Mark Steiner returns to Oz again to saddle you with his Problems

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 October 2024

Hits: 815

_{Touring Czech violinist Pavel Cingl with Mark Steiner. Mona Cat photo.}

Norwegian-American troubadour Mark Steiner’s ongoing love affair with Australia continues in November and December when he undertakes his sixth tour Down Under.

Steiner has been coming to Australian since 2008 and became an Aussieophile when he first heard the music of Rowland S. Howard in in the 1980s when he was a teen growing up in New York City. Now living in Norway, he’ll be playing songs from his latest album, “Black Hole”, on a run through Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.

• australian tour
• mark steiner and his problems
• pavel cingl

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Osees announce return to Oz as ticket pre-sales start

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 October 2024

Hits: 618

Psych-punk psychic warrior, ear worm-farmer, and possessor of many stamped passport pages, John Dwyer and his band Osees (aka Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, OCS, The Oh Sees, etc) return to Australia next March following a blistering sold-out national tour in 2023.

Already announced as a feature act at the 2025 Golden Plains Festival, Osees will also headline Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Fremantle and Melbourne.

Edwin Garland's review of the 2023 Sydney show is here and the late Patrick Emery's Melbourne recap is here.

The 2025 visit comes off the back of the release of their 28th album “Sorcs 80”, an album that is unique to the band’s catalogue because it is guitar-less.

• tour
• australian
• osees
• 2025

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Power-poppers Lava Fangs poised for album launch

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 October 2024

Hits: 407

Melbourne's internationally acclaimed power poppers Lava Fangs have finally announced a launch for their new album, "Sub Auroram", which was recorded with Paul Maybury of Rocket Science and The Pink Tiles.

The launch at Mama Chen's in Footscray, Melboutne, at 2:30PM on Saturday November 2  will be a rare live outing for the band, and follows their rapturously received set last month at the Gem in Collingwood as guests of power pop all-star combo Benny J & the Psych Ward. That band features Benny J Ward (Rinehearts), Davey Lane (You Am I/Pictures/Todd Rundgren), Link Meanie (Meanies) and Matt Cotter (Even) so they keep good company.

• launch
• lava fangs
• sub auroram
• mama chen's

Last will and testament or an American ruse?

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By Bob Short & The Barman

Bob Short & The Barman

22 October 2024

Hits: 1199

 Heavy Lifting – MC5 (earMUSIC)

I made an oath to not write reviews about albums that gave me the shits.  But The Barman sent me a copy of “Heavy Lifting” and I gave it a go.  

As far as an MC5 album goes, it's not even a good Wayne Kramer record.  I hoped for more after the MC50 shows and Bob Ezrin's recent work with Alice Cooper.

I made track-by-track notes as I listened.  I'll just give you my notes as written rather than an actual review.  You can work it out from there.

• fred smith
• mc5
• wayne kramer
• sonic
• dennis thompson
• michael davis
• heavy lifting
• earMUSIC

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Saddles aren't the only thing blazing on new Cowboys collection

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 September 2024

Hits: 1729

Cowboy Logic – Garry Gray & Sacred Cowboys (Kasumen Records)

It was 1982 when Sacred Cowboys emerged. It was a time when an Australian music tidal wave sweeping over pubs and clubs full of punters across Sydney from Palm Beach to Darlinghurst to Cronulla, and Melbourne from St Kilda to Frankston to Geelong.

Garry Gray was in his mid-20s and already a veteran of the Melbourne music scene when he formed the Cowboys. He already had street cred with foundations that stretched back to 1975. His influences came from the pages of Creem magazine and life in a blue collar suburb, rubbing shoulders with Sharpie gangs and devotees of AFL footy. He and his mates were discovering The Modern Lovers, the Stooges, the Stones, the Velvets and Alice Cooper, one record at a time.

• sacred cowboys
• garry gray
• Kasumuen Records
• we mainline dreamers
• mark ferrie
• cowboy logic
• molly meldrum

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Vale Ollie Olsen and Andrew Picouleau

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By The Barman

The Barman

21 October 2024

Hits: 709

_{Ian "Ollie" Olsen.}

Australian underground music has lost two important figures in Melbourne’s Ian “Ollie” Olsen and Andrew Picouleau.

Picouleau was best-known as a member of Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, The Metronomes and Sacred Cowboys, while Olsen was in Whirlywirld, Orchestra of Skin and Bone, Noand Max Q, the short-lived but high-profile collaboration with Michael Hutchence.Both passed last week after protracted health issues. 

Multi-instrumentalist Olsen was a key driver of the Australian post-punk electronic movement of the late 1970s whose punk lineage went back to The Young Charlatans (home to Rowland S Howard) and The Reals. Her was musical director for “Dogs in Space”, Richard Lowenstein’s gritty 1986 depiction of Melbourne’s underground music scene, and went on to make a mark internationally in electronic music and soundtracks.

• dave graney
• sacred cowboys
• the reals
• ian "ollie" olsen
• andrew picouleau
• max q

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Light up your life with Little Murders

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 October 2024

Hits: 773

Under Northern Lights – Little Murders (Off the Hip)

Nine studio albums in and Little Murders might just have this rock-pop caper nailed. Again. “Under Northern Lights” showcases what songwriter, band leader and sole constant member Rob Griffiths and his current, and most enduring line-up, do so well. 

So that’s a wrap for this review. 

You don’t get off that easy. At least not until you’ve been thoroughly sold the virtues of “Under Northern Lights”. It should be an easy task if you set the tracks running in the background on Bandcamp. Let’s get stuck in. 

• little murders
• rob griffiths
• under northern lights

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A table for three and spare the eggplant

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By The Barman

The Barman

20 October 2024

Hits: 497

A Trio of Hommus EP – Hommus Idol (self released)

Bet you’re sick of bands conceived in the darkness of COVD that have emerged into the light like maggots hatching from fly eggs? Cooker! Leave your conspiracies at the door of your local Lebanese restaurant because Hommus Idol have arrived bearing physical product. 

Hommus Idol is from Wollongong, south of Sydney, and has a lineage going back to that city’s onetime shining New Garage Rock Hope, BRUCE.  Just like a North Gong Hotel pot dealer, Hommus Idol peddles its wares in the carpark shadows - but in this instance they’re guitar songs of distortion and Jello Biafra-like warbling. 

• trio of hommus
• hommus idol

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If Jeffrey Lee Pierce had moved to Lismore...

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By The Barman

The Barman

19 October 2024

Hits: 659

 
SLUG has been making a name for itself in the sub-tropical climes of the northern New South Wales city of Lismore for many years. Fronted by ex-No Man’s Land singer Dave Slade, SLUG’s heady mix of big riffs and powerful rhythms has made it the local must-see band. Despite being battered by floods in recent years, Lismore itself has become a magnet for tree-changing Sydney rock and roll types.

SLUG released a video this week, shot by Peter Frare, and it’s a cover of The Gun Club’s “House On Highland Avenue”. WSe reckon it captures the dramatic homicidal foreboding of the original.

• jeffrey lee pierce
• the gun club
• dave slade
• slug
• house on hghland avenue