- Details
- By Edwin Garland
- Hits: 499
Mark Fraser (in cap) and soe of the Vi-Nil Records stable christening another INDIE SOUNDS compilation last year.
If you’ve seen gigs by the cooler bands from Wollongong, Newcastle or the Central Coast over the last few years, you would have seen Mark Fraser at the merchandise stand.
His record label Vi-Nil Records has been responsible for releasing some killer records, some of them in a compilation series called “Indie Sounds” showcasing various scenes from Sydney’s environs. Mark has been part of the street level scene now for almost 45 years, as a writer, venue owner, muso and head of his own label.
The first Vi-Nil record I bought was the “Surfing On My Face” single by the Hard-Ons. It dates from 1985, a time when there were 50-plus music venues across Sydney. Then-local radio station Triple-Jay played cool shit and thousands of like minded kids were packing rooms seeing original bands.
After a long break, Mark revived the Vi-Nil imprint in 2022. I was curious what drew back him back and what changes he’d observed. So we sat down and had a yarn.
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 540
Mick Harvey. Andrew Trute photo @andrew_trute_aus
Recently the call went out that Bleak Squad - that startling, noir-esque band comprising Marty Brown (Art of Fighting), Mick Harvey, Adalita Srsen (Magic Dirt) and Mick Turner (Dirty Three) - are touring Australia for the firsdt time after playing a handful of gigs in October last year.
Having recently relistened to Bleak Squad and finding that I enjoyed them - a process I commend to you - I decided it might be a good idea to ask Mick Harvey a few questions.
The interview ranges a bit wider than just Bleak Squad. As you will see, Mick was very patient with my questions and irreverence, and I must thank him for finding time to complete these questions when I know he was extremely busy.
- Details
- By Matt Ryan
- Hits: 554
After a 20- year wait, Melbourne’s Japanese-Australian band Mach Pelican are finally releasing new music. The first is a seven-inch, “A Secret Session “, that features two songs, “Remember It“ and “Summer Sun”. They’re both fun, Ramones-y punk rock. They’re also very Mach Pelican and the kind of music that I find hard to believe anyone could dislike.
Mach Pelican have an amazing backstory: Three kids from Japan meet in Perth, start a band based on their shared love of the Ramones, go on to become one of the most beloved band bands of the 1990s and early 2000s in their adopted country and tour overseas, leaving three albums and a stack of singles in their wake before a logn lay-off.
Singer-guitarist Keisuke Nakamura spoke with me from his Melbourne home via the Zoom machine.
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 1256
Spain-based, Canadian-born, Australian-raised guitar legend Chris Masuak (Radio Birdman, The Hitmen, Screaming Tribesmen, New Christs) was going to be promoting his new album “Chris Masuak’s Dog Soldier” with a tour Down Under in November, but a recurring illness required an emergency operation.
What illness? It's referred to in Chris' book, “Faith and Practice in Bedlam” (High Voltage Publishing – edited by this writer). I'm not going to explain it: find the reference and read up. Fucking horrible, is all I'm gonna say. Makes me squirm to even think of having an operation there.
Anyway. I listened to the album, thought it was damn good, and fired off some questions to Chris.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 1742
Sam Geldart photo
What do you get when you mix middle-aged Adelaide writer, I-94 Bar scribe and self-described vocalist with Smallpox Confidential, Robert Brokenmouth, with veteran City of Churches synth exponent Shaun C Duncan? They call it Ambient Horror Goth Industrial Punk Drone Synth Machinery Slagheap, and it goes under the name Molly Fet Circuit.
Molly Fet Circuit has never been sighted outside of Adelaide but has been well exposed on the city’s leading community radio station, 5AA. We’ve been treated to a taste of the Molly Fet Circuit oeuvre and songs like “Mustid”, “Liquid” and “Could Not” are starkly industrial, antagonistic and intriguing (in a Suicide sort of way.)
