This time Saint Ed is coming to stay

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 May 2015

Hits: 4899

For the better part of 2013-14, Ed Kuepper toured Australia performing his crowd-pleasing 'By Request' show in city centres and regional towns, culminating in a sold-out performance at the City Recital Hall for Sydney Festival with the Sydney Chamber Orchestra.

For his first tour of 2015, Kuepper will defy industry pre-conceptions by performing a set of largely new and as-yet-unrecorded material.

Dubbed the "Nostalgia For The New Tour", the run will include a three-week-mid-week residency in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with spin-off weekend shows in regional areas.

The new material is being workshopped with the intention of recording a new album of all new studio material before the end of the year. Fear not, diehard Saints/Laughing Clowns fans: with each show being upwards of two-hours long and without a support, the sets will include back-catalogue gems.

• saints
• ed kuepper
• tour
• laughing
• clowns

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Four shows celebrate legendary Max's Kansas City

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By The Barman

The Barman

12 May 2015

Hits: 6127

Max’s Kansas City was one of the legendary New York City scenes of the 1970s, home to Andy Warhol’s crew and a musical stamping ground for the Velvet Underground, Heartbreakers, Iggy & the Stooges and countless others.

It’s the club where Iggy met David Bowie and had his career fortunes revived, Debbie Harry waited on tables, Patti Smith went star-spotting and the Lou Reed era Velvets played their final shows.   

Former Max’s promoter Peter Crowley is hosting a 50^th anniversary round of shows from June 4-8 and the line-ups feature some of the best that what’s left of the old-school NYC underground scene.

• harry
• waldos
• johnny
• thunders
• iggy
• andy
• max's kansas city
• david
• bowie
• blondie
• smith
• debbie
• warhol
• patti

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Rarest Hydromatics album joins the re-issue ranks

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By The Barman

The Barman

13 May 2015

Hits: 5868

More on the Hydromatics re-issues we told you about a couple of days ago: Third in the series - and possibly the best and most well-rounded release by the band, the impossibly hard-to-find “Powerglide” album - is coming out on CD, with a generous array of bonus cuts.

It will be the first in the series. 

Easy Action Records has paired the 14 Sonic’s Rendezvous Band and original compositions that were on the album with half a dozen live songs cut for radio, plus a bonus disc of 14 rehearsal tunes. This is the line-up of Scott Morgan, Tony Slug, bassist Theo Brouwer and Andy Frost (Powertrane) - it was a killer band and this is a powerful and soulful collection of recordings.

The Italian label that originally released “Powerglide” went belly-up soon after issuing it so copies of the original are next to impossible to find.

Here's a summary from the liners that'll give you an idea what this album is about:

• easy-action
• scott
• hydromatics
• powerglide

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Do not adjust your TV set: Thirteenth Floor Elevators - live! - in Texas

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By Steve Abrahall

Steve Abrahall

13 May 2015

Hits: 7958

Speak to Austin natives and not all will have heard of Roky Erickson – not your average man-in-the-street at any rate - but by having a few decent conversation with various Austin locals, commonalities begin to emerge. Everyone will have either seen a UFO first-hand or have a close friend or relative that has, including a 40-acre behemoth that buzzed the ranch of one, G.W.Bush, just a few years ago. 

Austinites love Beer, UFOs, Barbeques, Guns and…..MUSIC. Just as Sydney is the home of the world’s best Detroit music, Austin then, is the Global Capital of Psychedelia – thanks to seminal legends the Thirteenth Floor Elevators!

Enter Psych Fest, an ostensibly alternative/independent festival that debuted in 2008, and was reportedly instigated to some degree by local psychedelic outfit, the Black Angels.  Held over three days, it has since grown to accommodate even more local talent, as well as swelling to include many top-notch overseas acts. This year’s line-up reads like a who’s who of altered consciousness – Tame Impala, Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream were three of the previous evenings’ acts.

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Hydromatics albums being re-birthed by Easy Action

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By The Barman

The Barman

12 May 2015

Hits: 8562

Here's huge news for fans of Sonic's Rendezvous Band. The first re-issues from The Hydromatics’ back catalogue on UK label Easy Action are ready for pre-order.

The Hydromatics were a ‘90s trans-Atlantic supergroup of sorts, fronted by Scott Morgan (Sonic's Rendezvous Band, The Rationals) and reprising material by Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, as well as fresh originals. Their original line-up included Nicke Royale of Sweden’s Helllacopters and Dutchman Tony Slug (The Nitwitz) and they toured Europe extensively.

