sonics

Garage-punk pioneers and stand out performers at 2012’s inaugural Dig It Up! Invitational in Australia, The Sonics, return Down Under this September-October at the invite of Wollongong’s Yours & Owls Festival and for headline shows around the country.

The Sonics laid down the blueprint for garage-rock back in 1963 with the release of their first single The Witch. They followed that up with even up with even more grease and oil soaked nuggets in “Psycho”, “Boss Hoss”, “Cinderella”, “Strychnine”, “He’s Waitin’”, “Shot Down” and “Have Love Will Travel” before calling it quits in 1968. Reuniting briefly in 1972 and again in 1980, The Sonics then took permanent leave while the rest of the world caught up with them.

Consider the Sonic's Rendezvous Band saga... 

Arisen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of four of the Motor City's finest proponents of high-energy rock -- the MC5, the Stooges, the Rationals, and the Up - the Rendezvous steadfastly refused to bank on their illustrious pasts (which, granted, might have been more of a liability than an asset at that point in history). Rather, they insisted on a more original kind of expression -- hardly a guarantee of steady employment for a local band in the mid-to-late '70s. 



Here’s a taste of the forthcoming studio album by garage rock pioneers the Sonics. Recorded at Seattle's Soundhouse Studios with killer producer Jim Diamond behind the controls, It will be their first LP release since 1980 and first album of all-new material since 1967.

The album will be accompanied by a US tour (check our Living Eye section at right for dates.)   

When is a cover band not a cover band?

“Doing The Fall songs can often feel a bit like driving a juggernaut with no brakes, or falling down some stairs, pissed...” according to Ben Toft - one of the singers in The Fall tribute band,  The Look Back Bores.

So, no. It's not as easy as you think.

The Animals(and Friends) have just finished an encore tour of Australia with 83-year-old John Steel behind the kit and a well-seasoned group of younger English musicians, all steeped in r'n'b, boogie and so on. The band provides high quality entertainment, doing justice to a time and place that the participants can only remember but hazily.

Yeah, it's obvious that this has been a long time coming. Compiler and Real O Mind Records chief Geoff Ginsberg toyed with the idea of a Scott Morgan box set and put a version together - as a one-off for friends - many years ago. But now the real deal's here, with the involvement of Ginsberg as compiler and UK label Easy Action honcho Carlton Sandercock as issuer, and you'd be a fool to miss it.