Molly Fet Circuit is coming to Sydney this month, for shows at Lazy Thinking in Dulwich Hill (Novermber 28) and MoshPit (November 29). Ticket links at the end.
Now this Brokenmouth bloke is a Bar regular, often being swept out long after post-closing staff drinks, We’ve seen lots of him so we chased down his partner in decibels, Shaun C Duncan, for an interview - and he graciously accepted.
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 1471
Everyone thinks they know about “The Sixties” and of course the further away we get, the muddier it all seems. English R'n'B - or, if you like, English interpretations of R'n'B - set the world alight and we've never been the same since. Pop became tougher, bands wrote their own songs; thousands of bands around the world formed as a result - and the follow-on effects are still felt today.
Today, few of the musicians who helped detonate that ground-zero remain; even fewer remain playing live. Along with, say, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, one who regularly presents himself to crowds is John Steel, the original drummer for The Animals, who is bringing The Animals And Friends to Australia again.
It takes a band of high quality to present these songs. The guitarist and lead singer is Danny Handley. He joined Robert Brokenmouth at the Bar.
- Details
- By Matt Ryan
- Hits: 3026
Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows alumnus and DIY garage rock icon, Toody Cole, has returned to the stage after a six-year break ,and is sweeping through Australia this month.
Toody Cole and Her Band is an underground showcase, playing songs from Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows, both of which Toody played in with her late husband of 50 years, Fred Cole. Her band features Christpoher March (Jenny Don’t and the Spurs) and former Pierced Arrows bandmate, Kelly Halliburton.
No-one embodied the DIY/Independent spirit more then Fred and Toody. There are many bands that have achieved cult status, but not many get their own city paying tribute to them, with Portland declaring October 5 “Dead Moon Night”.
Toody spoke to Matt Munster from her Portland house, just after here return to Portland from gigs in Spain.
- Details
- By Ed Garland
- Hits: 12649
Garry Campbell in full flight.
WORDS: Ed Garland
PHOTOS: Jules
I am the first to admit I got it wrong about Sydney band RUST.
You these hear stupid comments around the scene (by those who claim to be “in the know“) that RUST is a right-wing Oi band. As time’s gone on, the penny has slowly dropped.
First, I watched the band put in a blistering set at The Metro in Sydney support of Stiff Little Fingers and they impressed me .
A couple of years later, pre-Covid, I caught them at Time and Tide in Dee Why in one wild punk night. They struck me as a solid Oi cross-over punk band, but maybe but not my thing.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 13450
The Beasts aren't the Beasts of Bourbon. but they both share members and a sense of fierce perversity.
So when The Beasts play their show to mark 35 years since their immediate forebears, the Beasts of Bourbon, birthed the "Black Milk" album at The Forum in Melbourne on September 12, expect it to hit emotional heights and to venture into unchartered territory.
The sun is setting over Sydney and on the line is Tex Perkins, singer for both bands and, with Kim Salmon (guitar) and Boris Sujdovic (bass), a survivor of the original line-up of the Beasts of Bourbon.
