Saddles aren't the only thing blazing on new Cowboys collection

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 September 2024

Hits: 1465

• sacred cowboys
• garry gray
• Kasumuen Records
• we mainline dreamers
• mark ferrie
• cowboy logic
• molly meldrum

Cowboy Logic – Garry Gray & Sacred Cowboys (Kasumen Records)

It was 1982 when Sacred Cowboys emerged. It was a time when an Australian music tidal wave sweeping over pubs and clubs full of punters across Sydney from Palm Beach to Darlinghurst to Cronulla, and Melbourne from St Kilda to Frankston to Geelong.

Garry Gray was in his mid-20s and already a veteran of the Melbourne music scene when he formed the Cowboys. He already had street cred with foundations that stretched back to 1975. His influences came from the pages of Creem magazine and life in a blue collar suburb, rubbing shoulders with Sharpie gangs and devotees of AFL footy. He and his mates were discovering The Modern Lovers, the Stooges, the Stones, the Velvets and Alice Cooper, one record at a time.

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Vale Ollie Olsen and Andrew Picouleau

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 October 2024

Hits: 562

• dave graney
• sacred cowboys
• the reals
• ian "ollie" olsen
• andrew picouleau
• max q

_{Ian "Ollie" Olsen.}

Australian underground music has lost two important figures in Melbourne’s Ian “Ollie” Olsen and Andrew Picouleau.

Picouleau was best-known as a member of Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, The Metronomes and Sacred Cowboys, while Olsen was in Whirlywirld, Orchestra of Skin and Bone, Noand Max Q, the short-lived but high-profile collaboration with Michael Hutchence.Both passed last week after protracted health issues. 

Multi-instrumentalist Olsen was a key driver of the Australian post-punk electronic movement of the late 1970s whose punk lineage went back to The Young Charlatans (home to Rowland S Howard) and The Reals. Her was musical director for “Dogs in Space”, Richard Lowenstein’s gritty 1986 depiction of Melbourne’s underground music scene, and went on to make a mark internationally in electronic music and soundtracks.

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Light up your life with Little Murders

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 October 2024

Hits: 579

• little murders
• rob griffiths
• under northern lights

Under Northern Lights – Little Murders (Off the Hip)

Nine studio albums in and Little Murders might just have this rock-pop caper nailed. Again. “Under Northern Lights” showcases what songwriter, band leader and sole constant member Rob Griffiths and his current, and most enduring line-up, do so well. 

So that’s a wrap for this review. 

You don’t get off that easy. At least not until you’ve been thoroughly sold the virtues of “Under Northern Lights”. It should be an easy task if you set the tracks running in the background on Bandcamp. Let’s get stuck in. 

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A table for three and spare the eggplant

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 October 2024

Hits: 370

• trio of hommus
• hommus idol

A Trio of Hommus EP – Hommus Idol (self released)

Bet you’re sick of bands conceived in the darkness of COVD that have emerged into the light like maggots hatching from fly eggs? Cooker! Leave your conspiracies at the door of your local Lebanese restaurant because Hommus Idol have arrived bearing physical product. 

Hommus Idol is from Wollongong, south of Sydney, and has a lineage going back to that city’s onetime shining New Garage Rock Hope, BRUCE.  Just like a North Gong Hotel pot dealer, Hommus Idol peddles its wares in the carpark shadows - but in this instance they’re guitar songs of distortion and Jello Biafra-like warbling. 

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If Jeffrey Lee Pierce had moved to Lismore...

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By The Barman

The Barman

19 October 2024

Hits: 538

• jeffrey lee pierce
• the gun club
• dave slade
• slug
• house on hghland avenue

 
SLUG has been making a name for itself in the sub-tropical climes of the northern New South Wales city of Lismore for many years. Fronted by ex-No Man’s Land singer Dave Slade, SLUG’s heady mix of big riffs and powerful rhythms has made it the local must-see band. Despite being battered by floods in recent years, Lismore itself has become a magnet for tree-changing Sydney rock and roll types.

SLUG released a video this week, shot by Peter Frare, and it’s a cover of The Gun Club’s “House On Highland Avenue”. WSe reckon it captures the dramatic homicidal foreboding of the original.

"Punk Grandma" video premieres for Mick Medew and Ursula

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 October 2024

Hits: 336

• video
• mick medew and ursula
• premiere
• punk grandma

You've come to the right place for the premiere of the filmclip for "Punk Grandma" by Mick Medew and Ursula. It's the lead track from their "In The Zone" album being releases on I-94 Bar Records on November 1. It will ship before then and pre-orders are open here. 

The video was filmed and produced by Tracey Walker. Thanks to Delilah Moon Willsteed and Lucas Ciechanowski for playing the punk grandkids. Also appearing are the amazing rhythm section of Mick Medew and Ursula 4, Lois Andrews and Stuart McLaughlin.  

Mucho Sonar hit the road on the back of their new album

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By The Barman

The Barman

15 October 2024

Hits: 583

• tour
• mucho sonar
• pilots of baalbek
• live at punkfest
• Flight of the Bandito

They’re a six-piece, face-melting, horn-infused punk rock band from Newcastle in Australia, if you didn’t know, and Mucho Sonar are hitting the road to promote their fifth and first live album, “Live at Punkfest”, in October and November. You can have a sneak preview of the LP here.

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New single to greet Pat Todd and the Rankoutsiders

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 October 2024

Hits: 739

• lazy cowgirls
• australian tour
• pat todd and the rankoutsiders
• victoria

Brisbane's Swashbuckling Hobo Records is marking the looming Pat Todd and The Rankoutsiders Australian - well, Victorian - tour  by releasing a limited edition seven-inch single.

The instantly collectable "9 Lives, Tall Tales & False Alarms" b/w "Bullshit World/Bullshit Man" will follow recent album releases on Hound Dawg Records and Melbourne's Dog Meat labels.

The Victorian Tour will follow Pat's rapturously received solo East Coast Australian run of November 2023.

For the unitiated, Pat Todd fronted the undisputed roots-punk kings of LA, The Lazy Cowgirls after blowing in from Midwest outpost Vincennes, Indiana in the early 1980s.

The Cowgirls' live album “Radio Cowgirl” was the first release on scene prime mover Sympathy For The Record Industry and ultimately inspired a resurgence of classic 1976 Ramones/Saints/ Heartbreakers-style punk that stretched across the US into Europe, Japan and elsewhere, inspiring bands like The Muffs, New Bomb Turks, Oblivions, Teengenerate, Onyas and others.

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Chomp down on this triple deck sandwich, pardners

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 October 2024

Hits: 713

• dave favours
• stanley records
• roadside ashes
• the tall stories
• grand pricks
• two car garage

Two Car Garage – Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes/Formula Juan – Grand Pricks b/w Chronica Majora – The Tall Stories (Stanley Records)

You’d like a dollar for every two-bit punk that ended up playing bastardised country, wouldn’t ya? How about three songs for the price of two?

Which brings us to this spilt single featuring always productive Sydneysider Dave Favours and his well-travelled Roadside Ashes and recent Newcastle match-ups Grand Pricks and The Tall Stories. The three bands crossed paths in a saloon off the Pacific Highway one boozy night and this EP is the by-product.

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