This is a band that had power to burn that shone a fresh light on Sonic's Rendezvous Band by doing justice in the studio to material that we'd only heard on dodgy bootlegs. 

‘The Hydromatics” is a re-mastered CD version of the group's debut record, “Parts Unknown”, with a stack of live tracks.

“Dangerous” is a LP (with free CD) of studio versions of Sonic’s Rendezvous Band classics like Asteroid B612, Electrophonic Tonic and City Slang. The 10-track LP is supplemented by “Do It Again”, “Mystically Yours” and “Power and The Glory” on the bonus CD. Get them here.

• easy-action
• sonics rendezvous band
• scott
• hydromatics
• hellacopters
• nitwitz

Thirteenth Floor Elevators lift-off in one-off festival gig

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By The Barman

The Barman

12 May 2015

Hits: 4199

Ever wondered how the 13^th Floor Elevators would sound live, 47 years after their last performance? Wonder no more. The band (most of it) reformed for a one-off show at the levitation Festival in Texas on May 10.  

And before you ask, the Elevators were without the late Stacey Sutherland whose guitar role was well-filled, by all accounts, by ring-in Eli Southward. Roky's son Jaeger added harmonica. 

Set list after the Read More button, plus another video. And no, we haven't heard of any plans to tour this, but we can dream. And keep checking back for a report from our Barfly on the ground. 

• live
• thirteenth floor elevators
• roky erickson
• 13th
• floor
• elevators

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Flashback: King Khan caught in conversation

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

11 May 2015

Hits: 6413

Garage rock royalty, King Khan and BBQ, are heading back to Australia in July, to play the sold-out Splendour In The Grass festival and sideshows in Melbourne and Sydney.

They’ll have a new album, “Bad News Boys”, in tow and it will be their first appearance on these shores since their chaotic show at Vivid in Sydney in 2010, after which they were declared by organisers to be "a security threat" and promptly broke up.

Canadian-born King Khan (guitar-vocals) and BBQ aka Mark Sultan (drums-vocals-guitar) have a string of solo and collaborative records to their name and years of touring their off-the-wall show. 

Their reformation and new record are as good an excuse as any to take a trip back in the time tunnel to 2008 when Patrick Emery cornered King Khan on the eve of him touring his band, The Shrines...

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Hung Up (On You) - The Stoneage Hearts (Off The Hip)

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 May 2015

Hits: 5789

The re-birth of the Stoneage Hearts sounds like a sequel to “High Fidelity”: Three guys walk into a record store at various times, buy the new Red Kross album from the owner and they all decide to form a band. They rehearse at nights in the shop, record an album, tour together and achieve global success.

Apart from the last bit about the worldwide success, the story is true. Not that global domination isn't possible, but more on that later.

This is the third incarnation of this Melbourne garage-pop band and apart from a stack of classic garage and powerpop influences, drummer Mickster Baty is the only constant. Previous line-ups were fronted by Danny McDonald (P76) and Dom Mariani (The Stems, DM3) with Ian Wettehall (Seminal Rats, Phillesteins, Freeloaders) on bass then and apart from guest Farfisa organist and Mickster, this one is populated by relative unknowns. Not that it matters a jot. They’re up to the mark and this is a great record.

• garage
• off-the-hip
• powerpop
• beat
• big star
• stoneage-hearts
• hung up on you
• smithereens
• paul collins

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Brighton, not London, calling and it's Colin Newman down the Wire

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

10 May 2015

Hits: 7048

This is the first time Colin Newman has voted in a British General Election in Brighton. The rhythm guitarist, songwriter and singer for seminal UK art-punk band, Wire, and his partner moved there from South-West London a year or so ago.

“London has its charms, it’s definitely a great city. But it’s not very practical for those who live in it. London’s big problem is cross-city transport. Everything happens in the East these days and getting home via public transport after midnight is impossible so you are in a taxi for £70.00 or on the night but for 3 hours. Maybe the 24 hour tube on the weekends will help that but it’s not all lines and and it’s only two nights a week.

“In the 90’s, where we used to live in South-West London had some culture - nightclubs, record shops etc. and we had the centre in easy reach. Now all the venues are closed not only in that area but in the centre too. No record shops in SW London either..”

• wire
• lewis
• newman
• colin
• pink flag
• pop-frenzy
• graham

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