Let Ya Hair Down should flip your wig

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 April 2023

Hits: 2293

Let Your Hair Down – The On and Ons (Citadel)

Short on time? Here's all you need to know in fewer than six paragraphs:

“Let Ya Hair Down” is album number five for The On and Ons and finds them exploring new sonic textures and invoking a slightly tougher approach. The hook-laden song-writing, lockstep playing and uplifting harmonies remain intact, but there’s a sense of the band pushing fresh envelopes, too.

Let’s say that thing that every band hopes/strives for, and declare, without hyperbole, that it’s the best thing The On and Ons have recorded.

If you don’t know already, The On and Ons feature singer/songwriter/guitarist Glenn Morris, his brother Brian (drums and harmony vocals) and bassist Clyde Bramley (bottom end and harmonies). The band is based in Sydney and their combined pedigree includes recording and touring internationally with Hoodoo Gurus, Screaming Tribesmen, Kings of the Sun, and Paul Collins Beat. 

• powerpop
• clyde bramley
• the on and ons
• citadel records
• glenn morris
• brian morris
• let ya hair down

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Chimers give you choices as Mudhoney supports loom

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By The Barman

The Barman

11 April 2023

Hits: 1813

Noisy Wollongong duo Chimers - whose self-released and self-titled album has found fans among the likes of Henry Rollins, Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, and members of The Mark Of Cain and Mudhoney – have released a new single to coincide with a host of shows up and down the Australian East Coast.

The band is about to support Mudhoney on selected dates and has issued “Turn On The Lights” b/w “Closure”  on “translucent transfusion red” and “recycled marble love” wax on boutique label Soundpressing.

Pick up a copy at the gigs or here.

• mudhoney
• chimers

Little Murders bottle some pop sunshine

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 April 2023

Hits: 2161

Wait ‘Til The Summer Comes b/w Tonight Tonight Tonight - Little Murders (Off The Hip)

The formula is as simple as it is timeless: Verse-chorus-chorus. Melody lines and a hook or two. Melbourne’s Little Murders have it down pat and this 45 is another object lesson in powerpop.

“Wait ‘Til The Summer Comes” is the tough pop rocker, “Tonight…” its lighter reflection. The former swoops early and replicates its own melody line in a short but effective blaze of guitars. Rob Griffiths’ agreeably distinctive vocal suits the song’s summery mood. And it is always summer, somewhere around the world.

Flip it over and “Tonight Tonight Tonight” is a simpler but no less catchy gem. Griffiths and lead guitarist Rod Hayward do a little sparring the song kicks back into its chorus. Hayward takes it out. Finito. Simple and effective.

Bonus: Buy the vinyl single and you’re gifted another four digital tracks. An easy call, really.

    3/4

Buy it 

• little murders
• wait til the summer comes
• tonight

A match made in Newcastle

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 April 2023

Hits: 1874

Nothing Is For Everyone – Drugs in Sport/Sound of Speed – Lachlan X Morris (Outtaspace)

Split records can be problematic. Too often the vehicles of economic convenience for cash-strapped but otherwise disparate bands who pool their money and patch two sides together in order, just to get a release out. And there are splits like this one where some pop-rock magic works together.

Drugs in Sport and Lachlan X Morris both come from Newcastle in Australia. A onetime hotbed for blue collar rock and roll, the former Steel City has gentrified and diversified. This shared release on Central Coast label Outtspace is five songs from DIS and four from Lachlan X over two sides of 12-inch vinyl, and proves that there’s still rock and roll life in Newie.

• newcastle
• outtspace records
• drugs in sport
• lachlan x morris
• sound of speed
• nothing is for everyone

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Crispy without surplus cream

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 April 2023

Hits: 2276

The Crisps – The Crisps (Vi-Nil Records)

Pure garage pop goodness and it’s only two decades late. Chances are you’ve never heard of them.

As mentioned elsewhere, The Crisps were a Sydney assemblage of great potential back in the 1990s. The reasons they went nowhere are lost in the mists of time – probably hidden under a floorboard of the abandoned Hopetoun Hotel.

A vehicle for the songs of drummer-vocalist Stuart Wilson (New Christs, Lime Spiders and dozens of others), the band included members of would-be international stars Doomfoxx, road veterans The Johnnys and underrated northern beaches cowboys Orange County.

