Get your dose of Link Wray on May Day

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By The Barman

The Barman

15 April 2021

Hits: 2618

Link Wray's birthday is looming and all roads lead to Melbourne for the celebrations. 

Fifteen months after their last gig, The Wraylettes, will mark the occasion with two storming sets of drinkin', dancin' and listenin' pleasure at The Gem in Collingwood oin May 1. Plus, their buddy DJ Dusty Stylus will be there to unleash a few musical crackers of his own. 

Did we mention it starts at 8pm and is free?

• link wray
• the wraylettes
• the gem

Live debut for well-credentialed trio

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By The Barman

The Barman

15 April 2021

Hits: 2907

Remember when supergroups were a thing? The remarkable musical talents of Gareth Liddiard, Jim White and Chris Abrahams are to be combined, refined and recorded. Merging elements of free-jazz, lyricism, improvisation, avant-garde and experimental noise from three of Australia’s finest music makers for an album due out towards the end of 2021. 

The trio will play an exclusive warm-up show at the Brunswick Ballroom in Melbourne on May 12, before heading into the studio. 
 
Chris Abrahams, known for his masterful keyboard playing for avant-garde free jazz trio The Necks, described by the New York Times in 2017 as “the greatest trio on Earth”, has also played with the Laughing Clowns, The Church, The Triffids and Midnight Oil among others.
 
Jim White plays drums for legends The Dirty Three, “one of the world’s best living bands” according to The Guardian, and fans across the globe. He has also played with names like PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull, Cat Power, Bonnie Prince Billy, Smog, Nick Cave, Xylouris White and many others, and is soon to tour nationally as a duo with Ed Kuepper.
 
Gareth Liddiard is a solo artist and the founding member, singer-songwriter and guitarist of The Drones and sci-fi experimental mud pop group Tropical Fuck Storm, who Iggy Pop described as “nice band” and “a good fuck”.Tickets are on sale from Moshtix.

• dirty three
• jim white
• gareth liddiard
• chris abrahams
• the necks
• brunswick ballroom

Razor sharp punk poetry

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By By Murkkka's Favorite Dishwasher, General Labor

By Murkkka's Favorite Dishwasher, General Labor

10 April 2021

Hits: 3532

Puro Pursimo by A. Razor (Punk Hostage Press)

"The words are where we worship...." (-A.Razor)

Post-Grunge, there were still at least a few little magazines, independent record labels, real record stores and big city nightclubs where cool little bands could do their thing. Now, that stuff's even mostly gone. Immediately, Post-Grunge, though, there was like, 10,000 shite bands, too. Every town had a fake Blues Explosion, a fake Sonic Youth, a fake Nirvana, a fake Chili Peppers, etc., etc. If I wasn't moved by the originals, I surely had no time for their local small pond, bad impressionist, franchise clone, cut rate imitators.

Macho bellowing metal merchants, goofy whiteboy funk and swing bands, Clash-Ramones-Thunders rip-off bands, tribute acts, but few of 'em really had their own style, statement, message, or tunes. Some of the most fondly remembered bands of that era had no memorable music, at all, you can't even sing me one of their songs if I asked you to on the curb in an unguarded moment - it was just the threads everybody seemed to like. Money and clothes, that's all they had goin'. Suits and deep cocaine pockets.

• punk hostage press
• general labor
• a. razor
• puro purismo

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Pat Todd and The Rankoutsiders' letter from Palookaville delivers home truths

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By The Barman

The Barman

10 April 2021

Hits: 4855

“…there’s pretty things in Palookaville…” - Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders (Hound Gawd!)

Unless you’re one of the lucky few you won’t have yet heard the latest album from ex-Lazy Cowgirls frontman Pat Todd and his pack of old stagers, The Rank Outsiders. So what’s the point of a song-by-song description? You’ll forget the song titles before you clap ears on the real things, anyway. So let’s dispense with that bullshit and tell you how it will make you feel, instead…

Slap it onto the turntable or whack it into the player. Crank it. Good and loud. The opening G chord of “All The Years #1” kicks in and hangs in the air, and it’s like an old friend just walked in the door with a case of cold beers and a headful of fresh stories. 

It’s all jagged riffs and Todd’s impassioned vocal, urgent and insistent. It sounds immediately familiar, yet fresh, a menu of yarns set to punkish, rootsy rock and blues, basted in minor chords and a harmonica dry rub, and roasted in a slow cooker.

• houndgawd
• los angeles
• lazy cowgirls
• pat todd

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Blackie deals a strong hand with quirky new clip

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 April 2021

Hits: 3359

Hand-Ons/Nunchukka Superfly guitarist, singer-songwriter and much-loved Australian punk-rock icon Peter "Blackie" Black has dropped the first video from his solo album "If This Is The Hand That I'm Dealt”. 

