
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 337
Fallen Slow b/w St Louis – Asteroid B612 (Golden Robot)
There was a swaggering majesty to Asteroid B612 at their best and this single by the current Australian-Spanish configuration goes a long way towards recapturing it. Singer Grant “Bullett” McIver gets a decent shake in the mix these days, and the guitars of John Spittles and Xabi Garre crackle and spark off each other.
Hanging feedback announces “Fallen Slow”, a mid-tempo McIver-Spittles co-write that emphatically trudges its way into your consciousness. Another slice of sustained guitar hangs in the air before a middle eight and there’s some more six-string interplay to take us out. The B side is a killer take on the Vanda and Young classic that revels in one of McIver’s best vocals ever. handclaps and layers of guitar. The band nails that change just right and we’re off to the races.
Stream it, grab it digitally at Johnny’s Bandcamp where you can also grab the vinyl. Redeye in Sydney also has physical copies if you're in Australia.
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- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 500
I Wanna Live Before I Die b/w Let Me Go – The North Hollywood Phantoms (Heavy Medication Records)
Los Angeles supergroup The North Hollywood Phantoms make an immediate impact with their debut single, which is an original on the A side and a Stones cover on the flip.
Guitarists Loren Molinare (The Dogs, Little Caesar) and Richard Duguay (Personality Crisis, Duff McKagan, The Beautiful Decline) and vocalist Pat Todd (The Lazy Cowgirls, Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders) form the band's core which should tell you most of what you need to know.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 928
After The Dolls – Pat Todd and The Rankoutsiders (Heavy Medication)
On which The Greatest Bar Band In The World pays homage to the post-“Too Much Too Soon” solo music of members of the New York Dolls. Put your money down and you get six songs on a 10-inch vinyl EP (or digital files, if you prefer) and it’s rolled gold greatness.
So what’s here? Six songs split into a Johnny Thunders side and a David Johansen side. “Wreckless Crazy” and “The Rope (The Let Go Song)“ are Johansen solo B sides. “Melody” was a single from his self-titled debut. “Dead or Alive” is from the sessions that produced Thunders’ “So Alone” LP while “Short Lives” comes from his sonically underdone “Que Sera, Sera” album. “Disappointed In You” is a poignant tune that was demoed, bootlegged but never properly released when JT was on this mortal coil.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 766
Attack Dogs EP – The Goodbye Johnnys (Take The City)
Rock and Roll has no borders: Take The City is a Spanish label and The Goodbye Johnnys are a Swiss band. They play raucous Rock and Roll in the style of The Boys or a less messy version of The Heartbreakers, and have been around the block a a few times with a handful of singles and two albums to their credit.
They're also Zurich's supports-of-choice for touring acts like TV Smith and Ruts DC. This four-track seven-inch EP shows them strutting their stuff to good effect.
“Attack Dogs” is a catchy call to arms and “Losers Crime” is nearly as good. “Get Me” dirties up the rhythm guitar with some nagging, if thin, overdubbed lead. “Too Late” benefits from a sneering vocal and sharp guitar and is the best of the bunch. Good, honest punk rock with no pretensions. ![]()
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- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 672
Andy Says b/w Creeping Jean – The Hovering Spooks (Dominion Recordings)
This is a fantastic debut release from this Sydney supergroup comprising ex-members of Sunnyboys, Sardine V, Dropbears, Linme Spiders, Wedding Parties Anything, The Saints, Celibate Rifles and the New Christs.
“Andy Says” is a homage to/observation about Andy Warhol (who else?) that bustles along with the self-assuredness that you’d expect, given the band’s pedigree. It’s a superb piece of lyrically sharp pop rock, propelled by neat guitar interplay from Cub Callaway and Richard Burgman, and Phil Hall’s wonderful vocal.
Flip it over for the cover of a Kinks B side given the “Prehistoric Sounds”-era Saints treatment in the outro, with horns and vocal again from Phil Hall. It’s not as wired as the paranoid original but it works regardless.
Stream it or procure a vinyl copy here and apply the supplied banana to the cover art. A word of warning: once you do you won't have a spook's chance of removing it.![]()
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- Details
- By Steve Lorkin
- Hits: 1085
Maids In Bataan - The Maids (Gutterwall Records)
There is a genre of music that collectors refer to as “Killed By Death” or ” KBD”. The label refers to onscure 1970s or 1980s punk rock records that were usually independently released by the bands themselves in small print runs.
“Killed By Death” was also a series of bootleg compilation albums that illegally reissued these songs (kind of like the “Pebbles” of ‘70s and ‘80s punk).
The Maids’ recordings were first heard by the punk rock collecting masses on volumes 7 and 17 of “Killed By Death” and thanks to these bootleggers, the legend of the band has grown.
