Dirt on the tracks

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 December 2021

Hits: 3259

High Tides, More Crimes – MD Horne (Outtspace/FOLC/La Villa Nova)

Only a shit stirrer would start a review of an album with the rhetorical question: “How do you know you’re getting old? You start listening to bush bands”. Guilty as charged – on the shit stirrer charge, that is. Lock me up.

Yes, the second solo album from Sydney’s MD Horne contains mandolin, didgeridoo, his own bass, a sprinkling of bush balladry, and even a sea shanty of sorts but, thankfully, no lagerphone. It’s also damned good.

• sam
• johnny casino
• celibate rifles
• folc records
• MD Horne
• outtspace records
• md horne's last call
• more crimes
• high tides

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Turnbuckles return to rampage again

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 December 2021

Hits: 3401

They emerged from the fog of COVID a year ago to give the pandemic the middle finger, riding a container ship to Australia all the way from Pismo Beach. 

The Psychotic Turnbuckles have again been coaxed out of semi-retirement in their palatial beachside mansions on the California coast to Destroy Dull Sydney one more time. Tickets are on sale here.

Make being at Marrickvile Bowling Club on Saturday, February 26 your New Year’s Resolution to see The Undisputed Champions of Rock and Roll bring the thunder.

Jessie the Intruder, The Grand Wizard, The Psychedelic Unknown, Count Forza and Gorgeous Karl Domah will be laying waste to two pretenders to the throne in Melbourne’s The Vibrajets and The Dark Clouds.

Comprised of past and present members of The Stems, The Shimmys, and The Breadmakers, The Vibrajets aren't the garage band the pedigree might suggest.

This is wigged out and twangin' surf and frat and rock'n'roll that goes back to the source – and is best enjoyed while shakin’ your moneymaker on the dance floor!

• live
• psychotic turnbuckles
• marrickville bowling club
• marrickville bowlo
• the dark clouds
• vibratejs

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Make mine an Undermine

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 December 2021

Hits: 2825

U – The Undermines (self released)

Bands that echo, without imitating, the sound of Radio Birdman and its precursors are always welcome around these parts. Canberra’s Undermines made an impression with their “Tenzeroeight” album a few years ago and do so again with “U”.

“U” is a five-track CD EP recorded at Infidel Studios in Queanbeyan and positively drips guitars. Understandable, given the band’s lineage, which is drawn from local legends Hell Yes (home to future The Eastern Dark bassist Bill Gibson), Newcastle’s renowned high energy machine The Fools, and local contemporary British Invasion and garage enthusiasts, Il Bruto.

• new christs
• the fools
• radio birdman
• the undermines
• hell yes

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An elf who won't stay on the shelf

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 December 2021

Hits: 3877

Set Yourself Easy – Kent Steedman (self released)

Adjust your expectations. This is not a collection of Celibate Rifles-styled pyrotechnics -although some (notably, “Lockdown Shuffle” and the title track) could have worked for them.

Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Kent Steedman has never been just about flamethrower rock. His work outside the Rifles has spanned the oblique, avant noise of Crent, the proto-boogie blues of Jim Moginie and the Family Dog, sonic adventurism with the Deniz Tek Group and live shows using Tibetan singing bowls.

• deniz tek
• kent steedman
• celibate rifles
• damien lovelock
• jim moginie

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The Porkers and X head festival to mark 10 years of Sydney Rock and Roll Markets

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By The Barman

The Barman

19 December 2021

Hits: 4163

^{I-94 Bar Stage headliners X.}

Sydney Rock 'n' Roll & Alternative Festival will send Marrickville into a high-energy frenzy with a special 10-year anniversary special event, celebrating the lengthy history of Sydney’s most unique event, The Sydney Rock ‘n’ Roll & Alternative Market on March 20, 2022. 

The festival, proudly presented by Palmer Events in association with The Factory Theatre and supported by Inner West Council, will feature a huge, heart-thumping entertainment line-up across four stages, headed by ska punk legends The Porkers, along with the best stalls from Sydney Rock ’n’ Roll & Alternative Market.

Venue is the multi-stage Factory Theatre. The I-94 Bar will curate a stage with a street-level line-up led by the mighty X. Tickets are on sale now for an event that features:   

• x band
• factory theatre
• sydney rock and roll markets
• porkers

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Swedes give their Best Of the launch it deserves

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

19 December 2021

Hits: 3157

Swedish Magazines
+ Thee Cha Cha Chas
Old Bar, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
Friday, 3 December 2021

When Nick Carraway suggests the impossibility of recreating the past, F Scott Fitzgerald’s nouveu-riche protagonist Jay Gatsby is incredulous. “Can’t recreate the past? Why of course you can!” Gatsby, of course, is wrong. The past, as vivid and real as it may seem to us, cannot be dialled up like an old movie on the latest streaming service. At best there are flashes of lived experience, memories that loom large in consciousness, recollections skewed and exaggerated.

I can’t remember exactly when I first saw the Swedish Magazines. Probably about 2003 or so, I think, in a world that seems quaint by comparison to today. Van and Cal Walker had already been in Melbourne for a couple of years or so. They’d been noticed by the right people around town, if not the people with the money and connections to catapult them down the road of commercial success.

• melbourne
• the devours
• thee cha cha chas
• swedish magazines
• i wish life could be
• the old bar

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This Sporting Life

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By The Barman

The Barman

19 December 2021

Hits: 3904

At Least We’ll Always Have Rock n Roll to Fall Back On – Drugs in Sport (Outtspace)

Effervescent and tough guitar rock-pop from Newcastle, Australia, will not be the Next Big Thing for the nmatiomnal yewf network Triple J. But it can be in your own listening space, and here’s the proof.

Drugs in Sport do cranked-up guitar pop exceedingly well. It’s a genre that’s been milked and relegated to the mainstream’s back blocks in favour of sanitised, autot-uned pap.  Anthony (bass), Errol (vocal and guitar), Geoff (guitar) and Jez (drums) apply their own twist. You can’t beat humans playing real instruments, especially (even if) they’re, ahem, older chaps or lasses.

• newcastle
• east coast low
• outtspace records
• drugs in sport
• At Least We’ll Always Have Rock n Roll to Fall Back On
• australian beef week
• muzzy pep

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Woy not make it a date with The Johnnys in January?

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 December 2021

Hits: 2889

The Johnnys are playing a Sunday afternoon show at the hottest bar , the Link and Pin, in Woy Woy (an hour north of Sydney) in January. They're following in the steps of the Hard-Ons who playsed a secret gig with their new frontman, Tim Rogers, on December 10 as a warm-up for theiur national tour. The Johnnys do the Link and Pin on January 9 from 5pm. Buy a ticket in advance here.

• live
• the johnnys
• link and pin
• woy woy

Echoes of past thoughtcrimes but ViviKit is here and now

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 December 2021

Hits: 3026

Bugmantis – ViviKit (self released)

Back in the dim, dark past of Sydney’s nascent underground music scene, a band called the Thought Criminals stood out like the proverbial dog’s. They were so unlike all the other spotty kids on the inner-city block.

Nineteen-seventy-seven (the time of their birth) was the Year of Radio Birdman. The Thoughties, with their jagged rhythms, blaring keyboards, political lyrics and highly-strung vocals, sounded nothing like them. They were post-punk before punk had ended.

• thought criminals
• vivikit
• stephen philip
• bruce warner
• bugmantis

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