Cosmic Psychos guitarist Mad Macka has announced a run of shows with him double-billed with legendary Los Angeles figure Pat Todd.

Pat Todd is best known as front man for hugely influential rock'n'roll-punk band The Lazy Cowgirls from the early '80s to the early '00s, and more recently for his great high energy rock'n'roll band Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders.

It seems to me that the main truth of human nature is that we'll always do what we like if we can get away with it. Which is why we have laws, I suppose.

Because if we can take it and keep it, we will. Like dogs snarling over a stinky old bone. You know that thin veneer of what we call civilisation? Got it in one, we're animals with a slightly more complex language.

Talking about animals and humans, that brings me to eugenics. The National Human Genome Research Institute explains: “Eugenics is an inaccurate theory linked to historical and present-day forms of discrimination, racism, ableism and colonialism. It has persisted in policies and beliefs around the world...”

Well, yeah. Francis Galton, wiggy concepts of the “noble savage”, misinterpreted Darwinism and Mendelism. (No, I'm not. Look it up.)

DATELINE: Sydney, Australia - They were the product of a CIA experiment; rarely employed, driftless musicians from the 80’s, playing the independent scene, watching hours of American TV…

They were abducted with the promise of a headline gig, forced hallucinogenic substances in horrific experimentation (and then demanded the CIA did it again), and then cryogenically frozen for the next few decades. It was Night of the Many Deaths, that’s for sure.

But when a major condenser blew in the refrigeration evaporator, combined with a security guard’s mixed tape playing 70’s favourites through an old boombox, a course of events would be set in motion that not even the Central Intelligence Agency could understand, let alone control.

It was at band practice with Smallpox Confidential about four or so weeks ago that I discovered the car crash I had been in had walloped me so damn hard that apart from the soft tissue damage and concussion, I'd also lost a significant chunk of hearing. 

I'd not realised because it was a certain range of sound rather than everything, and I was so preoccupied with all the rest of the time-gobbling nonsense that until something is dead obvious, you tend not to really notice. 

Anyway, there we were in the same room in the same places with the knobs at the same volumes... and I couldn't hear Marduk's guitar. Naturally, I asked our bass player, Bob, to turn down, which he reluctantly did (do you know a bass player? do they EVER turn down?). Then I asked Marduk, to turn up, which somewhat puzzled, he did. Then I asked Bob and Marduk again, because I still couldn't hear the guitar. 

Harder Yakka – Shandy (Bovver Boogie Records)

If there’s a higher energy rock and roll band in Greater Brisbane, weight-for-age, you know our email address. Only Dr Bombay comes close. So why wouldn’t you be onto this collection of pre and post-pandemic recordings faster than a Moreton Bay seagull on a chip? 

Remember sharpie rock? Shandy covers that base but with less overt boogie and more of the sort of rock rhythm that rolls. 

Recall Oi? The shout-out choruses are still here but the kicking is more to do with excising jams than taking off rival soccer fans’ heads. “Harder Yakka” has a larrikin charm that’s Australian-made, due in no small part to the distinctly Antipodean crunch in the guitars.

Hypersensitive – The DoGs (Heavy Medication Records)

Here are two truisms: Life is full of great bands that you’ve heard of but never heard. Hindsight is fantastic because it lets you make up for what you missed the first time around.

This album by the Los Angeles-via-Detroit trio (not to be confused with the French band of the same name) came out on CD in 2002. If you missed it, you’re excused because it didn’t have massive distribution. It re-appearance as a vinyl LP on Heavy Medication is your chance to make amends.

The DoGs grew up in Michigan in the late ‘60s – outside the axis of Detroit and Ann Arbor, it must be said – and were on undercards to bands like the MC5 and the Stooges. They made the move from Lansing to the Motor City as its place in the rock and roll firmament began to decline.

Chris Klondike Masuak will hit the road in France in November, armed with a band that has an impeccable underground rock pedigree.

Junkyard Dog boasts Masuak (Radio Birdman, Hitmen, Screaming Tribesmen) on guitar and vocals, guitarists Laurent Ciron (Dogs, Hydromatics, Cinders, Belleville Cats) and Gregory J Bowen (The Outside),  bassist Bruno Perrin (TV Men, Gunners and Trotskids) and drummer Gooloo (Holy Curse).

In a time when real rock and roll is struggling to retain a foothold in Europe, that sort of heritage is going to be hard to beat. Check with local venues for times and tickets. There’s a Facebook event here.

Chris Masuak & Junkyard Dog
French Tour
NOV
22 – Paris (tba)
23 – Breville/Mer @ Les Valseuses
24 – Vannes @ Le Barailleur
25 – St Brieuc @ Le Fût Chantant
26 – Rennes @ La Trinquette

Sydney veterans Sonic Garage will unveil their second album, “Dark Country”, at an early Friday night show at The Old Manly Boatshed on 6 October. 

Supports are hard rock supergroup Bahne Super Flex, featuring ex-members of the Trilobites, Celibate Rifles and Mushroom Planet, and new comers Capital Romantics.  

 _{Ravin Divito photo}

Portland outfit Jenny Don’t and the Spurs have been recording and playing for the last 10 years and show no signs of slowing down. A supergroup combining members of Don’t, Wipers and Pierced Arrows, the Spurs combine the fast energy of garage and punk, with the attitude of outlaw country. If Patsy Cline started a band with some ratbags hanging around CBGB, it would sound like this.

We spoke with singer/guitarist Jenny Connors and her husband, and also Spurs bass player Kelly Halliburton from their Portland home just before they land in Australia for their second Spurs tour.