Kinda blue and cooking, X man Steve Lucas pushes his own boundaries

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By Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

18 May 2022

Hits: 3255

Cross That Line – Steve Lucas and The Rising Tide (Aztec Music)

Steve Lucas, last man standing from Australia's mighty underground legends X who, back in the day, I expect would have thought of themselves as a powerful rock band. Live, no-one would want to follow them ... and like The Saints and even Radio Birdman, they got called "punk" anyway. Pigeon-holing is for pigeons and gugs. I'd love to have been able to see X and Rose Tattoo in the same week.

Like many veterans of the music industry, Lucas has an unavoidable musical legacy. Which I expect can be both a blessing and a curse. So, for those expecting X Mark 32 and won't take no for an answer ... "Cross That Line" ain't for you. I always thought 'punk' was a state of mind about expressing the individual, not everyone wearing the same uniform and going to the same gigs. My approval or t'otherwise of any record is irrelevant, no matter what the genre. Remember, I'm a big fan of (among others) Gzutt, Peg Leg Sam, Thelonious Monk and Jon Wayne.

• blues
• melbourne
• steve lucas
• joey bedlam
• x band
• cross that line

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A '70s tale of tragic mis-steps

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By JD Stayfree

JD Stayfree

08 May 2022

Hits: 3447

JOBRIATH A.D. (2002)
Written, produced and directed by Kieran Turner

Weird times we live in, to paraphrase John Waters. We've gone from people rebelling against rules, to becoming fanatical lil' rule-mongers, themselves. That's some crazy shit, and you gotta wonder what's up with all that.

Probably the most moving film I've seen since "Beautiful Darling", the also poignant Candy Darling story, is "Jobriath A.D." You might know he was one of the first openly gay, glam, wouldbe seventies rock stars, who was first discovered whilst singing in the Broadway play, "Hair". In the hippie dippy era, he made a baroque pop album with a band called Pidgeon. He was drafted by the army, went AWOL, and did time in a military psychiatric facility. He came from a tragically broken family and his mom never fully accepted him, because of his sexual identity which caused him acute pain. He was a really sweet, upbeat, positive force as a young person, a painter/singer/composer/piano playing prodigy but the cruel music industry weasels around him kinda turned him more cynical and sad, almost overnight.

He was living in an unfurnished squat in L.A. as a male hustler when it seemed he was rescued by a huckster manager famous for nightclubs in NY named Jerry Brandt-Brandt overhyped Jobriath as the next Elvis, Beatles, and Bowie all rolled into one. He appeared on oversized billboards in Times Square, in splashy magazine advertisements and on the sides of buses in major cities. He had a cool live band actually, called the Creatures, with some kooky costumes by Stephen Sprouse.

• jobriath
• jerry brandt-brandt
• kieran turner
• eddie kramer
• hendrix

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Flowers For Jayne's guitars are in bloom

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By The Barman

The Barman

06 May 2022

Hits: 3941

Dangerous Woman – Flowers For Jayne (self released)

Guitars are unfashionable, ergo Sydney’s Flowers For Jayne will never be musical flavour of the month with contemporary tastemakers or scenesters. And that’s fine. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re not one of those people anyway. You think R&B is Stax or Motown 45s and hip hop is nothing more than softcore aural wallpaper.

Drums, bass and guitar (turned up loud) with a voice somewhere in the middle is a timeless configuration. Flowers For Jayne is a classic “power trio” - both in the heavy sense of the term and for having a keen sense of dynamics.

The band is the vehicle for vocalist-guitarist Jayne Murphy, former Lime Spiders member and woman about Sydney town, and she’s joined by ace rhythm section Jess Ciampa (drums in Bernie Hayes Quartet, The Nature Strip, Dog Trumpet, Jeff Duff Band, Smelly Tongues and others) and Phil Hall(Sardine v, Dropbears, The 68 Comeback, Lime Spiders, Flaming Hands, Matt Finish, Roddy Ray'Da & The Surfin' Caesars).

• phil hall
• flowers for jayne
• dangerous woman
• jayne murphy
• jess ciampa

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It's a Sunny winter

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By The Barman

The Barman

05 May 2022

Hits: 3154

It’s been a long time between shows but Sunnyboys are re-emerging for a three-state Australian winter tour.  

