Flood warning: Kuepper and White deliver a masterwork

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By Ed Garland

Ed Garland

06 August 2025

Hits: 2039

After The Flood -   Ed Kuepper and Jim White (Remote Control)

“We took what Jim and I had been doing live and brought it into the studio. It was important that we capture the immediacy of what we had been doing and everything was not laboured. Everything was laid down.”

Ed Kuepper spells it all out in his media release announcing this album.  Anyone who has witnessed the powerful, atmospheric and unforgettable performances of Ed Kuepper and Jim White live will testify that they’re something not to be missed.

• saints
• ed kuepper
• laughing clowns
• dirty three
• jim white
• after the flood
• remote control
• cat power

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Bringing back that Soft 'n' Sexy Sound

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

04 August 2025

Hits: 1641

_{The 2025 Coral Snakes.  Meredith O'Shea photo.}

If you were alive to Australian music and culture in the mid-1990s, you couldn't avoid Dave Graney. It wasn't so much that his band dominated the charts - but 'The Soft 'n' Sexy Sound” was unavoidable.

Having been nominated in the Best Male Artist at the 1996 ARIA Music Awards, he wore a hot pink crushed velvet suit (beneath a toe-curling wig) to the award. To the evident astonishment of presenter Chrissy Amphlett, Graney had beaten John Farnham, Paul Kelly, and Tex Perkins to the top spot. Dave began his unrehearsed acceptance speech by declaring himself, with deep irony, to be “King of Pop'” 

Such TV moments are pivotal, iconic, magnificent (and easily locatable on YouTube). Right up there, in my view, with Iggy Pop bouncing up and down on a chair in the “Countdown” studio calling Molly Meldrum “dogface”, and innumerable Norman Gunston interviews. The difference is that Graney possesses an immutable grace, style and a vein of rich, droll humour.

• dave graney
• clare moore
• coral snakes
• australian tour
• 2025
• soft 'n' sexy soound

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Klondike's Spanish band Los Revelators unleash "Trigger Warning"

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 August 2025

Hits: 1153

• chris masuak
• los revelators
• trigger warning

Asteroid B612 announce Australian shows

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 August 2025

Hits: 1143

For the first time in 25 years, seminal Sydney underground rock´n´roll band Asteroid B612 will light up Australian skies with a select run of shows in November. The gigs will the band’s first chance to present their new album “Roads, Stars”, out now on vinyl LP and CD and via all streaming platforms.

Asteroid B612 came hurtling out of Sydney´s Northern Beaches in the early 90´s and was a guitar-powered force of nature, recording five albums and playing endless tours throughout Australia and once across the USA.

The core of the band - schoolyard buddies Johnny Spittles aka Johnny Casino, singer Grant McIver and drummer Benny Fox - were brought up on a musical diet of heartfelt, soulful, blazing rock´n´roll.

Dissembling in 2002, they reunited for eight concerts in 10 days through Johnny Casino's adopted home of Spain with an Australo-Spanish lineup. This is where the idea of recording new music was hatched.

It’s a slightly re-tooled version of the band with the 2022 passing of bassist Scotty Nash. Tickets go on sale from venue outlets at 0900 (AEST) today.

Asteroid B612
Australian Tour
NOV
6 – La La La´s – Wollongong NSW
7 – Marrickville Bowling Club – Sydney NSW
8 – Avalon Beach RSL Club – Northern Beaches NSW
14 - The John Curtin Hotel – Carlton Melbourne VIC

• johnny casino
• asteroid b612
• australian tour
• 2025

"Better Now" is the first taste of Van Ruin's album

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By The Barman

The Barman

31 July 2025

Hits: 1324

Following on from last year’s debut EP, “Jails, Death & Institutions” (Crankinhaus Records), Van Ruin has rapidly upped the ante with their first album, ‘Trauma Magnet” ahead of their first European tour in September 2025. “Trauma Magnet” unveils a cast of characters whose fallible traits play out against a backdrop of high-energy rock and roll and hook-laden songs.

The members of Van Ruin's history in Australian rock is pretty vast - they've been a part of crucial acts like the New Christs, Lime Spiders, Deniz Tek Group, The Visitors, ME262, Decline of the Reptiles and Chris Massuak’s Dog Soldier, as well as East Coast Low, Hell Crab City, Chickenstones, Loose Pills, The Panadolls and Aberration. 

Van Ruin are Phil Van Rooyen - Vocals/Guitar, Alan Creed - Guitar/Vocals/Keyboards, Andy Newman - Bass/Keyboards and Stuart Wilson - Drums/Vocals

“Trauma Magnet” is being released on vinyl, CD and streaming and you can pre-order on Bandcamp or the label site, or pre-save.

