Then in December, they were back at The Factory Theatre in Sydney's Marickville playing “Black Milk”, an interesting album that as Tex said that night has more than a few twists and turns. While it was sad to see them without James, they were in top form.

Surprise of the night for me was Richie Weed. I was never a fan of Tumbleweed. They just never did it for me but his set was great. I’m going to have check out his album.

It was a top night and it was great to see so many familiar faces.

3. Jon Spencer
Another at The Factory. A killer rhythm section laid a platform for him to let rip with echo-drenched vocals. Try to imaging a deranged Elvis turning into a manic preacher or snake oil salesman and you might sort of get the idea. As a mate said, he may well as been singing Albanian but we didn’t give a shit.

4. One movie
"Harder and Harder": I didn’t get to see the first Hard-Ons doco. The sun, moon and stars just didn’t line up. I loved “Harder and Harder”. Blackie and Ray talk frankly about all sorts of shit from tackling racism to an errant band member. The big takeaway from me is that although you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s Blackie’s band, Ray is so heavily invested in it. Great stuff and inspirational. Good to see them recognised by their high school. Absolute Dead Set Legends!

5. Album of the year
The Pleasures – “Enemy of My Enemy”. The first album by this Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan-led outfit was brilliant and the full band gig in a beer garden in Camden in December 2024 was outstanding.

I was more or less expecting it to be one-off, but the second album “Enemy of My Enemy” is even better with its country-rock base delivering everything from soulful ballads to full-on rock. The band is in top form and the songwriting between these two delivers even better songs. Grown-up and a little bit dangerous.

There are no duds on this and the standout tracks are the title track, “Where The Money Goes”, and “This Might Hurt a Bit.”

I saw them again in Camden in the same beer garden touring the album, but this time as a duo. While I would have preferred to see them with the full band, the duo was outstanding. Lachlan said they considered calling themselves The Homewreckers. No comment.

I’m looking forward to the third album.

6. Five rock albums (in no particular order)
Shepparton Airplane – “Forecast”: Great album from this Melbourne band switching between extended jams and punchy post punk guitar. Great songs too, with a good mix of light and dark.  "Stereo Youth", "Someone to Blame" and "So Cool, What It's Worth" are the standouts among other killer tracks.

East Coast Low – “Badlanding”: Deadset ball-tearer from Newcastle! Great hard-driven post-punk with great songs. With Rob Younger at the controls, it has strong horn arrangements (think The Saints circa 1978) and chock a block full of blistering guitar. “Matters” and “Medicine” are the standouts for me.

Peter Simpson – “Good Times Gone Bad”: Love this. It has a great pub rock feel with a little nod to the harder glam stuff. The songwriting is very good and very grown-up.

Drugs in Sport – “If only we could use these powers for good”: Another ripper from Newcastle. I’m yet to see these guys live, but I hear big raps about their live shows and this album is great. Lots of energy, great choruses to get angry to over. Solid backing and lots of cymbals crashing. “Gravity Crusher”, “Cooked” and “Troll and Trigger” among my standouts but really every track is a winner. Must get to see them.

Paper Castles – “I’m Sad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Fake It Anymore”: Don’t know much about this, but I’ve digging it in the car. It’s apparently a “songwriting project” for guy who’s in another band (Vermont, US) that I don’t know anything about. It would be easy to diss this as another slacker record (think Pavement) and it has a bit of the Jonathan Richmans about it, but there’s quite a lot going on with some great arrangements and noisy layered guitars. The songwriting is fabulous with a pisstake on the modern world. The title of the opening track “Content Creator” should give you a clue. “Name Changer” sticks its tongue out at branding. Whatever that is. 

7. Two blues albums from a couple of Burnsides
Kent Burnside – “Hill Country Blood”: Guitar so raw it becomes a thing of beauty.

Garry Burnside – “It’s My Time”:  Extraordinary debut ranging from slow grooves to explosive guitar solos. Both traditional (think Buddy Guy) and new and exciting.

8. Weirdness from Japan
Koenjihyakkei – “Live at Club Goodman”: Think Zappa meets Glass and Reich and they fight over the arrangements. 

That’s a dozen and that will do.

Others things in no particular order that could have made the list

Chris Virtue is heard on "Virtual Reality" on 2RRR-FM at 7pm (Sydney time) every Friday