Delusionally Yours – Ronny Dap (self released)

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By The Barman

The Barman

11 June 2019

Hits: 4180

He’s not a household name (yet) but don’t let that stop you. Ronny Dap is the self-styled King of Aussie Pub Rock DIY, a minstrel for those who wish their weekend trip to Bunnings was for guitar strings and not Ozito home-brand power tools that fall apart, shoddy customer service and a cheap sausage sandwich.

Yobbos. We’ve had a few. For those playing along at home overseas and not familiar with everyday Australian vernacular, Yobbo is the term for “a heavy drinker, who places mateship above all else and lives for those wild memorable moments that are unforgettable”. According to the authoritative Urban Dictionary, anyway.

From Billy Thorpe to the Cosmic Psychos, yobbos have been part of the musical and cultural fabric –the cut of the cloth being comfy jeans and a blue singlet. Turn up your nose if you must, but disdain for the upper crust, accompanied by larrikin behaviour, pre-dates Oz rock and roll by a long way. It’s probably one of the few defining national characteristics most of us can agree on.

• melbourne
• oz rock
• punk rock
• the dope smoking morons
• ronny dap

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The Aints! Play The Saints - The Aints! (Fatal Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 June 2019

Hits: 6152

No need to apologise for liking the nostalgic side of The Aints! That’d be the part represented by the segment of their live show, comprising the songs of the Kuepper Saints from their first three studio albums. This live document - culled from their 2018 Australian gigs - showcases the songs in all their sweaty, over-driven glory.

While a bracket of the “new” Saints songs would have been equally welcome from the studio album "The Church of Simultaneous Existence", there’s no complaining about this collection. Ten tunes, classics mostly, and all breathing fire.

• ed kuepper
• chris bailey
• the saints
• play the saints
• fatal records

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There is Only Now - The Galileo 7 (Damaged Goods)

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 June 2019

Hits: 3756

One of those online dictionaries defines "freakbeat" as "a sub-genre of rock and roll music developed mainly by harder-driving British groups, often those with a mod following during the Swinging London period of the mid to late 1960s".

Fair enough. This review is written by someone who used "The Rubble Collection" of UK freakbeat as the soundtrack to painting a dining room wall. There are 10 discs in that box set and, no, it didn't all of them to get the job done. Almost.

The point is that if you don't know the tag, you'll know th sound. Odds are you've probably heard, latched onto and loved a freakbeat band without consciously knowing it. In which case, you're a candidate to be equally besotted with The Galileo 7.

• psychedelic
• pop
• freakbeat
• galileo7
• damaged goods
• there is only now

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Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot: The Billy Childish Story 1977-2018 - Billy Childish (Damaged Goods)

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 June 2019

Hits: 4058

How do you sum up the musical career of Billy Childish, England's finest, over two CDs or six sides of vinyl? "Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot" (translation: Punk rock is not dead) pulls it off pretty well.

The Childish oeuvre isn't for everyone. Across various groups - the Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, Thee Mighty Caesars, Musicians Of The British Empire, The Buff Medways and CTMF among them - Billy has been the poster child for low-fi, crudely-recorded, minimalist rock and roll.

Whip smart lyrics, sometimes confessional and often sardonic or profane, delivered in the voice of a street hooligan and set against distortion and dissonance. As a guitarist, Billy is no Steve Vai and for that we can all be eternally fucking grateful.

• billy childish
• damaged goods
• ctmf
• pop rivets
• thee headcoats
• medway sound
• medway wheelers
• Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot

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Ann Arbor Revival Meeting - Scott Morgan’s Powertrane featuring Deniz Tek & Ron Asheton (Grown Up Wrong)

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 June 2019

Hits: 6675

The American college town of Ann Arbor - A2 to the locals - has a lot to answer for. This re-issue of a long out-of-print live recording of some of its famous sons makes it apparent.

Originally released on CD only by Philadelphia's Real O-Mind Records in 2002, it's on vinyl as well as shiny silver disc this time around, and marks the return of David Laing's Grown Up Wrong label.

Everything about this show smokes. Powertane were the vehicle for A2 legend Scott Morgan, a soul prodigy (The Rationals) who made up a quarter of one of the greatest guitar rock and roll bands to ever go MIA in the mists of musical legend status, Sonics Rendezvous Band.

• stooges
• hydromatics
• powertrane
• radio birdman
• deniz tek
• scott morgan
• ron asheton
• blind pig
• grown up wrong
• ann arbor revival meeting
• real 0-mind

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Who Is That Mad Band? - The Process (Temple Gong Recordings) & Dub World - The Process (Temple Gong Recordings)

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 June 2019

Hits: 3170

You’d be right if you said reggae doesn’t get much of a look-in at the I-94 Bar. It's not that anyone’s allergic to it, but rock and roll is the staple beer on tap.

You can argue that the Clash turned out their own kind of rock-reggae with mixed results, but the genre remains at the margins around much of the world - like its distant punk rock cousin.

Bob Marley introduced the wider world to reggae in the ‘70s but it had been entrenched in Jamaica for generations. A generation of immigrants had already spread rocksteady and ska to the UK.

The music that Marley brought to stadiums and concert halls was a few steps away from the sound that pervaded the alleys of Trenchtown. Major labels provided th bread, not Jah, and their producers rubbed the rough edges off Marley, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff to make them acceptable to mass market ears. 

• detroit
• the process
• reggage
• dick wagner
• david asher
• garrick owen

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Transmission coming through, loud and clear

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

07 June 2019

Hits: 3362

Sand Pebbles
John Curtin Hotel , Carlton
Saturday, June 1 2019

I remember 2004. Living in a spacious weatherboard house in North Fitzroy, two small children, disrupted sleep patterns, fumbling through the fog of the embryonic years of parenthood.

Watching the Howard Years roll on. Mark Latham pushed his way into public view, tried to take up the fight with Howard. Toned down the more provocative aspects of his public discourse, held a press conference in front of a row of American flags, presented himself as the guy who understood the aspirations of the suburban demographic, but who wasn’t a product of an era that’d never return. Who’d have though 15 years later Latham would be a One Nation member in the NSW parliament? People thought Pauline Hanson was finished too. History is funny, innit?

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A Decade of Defiance - The Media Whores (Twenty Stone Blatt)

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By The Barman

The Barman

07 June 2019

Hits: 2444

Their bid to become a sovereign state might have crashed and burned five years ago, and they still haven't worked out how to banish those Sassenachs* from north of Hadrian's Wall, but the Scots have never been short of a political opinion. Just put a pint of beer in front of an Edinburgher** - or a microphone in the case of The Media Whores - and you'll get your money's worth.

“A Decade of Defiance” is a compilation of tracks from The Media Whores' three albums and one EP, with three cuts thrown in to preview their forthcoming new long-player.

^{* English person
** Person from Edinburgh}

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5-6-7-8-9 - The Aints! (ABC Music/Universal)

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 June 2019

Hits: 4581

Also Sprach might have been the king of Eurodisco but Ed Kuepper reigns supreme as the Monarch of Re-invention. Of his contemporaries, only Kim Salmon comes close.

There was a modest risk in forming a third line-up of The Aints; the upside was that they'd pull crowds and make good cash, the other half of the equation being that it wouldn't take the legacy of the original band anywhere special. If you were a doubter, leave the room now...

Re-shaping un-recorded songs written for the original Saints was a masterstroke. So was Kuepper's selection of his band - the engine room of Paul Larsen-Loughhead and Peter Oxley was never going to be a dud - and his decision to colour the material with bold brass arrangements...that was inspired.

• the saints
• abc records
• 5-6-7-8-9-

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