The Ark - The Vacant Lot (Damn You)

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 May 2018

Hits: 4237

It’s said that the only good thing to come out of Australia’s national capital is the Federal Highway, but it’s not true. Canberra’s also spawned some decent punk rock, and here’s more evidence. 

It’s not a hanging offence if you’ve never heard of The Vacant Lot. Molly Meldrum never made their acquaintance either. If he had, he would have hated them. Take that as a plus. 

The Vacant Lot grew out of the Australian National University campus in 1978. Canberra had a small but energetic punk or new wave scene by then. Wearing less Detroit leather than Sydney, not as ragged and oppressed as bands from Brisbane and not as artfully smacked out as the Melbourne crew, it was a community that tolerated - no, encouraged - music that didn’t fit with convention. 

• canberra
• the ark
• the vacant lot
• thought criminals
• doublethink

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Paradox – Neil Young and The Promise of The Real (Reprise)

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 May 2018

Hits: 3062

Neil Young shouldn’t be allowed near a Super 8 movie camera, let alone a big screen. If his girlfriend, The Mermaid Lady, wants to make her own movies, she’s rich enough to go right ahead. Just be merciful and don’t make them compulsory viewing.

This is the soundtrack to a Mermaid Lady movie. Her directorial debut, no less. Apparently, the fillum is a rambling, plot-less Netflix download in which Neil and his band (aka The Spawn of Willie Nelson) appear as outlaws and cowboys, who "pass the days digging for treasure while they wait for the full moon to bring its magic, the music and let the spirits fly."

The above review comes from a friend and the media release. I can’t vouch for it myself. What I do know is that Neil needs to stick to making music. It’s his strength.

• neil-young
• promise of the real
• reprise
• paradox

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Behind The Shade – James Williamson and the Pink Hearts (Leopard Lady Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 May 2018

Hits: 8803

Plenty of people won’t “get” this record. That’s the inherent risk when you move forward and don’t stay comfortably treading water in one swimming pool.

It’s the second solo album for James Williamson (third if you count the live one with The Careless Hearts) and “Behind The Shade” doesn’t kiss-off his substantial Iggy & The Stooges legacy. More pointedly, it reinforces that Williamson is no one-trick pony.

Of course you should know James for inventing one of the most brutal guitar styles ever. Iggy himself paid him a back-handed compliment by saying that his former collaborator filled every possible space in their band’s soundscape. He did say it was to the point of claustrophobia, or words to that effect.

• james williamson
• the pink hearts
• leopard lady records
• behind the shade
• iggy and the stooges
• frank meyer
• petra haden
• streetwalkin' cheetahs

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Two Nights With Satan - 300 St Claire (Conquest of Noise)

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 May 2018

Hits: 5141

Yes, 300 St Claire were another of those noisy, intense and hard-as-a-cheap-pub-steak bands that were around in a crowded Sydney backyard at the cusp of the 2000s and never made a substantial mark anywhere else.  They self-released an EP, gigged around and more or less fell off the radar before the decade was half-done. 

My own memories include taking away tinnitus from a support they played to Asteroid B612 at the Iron Duke in Sydney one Friday night. By the time Johnny Casino and Co came on, the damage had been done, and every note The Big Fella played fell on ringing ears.   

As is the way these days, 300 St Claire has reformed - to have fun and sink a few beers, the members will tell you - so now is a good time for their long, lost EP to resurface on Conquest of Noise, complete with extras. It’s every bit as bludgeoning as you’d expect. 

• sydney
• conquest of noise
• asteroid b612
• 300 st. claire
• bored!
• powdermonkeys
• peter booges werth
• two nights with satan
• mark horne
• mick poole

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Butterflyin’ - New York Dolls (Easy Action)

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 May 2018

Hits: 5423

Riddle me this, Batman: In these digital times, why put out a CD of a live recording in a box set and split it over two discs? A strange attempt to mimick the vinyl exprience of flipping an LP over after it hits the run-out groove? Yes, Barflies, these are some of the weighty societal issues we trouble ourselves with at the I-94 Bar. Let’s back the truck up a bit here…

“Butterflyin’” is an upgraded version of a Dolls boot that’s been doing the rounds since Steve Jones was old enough to do time in an adult detention facility. Not that he’s the only one who swiped something from the Dolls’ output. It’s taken from a 1974 WLIR radio broadcast. An additional six live tracks, from another undated radio show, are the icing on the cake. More about them later. 

