australia

Remember that sublimely raw set of demos by the Australian X that came out as the “X-Spurts” CD a few years ago? Canadian label Ugly Pop Records has just re-issued it on vinyl after doing the same with the “X-Aspirations” album. 

Recorded in a lounge room in Sydney's Surry Hills and stored for 35 years, "X-Spurts" pre-dates "X-Aspiration" and features the oririginal X line-up in stunning form. This is one of the greatest "lost" recordings to have been unearthed of any band. You can procure a copy here and there is an Australian distributor if you prefer the bricks and mortar store option. 

Comeback kings the Sunnyboys have announced a full-blown Aussie summer tour, along with deluxe releases of their second and third studio albums.

The 2015 tour will include shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide plus a slot at the Perth International Arts Festival, just the second Sunnyboys appearance in the W.A. capital since 1984.

Brisbane and Sydney will be treated to appearances by their former sparring partners, the Riptides. Other guests on the February tour include The New Christs (Melbourne and Sydney) young punks Bad // Dreems (Adelaide) and Dom Mariani's post-Stems vehicle DM3, in Perth.

Australian alternative artist Suzie Stapleton is heading back home in 2018 for a long overdue homecoming tour.

This is Stapleton’s first time back to Oz since relocating to London in 2015 and she'll perform solo shows in hometown Melbourne and Sydney in March with more to be announced.

Over the past three years Suzie has been captivating audiences with her electric live performances, midnight vocal, and guitar-driven noir soundscapes whilst touring the UK and Europe with artists such as Mark Lanegan, Mick Harvey, and Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind.

In 2017 she appeared as guest vocalist on Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove’s unlikely album “Under The Covers” - a continuation of Stapleton’s collaborations with Cypress Grove on "The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project", featuring Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Debbie Harry.

_{Voula Williamson photo}

For the last two weeks, Stones fever, ably abetted by the broadsheet newspaper, has hit Adelaide.

Not for everyone, of course, mostly fogeys. Of which I am one.

In the days running up to the gig, Stoneswatchers staked out their hotel, their rehearsal ‘room’ (disused Glenside Mental Hospital, not that there’s any shortage of clientele, just that funds are a bit short apparently). 

Much-loved garage-cum-country rockers The Supersuckers are revisiting Australia with a new album in tow and a bunch of hardcore fans to play to.

God bless those wonderful creative people who say: "Screw this boring world, I'm gonna do what I want to do". Because, when all is said and done, we won't be here forever, and if what you fancy makes other people dance and leap about like they've got uncool illnesses, so much the better.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Everyone who claims to love rock'n'roll has their own idea of what rock'n'roll is.

And, it's a suspicion of mine that a hell of a lot of rock'n'roll bands exist because no-one is playing the kind of rock'n'roll they want to hear (this may have been one of Kim Salmon's reasons for re-emerging with another Scientists in 1982).

Last week we saw The Animals, sharp and bright as a new nail, rejoicing in the simple power and beauty of the r'n'b explosion, and the determination to stay stable in a troubled world. 

_{Original and current Animals drummer John Steel.  Mandy Tzaras photo.}

Can't take her anywhere. This writer's photographer pissed and moaned about the walk from the car to the venue in the usual female preposterous high heels, wibbling and wobbling all over the shop. That'll larn me, in future I'll drop her off outside before parking the car.

Anyway, Jello-On-Springs tipped most of her first glass of white all over me while we were chatting with a friend (I'm sure I deserved it) in The Gov's rather lovely Front Bar (they always have a band on there, so the locals and regulars have some live music if they're not interested in, say, Tweefolkies, The Smythes or Iggy and the Squeezevomits). 

English psychedelic punk legends The Damned are returning to Australia and New Zealand in March 2017 for their 40th anniversary tour.

Since their formation in 1976 and playing their first gig as supports to the Sex Pistols, The Damned have carved their own path.

They released UK punk’s first LP, followed by 10 studio albums, 15 live records and countless more 45s.

Known for songs like “Neat Neat Neat”, “Love Song”, Smash It Up” and “Eloise”, they’re ranked one of the most influential punk groups.

After a series of line-up changes and a temporary break-up, the band have continued to release masterful music, with their latest offering “So, Who’’s Paranoid?” their first album in seven years.

The tour will be lead by original members Captain Sensible on guitar and the remarkable David Vanian on vocals, as well as long time members Monty Oxy Moron, Pinch and Stu West.

Dates and ticketing dertails after the break.