• new christs
• lime spiders
• the visitors
• filmclip
• van ruin
• better now
• trauma magnet
• deniz tek group
• chris masuak's dog soldier

Don't snooze: One-off Oz show for Yoshiko of 5.6.7.8's on sale

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 July 2025

Hits: 1103

Yoshiko, lead singer of Japan's 5.6.7.8's, is coming to Sydney to perform a solo performance for the first time at the intimate MoshPit Bar in St Peters on Sunday, September 14.

The gig went on sale today and is already cruising towards a sell-out so expect no tickets on the door. Grab a pre-sale one here or miss out. Doors open at 3.30pm.

With a sell-out tour of Australia in March with the 5.6.7.8's under her belt, Yoshiko is going to be belting out a completely different set of Japanese floor shakers and rockin' garage tunes.

She’ll be previewing a record she’s recording with her Sydney backing band, Cheetah Beat, purveyors of “sleazy surf and sinful serenades”. Cheetah Beat are coming in hot after their recent sell-out show at The MoshPit in July.

They’ll be joined by Jupiter 5, stalwarts of ‘60s and ‘70's rock'n'roll with brute force and grooviness. Dirtbag will open the shindig fresh from his appearance at the renown Wild Weekend festival in Spain with his primal one-man band racket.

• cheetah beat
• moshpit
• jupiter 5
• dirtbag
• 5.6.7.8's
• yoshiko

Power trio delivers more than a sugar hit on their debut album

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

28 July 2025

Hits: 3179

The Sugar Beats – The Sugar Beats (Vinil Records)

It was a Saturday afternoon earlier this year when I stumbled on a Sugar Beats set. I was filming a documentary at MoshPit Bar in Sydney.  There were whispers on the grapevine that the band was awesome.  So, we raced down with a cameraman and a buddy in tow, in the hope that the band would deliver.

The word on the street was correct. Live, The Sugar Beats were overwhelmingly tight, blistering, gutsy and hooky, a  three-piece playing high-powered punk rock.

• nitrocris
• the strike-outs
• the sugar beats
• adam vines
• morgana ancone
• vinil records

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Sydney music community pitches in for Dan Dunhill

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 July 2025

Hits: 1372

Sydney musician Dan “Dunhill” Batchelor has hit hard medical times and bandmates have opened a GoFundMe campaign.

A co-founder of The Dunhill Blues, the band described as “Sydney's best B-grade garage-punk rock party outfit” (plus a few others), Dan recently kicked both cancer and an auto-immune disease to make a full return to work, gigs and family life.

Last month, he was hit by meningitis on a trip to Greece for partner Ves's significant birthday. He was treated in an Athens hospital and deemed fit to fly home.

“After receiving further treatment back home, Dan was well enough to return to his job... until The Big Setback,” explains bandmate Adam Dunhill.

“Last week, Dan was at work when he noticed his vision was blurred. He called Ves to pick him up, which she did... and took him straight to hospital for emergency treatment.

“Turns out, a rare complication of meningitis is blindness due to brain or optic nerve damage. The medicos reckon Dan was three hours away from total blindness, so it's very lucky Ves called it the way she did.

“Dan now has permanent damage in one eye, and is still in hospital being treated to prevent total vision impairment. It's heavy. And yeah... while this gives Dan time to work on his new blues guitarist name (and rest and recover, of course), the reality is this: the latest medical episode has emptied Dan and Ves's emergency fund.”

You’ll find the GoFundMe launched by The Dunhill Blues. Link and Pin Café and record label Outtaspace Presents here.

• gofundme
• the dunhill blues
• dan dunhill

Tick Tick Boom! Swedish royalty puts the rock back into midweek Sydney

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 July 2025

Hits: 1593

The Hives
+ Clamm
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday, 23 July 2025

In these austere times, a full Enmore Theatre midweek sounds as unlikely as an affordable round of drinks in a Justin Hemmes-owned pub, but there you go: If the joint is full to the gills by 8pm on a Wednesday, it must be a Hives show.

Dunno about you but I’ve been following The Hives since they formed in Sweden in that eruption of Scandi Rock at the start of the ‘90s. The six albums are all top-shelf fun but the live experience had somehow evaded me. So, it’s off to the Enmore on a school night that I must go.

The urgings from people like The Celebrity Roadie not to miss this were still echoing in my tinnitus-scarred ears as I sipped my first beer. The Barmaid had even feigned interest by asking if the band would sing in English (not that she was going) but, really? It’s a self-evident truth that The Hives speak fluent Rock and Roll. Their dialect is universal.

• enmore theatre
• australian tour
• clamm
• 2025
• the hives

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