Hoody's Normals return from the grave with a 45

Anorexia Nervosa b/w Bananas – The Normals (Leather Jacket Records)

Before The Allniters, before The Johnnys, before The Cool Charmers and before The Silver Dragons, Graham Hood was a young Kiwi punky rock chap playing in The Normals, who were Wellington’s first ever punk band. Future Headless Chicken Mike Lawry played guitar, Dazee Day was on vocals (she’s now a successful fashion label owner) and Karl Scutt (who went onto Domestic Blitz) was on drums.

Formed in 1978 and dead by 1979 - truly a band in the live fast, die young mould - they recorded three songs, two of which appear for the first time here on a label run by The Flying Nun folks via their punk subsidiary, Leather Jacket Records (good name hey?).

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• the johnnys
• graham hood
• the normals
• the allniters
• anorexia nervosa
• bannanas

Let's pay tribute to Suicide and Alan Vega while we get Lunch

New York No Wave Queen Lydia Lunch returns to Australia and Nedw Zealand in June to perform the songs of synth–punk duo Suicide and Suicide vocalist Alan Vega.

Lunch will be joined by Andrew Coates of revered Melbourne electro trio, Black Cab to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Vega’s passing, with special guests.

The Melbourne show will feature both principals of Black Cab, Coates and James Lee.

Lunch originally met Suicide – the duo of late vocalist Alan Vega and multi-instrumentalist Martin Rev – in the 1970s, when she moved to New York City from Rochester as a teenager. They formed a lifelong bond and she often joined them on-stage to perform the song “Frankie Teardrop”,  recording a duet as part of Vega’s solo album “Sniper”, a collaboration with French experimental artist Marc Hurtado.

Since Vega’s passing in 2016, Lunch has performed several Suicide tribute shows,  often with Hurtado; together the pair recently released the live album “Metempsychosis: Reincarnate the Music of Alan Vega + Suicide”.

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• suicide
• lydia lunch
• alan vega
• black cab

The Leftards say goodbye as Dion and Nick clean out their sock drawers

By The Barman

Having trouble keeping up with the plethora of new releases each week? Too much music, too many formats.

The struggle is real.

Welcome to The I-94 Bar's semi-regular round-up of new music that might appeal to Barflies. 

First cabs of the rank are Wollongong, New South Wales, performance art-punks The Leftards who are calling it a day after almost a decade.

Their swansong release, “Bread and Circuses”, is available via their Bandcamp.

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• the d4
• nick barker
• dion lunadon
• the leftards
• bread and circuses
• rare gems volume one
• loose vol II

Haunting tribute to a lost time

Spirits Of The Hoey. A Love Letter To The Hopetoun Hotel
By Liz Giuffre and Gregory Ferris
Images by Bryan Cook
Melbourne Books

By The Barman

Love letters aren’t meant to be literary works; they’re words from the heart. That’s as apt as any descriptor for “Spirits Of The Hoey”, a 208-page softcover ode to a Sydney pub that closed its doors 16 years ago.

Every city should have a Hoey. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sydney had a few of them. I was always more of an Excelsior person, but The Hoey had something that it and other pubs lacked (maybe with the eventual exception of The Sando at Newtown) and that was a clientele that regarded it as a second home.

Back then, cheap rents and plentiful run-down inner-city housing meant the Sydney underground musical scene’s nexus was a handful of postcodes spanning Darlinghurst, Surry Hills and maybe Paddington.

You could have thrown a blanket over them (preferably black - as someone sonce said, it wasn't a colour but a way of life.) The Hoey was “the local” for many musicians in the scene. It may not have been Ground Zero for the city's underground rock but you could see it from there.  

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• melbourne books
• spirits of the hoey
• Liz Giuffre
• Gregory Ferris
• bryan cook
• hopetoun hotel

Richie Weed and his Strays trek north

Richie Weed, the unmistakable voice of Tumbleweed, stepped into bold new territory in 2024 with his debut solo album “Strays”  and is doing a run of Northern New South Wales and Queensland shows to support it.

Recorded live-to-tape, “Strays” is made of songs written over the years that didn't fit into the heavy psychedelic groove of Tumbleweed, and was recorded without distortion pedals.

Richie Weed & His Band of Strays are packing up the van and setting the periscope for Brisbane, Murwillumbah and Ipswich, ready for fans to drift in.

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• tumbleweed
• richie weed
• queensland
• new south wales

Schlock rock fuzz fest "Wolf Cat Fever" set for Sydney and Melbourne screenings

From Zombie Zoo Productions, the people who brought you “Fags In The Fast Lane” and tours by bands like Japan’s Baitones, comes “Wolf Cat Fever” a film that’s shaping as a must-see for aficionados of schlock rock and distorted guitars.

“Wolf Cat Fever” is having its Australian Premiere at the Ritz Cinema in Sydney’s Randwick on Friday, April 24, followed by a screening at The Lido in Melbourne on May 2, as part of the "Fantastic Film Festival Australia".

“Wolf Cat Fever” is an undeniable Australian original and the plotline is unique:

Furr Fever – a wild, fuzzed-up guitarist feline- crosses paths with the howling, leather-clad Wolfy Howl… two lost souls collide in a blaze of glitter and guitar overdrive.

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• sydney
• wolf cat fever
• zombie zoo productions

They've Come So Far so Would this "Zeno Beach" re-issue Be Enough?

Zeno Beach - Radio Birdman (Citadel Records)

By Steve Lorkin

Quick quiz: Which legendary band who broke up in the 1970s but reformed several decades later and recorded a album of new material which actually honoured their original legacy?

1) New York Dolls

2) MC5 (aka MC1)

3) The Stooges

4) Radio Birdman

If you answered “Radio Birdman” you win a million in prizes!

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• radio birdman
• citadel records
• deniz tek
• chris masuak
• jim dickson
• pip hoyle
• russell hopkinson
• zeno beach

Sydney gets a ride on Guitar Wolf's Jet (and its another win for Japan)

Guitar Wolf
+ Meow Meow and The Smack Outs
+ L.A.R.M. 
The Factory Floor, Marickvile, NSW
Saturday, March 21, 2026

What was that? Twelve hours later after being swept out of The Factory Floor like post-gig detritus, it’s still sinking in. A couple of their albums grace the I-94 Bar’s shelves but accidents of timing somehow determined that this was my first in-the flesh Guitar Wolf experience.

So what was it like? Speak up, I can’t hear you. And watch where you’re walking, that’s my dropped jaw you’re about to step on.

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• sydney
• guitar wolf
• the factory floor
• L.A.R.M.
• meow meow and the smack outs

Fuck The Neighbours returns (and it's not to Ramsay Street)

You might have been there to see it yourself. If you weren’t, you might have bought "The Murder Punk" bootlegs or "Do The Pop." You know good old Australian punk. So the rotating live punk rock show, Fuck The Neighbours, is in your wheelhouse.

Fuck The Neighbours is Oz punk played by some of the Oz punks who made it, and it’s quickly established itself as a “must see” and a good night (or afternoon) out. Fuck The Neighours returns for its first 2026 outing on the afternoon of Saturday, April 25, gracing MoshPit Bar in St Peters, Sydney. Tickets are on sale here.

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• australian
• punk rock
• moshpit
• jupiter 5
• fuck the neighbours
• kung fu grip