The album was released late last year in tandem with another solo record, "I'm Gonna Cheat As Much As I Can". The two albums, when taken together, reveal the breadth of Blackie's pop smarts, the quirkier and heartbroken ends of which can both be heard in  "What The Fuck Should I Be Thinking".

The film clip was co-directed by Jonathan Sequeira (director of the acclaimed Radio Birdman documentary "Descent Into the Maelstrom") and his partner in Cheap Music Videos, Wade Jackson. When asked to comment about the video, Jonathan said:

"‘I thought Blackie was joking when he told me about wanting to do the pec dance. But he got it one take so we knew he’d been practising in front of the mirror’.

“That is actually true, but probably not the quote you want. How about:

"'It was great to work with Peter, one of Australia’s best songwriters, and I love the new albums so was keen to do a video. He had a simple idea and really let me run with it, which wasn’t difficult because he gave such a great performance, and it was a lot of fun shooting it.'"

• hard-ons
• peter black
• blackie
• descent into the maelstrom
• jonathan sequeira
• nunchukka superfly
• If This Is The Hand I'm Dealt
• I'm Gonna Cheat As Much As I Can

"Loud As Ever" collection captures a time and place

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 April 2021

Hits: 3854

Loud As Ever – Various Artists (Sound As Ever)

Every generation of music lovers grows up thinking its era was the best. So it goes with those who ploughed through puberty in the ‘90s, a time now digitally immortalised  (as all things are) by a Facebook page, “Sound As Ever”, dedicated to Australian independent music from 1990-99.

“Sound As Ever” is a snapshot of what life looked and sounded like on the fringes of Australian music in the ‘90s. It has an audience of 72,000 Facebook users after just a year. Like any retrospective, some of what’s thrown up is gem-like and some is shite.

Personally, the ‘90s were a letdown: Once the tidal wave of grunge had subsided, it left a lot of mediocrity on the surface and it seemed there wasn’t much Real Rock and Roll left. Bands like the Powder Monkeys and New Christs that were grossly underappreciated at the start of the decade criminally remained so at the end.

• meanies
• scott thurling
• loud as ever
• sound as ever
• nitrocris
• christbait
• area 7
• jane gazzo
• fur
• budd
• dwarfthrower
• seaweed gorillas

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Fifty years on, you'll love this madly

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By The Barman

The Barman

08 April 2021

Hits: 3852

The ghosts of '80s St Kilda will meet the spirit of '71 when Hugo Race - mainman of St. Kilda icons The Wreckery and foundation Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds guitarist - together with his band The True Spirit performs two special shows in April with special guest Steve Lucas of X.

Lucas, whose legendary X called St Kilda home in the late '80s and early '90s, has joined the bill for Race's upcoming L.A Woman 50th Anniversary shows at Theatre Royal in Castlemaine on Saturday 17 April and the Memo Music Hall in St Kilda on Friday April 23.

Hugo and band will be performing The Doors' apocalyptic “L.A. Woman” in its entirety to mark 50 years since its original release in 1971. Steve will open each night, performing a solo set of his favourite tunes from the same year, including selections from the Rolling Stones' ”Sticky Fingers” and Rod Stewart's “Every Picture Tells A Story”. 

• st kilda
• hugo race
• steve lucas
• memo music hall
• la woman
• the doors
• theatre royal

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Industrial strength riffage from one of Melbourne's best

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

08 April 2021

Hits: 2763

Waiting in a Corner - Jackson Reid Briggs and the Heaters (Legless Records)

Ever since The Enlightenment pulled away the fig-leaf of irrationality of religious justification, we’ve convinced ourselves that there is some rational basis for existence, some ultimate purpose to which we are cleaving, some end game of cognitive understanding.

Along the way there have been heated philosophical disputes, heresy trials, corrupted social policy programs, perverse economic theories and the same merry go-round of war, peace, famine and indulgence that has always characterised human history. No wonder Jean Paul Sartre decided to raid the top shelf of his local pharmacy in an amphetamine-ravaged attempt at deconstructing it all.  

Does existentialism belong in rock’n’roll?  According to the press release, Melbourne’s Jackson Reid Briggs and the Heaters’ new album, “Waiting in a Corner”, “explores the idea of waiting and searching for something that isn’t specific. Just a sense of something coming".

• melbourne
• jackson briggs and the heaters
• legless records
• waiting in a corner

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Dictator Top Ten stands down due to ill-health

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By The Barman

The Barman

07 April 2021

Hits: 4871

The reformed Dictators have announjced the sad news that Scott "Top Ten" Kempner is being forced to retire due to ill-health.

The band made the announcement on Facebook overnight, saying the rhythm guitarist and member of the Del-Lords has early stage dementia:

• dictators
• top ten
• scott kempner
• del-lords