- Bringing back that Soft 'n' Sexy Sound
- A look back on the Wonderful Life of Damien Lovelock
- Jet setting with Seiji from Guitar Wolf
- Out of an Igloo and Into The Zone, Mick Medew 's passion for rock and roll continues to burn
- "Strange but right": Hugo Race on "100 Years"
- Filmmaker Jason Axel Summers and the Stuart Gray documentary "I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago"
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The Living Eye
I-94 Bar presents
The Johnnys
(Billy Pommer Jr's Birthday)
+ White Knuckle Fever
Smiths Alternative, Canberra
- Feb 20
Tickets
+ Penny Ikinger's Marbles
+ Trauma Boys
St Kilda Sports Club, VIC
- Feb 21
Tickets
Peter Black solo
FEB
13 - The Cave Inn, Brisbane, QLD
Tickets
14 - Vinnies Dive Bar, Gold Coast, QLD (Matinee Show)
Tickets
19 - Medusa Bar, Geelong, VIC
Tickets
20 - Town Hall Hotel, Melbourne (two sets)
Details
21 - Shedshaker Brewing Company, Castlemaine, VIC
Details
27 - Hopsters Brewery - Sydney
Details
28 - Flow Bar - Old Bar, NSW
Details
MAR
1 - Hiss and Crackle Records, Newcastle, NSW
Details
Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes
Service Station Chcken Tour
FEB
27 – The Main Bar, Ballarat, VIC
28 – Union Hotel, Brunswick, VIC
MAR
1 – Bendigo Hotel, Brunswick, VIC
The Gnomes
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Rock ‘n’ Roll Dive Bar Tour
FEB
14 - Shotkickers, Thornbury (8pm)
+ Public House + Special Guests
20 - The Tote Front Bar, Collingwood (6pm)
+ Champ Ruby
21 - Kindred Bandroom, Footscray (8pm)
+ Stimpies + special guests
The Sugar Beats
+ Plastic Section
Golden Barley, Enmore
- Feb 20
TsuShiMaMiRe (JP)
Australian Tour
FEB
19 - Shotkickers, Melbourne, VIC
20 – Trash Cult, Bendigo, VIC
22– Young St Tavern, Frankston, VIC
27 - Shadows, Canberra, ACT
28 – Moshpit, Sydney, NSW
The Jackets (CH)
Australian Tour
FEB
25 – Shotkickers, Thornbury, VIC
+ Plastic Section + Burning Effigy + Special Secret Guest
26 - Vineyard, St Kilda, VIC
(Door sales only)
27 – Mixtape Bar & Brewing, Marrickville,
Sydney, NSW
(moved from Marrickville Bowlo)
+ The Strike-Outs + pocketwatch
28 - The Bendi, Collingwood, VIC
MAR
1 -– Trash Cult, Bendigo, VIC (arvo show)
+ Grinding Eyes, + The Damos
2 – The Last Chance, Melbourne, VIC
Tickets
Cosmic Psychos
"I Really Like Beer Tour"
FEB
12 — Royal Oak, Launceston, TAS
13 — Forth Pub, Devonport, TAS
14 — Altar, Hobart, TAS
Bleak Squad
8 - East Perth Power Station, WA
12 - .Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, VIC
13 - Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, VIC
14 – Riverboats Festival, Echuca, VIC
19 - Princess Theatre, Brisbane, QLD
20 – Imperial Hotel, Eumundi, QLD
21 - The Regent Cinema, Murwillumbah, NSW
MAR
4 - Canberra Theatre Playhouse, ACT
5 - The Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW
8 - Golden Plains Festival, Meredith, VIC
Tickets
On The Loose Presents
Guitar Wolf Australian Tour
MAR
14 - Perth, Seasonal Brewing Co.
15 - Fremantle, The Buffalo Club
all WA shows with Aborted Tortoise
18 - Gold Coast, Vinnie's Dive Bar
w/ supports TBC
19 - Nambour, The Ramp
w/ supports TBC
20 - Brisbane, Season Three
w/ Future Shocks & Evil Dick Industries
21 - Sydney, Factory Fusebox
w/ supports TBC
22 - Wollongong, La La La's
w/ Itchy & the Nits
25 - Bendigo, Trash Cult
w/ supports TBC
26 - Castlemaine, Bridge Hotel
w/ The Freedom Wave
27 - Melbourne, The Tote
w/ Alien Nosejob & Cujo
28 - Frankston, Singing Bird
w/ Split System & DJ Centipede & The Worms
29 - Balnarring, Social Club
w/ Cry Cyclops
Tickets
“Surreal Science”
Music of the Scientists &
Kim Salmon
and The Surrealists
APR
10 – The Corner, Melbourne
Tickets
11 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Tickets
18 – Rosemount Hotel, Perth, WA
Tickets
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07 January 2026
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