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lipstick killers

  • barman 2021 top ten

    The Barman’s Best Albums of 2021, in reverse order of release.

    1. Back For More – The On and Ons(Citadel)
    Perfect rocking powerpop from Australia’s most consistent exponents of the art. If you haven’t heard them yet, shame. Start here and track backwards.

    2. Snake Pit Therapy – Sonny Vincent (Svart)
    New York punk’s (almost) last man standing bounces back with his best-sounding and arguable most well-rounded album ever. Sonny has been hidden in plain sight for the many for far too long.

    3. You’re Class, I’m Trash – The Monsters (Voodoo Rhythm)
    Beat-Man and his buddies have made trash an art form like few others before them. This record should make a junkie of you.

  • gerry ranson 202110. JAMES DOMESTIC – “FAZE OUT”
    This just scrapes in as a debut single but by the time The Domestics’ frontman’s album emerges this Spring, it’ll be a shoo-in for end of year lists. A brilliant first effort, “Faze Out” keeps some of the East Anglian hardcore pioneers’ energy but cloaks his Dury-ish man-in-the-pub spiel in junskshop electronica.

    9. VIEWS – “MOTHER TAPES ANTHOLOGY 1986-1990”
    Not sure how this lot passed me by in my student days, but this double from Area Pirata is an excellent introduction to (or reminder of) Brescia band Views. One for paisley underground fans, they borrow the Dü’s knack for belligerence and melody with occasional wigouts into Yo La Tengo lightheadedness.

    8. SONNY VINCENT – “SNAKE PIT THERAPY”
    STILL one of punk’n’roll’s best-kept secrets, Sonnycame within a Rizla’s breadth of going overground and not a moment too soon. The Limit album that came out earlier in the year, fronted by Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling, brought him a whole new audience, but this is really what he does best. A confident resurgence considering the trials of recent years.

  • indie sounds vi nil cvrIndie Sounds From The Harbour City (1983-87) – Various Artists (Vi-Nil Records)

    The Vi-Nil label lurched into life in 1983 with The Klerksand spawned more notable offspring such as the Hard-Ons and the Psychotic Turnbuckles before winding down at the end of the decade. This collection marks the label’s re-birth, and features a representative selection of its first era stable.

    There are 20 tracks and it’s a diverse output, ranging from power-pop to acid punk and back to new wave and garage rock. Vi-Nil’s release of “Sockman” by the Lipstick Killers was my introduction to the label and to these ears it still epitomises the frenzied attack of the first era line-up.

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