Sparks of punk and glam brilliance power "Electric Junk"

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 January 2020

Hits: 4672

Electric Junk - Jeff Dahl (Iwannabeahoople Records/Ghost Highway Recordings)

Jeff Dahl w,as born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1955 and then relocated to Hawaii in 1960. He moved to Los Angeles and the rest is SoCal punk rock history.

This most underrated singer-guitarist has released about 26 albums, serving time in the wonderful Angry Samoans and going on to play with with Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys) ,members of The Germs and 45 Graves, and collaborating with Poison Idea. Not a bad rap sheet. He's now living back in Hawaii. 

Receiving Jeff's new album, "Electric Junk", I was very exited to hear some new tunes from this living legend. Let me tell you: It just rocks with those songwriting and guitar playing skills shining like a harsh Hawaiian sun.

• poison
• ghost highway
• stiv bators
• los angeles
• deniz tek
• jeff dahl
• made in hawaii
• electric junk
• ghost highway recordings
• angry samoans

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Someday we'll all get outta here

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By Flash Rebel

Flash Rebel

08 April 2020

Hits: 5866

... ruminations of a horrified social distancer on his evaporating way of life in the shadows of the green death plague.

• joan jett
• circus of power
• fugazi
• john prine
• marianne faithful
• mark blum
• little steven
• ryan maher

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Mind blown by a bloody French love letter

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By Ron Brown

Ron Brown

06 April 2020

Hits: 3076

Love is Blood - Frenchie's Blues Destroyers (self released)

Hello, I-94 Barflies! Hopefully, you're all well and healthy folks, and with all this self isolation it certainly gives you plenty of time to listen to the music we love.

Sometimes, something comes along and totally blows your mind. Well, ain't that just fine. So if you want your mind blown, you have to get your gloved hands on this fucking masterpiece.

Frenchie's Blues Destroyers are from Austin, Texas, and "Love Is Blood" is full of dirty sounds. It's based on huge guitar riffs and some quality vocals. But this ain't a blues album; this is garage rock meeting pop, with just a dollop of country blues.

• texas
• frenchies blues destroyers
• love is blood
• austn

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Film project shines a light on Aussie powerpop legends

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By The Barman

The Barman

06 April 2020

Hits: 3923

One of Australia's finest power-pop bands, Melbourne's Little Murders, are the subject of a forthcoming documentary but the project needs an injection of fan funds to push it over the finishing line.

Director-producer Matt Wilson has been documenting the history of Little Murders and its founding and sole continual member Rob Griffiths. "Little Murders - 40 years on the smell of an oily rag" has a funding target of $6000 and is 40 percent of the way to the goal.

"In our ageist society it's rare that a musician in his 60's can maintain what is essentially a pop band and bring it to a level allowing a tour in Japan in 2019," Wilson writes.

• powerpop
• little murders
• rob griffiths
• documentary
• the fiction
• matt wilson

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Freshly baked and impossible to resist

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 April 2020

Hits: 4365

The Breadmakers - The Breadmakers (Soundflat Records)

The Breadmakers are a Melbourne institution in a town that has plenty of them. They’ve been peddling their authentic brand of rhythm and blues around the Victorian capital, its environs and various parts of the world since 1989, and their seventh album sounds as fresh as any of its six predecessors.

R&B. Everybody’s on the correct page regarding R&B, right? The term’s been appropriated by the global music machine in recent decades, and applied to bland, largely soul-less genre of soft pap that permeates the airwaves like an insidious virus.

• garage
• soundflat records
• garage blues
• the breadmakers
• r&b

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Gimme some skin. The Bobby Lees are made for measure

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 March 2020

Hits: 4598

Skin Suit - The Bobby Lees (Alive Naturalsound)

If you were on the cusp of releasing your first "real" record, had US and European tours booked and ran head-first into the current viral shit show, you'd feel like you'd been whacked around the head with the Unlucky Baseball Bat, wouldn't you? Such is the lot of a young band in The Age of The Phlegm Plague.

Upstate New Yorkers The Bobby Lees sound mightily pissed-off on "Skin Suit", but the album was recorded long before Covid-19 was kicking anybody's arse.

The Bobby Lees play snotty, raucous blues thrash with all the rough edges left intact. Little wonder that Jon Spencer produced "Skin Suit"  - the band's explosive blues sound is right up his alley.

• alive naturalsound
• new york
• richard hell
• garage blues
• the bobby lees
• bo diddley
• jon spencer
• pussy galore

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Men are from Mars and Rough Trade is from Venus

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By The Barman

The Barman

25 March 2020

Hits: 3837

Rough Trade From Venus - The Secret Buttons (self released)

Their third release, on which the West Australian trio unleashes six songs of dirt-encrusted sonic goodness, each delivered with the subtly of a MyGov website crash.

Remember that lame concoction of a "band" called Wolfmother? Cooked up to ride the global wave of so-called New Rock in the early 2000’s, they were as dangerous as eating a soufflé in the shower. They gave trios a bad name. No wonder they were originally named While Feather. The Secret Buttons are nothing like them.

• perth
• james baker
• the new invincibles
• the secret buttons
• the fuzz
• rough trade from venus

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Rifferama that hits all the Buttons

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 March 2020

Hits: 3847

Son of The King b/w Elvis’s Lip - The Secret Buttons (Fancy Time Records)

This is an offering from a Perth trio that’s a couple of years old and came out a similar period after the very cool debut EP of 2016, “Some Buttons Should Never Be Pushed”. It’s a savage beast of a seven-incher, a two-headed behemoth that’s equal parts ragged and righteous. 

“Son of The King” rides a rollercoaster riff before an affirmation of superiority befitting someone who's lucky enough to drive a Chevrolet. There’s enough bravado in this one to rival, oh, the Psychotic Turnbuckles, even if it is tongue-in-cheek. Set against a grinding feel, the tough rifferama really lights it up. 

• perth
• the secret buttons
• son of the king
• elvis's lip
• fancy time records

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Never Mind The Butter

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 March 2020

Hits: 4448

Glen Matlock Band
100 Club, London, UK
March 7, 2020

Glen Matlock is a member of a pretty select club, that of the (S)ex Pistols, and that tumultuous time of '76/77 has defined him and his musical output ever since.

"Good to Go", his most recent album, has been out for a while now, and while it’s no landmark release, it is a sturdy collection, and has reunited Matlock with ex-Bowie sideman Earl Slick for a short UK tour before a planned US jaunt (cut down now by coronavirus.) 

• live
• sex pistols
• glen matlock
• london
• earl slick
• 100 club

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