tony bambach

News that a long-lost five-track release by Sydney band The Most was making its way onto streaming platforms has made the ears of veterans of Australia's 1980s underground scene prick up. The Most were among many terrific acts in a crowded inner-city Sydney scene, and a band that spawned future members of the Lime Spiders and The Cruel Sea.  

Originally issued as a cassette in very limited quantities by fanzine "48 Crash", the "Another Day" EP is now available online, so we tracked down The Most drummer RICHARD LAWSON to extract some historical details. THE BARMAN did the interrogating. 

After releasing two digital singles “Drone” and “Tape Hiss”, high-energy collective Cousin Betty release a debut EP, “LEFT” via Golden Robot Records on March 26.

Cousin Betty is the brainchild of Australia’s Damien Stofka a guitarist/songwriter, who has created riffs and written songs for Molten Universe, Death Mattel, LITTER and various other projects for the last 15 years.

Tract Home Chippy - Chris Masuak & Dog Soldier (I-94 Bar Records/Gaga Digi)

Chris Masuakhas been shredding guitar on Australian stages since he was a teenager with Radio Birdmanin the mid-‘70s. It’s still hard to grasp that by the time he'd made his mid-20s, he'd played with Birdman, the Hitmen, the New Christs and the Screaming Tribesmen, surely four of the most rocking and influential acts to emerge from Australia in any 10-year period.

Fast-forward to 2023 and Masuak now lives in Spain; in recent years, he’s released a couple of stunning, riff layered, street level yet melodic albums in “Bruijita” and “Address To The Nation”. The new digital single “Tract Home Chippy”, released to concide with his first Australian tour in six years, is no different.  

With a weaving, melodic guitar hook that crosses several scales, it’s a clever lead-in that sparks off a pumping rhythm section that’s as tight as an ant’s arse. The song gets along like a roller-coaster, aided by solid backing vocals that add spark. Masuak’s own vocals is in fine form, and it’s wrapped in a shower of hooks. The song carries the classic Masuak trademark: a slab of guitar power with a hard edge that nods nod to garage rock and toll.

Lyrically (and

For 20 years, Sydney’s Lime Spiders cut a swathe through audiences in Australia - and for that matter, right around the world.  

Beginning as acolytes of the ‘60s acid punk sound, the band developed its own hard rock style, signed to a major label and toured extensively, attracting praise from the likes of Jello Biafra, Iggy Pop and Joey Ramone. Three studio albums and a live record attest to the band’s power.  

The Green Spiders could be called the “sequel” to the Lime Spiders. Featuring three-quarters of the Spiders’ most prolific line-up,

The Green Spiders were born in 2018, out of a desire by the members to play together again.  Their originals are written or co-written by Ged Corben, Tony Bambach and Tom Corben and naturally include a generous portion of Lime Spiders material.

There’s also a serving of obscure 60’s guitar rock/pop and a dash of 70’s punk.

Ripley Hood (Mushroom Planet, Funhouse, Gun Control, Brando Rising and the Four Stooges) fills out the Green Spiders line-up as lead vocalist. 

Their February 16 show at Marrickville Bowling Club will be their debut Sydney gig.

They’ll be joined by power pop supremos The Loose Pills, now in the throes of completing their second album and deservedly one of Sydney’s best live bands. 

Making its debut will be The Second Chance, a collection of Detroit rock veterans gathered around vocalist Pete Patterson (ex-Mother Jones, Melting Skyscrapers and Rattlesnake Shake.) 

Tickets are selling here.

Long-lost inner-Sydney pop-psych band The Most - whose members went on to major acts like the Lime Spiders and The Cruel Sea – is rising from the grave, digitally.  

The early '80s band is remastering and releasing the EP “Another Day” this  month. It will be available on all platforms later this month.

A staple of Sydney’s thriving inner-city scene, they supported such bands as Sunnyboys, The Church and Machinations and were finalists in the 1982 Battle of the Bands at the Strawberry Hills Hotel - eventually won by The Lime Spiders. 

The Most recorded “Another Day” in 1982 and it was the first foray into the studio. Nevertheless, the recordings have a maturity about them, and Steve Lorkin from “48 Crash” fanzine was impressed enbough to issue it on cassette in ‘83. 

Driven by the song-writing talents of vocalist Phil Thornton, the songs show influences as diverse as David Bowie,Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. 

Other members of The Most were Richard Lawson (drums and vocals), Ged Corben (lead guitar), Tony Bambach(bass) and Greg Owens (guitar). 

CHRIS “KLONDIKE” MASUAK TOP SEVERAL FOR 2023

1.   APPARENTLY, THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY GENOCIDE.
This year has demonstrated beyond any possible doubt that the human race is blithely and psychopathically genocidal.

And if daily reminders of this sad and truly distressing reality aren’t enough, next to nothing has been effectively done to redress the horror because of the not entirely surprising confirmation that a great number of the people you know are …

a. Cruel and nasty.
b. Wilfully ignorant.
c. Racist.
d. Chickenshit.
e. All of the above.

Protest, agitate, donate … do something. Anything.

Let’s at least pretend to be interested in creating a better future.

Aberration are one of those bands who you have probably heard of word of mouth. Did you ever see them live back in the ‘80s? No recordings survive so you just have to believe they where good if you didn’t see them kicking around Sydney in 1983-87.

Aberration were playing high-energy British metal/punk until as the liner notes to this album “Tuckerbox” attest, destructive forces took their toll. The band split with little to show for their wild live reputation.

Fast forward 35 years. “Tuckerbox” is the first release for Aberration, one member of which survives in Alan Creed. It‘s newly-recorded and 10 tracks of sheer raw power.