When they last toured in 2020 Sunnyboys chose the salubrious surrounds of Taronga Zoo, Melbourne’s Forum and the like; this time though, the band will get down and sweaty playing intimate venues more akin to their breakout year of 1981.

Melbourne pop-rockers Even will join the fun in Sydney and Melbourne while former Screaming Tribesman Mick Medew will bring his band The Mesmerisers to Brisbane and Byron Bay. All shows are on-sale tomorrow May 6 at feelpresents.com

Sunnyboys
JULY
1 – Factory Theatre Sydney + Even
9 – The Corner, Melbourne + Even + Little Murders
15 – Great Northern, Byron Bay + Mick Medew & The Mesmerisers|
16 – Princess Theatre, Brisbane, + Mick Medew & The Mesmerisers
Tix here

• mesmerisers
• feelpresents
• sunnyboys
• even
• australian tour
• mick medew

Digging for Treasure yields more gold

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 May 2022

Hits: 4529

Raining Treasure 2: More Australian Indie Gold Covers – John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special (MGM/Foghorn)

Tribute bands are mostly a blot on the musical ecosystem, right?. OK, they provide a fertile spawning pond for young players and pay bills for the oldsters, but most cover acts faithfully mimic role models just to milk money from morons.

This isn’t about the odd cover thrown into a set of originals because the drummer and the rhythm guitarist like the song or the band jammed out a loose approximation of a chart hit at rehearsal two nights earlier and wants to be ironic.

No, this is a gripe about hacks making money by mindlessly sating the appetites of dim RSL club masses who don’t know what they like but sure do like what they know. These people dance when they should know better or clap hopelessly out of time in the way that only middle-aged white people can.

Which is not territory into which “Raining Treasure 2” ventures on this eclectic collection of songs by Aussie bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s .

• waterfront
• sports
• radio birdman
• flaming hands
• john kennedy
• 68 comeback special
• love gone wrong
• raining treasure vol 2
• angels

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WHO ARE THE ART POLICE? Garden Cops, Shadow-Bans, Gentrification Shit-Libs, and a Hot New 45 by MICHAEL MONROE!

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By General Labor

General Labor

29 April 2022

Hits: 6800

There's a sorrowful joy
I've known since I was a boy
Joyful sorrow, I guess
It's a maimed happiness... -David Johansen

I ain't had no fun since the Hammersmith Palais.." - Demolition 23

"Well so long, liberty-let's forget you never showed, not in my time." -Joe Strummer

"You built your refuge, turned you captive just the same..." - Duran Duran

While billionaire oligarchs Bezos and Musk race to Mars in duelling dick rockets, accuse each other of being compromised by foreign powers and demand bigger handouts for their space companies from Biden (which they will probably get) and TV watchers cheer for their preferred Super Scientific Space Savior, Wal-Mart has raised the prices of all their food by like, a lot.

What used to be a dollar fifty, is four bucks, basically. You are a captive audience of the Walton family, if you live somewhere where they killed off all the mom and pop shops of old downtown Main Street. Nine dollars for a GMO watermelon that is white on the inside, has no nutritional value anymore and is almost tasteless thanks to Gates and Monsanto. But your posh celebrity friends will tell you Vandanna Shiva is a conspiracy theorist. Or that Julian Assange works for..."RUSSIA!"

I bet your little town has some insufferable gentrification hipsters in it. Retro hair-do's and deep cocaine pockets, always on iPhones makin' deals, doing their hustles, with sunglasses, nice shoes, and no manners? Taking over your downtown? Indie-martyrs, are they any less evil then big biz, super titanium ultra villain, Monopoly despots? Yeah, probably, 'cause they don't usually have the power to hire positive PR stories in mainstream media or crush unions and shit, but they almost always treat their employees and own clientele like garbage, until they drive themselves outta business.

• general labor
• hanoi rocks
• michael monroe
• hello disaster
• electric angels

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THIS WORLD IS ONLY GOING TO BREAK YOUR HEART

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By JD Stayfree & The Ball Tonights

JD Stayfree & The Ball Tonights

23 April 2022

Hits: 4250

WICKED GAME – The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey
by Michael Goldberg
(Hozac Books)

Spooky, soulful, nitro-twang genius, James Calvin Wilsey, Chris Isaak's beautiful guitarist, who conjured up all those memorable Ennio Morricone spaghetti western, eerie “Twin Peaks” vibes, was born in the Midwest but did not stay there long. His dad was one of those real old time, no nonsense, hard knocks, military aggressors.

