Have you heard the News? Mark is a winner

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 March 2018

Hits: 4570

Mark Littler from Sydney is the winner of our contest to win a "Dirty Lies" single and T-shirt pack for Aussie punk News, from Buttercup Records. 

Mark receives a copy of the News seven-inch in a spray-painted box with a News T-shirt, sticker, inserts and flexdisc. 

Mark correctly named Adam Five (aka Gavin Quinn) as a member of News and Babeez. 

If you missed out, there are quantities of some of the editions of the News single pack available from Buttercup Records here. 

• buttercup records
• bad news boys

Live at Tully Hall – Lou Reed (Easy Action)

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 March 2018

Hits: 5369

Lou Reed’s much-maligned early ‘70s live backing band, The Tots, cop a bad wra

Maybe it’s because they weren’t the Velvets or the “Rock and Roll Animal” monster. No crime in that. Maybe it was the bass player’s white suits - like an early ‘70s version of double denim.

They were a bar band from Yonkers. They weren’t the best band to back Uncle Lou. Not by a long-shot. But they had a go.

After messing around with members of Yes and well-credentialed session guys in England to record his first two solo albums, Reed was ready to promote "Transformer". This was his "comeback" show in New York City. He'd emerged from a lay-off, much of which was spent working as a typist in the family business,

Witht the benefit of hindsight, The Tots were like a suit he bought off the rack. Not the most elegant fit, but they did the job for a year - until he wore them out/got bored and sacked them.

• lou reed
• new york city
• velvet underground
• tully hall

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Kamikaze - Tokyo Beef (self released)

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 March 2018

Hits: 4778

Detroit rock? It never sounded so Australian as this Queensland band. Tokyo Beef slams out nine original songs on their second album and it reeks of Fourex pots and durries on a Gold Coast Saturday arvo down at the old Birdwatcher's Bar on Cavill Avenue.

The cover imagery is a Japanese Zero winging it past a burning wreck and it's apt enough. These songs are above mid-tempo punk rock with no safety net. Played live in the studio, theyy're first or second takes, for the most part. One guitar, bass, drums and a stand-and-deliver drawl.

Guitarist Punk (yep, that's his band name and for all I know it's the tag that his cellmate gave him) doesn't stand for subtlety and his tightly-coiled leads and sharp licks are all over these songs, free of overdubs.

• punk
• australian
• tokyo beef
• celibate rifles
• burleigh heads
• gold coast
• kamikaze

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Messin' With The Kid

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

23 March 2018

Hits: 7197

_{Guess who's coming to dinner? Kid Congo Powers (right) and the Pink Monkey Birds.}

Kid Congo Powers’ musical career is a lens through which can be seen some of the most intense and evocative music of the last 40 years. 

Born Brian Tristan in the Los Angeles suburb of La Puente, Kid Congo Powers famously met Jeffrey Lee Pierce in the line at a Pere Ubu concert. Pierce was the president of the LA chapter of the Blondie Fan Club; Powers was the president of local chapter of The Ramones Fan Club. Pierce recruited Powers to join his fledgling band, Creeping Ritual, later to become The Gun Club. 

In 1980 Powers joined psychobilly band The Cramps, who’d recently moved to LA from New York (it was Cramps lead singer Lux Interior who bestowed Brian Tristan with the moniker Kid Congo Powers). 

• bad seeds
• nick cave
• tex perkins
• kid congo powers
• the pink monkey birds
• lydia lunch
• the cramps
• the gun club
• spencer jones
• poison ivy
• lux interior
• no wave
• james chance

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Tombstone N Bones - Chicken Snake (Beast Records)

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

22 March 2018

Hits: 3774

We were in a diner eating breakfast in downtown New Orleans about 25 years ago, labouring through the aptly-named "Hungry Man’s Special" (eggs, toast, links, bacon, and enough salt to saturate the Mississippi Delta), when a couple of locals at an adjacent table heard our accents and started up a conversation.

“Where y’all from?” they asked. Geo-cultural introductions completed, the discussion strayed onto the social, economic and political idiosyncrasies of New Orleans.

