Don't cry for me, Argentina: King of Cool delivers a KISS-off

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

26 March 2016

Hits: 5516

Bob Dylan once said: “I should have never been successful: I was a fluke” In other words: Music that I write and perform, historically speaking, has never had mass appeal, he explained.

I have to agree with that; art that is intelligent, at times challenging and thoughtful does not generally have mass appeal (with a few exceptions.) KISS, One Direction and The Eagles have all sold mega tonnes of albums. delivered in massive crates (along with packs of Cornflakes) to mega stores, and still play sold-out arenas.

Meanwhile, artists like Ed Kuepper are down the road performing in small clubs, releasing music on their own labels and playing in intimate settings to refined music geeks and fans who like to think about their music.

It was tiny clubs where you could go to see Coltrane, Mingus or, on another level, Dave Van Ronk. It is perfect that we can see Ed in these venues.

The Camelot Lounge is quite a special place. It is a decent live venue in Sydney. So much care and thought has placed into this venue, which also includes the downstairs Django Bar.

It’s like a well-manicured museum - right down to the camel obsession and the food announcements that mimic RSL clubland bingo calls.

“No 67 your pizza ready and that rhymes with heaven” is quaint, and annoying at the same time: that said the booze is a good price. Places like this are truly a godsend.

• saints
• ed kuepper
• lost cities
• laughing clowns

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Hypnic Jerk - The Country Dark (Humu Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

25 March 2016

Hits: 4700

Too much Lux is never enough for some people and Finnish band The Country Dark are clearly lifetime members of the Interior Fan Club. This is Album Number Three for the five-piece from Somewhere Near The Arctic Circle (where the fuck is Kuopio anyway?) and just like the output of The Cramps, it’s laced with humour dark enough to eclipse the sun during the depths of a Scandinavian winter.

The Country Dark play rockabilly-trash rock with lashings of twang. Appearances count for something when you mine that groove and from the cover picture of a hand with a dismembered pinkie to song titles like “Useless (Like Tits On A Boar)” and “Two Dicks In One Hole” (it’s a detective story, you porn fiend) it’s evident what you’re getting.

• garage
• trash
• psychobilly
• country dark

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The Buzzcocks live in Australia

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

23 March 2016

Hits: 5719

_{Nick Spaulding photo}

Everyone, it seems, has seen The Buzzcocks. Usually many times. Why?

The old songs always bring a smile or a rueful thrash as we contemplate our ghastly mistakes in love, and our splattergun rage at … the way things are. Dammit.

• punk
• live
• buzzcocks
• subtract-s
• 40th

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Peter Wells Memorial set for Sydney

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By The Barman

The Barman

22 March 2016

Hits: 4728

It used to be an annual event and the Pete Wells' Anniversay Memorial Gig is back, in time for the 10th year of his passing.

Presented by Lucy Desoto with her band The Handsome Devils, this year’s guests will include Wellsy’s Rose Tattoo brother-in-arms Angy Anderson, Black Label and Black Aces.

Venue is The Bridge Hotel in Rozelle, Sydney, on the long weekend Monday, June 13 The gig runs from 3pm “til we're done and dusted”. 

Wells was the founder of Rose Tattoo and a long-time member of hard-rock pathfinders Buffalo.Lucy Desoto was his long-time partner and musical collaborator in many of his solo bands.  

The Handsome Devils are one of Sydney’s best-kept hard rock secrets featuring Desoto on vocals and keys, Mighty Mick O'Shea on drums, Steve “The King” King on bass and Magic Mick Arnold on slide guitar.

• live
• peter
• buffalo
• wells
• rose tattoo
• lucy desoto
• the bridge

Nobody Wants Me - Babeez (Buttercup Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 March 2016

Hits: 6694

Do you have even the slightest interest in the early Australian punk scene? Are you looking for an excuse to your drop hard-earned on a lovingly-packaged, beautifully rendered piece of long-playing vinyl? Look no further.

Melbourne’s Babeez grew out of glam rock, parties, 5/4 rhythms and the arty Carlton music scene of the mid-1970s. Their epiphany came with hearing the Ramones’ first album. They never fit the punk mould - whatever that was in a confused Australia that absorbed “the real thing” by way of tabloid TV and sea mailed magazines that arrived months after trends had been and gone overseas.

• buttercup records
• babeez
• nobody wants me

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The Mummies go Down Under

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 March 2016

Hits: 8006

_{The Mummies in full flight. Shona Ross photo}

The Mummies in Australia? No fucking way! Hard to believe, but true. A hit-and-run visit spanning three states in less than a week (with a stop-off in New Zealand on the way home) admittedly but a tour, nonetheless.

The Mummies were The Shit in garage rock in the late 1980s. Conceived as the ultimate anti-band by Trent Ruane (organ, vocals), Maz Kattuah (bass), Larry Winther (guitar) and Russell Quan (drums), they were a lynchpin of San Francisco’s lo-fi scene. Emerging from their tomb sporadically in the ‘90s and ‘00s, they’re renowned for being the band that gave the then very hip SubPop label the finger when refusal to sign was a death-wish. They have made no-frills Budget Rock an art-form.

• live
• tour
• australian
• los tones
• mummies
• psychotic turnbuckles
• 2016

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Sunn0))) and Magma at the Adelaide Festival

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

13 March 2016

Hits: 4226

_{Sunn0))) holds court: Tomway Armie photo}

It’s one of the last couple of nights of the Festival and Fringe; Womad is grooving away in Botanic Park, hipsters are growing beards, diners are admiring themselves and magician James Hessler is befuddling everyone else. Crowds are flocking like pigeons in one of Godspeed (etc)’s fillums.

Over at Thebarton, we pick up the tickets and plunk ourselves outside the door. The beefy bouncers all wear yellow shirts and clutch industrial strength earmuffs. After about 40 minutes we scurry in, straight to the interior entrance, for another 30 minute wait, and a $12 plastic cup of cider (our last, at that price).

• adelaide
• sunn0)))
• magma

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Bite Your Tongue - Spacejunk (High Kick Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 March 2016

Hits: 5561

Brattish as fuck and more highly-strung than a cosmetically-enhanced girlfriend’s bra strap, “Bite Your Tongue” proves lightning strikes at least twice. This second offering from this Melbourne band is a case of “second album, just like the first”, sonically-speaking, and that’s no bad thing.

Spacejunk operates in that hard-to-pigeonhole musical space that’s vaguely described as “psychedelic punk rock”. It equates to loud, fuzzy guitars, left-field sonic touches and a barely-controlled energy. Mark E. Moon’s lerry, acid-flecked vocal is the crowning touch.

• punk
• melbourne
• spacejunk
• high kick records
• bite your tongue
• mikey young

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Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Vampillia at the Adelaide Festival

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

11 March 2016

Hits: 4822

It’s bloody festival time here in Adelaide; the week has been a hot one and between stepping around benighted tourists we’ve been taking extra-long detours around the city in order to get anywhere, cheerfully accepting the extra time and travel because the V8 car race is also on.

Then the weather bureau decided that there would only be a 30 percent chance of any rain. Parking the car the heavens opened in what is a sort of minor subtropical hissy fit, and I get drenched.

Hurrah.

• festival
• godspeed! you black emperor
• vampillia

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