I Thought Thunderbolt – Big League (Off The Hip)

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By Ronald Brown

Ronald Brown

21 October 2017

Hits: 4698

Young Melbourne Indie band Big League have released their first album, “I Thought Thunderbolt”. What the fuck that title means is anybody’s guess, but it doesn’t matter when the music speaks for itself.

The follow-up to “The Dandy Hub” EP is a joy; good pop songs, fuzz guitars and trong song-writing. It’s sure to get airplay on enlightened Melbourne community radio stations like PBS and Triple R.

• melbourne
• i thought thunderbolt
• big league
• indie

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Heart Beatings - Midnight Crisis (self released)

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By General Labor

General Labor

20 October 2017

Hits: 8231

Everybody's heard the rumors about a seedy gang of leather clad strangers seen obscenely strutting up and down the boardwalk, right around the time that all those teenagers started going missing from the amusement park and comic book shop, on the shore, like some ageless, ’80s hellraisers, who refuse to die. 

Some believe those kids joined some hard partying Ricky Kasso hesher-cult, many have even claimed some second hand knowledge of a fire flickering batcave filled with opium den antiques and gypsy tapestries and a big blacklight poster of Jim Morrison, reptiles abounding...

I, personally, suspect it's all just a big conspiracy theory, the stuff of urban myth, bored kids with overactive imaginations, who have spent to much time watching zombie-hunter shows on cable, reading that "Twilight" book series, and chatting about Slenderman and Bigfoot and Anne Rice stuff, online. 

• nyc
• midnight crisis
• new yok city
• dirty pearls
• marty e

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The Sonic Race - The Sonic Race (The Sonic Race)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

20 October 2017

Hits: 4364

These boys come outta the blocks right at your face and do their best to tear it off. So you’re dancing like a middle-aged dickhead in the living room (or I am, anyway), loving the sharp, smart changes, the handclaps, the groove, the bounce and bluster.

Given the band and the song this website is named for (it's not Pinky and Perky, nor New Order, nor The Smiths. Give up..?) it’s almost a no-brainer that you’d probably enjoy “The Sonic Race” EP.

In fact, I’d say this: if you’d never heard Birdman, MC5, Stooges, Dictators or the Dolls … or anyone like them, and you heard The Sonic Race… you would go out and buy an instrument and learn how to play it, and drag people in until you could all go out and play like demons and lay waste the countryside.

• spain
• stooges
• mc5
• radio birdman
• the sonic race

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Where There Once Was a Fire - Andrew McCubbin featuring Melinda Kay (1am Records)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

20 October 2017

Hits: 4697

McCubbin & Kay had me before the LP was half-way through Side A. Such a deeply romantic, real record, the songs are so well-constructed, so relaxed in their delivery that you just fall into that trap anyway, also you end up applying the words to your own life… And it gets better… you know how some LPs absolutely nail an emotion, or a period you went through? 

No?

Well, you haven’t lived much, is all I can say. I mean, you don’t have to play this one at 1am … though that would be a perfect time, and I will be doing just that fairly shortly. Mind you, pretty much anytime is perfect for "Where Once There Was a Fire".

• andrew mccubbin
• 1am records
• Where There Once Was a Fire
• Melinda Kay

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Not Very Much - Lonely Stretch (self released)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

17 October 2017

Hits: 3928

The single is not dead. It’s just shifted sideways. These days it’s a taster or a teaser to a new LP, rather than a serious stab at the big-time.

Long gone are the days when The Temptations, Slade, or REM could issue a song and watch the dollars roll in. 

Never heard of Lonely Stretch? It’s their first release, I don’t think they’ve played any gigs yet (spare me that tedious bullshit about how "ya gotta’ play a bazillion gigs and go into thousands of dollars worth of debt before you’re considered to have paid yer dues") and they’re all Adelaide, kinda, with a knowing series of drives to and from Melbourne under their belt.

• melbourne
• lonely stretch
• not very much
• Matt Reiner

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Get Some - Mushroom Planet (self released)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

17 October 2017

Hits: 4549

This is rated seven bottles. These fuckers (a reformed Sydney band from the '80s) have no right being this good.

Blue Oyster Cult? Yeah!

MC5? Yeah!!

Iggy? OH SHIT YEAH!

Well, that’s my job done then. That’ll be $500 bucks in used tenners in a brown paper bag.

[silence]

[crickets chirping]

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Citadel to release special edition of Stems classic in time for Oz tour

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 October 2017

Hits: 5591

To coincide with The Stems’ 30th anniversary tour celebrating the release of their 1987 debut LP "At First Sight Violets are Blue", Citadel Records is re-issuing the long deleted album as a limited digipak edition CD on November 3.

The album has been digitally re-mastered and includes three bonus tracks. A vinyl reissue will see light of day early next year.

Originally released through Mushroom Records' off-shoot White Label, the album was first pressed in mid-1987. The title track and subsequent singles “For Always” and “Sad Girl” gained mainstream airplay – a big call for an underground band back then. The Stems influenced a host of new local bands playing '60s garage rock and roll.

• tour
• australian
• citadel records
• dom mariani
• the stems
• At First Sight Violets are Blue
• at first sight

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Lime Spiders return with one Sydney show before Spain

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 October 2017

Hits: 5399

The reconstituted Lime Spiders will play their one and only Australian show this year at Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney on December 2.

Mick Blood is leading a fresh line-up of the band before playing the Purple Weekend Festival in Leon, Spain, which runs from December 6-9. Other bands on that bill include the Allniters, Frowning Clouds and Nikki Corvette. 

Sydney supports for the Spiders’ return (being billed as “Summer of Love Revisited”) are The On and Ons and The Amazing Woolloomoolosers. Tickets will be available through Oztix later this week. Mick Blood is being joined in the Lime Spiders by Dave Sparks (guitar),  Andrew Nunns (drums) and Phil Hall (bass).

• lime spiders
• marrickville bowling club
• mick blood
• purple weekend festival

A track-by-track of "Rough and Ready" with Scott Morgan

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By The Barman

The Barman

08 October 2017

Hits: 9357

After years of medical tribulations, Scott Morgan is taking the next step in his return to active musical duty. The former Rationals, Sonic's Rendezvous Band, Hydromatics, The Solution and solo band artist with a career spanning five decades releases his first new album in seven years this month, the stellar "Rough and Ready" (Rouge Records).

Backed by The Sights, his band of choice on recent live outings, Morgan emphatically returns to his blue-eyed soul roots, laying down 10 songs of righteous beauty and grandeur.

Co-written with Eddie Baranek of The Sights and recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders and Adam Cox at Hamtramck Studios, it's a refreshingly pure album and a reminder of why Morgan has long been regarded one of the best rock and soul voices in the business. We asked Scott to walk us track-by-track through "Rough and Ready". The photos are by Marian Krzyzowski.

• jim diamond
• scott morgan
• the sights
• rouge records
• rough and ready
• adam cox
• eddie baranek

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