Kim Scott.
Formed in Adelaide in the early 1980s and based on the core membership of brothers John (guitar) and Kim Scott (bass), The Mark of Cain was always something of an enigma in the Adelaide, and Australian independent music scene.
The Mark of Cain took its initial musical cues from English post-punk bands like Joy Division and Gang of Four; the band’s muscular sound was complimented by a existentialist lyrical bent, inspired by John Scott’s interest in the writing of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Herman Hesse, spliced with figurative militaristic imagery.
The fact that the Scott brothers, both qualified engineers, held down day jobs in the Department of Defence added to The Mark of Cain’s mystique.
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- By Patrick Emery
- Hits: 3200
Much-travelled James McCann (ex-The Drones, Harpoon, James McCann And The New Vindictives, James McCann's Dirty Skirt Band, Nunchukka Superfly) is back with a new LP, a new band name - and even a different first name.
The Melbourne-based singer-guitarist’s latest recording, “Hit With Love” – under the moniker JJ McCann Transmission - is 12 cracking, original tracks that combine elements of ‘80s hard rock, pop and post-punk, and a few that are almost impossible to compare to any others.
Produced by Rob Younger, “Hit with Love” is another solid entry onto McCann’s already exceptional back catalogue. For me he’s one of the country’s great singer/songwriters of the last 20 years. We spoke with JJ via telephone.
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- By Matt Ryan of Munster Times
- Hits: 2365
Robert Fagan photo.
By tragic coincidence, a few hours before my interview with L7 guitarist and singer Donita Sparks, news broke of the passing of Irish musician and songwriter, Sinead O’Connor.
At first glance, the association between L7 and O’Connor is opaque: L7 was a hard-rocking, all female rock’n’roll band who emerged from Los Angeles; O’Connor was a talented singer and songwriter from Ireland, whose angelic voice belied her outspoken views on religious dogma and practice.
But on a cold evening in October 2009 at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, O’Connor had taken to the stage as part of the Melbourne Music Festival’s “Seven Songs to Leave Behind” to belt out a mesmerising version of L7’s “Shitlist” – a track which O’Connor had chosen, per the structure of the evening for the various guest performers featured, as the song she’d wished she’d written.
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- By Patrick Emery
- Hits: 2269
Ravin Divito photo
Portland outfit Jenny Don’t and the Spurs have been recording and playing for the last 10 years and show no signs of slowing down. A supergroup combining members of Don’t, Wipers and Pierced Arrows, the Spurs combine the fast energy of garage and punk, with the attitude of outlaw country. If Patsy Cline started a band with some ratbags hanging around CBGB, it would sound like this.
We spoke with singer/guitarist Jenny Connors and her husband, and also Spurs bass player Kelly Halliburton from their Portland home just before they land in Australia for their second Spurs tour.
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- By Matt Ryan
- Hits: 2812
The first thing you hear when the stylus drops on Radio Birdman’s “What Gives?”, “Aloha Steve & Danno”, ”Descent Into The Maelstrom”, “Do The Moving Change” or The Visitors’ “Hell Yes” are the drums.
Solid, to the point, perfectly simple, lots of swing and dead on the money, That drummer’s name is Ron Keeley, who also played with Radio Birdman precursor The Rats (with Warwick Gilbert and Rob Younger), The Other Side (with Rob Younger) , The Hitmen (with Chris Masuak and Warwick Gilbert) and Comrades of War.
I wanted to hear Ron’s story first-hand and have a beer or three with him in his adopted home of Woking, Surrey,l just outside of London. It's only a short, 17,000-mile trip from Sydney, Australia. We met in The Crown, a wonderful old-style “wet pub” (no food, no gambling, no TV - just drink, so what’s not to like?) in July 2023.
Read on at your own peril.
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- By Steve Lorkin
- Hits: 6728
Richard Sharman photo.
The label "Elder Statesman" doesn’t do Ed Kuepper justice. His career started in 1973 and spans the Saints, Laughing Clowns, The Aints! and scores of bands bearing his own name. His solo work explores a wide range of musical styles, including punk (whatever that is), folk, rock, blues, and jazz.
His landmark solo records, "Electrical Storm” (notably his first) and "Honey Steel's Gold" (his break-out effort) were recently re-mastered and re-issued. Sounds like a good excuse for an Australian tour, not to mention an interview at the hands of Robert Brokenmouth. Here’s how it played out.
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- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 4281
Black Bats guitarist and singer Dave Houston is slightly apologetic about the name of his Melbourne garage-surf-desert-psych outfit, Black Bats.
Back in 2015, Houston was putting together a surf-garage EP when, searching for a name for his bedroom demo project, he looked to the Halloween theme for inspiration.
“I was going to call it Black Cats but then I thought that was a bit um … [laughs] so I called it Black Bats, just this one surf-garage EP, then the name stuck and I’m stuck with it! It’s a terrible name!”
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- By Patrick Emery
- Hits: 2219
“We're the most underground, underground band out there,” says Loren Molinare of the Detroit-born-and-bred early L.A. punk veterans The DoGs, whose second LP “Hypersensitive” from 2012 will finally be released on vinyl via prestige Polish punk ‘n’ roll label Heavy Medication Records on September 1.
“We’re really proud to reissue this ‘lost classic’ for the first time on vinyl,” says Heavy Medication president Derrick Ogrodny. “We're honored to work with such protopunk legends and think it’s about time these DoGs had their day.”
“We're one of the last bands with original members that actually sound like a proper Detroit rock band,” continues Molinare, the man Ogrodny calls “the Pete Townshend of punk rock.” “And yes, I mean some things never change. We carry on that tradition. That's what we do.
“We're just kind of picking our spot. We're white trash Detroit rock ‘n’ rollers about the same age as the old black blues men who were out doing it before they died. A lot of our peers have passed away, and we do not take it for granted.
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- By Tim "Napalm" Stegall
- Hits: 3849
Luther Russell and Jody Stephens in Those Pretty Wrongs duo format.
As drummer and a founding member of the legendary Big Star, Jody Stephens is an icon to so many of today's musicians. The musical legacy of Big Star is as omnipresent as it's ever been and undoubtedly this enormous global respect is due to the band's recording of three of the greatest albums ever set to vinyl.
A hugely successful reformation by Big Star in the early ‘90s produced a world tour and a fine fourth album. Pleasingly, over this past decade, Jody has gone on to create even more marvellous music wth a duo outfit with Luther Russell, Those Pretty Wrongs.
As a songwriting pair, their music is refreshingly honest, supremely melodious and inherently tender in its style. And the recordings are super hi fi harking back to the quality of John Fry’s famous work at Ardent Studios with Big Star.
It is therefore the music of Those Pretty Wrongs I primarily wished to focused on in this Q&A in advance of Those Pretty Wrongs’ exciting upcoming second tour of Australia. I was especially keen to seek a deeper understanding of how Jody’s own musical journey influences the music of Those Pretty Wrongs.
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- By Darryl Mather*
- Hits: 2506
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