"Bi-Coastal Blasphemy" – The Ringleaders (Hound Gawd Records)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

28 June 2018

Hits: 5153

Once upon a time, in the relatively genteel state of Virginia, there was a self-destructive punk rock band called The Candy Snatchers. Named after a trashy crime flick, they spilt beer and bled all over American stages before their guitarist prematurely shuffled off this mortal coil a decade ago, and they promptly fell apart.

L.A.-based The Ringleaders have Larry May of The Candy Snatchers on vocals and for that reason, among others, you need to pay attention.

The rest of the band – Hans Molnar (the Hellbenders) on guitar with Tim Bender (Death by Stereo) on drums and Mark Ho (Hollywood Hate) on bass – are similarly well-credentialed. Fully cranked, they sound like they’re heading to Hell in a Honda while out of their heads on glue.

• kbd
• los angeles
• hound gawd records
• the candy snatchers
• the ringleaders
• larry may
• hellbenders
• death bv stereo
• bi-coastal blasphemy

Read more …

Chico Purito! - Hey Honcho and The Aftermaths (Hound Gawd Records)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

27 June 2018

Hits: 3586

It’s fashionable to label Spain as rock and roll’s last remaining outpost, and if you live there or you’ve visited for more than 10 minutes you’ll know why.

The Spaniards didn’t throw off the yoke of Fascist cultural oppression until 1975, so they came late to rock and roll. Partying hard, however, is in their genes and they’ve been making up for lost time.

So say “Hi!” to Hey Honcho and The Aftermaths, a band from Oveido in the country’s north who their label says have a sound that’s typical of Spain’s garage punk scene.

The Aftermaths are ex-members of Los Ass-Draggers, Amon Ra and Electric Children – bands whose profile will be negligible outside of Spain (but don't let that stop you.) They had an EP out before singer Von Gustopher (aka Hey Honcho) joined.

• garage
• chico purito!
• hey honcho and the aftermaths
• hound gawd

Read more …

Are Friends Electric?

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

23 June 2018

Hits: 5783

Intrigued by their frequently-played, Paul (Rocket Science) Maybury-produced, new LP, "Sideways Changeling", and given that they're playing Adelaide this week (The Metro on Friday and the Crown and Anchor on Saturday), I thought it might be a good idea to ask Melbourne's psychedelic space rockers The Electric Guitrars a few questions.

After all, they're on a national your to launch this, their second album, and are, or have been, playing shows with luminaries like The Scientists and Tumbleweed.   

In typical high-energy "you can go your own way" style, they ignored every question put to them and, instead, wrote a track-by-track dissection of the record. Here's the result:

Read more …

I Brought Down The MC5 – Michael Davis (Cleopatra)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

21 June 2018

Hits: 7731

“Brutal” was the first word that came to mind after finishing the posthumous autobiography of MC5 bass player Michael Davis and that adjective is still hanging in the air, 24 hours later.

Over 350 skilfully-written pages, Davis shines a spotlight onto the lives of family, friends, lovers, bandmates and associates over five decades, but it’s the glare cast on his own existence that’s the starkest.

By accident or design, “I Brought Down The MC5” only covers Davis’s life up until meeting his last wife, Angela, and moving to California in the late 1990s. It excludes the DKT-MC5 reunion with bandmates Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson, his fight with Hep C, charity work and near fatal 2006 bike crash. 

All of that, and Michael finding redemption, could have made a dynamite second book, but Davis sadly passed from liver cancer in 2012, aged 68.

• mc5
• wayne kramer
• john sinclair
• rob tyner
• dennis thompson
• michael davis
• fred sonic smith
• cleopatra records
• grande ballroom
• i brought down the mc5

Read more …

You'd be a Stooge to miss this

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

19 June 2018

Hits: 3611

Ron Asheton’s local, The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, is the venue for a tribute show on July 17 to mark what would have been the late ex-Stooges guitarist’s 70^th birthday. Performers will include J Mascis, Don Fleming, Mark Arm, Kim Gordon, Mike Watt, Mario Rubalcaba and Jennifer Herrema. Tickets are available here and proceeds go towards The Ron Asheton Foundation..

