Sydney to have its own vinyl pressing plant

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 January 2017

Hits: 3914

The vinyl revival will suddenly become more accesible if you’re an Australian band looking to press an album or single.

With just one local pressing plant (Zenith in Melbourne) capable of a substantial run, Australian bands have been starved of choice with the cost of having a record manufactured offshore compounded by shipping costs. A new plant is set to open in Sydney’s inner-western mid-year, according to the facility’s manager Vincent Chen.

• sydney
• vinyl

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Musk Hill - The Baudelaires (Off The Hip)

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 January 2017

Hits: 4157

Another day, another great and surreal psych band from south of the NSW-Victoria border. The Baudelaires have a string of singles under their belt (via Colourtone Records) and this is their full-length debut (on Off The Hip, of course.)

Mr Everywhere, Mikey Young (Eddy Suppression Ring), recorded this with The Baudelaires in a three-day session at a house on the Mornington Peninsular in Victoria. The songs burn slowly, for the most part, with a magnificence all their own. They aren’t in any hurry but they arrive at their destination.

• mikey young
• the baudelaires
• musk hill
• eddy current suppression ring

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The Velvet Underground. Complete Released Works. Part Three

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

22 January 2017

Hits: 9830

The Velvet Underground and Nico, Now - finally - we come to one of those albums that is insanely iconic (that peeling banana for a start), that you’re told is essential, but which so many people have and rarely listen to because - whisper it - they don’t really like it.

Characters like me, of course, love it (to put it mildly). Around about the time I first heard this LP (I was 12 or 13, my friend Paul had bought it in a chain record shop, filed in the comedy section) I recall talking to some older musicians in 1980, stalwarts of Adelaide’s piddly live scene. To them, the VU were “weird”, and therefore not worthy of examination. The Stooges, incidentally, were widely regarded as a joke, plunking, laboured plodders. The musicians I’m talking about were people who took Frank Zappa seriously (but dismissed Beefheart) and rejoiced when ELO came along (if I had a dollar for every bozo who forcibly showed me how super ELO sounded on their expensive new imported speakers …).

Is it possible that God doesn’t want Ozzy or Eric Clapton up there with Motorhead and Schubert, Bach, Bowie, Keith Emmerson and Bolan, and Robert Quine and Renestair EJ and Thelonious Monk and Charlie Mingus and Brett Smiley and Art Pepper and all the others … talk about spoiling the atmos …

• box set
• lou reed
• velvet underground
• sterling morrison
• nico
• andy warhol
• moe tucker

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Coleum Versus - Jim Dickson (Citadel Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

22 January 2017

Hits: 5811

He mighr be embarassed by it being said, but Jim Dixon is the Grand Old Bass Man of Sydney’s rock and roll scene.

Since dropping in as a member of raw Brisbane band The Survivors at the tail end of the ‘70s to relocating and driving the bottom end for The Passengers and many more, he’s been as much a fixture as cold beer and sticky carpets.

Active duty in London with the Barracudas and then back home to play with the likes of Louis Tillett, Penny Ikinger, the New Christs, the Deniz Tek Group and Radio Birdman, Gentleman Jim is omnipresent as both player and punter. Along the way he’s supplemented his music by working in a record store, running his own curry kitchen and, more lately, bussing tourists around Greater Sydney’s natural wonders.

• new christs
• radio birdman
• barracudas
• passengers
• the passengers
• jim dickson
• rebecca hancock
• the surivivors
• coleum versus

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Into Our Arms: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds triumph in Sydney

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By Ed Clayton-Jones

Ed Clayton-Jones

22 January 2017

Hits: 6059

_{Lax Charisma photo}

Alexa Clayton-Jones and I went out to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds last night at Sydney's voluminous and brand new International Convention Centre.

It blows my mind that for a few weeks in 1984, I played in the Bad Seeds, and I’m remembering bouncing around Europe in an old GMC wagon and some of the more colourful venues we played.

• live
• bad seeds
• sydney
• nick cave
• sydney x
• the wreckery
• skeleton tree
• ed clayton-jones

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R.I.P. Jim Atkins of The Kelpies, Bedhogs

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 January 2017

Hits: 7668

_{Ashley Thomson photo}

Jim Atkins, singer in The Kelpies, The Bedhogs and other '80s Sydney punk bands, has passed away in a Darwin hospice after a long battle defying cancer. He was aged 56. 

Friends posted news on Facebook a few days ago that Jim (aka Jim Bedhog aka James Gelding) was extremely unwell. News of his passing landed today and sparked a string of online tributes.

• sydney
• kelpies
• sydney trade union club
• bedhogs
• jim atkins

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PJ lets Adelaide (and the Thebarton Theatre) shake

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

21 January 2017

Hits: 5005

_{PJ Harvey makes her point. Adelaide laps it up. Alison Lea photo}

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

Poor old Thebby.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

Poor old Thebby, and its heritage-listed planks.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

After posting on Facebook that bits of poor old Thebby’s ceiling were falling around them, I’m fairly sure Sunn 0)))) had to turn down the volume a few months ago. Not that we noticed.

• live
• adelaide
• pj harvey
• polly jean harvey
• thebarton theatre

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Henry Hugo, Andrew McCubbin, Michael Plater and friends in Adelaide

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

20 January 2017

Hits: 5955

Who the fuck does Henry Hugo think he is?

Argentinian. Lives in the evil gnome capitalist capital, Zurich. Will only eat meat-lovers pizzas. No poncy vegetables or fruit for this Dark Lord carnivore. Would probably munch on dwarves if he could catch them unawares. One of these sentences is a fib.

And here he is, this Henry Hugo, writing songs like "Cold Night in Warrnambool", "Deep Lead Creek" and a whole host of others inspired by … erm, well. Us. Orstrilians. Strayans.

Well. There’s a lot of people in Australia. Millions born here, born and bred, who are, frankly, so repulsive in themselves they should be taken out to sea, tied to an old fridge and set free…

Henry Hugo is, like several other overseas-born artists, an honorary Australian. He loves Australian culture, the country, the people, how and why we live here. It’s not a political thing. He’s not a potential Swiss immigrant who complains about the cowbells, or a Muslim grumpy because we don’t [fill in the assorted blanks here], nor is he a reffo.

• nick cave
• michael plater
• nick spaulding
• andrew mccubbin

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Listen to "Miracle of Sin" from Powerline Sneakers

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 January 2017

Hits: 4732

Here’s your first taste of the looming release by Melbourne’s Powerline Sneakers, whose album will be out early this year on Kasumen Records.

The band features ex Powdermonkeys guitarist John Nolan, with Sly Faulkner (guitar-vocals), Katie Dixon (bass, ex-Ripe) and Mark Hurst (drums, Gutternsipes.) Powerline Sneakers recorded their album with Paul Maybury (Rocket Science) and mastered it with Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring). More news as it comes to hand.

• john nolan
• mikey young
• powerline sneakers
• kasumen records
• powdermonkeys
• paul maybury