They recorded these six songs to help rustle up gigs. Ex-music reviewer-turned-bar operator  Mark Fraser heard them while reviving his Vi Nil Records label, loved ‘em and offered to press them up. And the rest is history.    

• stuart wilson
• dave thomas
• doomfoxx
• graham hood
• vi-nil records
• the crisps
• chris nacard
• rick o'neill

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The Crisps nail it on a night of Easter comebacks

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 April 2023

Hits: 2835

_{Dave and Hoody: The Crisps. Shona Ross photo}

The Crisps
+ PocketWatch
+ The Hot Ness
Marrickville Bowling Club, Sydney
Friday, 7 April 2023

Photos: Shona Ross

Seventeen years after they last stood together on a Sydney stage, The Crisps are hitting the road up and down the Australian East Coast, partly to promote the release of an EP and partly for fun. Tonight’s show is number-two of the run and happening on the Friday of an Easter weekend.

• new christs
• the johnnys
• stuart wilson
• dave thomas
• pocketwatch
• orange county
• the crisps
• the hot ness
• john fenton

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Hard-Ons ready to let "Ripper 23" rip

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By The Barman

The Barman

03 April 2023

Hits: 2036

On the back of the crazy success of their last album - the 2021's #4 ARIA Album charting “I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff's Been Taken” - the Hard-Ons will release your new album on June 2. “Ripper '23” will be preceded by a single "Apartment for Two" accompanied by an Australian tour from June 22-July 8, prior to their 20th European tour. 
 
While “I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff's Been Taken” was the first record recorded by the band's current Tim Rogers-fronted line-up, “Ripper '23”  will be the first with all involved in its writing. 



“Ripper '23” is said to be 100% Hard-Ons and “all over the shop (in a good way)”, highlighting the group's stylistic versatility. 

HARD-ONS RIPPER '23 TOUR 
JUNE
22 - Ballarat, Volta TICKETS
23 - Torquay, Torquay Hotel TICKETS
24 - Melbourne, Brunswick Ballroom TICKETS
25 - Castlemaine, The Bridge Hotel (matinee) TICKETS
30 - Wollongong, La La La’s TICKETS
JULY
1 - Sydney, Crowbar TICKETS
6 - Maroochydore, Sol Bar TICKETS
7 - Brisbane, Brightside TICKETS
8 - Gold Coast, Vinnie’s Dive TICKETS

Tickets on sale now

A punk rock afternoon that's not so boring

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By The Barman

The Barman

03 April 2023

Hits: 2928

Rocks
The Strike-Outs
The Jane Does
The MoshPit, St Peters, NSW
Saturday, April 1 2023

Punk rock takes us all back to a simpler time when schooners were cheaper, carpet was stickier and life much simpler.

The humble MoshPit bar at the St Peters end of King Street in Sydney aims to capture that simple spirit. It’s all dive bar ambience and vintage posters, and its modest capacity and open-door booking policy make it a much-needed nursery for the city’s underground bands.

This show was a mix of the old and the new. It was a 3pm kick-off and the place resembled the back bar of an RSL club at two-up start-time on ANZAC Day with a battalion of old soldiers lining its walls.

• sydney
• punk rock
• moshpit
• rocks band
• the jane does
• the strike-outs
• your so boring

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Two men and an improvised album

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

30 March 2023

Hits: 2347

_{Hugo Race at home on the stage.}

After listening to Josh Lord and Hugo Race's LP "Memento Mori" for so long I'm in some kind of extended swoon. Took two showers and a handful of aspirin, plus an 11-year-old’s netball final to finally get me to shake out of it.

Melbourne visual artist Josh Lord collaborated with musician-producer Hugo Race (Hugo Race Fatalists, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Wreckery) for the artwork of Hugo's albums “Dishee” and “Star Birth/Star Death”. In 2021, they spent a day in the studio channelling their own improvised music, creating a wall of sound with guitars and devices. “Memento Mori” is the result.

I decided to ask the perpetrators of this unholy haze a few questions: the same questions, equally, and hoping that they wouldn't confer with each other. 

As The Barman says: Full disclosure: I know both of these gents, and know also that their personalities are fundamentally different - although what drives them is a very similar creature.

• hugo race
• the wreckery
• josh lord
• fatalists
• memento mori

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