Think About It - Rod Hamdallah (Hound Gawd)

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 April 2019

Hits: 4005

If you’re going to raid the garage for inspiration, make sure you’re taking your cues from the best.

Rod Hamdallah grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and was playing gin joints and trashy dive bars before he was old enough to legally drink, steeping himself in blues, '50s and '60s rock and switchblade punk sounds from the get-go.

This 10-inch vinyl EP is a re-issue of Hamdallah’s self-issued debut CD from 2014 and reverberates with rebellious righteousness.

• mark sultan
• hound gawd records
• rod hamdallah
• think about it
• raunch hands
• john schooley
• legendary shack shakers
• jd wilkes

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Double dose of Birdman with Mick's Memserisers added to the bills

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 April 2019

Hits: 4548

Radio Birdman is playing just two Australian shows this year - June 21 at The Factory Theatre in Sydney and June 22 at the Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle - and Mick Medew and The Mesmerisers are joining them for both.

East Coast Low complete the bill in Newcastle and The Dark Clouds join the Sydney line-up.

The support spots will be part of a busy year for Mick Medew and his band with their forthcoming album expected to be out in time for the shows.

Both gigs will sell out with tickets available from both venue websites.

• mesmerisers
• live
• australia
• dark clouds
• radio birdman
• mick medew
• easts coast low

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You'd have to be a Stooge for this to be the world's forgotten show

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 April 2019

Hits: 3864

At a time when the man himself is gracing Australia with his presence for live shows, what bills itself as the ultimate Iggy Pop contest is on again in Melbourne in April 20, with funds raised going to a good cause.

One band and Six Iggys will battle it out to prove that they are Iggy Pop's love child at St Kilda Sports Club. "Pop Off" is now in its 5th year, with all money raised going directly to Sacred Heart Mission's Soup Kitchen.

It's just $10 on the door and the streetwalkin' cheetah with a heartful lof napalm stuff will start flowing from 7pm. Broken glass optional. 

• iggy pop
• st kilda
• pop off

Never mind the nostalgia because it's never too loud

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

14 April 2019

Hits: 5797

Rose Tattoo
Hard-Ons
The Meatbeaters 
The Gov, Adelaide. Friday, April 12 2019
Photos by Somnambulist Dillinger

The morning after the night before I'm trying to make sense of it. My ears are still hissing like a grumpy king brown, so I guess it's time I used earplugs at gigs. 

Here's a question for you. What does Angry Anderson, rough'n'tough rock'n'roller, taste like?

I'll come back to this.

• hard-ons
• meatbeaters
• rose tattoo
• the gov

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Deep C Divers - The Leftards (Wreckless Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 April 2019

Hits: 4284

If you’ve spent any time in Wollongong, you’ll know it as Sydney’s less pretentious cousin. Much of the music from the onetime steelworks city is the same way. So here’s cheers to The Leftards, your new favourite punk band. 

As a bunch of older dudes from shop-soiled local bands like Bulldoze All Bowlos and The Dark Clouds,The Leftards have no compunction winding things back to the late ‘70s when everybody knew rap was crap and techno was a college where mechanics went to do a trade. This is the second Leftards seven-inch release and puts four inspired songs on a vinyl single.

Buzzy, fuzzy guitars, nagging and damaged vocals, yob humour and social commentary all sit side by side. The sound is a little shambolic - like a loose version of the Misfits - but nobody's shooting for AOR airplay.

• leftards
• wreckless records
• deep c divers

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.​.​.​For the Worms - All The Weathers (Rough Skies Records)

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By Rossamünd Brennan

Rossamünd Brennan

12 April 2019

Hits: 3880

2019 is shaping up to be a real terror of a year. Parts of Australia are in the middle of a housing, job and health support crisis and the shit has well and truly hit the fan.

Heads of police are on trial for brutality, while politicians are dragging their feet on whether or not trans people have a right to exist.  Bodybuilders are shooting up strip clubs and a massive methamphetamine epidemic is destroying the lives of vulnerable young people.

Young men with schizophrenia are firebombing punk squats while teaching staff and metro workers are routinely striking, grinding workplaces and services to a halt.  On the street, there are hundreds of young people facing homelessness, violence, unemployment and lack of future prospects.  To them, the future is bleak. 

Despite all this, there are dozens of vibrant young artists creating challenging and unique works that directly tackle the horrendous and wretched world we find ourselves in.  One of those bands is Fern Tree, Tasmania, iconoclasts All The Weathers.

• all the weathers
• hobart
• tasmania
• for all the worms
• rough skies records

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No rear vision for these Straight Arrows

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

08 April 2019

Hits: 4455

_{Straight Arrows.} 

Straight Arrows

Bananagun
Tote Hotel, Melbourne

Friday, 22 March 2019

I’m not a big fan of the rose-coloured 1960s discourse. Sure, the music’s great, the anti-establishment political rhetoric is inspiring and the fashion iconic. But the 1960s gave the world Nixon and the first incarnation of Reagan the politician, Engelbert Humperdink outsold Hendrix and it was mainly rich white kids (especially men) who had the socio-economic stability to drop out – because they could drop back in again anytime they wanted to.

The 1960s is a mythical idea, not a corroborated historical construct. We want to believe what it was like, because it’s not like that now. Revisionism. Nostalgia. Self-deluded idealism. There was good shit going on, but there’s good stuff going on now. There was plenty of bad, square and nasty stuff going on then, too. More so than the good stuff.

Banangun sounded like they’d crawled straight out of a '60s documentary. Maybe a Nuggets Acid Rock compilation. I hadn’t heard of them before tonight, though later on it was pointed out to me that their main man is Nick from The Frowning Clouds, and then everything made sense.

• straight arrows
• the tote
• owen pengilis
• banangun

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An intoxicating evening

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

08 April 2019

Hits: 4862

_{Gergely Csatari photo.}

"Nocturnal X"
Mick Harvey and the Intoxicated Men
Gemini 4
Harry Howard and the NDE
Tiamo 3
Primo!
Melbourne Museum, Friday, April 5 2019

Upstairs at the Melbourne Museum hosts a local exhibit, a collage of images, dioramas, reportage and oral testimonies from the city’s post-invasion history. In a corner of the exhibit can be found a movie telling the evolution of post-war Melbourne, from the faceless images of businessmen in John Bracks’ Collins St, 5pm painting, to the vibrant, cosmopolitan metropolis of the present day.

A black and white photo from 1979 shows five youths staring at the camera, sullen, callow, defiant and charmingly obnoxious. The adult voice of one of those rebellious kids talks of the change in Melbourne’s character: Mick Harvey, Boy Next Door, Birthday Partier, Bad Seed. Back in the day, Harvey intones matter-of-factly, the inner-city was a cultural backwater.

• bad seeds
• hugo race
• harry howard
• mick harvey
• melbourne museum
• dan luscombe
• nocturnal

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5-6-7-8-9 is the countdown to new Aints! EP and shows

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By The Barman

The Barman

08 April 2019

Hits: 5404

Australia's best old new musical group, The Aints!, are continuing their march to world domination with an EP and more live shows.

Ed Kuepper, Peter Oxley, Paul Larsen Loughhead and Alister Spence have added brass wizard Eamon Dilworth to the band ranks proper and are following up their debut album, "The Church of Simultaneous Existence".

As befits a band summoned to expand on the legacy of Kuepper's fabulous if reluctant punk pathfinders The Saints, the EP will be called "5-6-7-8-9", taking its cue from The Saints’ 1977 four-track release "1-2-3-4".

Click Read More to hear a track.

• ed kuepper
• the saints
• 5-6-7-8-9-

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