I had a lot of close friends who played guitars in my middle school early garage bands, who had fathers like that. Ex-military, real macho, gonna make a manly man outta ya, big game hunter, type o guys. So yeah, being from smalltown Kentucky, my grandfolks family who raised me, were all old veterans and I was not like my cousins. I was never gonna be a 4-H show cattle, play sports, go to war for college money, type of person.

Then, we moved to a town whose only industry was building tanks in Ohio. man, that was a disaster for a little kid like me who could not catch a fucking football. My grandma had gotten me into Elvis from like, birth, almost. I used to wear a pink Presley concert ticket from the Rupp Areana show he never played because he died around in my middle school fedora during my "Pretty In Pink" years.

For me, it all started with Elvis. From there, I inherited an aunt's Monkees records and started seeing their show reruns on WXIX TV. My mother was a school teacher who tried to get me piano lessons, drums in the school band, a folk guitar that got stolen at Baptist reform school, but I sucked as a player. When I discovered Jim Morrison and Iggy Pop, I kinda decided I should be a loudmouthed frontman because I had all this feeling inside me, I wanted to express about the conflict I had with the sports and military culture I grew up in.

• hozac books
• James Calvin Wilsey
• chris isaak
• wicked game

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Take a trip back to 1980 with Room 101

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By Robert Brokenmouth, Steve Lorkin & The Barman

Robert Brokenmouth, Steve Lorkin & The Barman

23 April 2022

Hits: 3952

Concrete Box b/w Crazy For You – Room 101 (Lost in Pyrmont Records)

This particular Room 101 were the first band to use the name that I'm aware of; there is now a chat show (dear God), a band from Lansing (Michigan) and a post-hip-hop outfit from Nuh Zuhlund, which explains why this band's bandcamp addy is https://room1011.bandcamp.com/

"Concrete Box" is a slice of simple, socially-observant venom articulately snapped out, with zipping twin guitars in sharp sync with bass and drums, with a lyrical trajectory perfect for the physically active lead singer. Granted the pop world had moved on somewhat from guitars (so the industry thought at the time)  but the crowds in Sydney thronged to hammering bands like Room 101. Given some of the rather woeful "punker" type bands which appeared each Sunday night on 'Countdown', Room 101 would've cheered you up no end. 

• sydney
• hitmen
• visitors
• radio birdman
• room 101
• bruce tindale
• arthur easton
• concrete box
• crazy for you
• lost in pyrmont records

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Starry tribute does SPJ justice

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By Josh McNamara

Josh McNamara

17 April 2022

Hits: 3962

"Execution Days, A Celebration of the Life and Music of Spencer P. Jones"
The Escape Committee 
+ Adalita, Penny Ikinger, Sly Faulkner, Phil Gionfrido, Digger & The Pussycats,
The Pink Tiles, Claire Birchall, James McCann, Jules Sheldon, Foggy Notion,
Henry Hugo, The Last Gasp Horns
The Tote, Collingwood, Melbourne
Saturday 9 April, 2022
Photos by Michael Barry

Before we start, a disclaimer: I am a close personal friend of Patrick Emery, the author of "Execution Days: The Life and Times of Spencer P. Jones” and organiser of this gig. So therefore all objectivity is likely to be thrown out the window.

Patrick and I first saw the Beasts of Bourbon in a relatively small venue, Le Rox, in the city of Adelaide in early 1992. After the first few bars of the opening song, "Chase the Dragon", singer Tex Perkins kicked over the mic stand, the band abruptly stopped playing and Tex stormed off the stage headed towards the mixing desk. We were standing roughly in that area as he came charging in our direction and I was genuinely in fear that he was about to wreak some savagery upon us as part of the collateral damage of castigating the sound guy.

• beasts of bourbon
• penny ikinger
• digger and the pussycats
• tote
• spencer p jones
• adalita
• patrick emery
• foggy notion
• execution days
• the escape committee

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