Tokyo - Penny Ikinger (Off The Hip)

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 October 2018

Hits: 6106

It's a long time between Penny Ikinger records but the results are usually worth the wait. "Tokyo" follows "Penelope" (2010) and "Electra" (2003) and is as evocative as ever but with a slightly rockier disposition.

"Tokyo" was recorded with a batch of top-notch Japanese psychedelic musicians, with heavy input from Radio Birdman's Deniz Tek. The latter's influence is evident - not just in some flammable splashes of lead guitar but also in the odd lyric. That Four Winds Bar sure has done some mileage since being name-dropped by Blue Oyster Cult all those years ago...

Even so, "Tokyo" is very much a Penny Ikinger record. Gone are the days where she needed to be referenced as "a past member of Wet Taxis" or as "Nico defrosted". As clever as that last marketing line was, Nico ultimately shut out the world. Penny embraces its musical possibilities and has her own distinctive voice.

• penny ikinger
• japanese
• wet taxis
• radio birdman
• deniz tek
• tokyo

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Get Nicked/Hold On I’m Comin’ b/w And I Heard The Fires Sing - The Chosen Few (Buttercup Records)

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 October 2018

Hits: 4643

Another one from the archives and it’s not going to last long, with just 200 copies on offer. The three songs come from a New Year’s Eve 1978 show by proto-punks The Chosen Few at St Kilda’s Seaview Hotel (playing with Boys Next Door) and they're punchier than a front bar drunk at footy finals time. 

“Get Nicked” is an original - a bare bones rock thumper in the vein of Johnny Dole and The Scabs or Rocks. Minimal chords and a maximised message, it’s catchier than a cold. The Sam and Dave cover features muscular guitar from Bruce Friday, who’s gnawing away on that signature riff like a dog with a marrow bone. 

• st kilda
• buttercup records
• the chosen few
• get nicked

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Just hanging out in the Singles Bar...

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

30 September 2018

Hits: 4453

"Giant Lizards on High" b/w "Fresh Meat for Martyrs" - Blurt! (Sartorial)
"Insomnia" - Mark Steiner and his Problems b/w "Six Feet Under" - Mark Steiner and his Problems with Line Saus (Rabben Records) 
"Urge" b/w "Milk and Metho"/"Crash"/"318" - The Nuclear Family (Urge Records/VS)
"Knife Edge" - The NJE b/w "Caesar" - Dear Thief (Sartorial)

Today I'm listening to a few singles (instead of cleaning the house for an inspection).  Sorry, that's the small vinyls that play at 45rpm.

OK - "records" not “vinyls”. 

Now, the beauty of singles is that they carry a stand-alone song, in a format which forces you to pay attention to that one song. For a low-level label or a low-level band - no matter what the rep, you're only as big as your last gig - the single is a signpost, a statement, a declaration of intent.

• mark steiner
• the nje
• blurt!
• line saus
• the nuclear family
• dear thief

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Wasteland - King Brothers (Hound Gawd)

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 September 2018

Hits: 4180

Unless I’ve blinked and missed them, it’s been more than a decade since King Brothers appeared on Australian stages and 20 years since they started as a band. Time is rarely kind to any of us, however King Brothers' trademark brand of brutal “hardcore blues” not only remains intact but has blossomed.

“Wasteland” might be their sixth or seventh full-length album - background is hard to dig up on the Interwebs when you don’t read Japanese - and it leaves little to the imagination.

King Brothers are a two-guitars-and-drums trio from Nishinomiya City whose sound has been called “the Germs backing Howling Wolf”. Eric Oblivian reckons they’re the best band in the world and they tour the world constantly.

• japanese
• hound gawd records
• matt verta-ray

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All You Need Tonight - Dee Rangers (Low Impact)

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 September 2018

Hits: 4825

It's been 15 years since I first laid ears on Sweden's Dee Rangers via their mighty "Pretty Ugly Beat" album, so smear me with a bowl of IKEA meatballs and mashed potato for thinking they'd broken up. Au contraire, to mix European languages in an almost Brexit world, they are very muich alive and kicking.

"All You Need Tonight" is album number seven for a band whose membership has stayed largely stable since they formed in the mid-'90s. You'll recognise their influences as soon as you hear their music. Firmly rooted in the '60s but blurring the stylistic boundaries between pop and garage, it's a potent distillation of what made Scandi music great for a very long time.

• garage
• nomads
• powerpop
• swedish
• dahlmanns
• all you need tonight
• low impact

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Lost For Words - Deniz Tek (Career Records)

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By The Barman, Ashley Thomson & Dylan Webster

The Barman, Ashley Thomson & Dylan Webster

29 September 2018

Hits: 4792

Making an instrumental album is a brave step for someone best known for doom-laden tunes about living eyes, muscle cars and human reinvention under piles of ice and snow, but Deniz Tek's departure from the well-worn path really works.