“Y’all know why the roads are all so bad ‘round here,” we were asked rhetorically. “It’s ‘cause Washington said we couldn’t have any money for roads until we raised the drinking age to 21! So we said ‘Fuck you! We’d rather have our beer than decent roads!”

• beast records
• spencer p jones
• jerry teel
• tombstone n blues
• pauline teel
• josh lee hooker
• jessica melain
• new orleans

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Stranded in The Jungle. Jerry Nolan’s Wild Ride by Curt Weiss (Backbeat Books)

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 March 2018

Hits: 9109

The cover does not lie. It was a wild ride for Jerry Nolan, drummer from the New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. And it’s all outlined in detail in Kurt Weiss’s gripping, 310-page biography.

Much of the wild nature of the journey was self-induced: in a New York underground rock scene where junkies were prominent, Jerry was one of the most notorious. A bigger fiend than his running mate Johnny Thunders, some say. 

His death at the unripe age of 45 - on life support, fighting bacterial meningitis and pneumonia - was more than likely related to his two decades of intravenous heroin use. He was HIV-positive at the end - and possibly in the grip of AIDS, the author suggests.

Curt Weiss (aka Lewis King) drummed in Beat Rodeo and succeeded Nolan in the lesser-known Rockats. He met Nolan only in passing. His style is incisive and direct, and his critical faculties are those of a rock and roll player, which is no bad thing when talking about Nolan's technique.

• heartbreakers
• new york dolls
• jerry nolan
• johnny thunders
• stranded in the jungle
• curt weiss

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Lager Than Life - Squeeze The Pig (self released)

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 March 2018

Hits: 5103

The production veers towards the threadbare in parts but there's a lug-headed charm about this CD from a blokey band from Perth. "Lager Than Life" is the debut release for Squeeze The Pig. 

At eight tracks long it's too short to be an album and too long to be an EP. Let's stick with the tried and tested label "Mini Album" for the time being.

As if you hadn't guessed from the cover art, "Lager Than Life" is all about fast cars, motorcyles, beer, smokes and rock and roll. It's meat and potatoes and doesn't try to be anything that it isn't.

• radio birdman
• rose tattoo
• cosmic psychos
• squeeze the pig
• lager than life

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An engaging double-header in Melbourne

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

18 March 2018

Hits: 5294

_{Camp Cove.}

A scenario The Barman will appreciate: My place of employment has organised for middle-managers to attend a two-day leadership and management session. The notional proposition is clear: to build engagement across and up through to the more senior levels of the corporate hierarchy.

"Engagement", in this context, is a corporate-speak for constructive interaction in the workplace. You can talk to someone, but unless you’re both engaged, it’s just words. And what are words for, when no-one listens anymore?

We’re assembled at the venue, a mid-range hotel-cum-conference venue in Melbourne’s CBD. The room is small and stuffy. The only window looks out to construction works being undertaken across the street. The décor is unimpressive, patterned brown carpet like a Brunswick sharehouse, uncomfortable chairs, inconveniently placed supporting pillars.

• melbourne
• live
• the tote
• camp cove
• the jim mitchells
• thornbury theatre
• patrick emery

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King Cobra - The Senior Service (Damaged Goods)

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 March 2018

Hits: 5178

Effortlessly cool instrumental soundtrack music by a band drawn from the UK Medway scene. The Senior Service make epic songs.

If you don’t know the names Jon Barker (organ), Graham Day (guitar), Darryl Hartley (bass) and Wolf Howard (drums and percussion), you’ll know the bands they’ve played in, like Billy Childish and the Buff Medways, The Mighty Caesars and The Prisoners.

Hammond organ to the forefront, The Senior Service march to a drumbeat made familiar by predecessors like Booker T and the MGs. This is their second album and it could have filled the soundtracks of any number of spy movies, film noir thrillers or whimsical British dramas.

• the prisoners
• billy childish
• damaged goods
• the senior service
• buff medways
• the mighty caesars

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