Baby, you can drive his car: Kevin K revs it up

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 October 2022

Hits: 2468

Cadallac Man – Kevin K (Vicious Kitten Records)

Around these parts, Kevin K records are like a comfortable pair of slippers: You slide in and feel at home with his slashing or chugging guitar and mewling vocal drawl. This record is sized extra-large with 26 songs putting it in the realm of what used to be called a double album.

For the uninitiated (and shamefully there still are some), Kevin K is a Buffalo, New York State raised, New York City-tempered veteran of the Lower East Side-CBGB scene, who remains musically true to that long-gone playground. This is his 33rd album of gritty, street-level rock and roll, and it’s more of the same.

• cbgb
• kevin k
• rolling stones
• johnny thunders
• vicious kitten
• cadallac man

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So what's the buzz, cock?

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

09 October 2022

Hits: 2306

Sonics in the Soul - Buzzcocks (Cherry Red)

I'm gonna be as objective as I can. I loved the Buzzcocks. I mean, I'm not alone. Everyone loved them, didn't they?

Okay. I came in at the beginning, heard their journey, was delighted by their first two LPs, their singles, then ... that third LP which initially bewildered me, but I grew to love better than the other two. Except, of course, the compilation, “Singles Going Steady”. 

Then, 42 years ago and five years after it all started (particularly with the “Spiral Scratch” EP, which unleashed the DIY independent music scene in the UK), came those three singles which sort of worked, but didn't quite. Something had changed. Because, you know, change happens.

• pete shelley
• buzzcocks
• cherry red
• Sonics in the Soul
• steve diggle

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Gunk is back

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 October 2022

Hits: 2210

• moshpit
• monday evening gunk
• thursday evening gunk

Lucky Country as the curtain comes down

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

09 October 2022

Hits: 4255

 
Midnight Oil
Hordern Pavilion
Monday 3 October 2022

Photos by Jonathan Armstrong of www.bigjphotography.com

The 1982 Capitol Theatre run of shows in Sydney was a crossroads for Midnight Oil. They were broke and had already notched 500 gigs since September 1977, which was the date that they decided to go full-time after a Bondi Lifesaver show.  

Midnight Oil was equally the largest drawcard on the Australian live circuit but it was not reflected in record sales. It had cost a lot to record their third album, “Place Without a Postcard’ overseas with legendary producer Glyn Johns (Rolling Stones and The Who). “Place” was a rocking, earthy and colloquial album. The production was warm - yet it was of the past and sounded like it had been recorded it in 1970.

• sydney
• midnight oil
• peter garrett
• hordern pavillion

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Rolling thunder from a band called Slug

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By Robert Brokenmouth, The Barman & Bob Short

Robert Brokenmouth, The Barman & Bob Short

06 October 2022

Hits: 4626

Caveat Emptor - Slug (self released)

Caution: this outfit ain't for the wispy.

I confess I was a bit late coming to “Caveat Emptor” - it's been in my to-do puddle for a few months, so I must apologise. If you wanted a vinyl record, too late, they sold out.

That said, there are four extra songs on the CD and they still have a few of those left.

Now, if these 14 ground-out hunks of dripping beef aren't your idea of rock'n'roll, I can sympathise.

• lismore
• dave slade
• slug
• caveat emptor

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Older Frowning Clouds still bring sunshine

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

05 October 2022

Hits: 2134

Frowning Clouds
+ Mug
+ Yep!
John Curtin Hotel, Carlton, VIC
Friday 23 September 2022 

I’m pretty sure the first time I saw Frowning Clouds was around 2007, upstairs at the Tote supporting The Dolly Rocker Movement.

The story was that the Frowning Clouds, at the time stumbling toward the end of their high school tenure, had been banned from the Tote for drinking in contravention of a venue management edict.

Apparently they’d been given a reprieve to play that night, on the promise no such unlawful activity occurred. But judging by the pint glasses in the band members’ hands and general unruly behaviour, they’d screwed the memo up and drop kicked it out of mind and sight.

At a subsequent gig, this time at the Birmingham on Smith Street, again supporting Dolly Rocker, the Frowning Clouds had accidentally brought Dolly Rocker’s psychedelastic set to an end when they managed to spill beer on the fold back monitors on the front of the stage.

• frowning clouds
• curtin hotel
• mug
• yep!

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Exercising their right not to remain silent

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 October 2022

Hits: 2738

We Got A Right – The Golden Rat (Vicious Kitten Records)

What do you get when expat bi-coastal American underground star Mr Ratboy collides with Hiroshi The Golden Arm (aka Japan’s Johnny Thunders) in a Tokyo garage, each armed with the songs that pre-occupied their formative musical minds in the period spanning 1976-82? An absolutely killer album.

“We Got A Right” is a record that came about through necessity. Hiroshi The Golden Arm and Mr Ratboy first met in 1993 when the latter was a member of Jeff Dahl’s touring band. Fast forward a few years and Mr Ratboy is a resident of the Land of the Rising Sun and the pair strike up a musical partnership in the electro-trash outfit Ace Killers Union. 

• radio birdman
• johnny thunders
• vicious kitten
• hiroshi the golden arm
• mr ratboy
• the golden rat

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Magnificent show signals that it's Oil over

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By Peter Ross

Peter Ross

04 October 2022

Hits: 4015

Midnight Oil
Hordern Pavillion
Monday, 3 October 2022
Shona Ross photos

Midnight Oil are Australian icons. People are often divided about where the split in their canon lives… that point where they stopped being a pub rock staple and moved into political activists. People of a particular political persuasion love them; they worship the ground they walk on, while their detractors feel equally aggrieved by their preaching. While tonight was one for the true believers, it also had something for everyone.

The Hordern has been the scene of Sydney’s greatest rock shows. This was one of them. It was the end of an era, probably where the last doors of an eight-tonne touring truck slammed closed on the glory days of Aussie pub rock. By the looks of the crowd of aged and gnarled surfers, elderly vets of rock days gone by, and the second and third generations of Oils fans, they couldn’t have kept up the pace of a five-night-a-week gigging schedule, anyway.

Wandering past the venue on our way to the Captain Cook Hotel pre-gig, the faithful were assembling en masse nearly three hours before kick-off. Hordes of worn T-shirts, black with the familiar yellow cover of their second album, “Head Injuries” adorned every second or third punter… as we neared the end of the Hordern and opened door gave us a glimpse of the Oils sound checking their 2020 staple “Gadigal Land” … and it sounded good. It augured well for the night ahead.

• jim moginie
• midnight ol
• peter garrett
• rob hirst
• martijn rotsey
• hordern pavillion

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A rising star graces Marrickville with her presence

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

03 October 2022

Hits: 3264

Grace Cummings
+ Lady Lyon
The Great Club, Marrickville, NSW
Thursday 29 September 2022

Sitting at my favourite breakfast haunt with the rain hitting its stride, the nearby beach appears to resemble a wild mosh-pit. The mobile phone rings. I decide to answer and then gulp the last of my coffee: it was my mate Vic.

"I saw Grace Cummings last night, and I know you’d like her; you don’t often see a support act get a standing ovation at the Recital Hall."

Vic rarely raves about too many artists, I slurped down my coffee and started to Google. As the rain pelted down, the sounds of Grace’s song "Heaven” blared from my phone.

That voice and what a song.

As the rain continued and I traversed the slippery pavement, finding spots of shelter on the way home. Grace’s voice resonated from the mobile phone in my coat pocket, sounding for all the world like music coming via a treasured transistor radio from years ago.

• marrickville
• grace cummings
• the great club
• lady lyon

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