From the scuzzy serrated intro of "Eddie Would Go" with its air of "Human Fly" Cramps crossing swords with Davie Allan to the clean and lean retake on Radio Birdman's "Zeno Beach", "Lost For Words" makes a voice-less statement about simpler times.

Back in the '60s, a pre-teen Tek cut his musical teeth on these sorts of songs. Surf music (and its variants) was a radio staple around the world. Tek told Perfect Sound Forever in 2001:

"The first rock and roll song I learned to play on the guitar in entirety was 'Walk Don’t Run.' I was 12-years-old. And their version of the Hawaii Five-0 theme was a great inspiration to me in the summer of 1969, the year I started driving fast cars. When it came on the radio, the ‘68 Charger went much faster!"

• radio birdman
• deniz tek
• surf
• lost for words
• instruimental

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Descent coming on streaming services

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 September 2018

Hits: 4589

What do George Michael, L7, Michael Caine and Radio Birdman have in common? They’re all Official Selections at the worlds largest and most prestigious Music Documentary Film Festival “ In-edit Barcelona & Madrid Spain 2018.

Jonathan Sequeira’s critically acclaimed and uncompromising documentary "Descent Into The Maelstrom – The Radio Birdman Story" is available to buy on DVD. The film will be released via streaming services (iTunes and Vimeo worldwide) on October 5 with YouTube to follow late 2018.

• radio birdman
• descent into the maelstrom
• jonathan sequeira
• barcelona

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C'mon Sydney: Let's do it for Stew

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 September 2018

Hits: 4712

After such a phenomenal fundraising performance by Team Leadfinger (Melbourne Branch) and everyone at the Tote Hotel in Melbourne recently, it’s time for Sydney/Wollongong Team Leadfinger to run with the momentum created.

A group of friends are organising “See You Tonight – A benefit gig for Stewy ‘Leadfinger’ Cunningham” at Marrickville Bowling Club on Friday, November 23.

Cunningham, singer-guyitarist for Leadfinger, Asteroid B612, Challenger 7, Proton Energy Pills and The Yes-Men, was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year 

This will be one memorable night with a host of Sydney and Wollongong artists coming together to celebrate the man and the music that is Mr Cunningham.  

Also on the bill are international tourists Señor No, direct from the Basque country in Spain. High-energy veterans Señor No are big fans of Australian underground music and played host to Leadfinger when they toured Spain in 2017. This will be their only Sydney show.

The line-up is: 

• SC5 (Sydney’s own amazing MC5 tribute featuring ex members of the New Christs and Lime Spiders)
• Señor No
• Adam Young and the Down Main (Adam and mates bring some Alt Country rock to the night)
• 300 St. Claire (Sydney Blundstone rock from guys you all know)
• Fangin Felines (a very new band with Carrie Phillis from Booby Traps and Morgana and Sarah from Nitocris)
• Dave Curley’s Ripped Genes (featuring members of Leadfinger along with special guests Kent Steedman (Celibate Rifles), Bill Gibson (The Eastern Dark) and others. 

Be sure to stuff your wallets with cash money for the night. With the awesome assistance of some great labels and record stores across Australia, organisers will be raffling off CDs, vinyl, tees and other goodies. Tickets here.

• leadfinger
• sydney
• asteroid b12
• see you tonight

Oh you Pretty Things: Phil May looks back without sorrow

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

23 September 2018

Hits: 8557

In the middle of 1968 The Pretty Things were seated in a conference room with EMI executives and production engineer Norman Smith at EMI’s corporate headquarters in Manchester Square, London. The Pretty Things were presenting their new album, and their first with EMI, a concept album based around the story of a fictional character by the name of Sebastian F Sorrow: SF Sorrow.

Standing at a lectern in the conference room, Smith, in-house engineer at Abbey Road studios where the album was recorded, read snippets from the story before the corresponding song on the album was played. But it was apparently immediately that the corporate stiffs had no empathy for The Pretty Things’ ground-breaking album.

“They’re all sitting there in their suits, looking a bit bemused,” recalls singer Phil May. “We weren’t sure how well it went down, so the next morning I get a phone call. Because we were going to have both the story and the lyrics on the cover, they rang me and asked me I really thought the story was important enough to print on the cover. I was gobsmacked. Why did we read it to them? What was the point of that whole exercise, and now you’re asking me ‘Was it important?’ Imagine if it came out with the story – it would have been really confusing! What the bloody hell is going on?”

• pretty things
• phil may
• australian tour
• sf sorrow
• dick taylor

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