Henry Hugo live in Adelaide

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

24 January 2016

Hits: 5713

Credit: Barry C Douglas (Barry Takes Photos)

Zurich-based Henry Hugo has been in Melbourne for a few weeks, playing with a variety of Melbourne talent so glittering it fairly takes your breath away. I believe there might be a couple more gigs to come, so I suggest you get your hat and coat and wallet and get out the door right now.

Before I go on, I missed opening act the St Morris Sinners. I have heard endless good things about them and I must catch them soon. But it wasn’t to be tonight.

• nick cave
• henry-hugo

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Deli Oriental Meat Style & Food - The Ex-Boyfriends (Cash-Core Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 January 2016

Hits: 5654

Listen up, punks and noiseniks: The Canadian band’s fifth album in 17 years is inarguably their best. It rocks like fuck; It scratches like a rabid kitten. It’s tuneful and noisily offensive at the same time. All of which should tell you something about The Ex-Boyfriends even if you’ve never heard of them.

The Ex-Boyfriends come from Calgary and I’m willing to bet they’re the best-in-breed in that neck of the woods. If Calgary’s music scene is half as fractured as anywhere else, it takes a lot of balls to be a rock and roll band. Big ones if you play noisy punk rock. Shamefully, I’d forgotten they were around until a notice about this heavy-diuty chunk of vinyl landed in the post box.

• punk
• saints
• television
• richard hell
• the ex-boyfriends
• calgary
• punk rock

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Anarchy? What Anarchy? Glen Matlock just wants to have serious fun

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

21 January 2016

Hits: 7218

_{Men Of No Shame: Earl Slick, Glen Matlock and Slim Jim Phantom}

Sweat is pouring down my neck and back. Rob from the C-Bombs is dangling pictures of his empty pool at me on facebook and I suddenly remember to start dialling.

I’m calling Glen Matlock in London. It will be something like 8.30 in the morning there. He’s organised, sounds quite sober, matter-of-fact and down to earth. Which is pretty good, cos if you’ve never heard the bugger’s name you’ve certainly heard at least one of the bands he’s been in, and helped write the songs for: The Sex Pistols.

Glen is coming to Australia for the ‘Men of No Shame’ tour with Earl Slick and Slim Jim Phantom.

• sex pistols
• new york dolls
• glen matlock
• earl slick
• slim jim phantom
• stray cats
• david bowie

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Voidoids guitarist Ivan Julian fighting cancer

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By The Barman

The Barman

19 January 2016

Hits: 5204

Onetime Richard Hell and the Voidoids guitarist Ivan Julian is battling cancer, his record label has revealed.

“The prognosis looks good for Ivan, but for the next six months or more, flexibility to do his work will be greatly diminished, which means a direct impact on his income,” Plowboy Records said in a statement on its website. Julian was diagnosed almost immediately after writing and recording The Fauntleroys’ new single, “Wait For Me”  b/w “All The Way Down (In The City Of Angels).

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Plowboy Records and The Fauntleroys are offering the new singles in digital, vinyl and CD formats with all profits going to Ivan Julian. Go here to score the new single or the band's debut EP and help a punk rock icon.

Plowboy is also home to ex-Dead Boy Cheetah Chrome.

With the late Robert Quine, Julian was one-half of one of the most innovative guitar combinations on the New York punk scene and more recently had worked with Matthew Sweet. 

• new york punk
• plowboy records
• richard hell
• voidoids
• ivan
• julian

Blackstar - David Bowie (Sony)

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By Bob Short

Bob Short

17 January 2016

Hits: 6911

Well, this is awkward. David Bowie produces a new album. It's actually pretty good. Easily the best album he's produced since "Low". I know, right? A lot of people hate that one too but an album made by a coke snorting lunatic whilst driving around a car park at seventy five miles an hour is by definition going to sort the likes from the dislikes.

After the Seventies glory years of Glam and guitar solos, things took a turn to the weird. The so called Berlin trilogy featured two good albums "Low" and "Heroes" and the rather jumbled "Lodger". His production of Iggy Pop's "The Idiot" quietly changed the way we'd look at popular music. Joy Division and Public Image Limited were obviously paying attention as well as a veritable army of prissy nerds with their sister's make-up kits and Casio keyboards.

• david bowie
• blackstar

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Sonny Vincent needs your help after family tragedy

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By The Barman

The Barman

15 January 2016

Hits: 5973

Punk rock icon Sonny Vincent is in the middle of a family tragedy and desperately needs your help.

His son Robert Ventura, daughter-in-law Sarah and nine-year-old grandson Cayden are on life support in a North Carolina hospital after a gas fire engulfed their home.

Sonny has flown in from his own home in Germany with only the clothes on his back and is on a bedside vigil. 

A GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign has been established to help the family here. A benefit show in NYC is also in the pipeline.  

Sonny is a former member of seminal punk band The Testors and has a long and storied career as a solo artist, collaborating with the creme de la creme of the underground rock scene. 

https://www.gofundme.com/xnvynbcc

• rock
• sonny
• vincent
• gofundme

Johnny Streetlight - Chickenstones (self released)

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By Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

13 January 2016

Hits: 7280

Good god, what a fucking racket.

“Johnny Streetlight” is four-and-a-half bottles of joyous, fresh-faced old school rock’n’roll, soaked in piss and substance abuse and if you treat it right you’ll lose part of your hearing (just don’t eat the worm at the bottom). There’s no bad songs on “Johnny Streetlight”, they’re all good for gold. If this band had been around in the mid-‘80s they woulda been huge.

The inner sleeve pic by Leif Alan Creed makes the band look positively criminal (one gentle soul makes up for his lack of pupils by wielding a rather lethal saw).

• blues
• swamp
• sydney
• chickenstones

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Chris Masuak says don't be a "Bird Brain" on new CD

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 January 2016

Hits: 4725

Ex-Radio Birdman guitar slinger Chris Masuak has released a promotional clip to launch a crowd-funding campaign for his forthcoming album to come out on CD and it's likely to cause a stir with fans of his former band. The song's title is "Bird Brain."

You can get on board the crowdfunding campaign to grab anything from Birdman and Hitmen rarities, a Masuak show in your backyard to a copy of the album (when it comes out) here. Meanwhile, here's the clip:

• radio
• radio birdman

Conundrum - Thee Headcoats (Damaged Goods)

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 January 2016

Hits: 5410

This re-issue of a 1994 album by Medway’s finest sounds as brattish and vital as anything else around now, the perfect blend of punk rock and beat pop. Fashions come and go but Billy Childish remains a constant.

You think you work hard? By the time Thee Headcoats released this they had eight albums under their belts and fuck knows how many singles. Formed after Thee Mighty Caesars ground to a halt, they were an influence on everyone from Jack White to the Black Lips, Thee Oh-Sees and Jon Spencer.

• garage
• medway
• billy childish
• damaged goods
• thee headcoats

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