• stooges
• ron asheton
• blind pig

Everything is Combustible: Television, CBGB's and Five Decades of Rock and Roll: The Memoirs of an Alchemical Guitarist by Richard Lloyd (Beech Hill)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

19 June 2018

Hits: 5877

Orthodoxy is not the Richard Lloyd way, so this book was never going to be a straight-forward elucidation of the histories of his bands (“Just the facts”.) It’s a weirdly charged ride through the man’s life, using vivid snapshots and taking colourful detours, and it reverberates like his guitar playing.

Lloyd was the rocking yin to Tom Verlaine’s ethereal yang in seminal New York band Television. You could say he kept his guitar partner from lapsing into total six-stringed self-indulgence and flights of fancy, giving the band its rock and roll sensibility.

It’s an important point but his book is about much more than that. Lloyd is also a solo artist of note who has passed through the orbits of people like Jimi Hendrix, Anita Pallenberg, John Lee Hooker, Keith Moon, Buddy Guy and Keith Richards, to name a few.

What you need to know is that Lloyd has been in and out of mental asylums and rehab, used every drug known to Western civilisation (and probably a few that aren’t) and the scope and variety of his sex life would give the late Lou Reed cause for pause. He also has a unique philosophy on human existence.

Lloyd has always felt like an intruder in everybody else’s world, a fully-formed adult even as a child. He lived with bipolar disorder sitting on his shoulder, pulling him up and down. You get the feeling that his (at times impenetrable) brand of spirituality was either a product of that or his anchor, and it runs thematically right through his writing.

• new york punk
• cbgb
• television
• richard lloyd
• everything is combustible

Read more …

Rodeo Rock: Johnnys tussle with Spurs For Jesus

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

18 June 2018

Hits: 4544

It’s the match made in Cowpunk Heaven - those hard drinkin’, Slip Slap Fishin' men, The Johnnys, going Stetson-to-Stetson with unruly, Spurs For Jesus, in an all-hitches-no-britches rock and roll rodeo deep in the heart of Sydney’s Inner Western Delta.

Saturday, August 4 pitches this mighty pair at each other in the main paddock of Marrickville Bowling Club, presented by the I-94 Bar.,

Opening the gate will be Broham, the new country band for globe-jaunting Vanilla Chainsaw frontman Simon Chainsaw and assorted reprobates, making their world debut.

The Johnnys wrote the book on Cowpunk back in the ‘80s; Spurs re-worded parts of it a decade later and Broham intend on tearing some pages out.

Who will come out on top after the hay-bales disintegrate and the rodeo clowns vacate the ring is anyone’s guess.

Wear your best Western wear (double denim is cool) and expect a few surprises along the way, as well as prizes of a Johnnys pack for the Best Dressed Cowgirl and Cowboy.

The last Johnnys show at the Bowlo sold out so get in early for this one and pre-book. You won’t see ‘em again in Sydney any time soon and the girls and guys from Spurs don't play that often, either.

Book by phone on 1300 762 545 or online here. 

• live
• spurs for jesus
• simon chainsaw
• the johnnys
• marrickville bowling club
• broham
• vanilla chainsaws

Modern Rural - Marsden Williams (Marsden Williams); Mythologies - Michael Plater (Reverb Worship); Far From Grace - Tim Hudspith and Goldentone (Dead Letter Records)

Details

By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

18 June 2018

Hits: 3707

Each of these requires repeat listening, possibly with a bottle of red, one or two glasses and (in my case) a hanky.

A couple of weeks ago we went out in Adelaide to see these folks play the Hades Hula Hut, and the next night The Metro. Both Marsden and Tim rather rashly pressed their offerings into my paw, not knowing that I am trying desperately to cut down on my reviews.

Seeing them all play, of course... yeah, and here I am, listening to Marsden's little cassette on my little boombox in my cold little room. So this will be a quick overview...

• michael plater
• marsden williams
• tim hudspith

Read more …

ABC goes bananas for The Aints!

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

13 June 2018

Hits: 4837

Here’s a sight you thought you’d never see: That’s Saints guitarist Ed Kuepper with B1 and B2 of kids TV show "Bananas in Pyjamas". Confused? Besides the fact that Ed is a Queenslander (and don't all Queenslander love bananas?), all three of the above are now labelmates on ABC Records, who announced today that they’ll be putting out the new studio opus for Kuepper’s current band The Aints!, the grandly titled “Church of Simultaneous Existence”.

• ed kuepper
• the aints
• abc records