• new york punk
• new york city
• jerry nolan
• johnny thunders
• my father's place
• david johansen
• syl sylvain
• arthur kane

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It's 2018 and we still need Lunch

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

12 May 2018

Hits: 8867

_{Jasmine Hirst photo.}

Lydia Lunch doesn’t particularly care whether people are offended by her art.

From her beginnings in New York no wave outfit, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, to her spoken-word performances, to her collaborations with Rowland S Howard in Shotgun Wedding, Swans’ Michael Gira, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, Bob Quine (Richard and the Hell and the Voidoids), right through to her more recent profane expositions on the United States under Donald Trump, Lunch’s self-defined brief has been deliberately and avowedly confrontationalist.

In her own words, Lunch is a conceptualist, exploring concepts that highlight the exploitation and marginalisation of the individual in contemporary society, the typically patriarchal and oppressive discourse wielded by institutions of power.

If you can’t stand the heat in Lunch’s artistic kitchen, go find yourself a fast-food media joint and starve on the processed, intellectually bankrupt crud that masquerades as entertainment.

In May 2018 Lunch returns to Australia with her Retrovirus concept, trawling across her 40-year career with the aid of Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Chrome Cranks), Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers) and Algis Kizys (Swans). I spoke to Lydia Lunch in her sometime home town of New York City.

• richard hell
• sonic youth
• robert quine
• the birthday party
• rowland s. howard
• lydia lunch
• teenage jesus and the jerks
• shotgun wedding
• swans
• michael gira

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Blues Trash - Reverend Beat-Man and the New Wave (Voodoo Rhythm) and In My Room - The Gun Club (Bang! Records)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

10 May 2018

Hits: 4598

You've all been subjected to that “name 10 LPs in 10 days” stuff on Facebook like me, I suppose? 

I stopped partly because I had to go interstate and didn't think I'd have access to FB, and partly because, on the trip over I wrote down another list of those records which I considered to be watershed, groundbreaking, jaw-dropping and influential to me personally.

Noted thug-about-Sydney's-buses Bob Short is still going strong (at the time of writing he's approaching 50 days, and if he keeps going he might finish in 2021) and I think that's the problem.

• bang! records
• jeffrey lee pierce
• gun club
• voodoo rhythm
• new wave
• reverend beat-man
• in my room

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Ex-Stooge James Williamson's new album looms

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By The Barman

The Barman

08 May 2018

Hits: 5463

The debut album from ex-Iggy and the Stooges guitarist James Williamson and his new band, The Pink Hearts, comes out on June 22 and we’ll have a review live in about a week.

“Behind the Shade” by James Williamson and The Pink Hearts will be on Williamson’s own Leopard Lady Records and is a diverse but powerful effort, with Frank Meyer (Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) and Petra Haden (That Dog) sharing lead vocals. 

Haden was one of the feature vocalists on Williamson’s album of previously unreleased studio versions of Stooges songs, “Re-Licked”. She also contributed violin to “The Departed” on the final Stooges album. “Ready To Die”. 

On “Behind The Shade”, Williamson supplies all of the riffs, guitar parts and most of the bass. The album also includes a host of accompanists.

They include Michael Urbano (Smash Mouth, Bourgeois Tagg, Todd Rundgren, John Hiatt) on percussion, Gregg Foreman, Hervé Salters, Paul Roessler, Nick Hart, and Audrey Vera on keyboards and piano, Jason Carmer on bass, Don Rooke on lap steel, Geoff Yeaton and Tony Peebles on saxophone and Steffen Kuehn on trumpet.

Click Read More for a video teaser and the tracklist.

• iggy pop
• james williamson
• the pink hearts
• leopard lady records
• behind the shade
• iggy and the stooges
• the stooges
• frank meyer
• petra haden

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Sydney to celebrate 45 years of Volcanic Rock

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By The Barman

The Barman

06 May 2018

Hits: 3909

It’s been cited as one of the most influential hard rock albums in Australian music history. Buffalo’s “Volcanic Rock” turns 45 this year.

To mark the occasion, vocalist Dave Tice is playing some special shows with current band, Buffalo Revisited, playing the album and a handful of other hand-picked highlights from the band’s five-album career.

The first will be presemnted by the I-94 Bar at Sydney’s Bald Faced Stag Hotel on Saturday, June 30.

Recorded mostly live at United Sound in Sydney, “Volcanic Rock” appeared in August 1973 on the Vertigo label, also home to Black Sabbath.

Attracting minimal airplay, it was critically-hailed and tracks like “Freedom”, The Prophet” and “Shylock” wrote the template for stoner rock.

• dave tice
• buffalo revisited
• 45 years
• volcanic rock
• bald faced stag

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