The late Robert Matheu's lens eye view of high-energy history

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By The Barman

The Barman

03 June 2020

Hits: 5903

_{A Stooges Asthma Attack at th Grande Ballroom in1968. Robert Matheu photo.} 

The year 2006 was something of a watershed for fans of high-energy rock and roll of the Detroit variety. The reformed Stooges were in full flight and an historic six-CD, eponymous Sonic's Rendezous Band box set came out on UK label Easy Action.

The box set's executive producer of the box was ROBERT MATHEU, a Detroit-raised and former Creem magazine staff photographer. Sadly, Robert passed away in 2018, but a dozen years before, he told the back-story of the box set to the I-94 Bar - and of course regaled us with stories about the MC5 and the Stooges. 

We're revisiting many of the stories originally published on the I-94 Bar that were archived when we moved virtual location a few years ago. This is one of the trips back in The Time Tunnel. 

• sonics rendezvous band
• stooges
• mc5
• fred sonic smith
• james williamson
• cheap trick
• scott asheton
• rock action
• scott morgan
• ron asheton
• robert matheu
• creem
• garry rasmussen
• mike watt
• the romatics

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US label gives Lobby Loyde's enduring legend fresh legs

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By The Barman

The Barman

02 June 2020

Hits: 8442

It's 13 years since he passed from cancer but the reputation of Lobby Loyde is not diminishing. We live in crazy times but one of the sane things occurring right now is that the trailblazing Australian guitarist, bandleader and producer is finally getting his dues outside his homeland. 

As leader of the Coloured Balls, Loyde set a benchmark in Australia for innovative hard rock. The "Ball Power" and "Heavy Metal Kid" albums, both released in 1974, are all-time classics.  As a player in The Aztecs, Rose Tattoo and solo, the earlier Wild Cherries and Purple Hearts,

Loyde blew up more amplifiers and sent more people deaf than anyone who followed. As a producer in the 1980's, he was a force behind albums for the Sunnyboys, Painters and Dockers, Machinations and X.

Re-issues of his Coloured Balls albums and Lobby's solo work on the Aztec label re-lit the spotlight in Australia in the '90s. Just Add Water Records is deep into a program of vinyl re-issues, out of Berkeley, California.

They've done a killer job on three singles and an LP re-issue of "The First Supper Last Or Scenes We Didn't Get To See". 

We decided to track down label owner JASON DUNCAN and ask him about Just Add Water's mission to re-visit the music of Lobby Loyde, and a select bunch of other similarly-minded rock and roll outsiders.

• rose tattoo
• lobby loyde
• colored balls
• coloured balls
• just add water
• jesse hector
• hammersmith gorillas
• crushed butler
• trevor white
• terry stamp
• jason duncan
• sparks
• gil matthews

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Check out what's under this hood for a dose of raunch and roll

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By The Barman

The Barman

02 June 2020

Hits: 3978

Home, James And Don’t Spare the Horse Power - Anytime James (self released)

The dictionary defines “raunch” as “energetic earthiness; vulgarity”, and the second album from Anytime James has it in bucketloads. 

Anytime Who? Read on.

Anytime James is an outfit of musicians from the Far North Coast of New South Wales, assembled and led by former Asteroid B612 guitarist Michael Gibbons. At the risk of (more) accusations of hype, let's toss caution to the metaphorical breeze and say Anytime James might be the best band you've never heard of. Here's why.

• asteroid b612
• anytime james
• michael gibbons
• celibate rifles
• byron bay
• Home, James And Don’t Spare the Horse Power
• lucky boy studios

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The Dry Retch drive it like they stole it

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 May 2020

Hits: 3799

Pyongyang Kaengsaeng! - The Dry Retch (Stalingrad) 

The UK owes the world an enduring apology for afflicting it with insipid shit like Robbie Williams, but there are signs of redemption if you look hard.  You’ll find it seeping out of the cracks in footpaths in big cities outside London, where high-energy outsider bands like The Hip Priests (Nottingham) and Black Bombers (Birmingham) hold the line. From one such dark fissure in Liverpool comes The Dry Retch.

You’ll know the back-story if you saw our recent review of their Stooges-obsessed “A Kick in the Gulags” EP.  “Pyongyang Kaengsaeng!” (allegedly Korean for “really shitty car” - would Little Rocket Man lie?) is their latest album - and it was launched on the undercard of a 2020 Brian James Q and A in Nottingham, no less. If tender balladry is your thing, look away, now.

