the parable at the outset is: Don’t snooze unless you want to lose.
This is the latest in a run of limited edition singles by The Meanies. The good news for fans is that it’s available today. The bad news is that it’s only one song, with the B side devoted to songs by related acts Glenn Richards (of Augie March) and Snout. Two guests on the flip is how the series runs so it shouldn't be a disappointment.
“Bad Bad Barrel of Monkeys” is catchier than the aforementioned Coronavirus with simple lyrics, a hooky refrain and a snaking guitar line. It’s instantly likeable. The B side plays at 33rpm and shudders into life with “Goodbye Man”, a steamy psych rocker preceded by a curious snatch of studio babbling. Glennn Richards plays everything. Snout’s “House of Bassinet” is swampy yet percussive pop and just as good, with subtle instrumentation and a rightfully credited whistling line. Buy it here.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 3723
Existential Hangover - These Things (Dirtyflair Record Company)
Three albums in and These Things just made their own patch of swamp in Australia just a little deeper.
These Things have nailed it with “Existential Hangover”. Crawling king snake fuzz intersects with patches of clean guitar against a no-nonsense backbeat. If Mudhoney crept out of a recycling depot in a rural Victorian town and went on an absinthe bender with Reverend Beat-Man, they’d sound like this.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 4026
Brisbane-based Aussie rockers Suburbia Suburbia are making a noise since the release of their song "10lb Hammer" through MGM Records in April. Here's a taste of their bogan rock. If you're lucky you can still pick up a copy of their "In The Fridge" album, reviewed here.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 4427
It’s Coming After You EP - Thee Cha Cha Chas (Outtaspace/Hogwild)
It’s a barrage of rough and raucous rock and roll from this one-woman-one-man duo out of Melbourne. Four bracing songs on a seven-inch that sit comfortably in the garage-punk oeuvre without breaking down any barriers. Distortion and dual vocalising, done right.
Thee Cha Cha Chas are Lluis Fuzzhound (also of Intoxica and Midnight Woolf - guitar, drums and vocals) and Kylie Kooks (bass and vocals), and they’ve been carving a place on the Melbourne band scene for about five years. A big burst of touring over 2019-20 had the spreading their word further afield but with that not currently an option, this vinyl EP will do. The title track articulates these crazy times.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 6330
The ruling class, powers that be took good music off the public airwaves years ago and replaced it with insipid lifestyle programming, fake news, and bullshit unreality shows. They tried and tried to kill authentic rocknroll, but the latest Godfathers side, "Wild & Free", bursts boldly outta your shitty headphones fulla wide awake, bristling and lacerating Stooges riffs, tempestuous Thunders leads, irrefutable energy, and a pulverizing, powerhouse vocal: "Gonna start a war against ignorance and hate!"
This is essentially everything you can ask for, from a never say die, present day rocknroll band you can trust. Even after all these years, vocalist Peter Coyne and company are still conquering the forces of negativity and oppression and banality of evil with anthemic truth, and fully alive soul power. Play it now!
The bootboys and pint hoisters of the world already know what you get with the Godfathers. Memorable melodies, scream along choruses, visceral, passionate emotions, sneeringly defiant lyrics, and a heavy beat you can dance to. I dunno the names of the other guys in the Cure right now, but I'm pretty certain I know what they're all about. Same holds true with the Godfathers, who have always been about critical thinking, fierce independence, breaking the chains, the underground railroad, fully committing, and holding fast to your own guiding principles, even and especially when it means trudging against the ravages of time and hard winds and useless trends and popular currents of manufactured consensus.
Throughout the many storied incarnations and always evolving reinventions of Godfathers lore, many of the top guns in the business have flown under the proud Godfathers banner. "I'm Not your Slave" is golden pop you're gonna love. The "Hey Hey Hey Whoos" were made for you and me-it's gonna stay in your head for days. Peter's got a freshly rejuvenated lineup of reliably stone cold hit-men, but it's honestly like he has never missed a beat. The new Godfathers sound a whole lot like the original Godfathers, and that's almost maybe more than we should even hope for, in these perilously volatile and turbulent and unpredictable times, when there's so little to believe in.
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- By JD Stayfree
- Hits: 6293
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