It’s Never Easy – Flowers For Jayne (self released)

Sydney’s Flowers For Jayne have created a reputation for delivering “chunky” pop and rock. It’s all down to that crunchy Les Paul being used. The title track of last year’s “In The Keep” was a classic example, with its super catchy chorus, killer guitar tones and first rate production. It was one of my favourites in 2024.

The new FFJ single , “It’s Never Easy”, starts with a more mellow acoustic guitar leading the way but fear not, as the song builds , that familiar guitar crunch is there. It'sanother melodic rocker from the pen of Jayne Lily Murphy, who plays guitar and keyboards, and sings lead and backing vocals, with able assistance from Mary-Anne Cornford on bass and Peter Timmerman on drums.

The video for “It’s Never Easy” will be launched here on March 28.  The single will be launched on Sunday March 30 at the Gasoline Pony in Sydney and event details are here.

“Running the Lines” b/w “Checkin’ Out” – The Strains (I-94 Recordings)

 It sounds cliched in these transnational times, but you can still get a sense of where a band lives from the sound of their records. The Strains are undeniably denizens of  the Motor City, with that gritty and uncompromising, blue collar guitar sound that’s rooted in the blues and late ‘60s heavy rock.

A side “Running Time” rides a wave of searing guitars, courtesy of Gretta Smak and Jamy Halliday, a tearaway tempo and the take-no-prisoners vocal of Paul Grace Smith (ex-Dumbell). It skids to a halt all too soon, running a touch over a coupla minutes. So play it again, Sam! Flip it and you’ll hear a spiffing cover of The Torpedos’ “Checkin’ Out” from 1979 (RIP Johnny Angelos) with a rolled gold minor chord melody that sticks like dogshit on your sneaker.

When you read a one-sheet describing The Strains as "a Detroit version of the Patridge Family", c’mon, you can’t help but get happy, because a semblance of irony still exists in a very confused Amerika. It's not on our own I-94 Bar label but the much more active I-94 Recordings imprint from Detroit. Get it here. The Strains are currently touring the Midwest with Handsome Dick Manitoba and be warned their full-length self-titled album that you’ll find here is a killer.

Keepin’ Up With The Jones – The Ballbusters (Vicious Kitten)

You might question the validity of this four-song EP from the Worcester, Massachusetts, band that used to be Rick Blaze and The Ballbusters until their frontman’s demise in 2011 following protracted health issues. After all, it’s been 23 years since their second album and first for Vicious Kitten (the “Manhattan Babylon” CD) and one of the guitarists, Dave Cuneo, has also since shuffled off this mortal coil.

It was easy back then to write off Rick Blaze and The Ballbusters as yet another Thunders-besotted outfit from the backblocks whose fascination for JT's dubious lifestyle choices got in the way of them making it out of their own backyard. The cover art for this EP is all a bit too obvious but its arrival prompted re-visits of “Manhattan Babylon” and its 2001 follow-up “People’s Republic of Rock and Roll”, and they retrospectively hold up as righteous slices of swagger that owe as much to Mick and Keef as  J. Genzales.  

I Cyclops b/w Pride of the Savanna – Guerrilla Teens (Heavy Medication)

There’s a certain irony in three-fifths of a Long Beach, California, relocated to Portland, Oregon, putting out a single on a label run by an expat American based in Warsaw, Poland, when you realise that the first recording of the original group from which the trio sprang came out on a label in Yugoslavia back in the late 1990s. Confused, much? Let’s make it simple…

Guerrilla Teens feature ex-The Humpers singer Scott “Deluxe” Drake up front, aided and abetted by old bandmates Jeff Fieldhouse and Saul Koll on guitars. The Humpers were up with the best of a crop of Sympathy For The Record Industry labelmates like The Lazy Cowgirls, out of L.A. Bill Connolly (bass) and Anna Anderson (drums) make up the Teens’ line-up. Ex-Lazy Cowgirl Pat Todd hipped me to a copy of their album so the ears were receptive to hearing thie single.

Two Car Garage – Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes/Formula Juan – Grand Pricks b/w Chronica Majora – The Tall Stories (Stanley Records)

You’d like a dollar for every two-bit punk that ended up playing bastardised country, wouldn’t ya? How about three songs for the price of two?

Which brings us to this spilt single featuring always productive Sydneysider Dave Favours and his well-travelled Roadside Ashes and recent Newcastle match-ups Grand Pricks and The Tall Stories. The three bands crossed paths in a saloon off the Pacific Highway one boozy night and this EP is the by-product.

Relief - Art Gray Noizz Quintet b/w  Don't Go There - Gravel Samwidge (Sound Pressing)

Traditional venting opening: Increasingly, we seem to be surrounded by them, don't we? These appalling creatures who always know what's right, even though they don't. And they're so self-obsessed, so over-focussed, that they can't for the life of them see how wrong, how ignorant they are, nor the damage they do.

This single is far, far more important than the trolls and vermin lurking in the limelight, sucking up all the oxygen.

First, most split singles sound like opposites wrestling in glue. “Relief” and “Don't Go There” is a classic match-up. While these songs aren't like the same band, both have a similar filthy, driving sound dripping with droll, nasty humour. Not that you'll be laughing, you'll be too busy tripping over the rug and spilling your gin and tripping over the cat.