• stooges
• punk rock
• Pyongyang Kaengsaeng!
• the dry retch
• liverpool
• stalingrad

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Your prayers may be answered as Gurus jump the gun

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 May 2020

Hits: 4485

Not content to wait for a Record Store Day stifled by Coronavirus disruption, the Hoodoo Gurus will release their new single in limited edition, vinyl form. 

"Answered Prayers" is out on June 12, along with an expanded, digital edition of their 2004 album "Mach Schau" combining tracks from the Australian and US editions in a new 16-song running order.

"Answered Prayers" is already available digitally and is the first "new" music from the band in 10 years - not counting 2014's "Gravy Train", a freshly-recorded EP of lost tracks from the band's early days with former members. 

• hoodoo
• record store day
• hoodoo gurus
• dave faulkner
• brad shepherd
• answered prayers
• song of the year
• nik rieth

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Mick Thomas enlists friends with a Roving Commission to share hope

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 May 2020

Hits: 4307

“Someday soon, will you tell us when it’s time to play for you?” asks iconoclastic Australian music legend Ron S. Peno, towards the nd of “See You When I’m Looking At You”, the nearly nine-minute long "chain" song from Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission and friends and released this week. 

It’s a question that many artists hope will soon be answered, and one of many telling moments in an epic song, sung and worded by a cross-generational selection of some of Australia’s finest singer-songwriters in COVID-19 isolation.

Conceived by Thomas – the ARIA-winning singer-songwriter of Weddings Parties Anything – in April, “See You When I’m Looking At You” began life when Mick wrote a verse and a chorus while isolating in his Melbourne backyard.

• died pretty
• hummingbirds
• ron peno
• nick barker
• Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission
• weddings parties anything
• isolation
• frente

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Godfathers to mark 35 years with new single

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 May 2020

Hits: 3795

Legendary British rock and roll group The Godfathers will release a new double A side single - "I’m Not Your Slave" b/w "Wild And Free" - on June 17 to celebrate the 35th anniversary since the band’s formation. 

Both tracks were recorded immediately prior to the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK and although composed late last year, strike a chord with current events. Sole surviving original member Peter Coyne describes them as “truly exciting, state of the art rock and roll”.

Following an acrimonious split with the last line-up, frontman Coyne is joined by guitarist Richie Simpson and drummer Billy Duncanson (both previously in Heavy Drapes and Baby’s Got A Gun), bass player Jon Priestley from iconic punk band The Damned and guitarist Wayne Vermaak. 

The Godfathers - famed for their primal rock sound with songs like "Birth School Work Death", "I Want Everything" and "Unreal World", a mob inspired image and explosive live concerts - will resume touring in 2021 to promote a new studio album.

The single is available in limited edition, seven-inch vinyl single and limited edition CD that features the two numbers, plus demo versions of both songs unavailable in any other format. Pre-orders here.

• heavy drapes
• peter coyne
• the godfathers
• the damned
• wild and free
• i'm not your slave

These Threads are't new but they make an impression

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 May 2020

Hits: 4553

Howlin’ Threads - Howlin’ Threads (Meinshaft Records) 

The ability of rock and roll bands to shed limbs that regenerate themselves is a thing of eternal wonder. From the The Undermines, out of Canberra - and many years prior, The Fools, from Newcastle - spring Howlin’ Threads, a no-nonsense guitar band from the Wollongong and Canberra regions, packing a self-titled debut EP.

These “Howlin’ Threads” are yet to play a show - they were supposed to debut in June in Wollongong before The ‘Rona had other ideas - but clearly have their shit together in the studio. Their music ticks boxes familiar to any I-94 Bar patron. It’s flashing back to high-energy Sydney, circa the late ‘80s with nods to all the usual suspects, but a notch above the imitators that abounded back then.

• detroit
• the fools
• undermines
• howlin 'threads
• meinshaft records

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Dictators re-assemble

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 May 2020

Hits: 10477

_{The original Dictators.}

Hugely influential pre-punk pathfinders the Dictators are reforming to record and possibly play. But it will be without longtime vocalist Handsome Dick Manitoba, with the 'Tators reverting to their original configuration.

Bassist-vocalist Andy Shernoff confirmed the move today, saying he and guitarists Ross The Boss and Top Ten would re-convene with ex-Blue Oyster Cult member Albert Bouchard on drums. Shernoff, the songwriting member of the Dictators, said the line-up would soon be "recording a few tunes to feel things out".

• dictators
• manitoba
• ross the boss
• top ten
• blue oyster cult
• andy shernoff
• handsome dick manitoba
• albert bouchard
• blue coupe

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