- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 15506
Emmy Etie photo
The tour is almost over and the verdicts are in following a re-tooling of the line-up with the controversial omission of guitarist Chris Masuak. We present divergent views of the sold-out Australian run of Radio Birdman shows.
Go here to read an appraisal of the Adelaide gig by Robert Brokenmouth and here to read Edwin Garland's read-out on the band's two Melbourne gigs. You can leave comments on both reviews. Photos are by Emmy Etie and Kyleigh Pitcher.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 14157
The cover - taken by Lydia Lunch - shows the ruins of an ancient desert city. Could be Jericho. Whether Jericho is in the Mid-East or the West of the USA makes little difference. We’re dealing with perennial humanity in a perilous place with a mythological backdrop. But, you know, the Israelis and the Palestinians are still killing each other, and as I say, it’s a big thing on a big, operatic stage with no solution and no apparent beginning, never mind end…
… and there are plenty of abandoned towns in Australia… it doesn’t take much, just a bit of intolerance and a bit of ignorance, and idealism for a hopeless, not very sensible cause…
- Details
- By Andrew Molloy
- Hits: 12824
If one of those great, booze-soaked rock and roll weekends like Garage Shock or the Las Vegas Shakedown were still a going concern (correct me if I'm wrong and one of them still is ) the Bloody Hollies would have been one of those bands that came in unheralded, blew everyone away and sold a ton at the merch table. And anyone who picked this album up would have been plenty satisfied 'cos it's 30 minutes of fire-breathin' punk fury.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 546
Long March Through The Jazz Age – The Saints (Fire Records)
This deserves your attention and not because it’s posthumous.
The Saints’ 15th studio album, “Long March Through The Jazz Age”, snuck out before the 2025 Christmas-New Year break and, despite best endeavours, appeared to make only a slight dent in public consciousness.
It’s not hard to work out why.
The Saints had been away a long time – the last album, “King Of The Sun”, was released in 2012. Chris Bailey was a private person but the contemporary economics of fronting a band and ill-health probably had a lot to do with that.
- Details
- By Edwin Garland
- Hits: 1079
In The Manifesto - Sacred Cowboys (Torn &Frayed/Beast Records)
It’s cause for a celebration whenever Sacred Cowboys release a new album. Principal member Garry Gray holds his freak flag high in a fight against mediocrity in music, and he’s now reunited with a fellow founding member in Mark Ferrie.
I have long argued that the Celibate Rifles captured the frantic and wild, surf-meets-Detroit Sydney Sound with their own laconic touch. Sacred Cowboys are a shining light of what the best of the Melbourne Sound. They play rootsy bar room blues, swampy while embracing post punk's excursions and maintaining a sense of punk's urgency.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 694
Grrrr! – Girl Monstar (Vicious Kitten)
The groove is the thing on “Grrrr!!” - and so it should be on an album with a name approximating one of the many Best Of collections by the Stones. Drummer Susan Shaw (nee Sue Wold, of The Wraylettes, The Wet Ones, The Exotics and Plastic Section) and Janene Abbott lay down smooth ‘n’ slinky rhythms, and the rest follows.
So to the review but first, the backstory: Girl Monstar existed in Australia a very different time. Home base Melbourne was artier than its rawer cousin Sydney but bands like Girl Monstar were spanning both. The Big Day Out festival juggernaut emerged at the tail end of their run and pushed the underground onto a different level.
- Details
- By Edwin Garland
- Hits: 1814
Thunk - Jim Moginie and The Family Dog (Reverberama)
Former Midnight Oil guitarist Jim Moginie’s book “The Silver River” outlines how the earliest gigs for his solo band, The Family Dog, were a humbling experience.
Not unlike early shows by his teenage band FARM in the mid-1970s, they played obscure venues outside the city so he could re-learn his craft and build confidence as frontman and singer. He was incredibly nervous,. Very few people showed up, and many only did so out of curiosity.
That’s Jim Moginie all over. Normally, when a member of an international band of some standing appears in a relative backwater (Midnight Oil sold 25 million records and ranks as the third most successful band that Australia has produced) it would be massive news. Jim exudes a sweeping humility and it shines through on this album.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 951
10 More – MC50 (earMUSIC)
Well ain’t this the surprise packet, coming seven years after the run of shows it captures and more than a year after the release of the MC5-in-name-only record, “Heavy Lifting”. If you grabbed it, you might also have snavelled the live MC50 album “10 X MC5” that came as a bonus with some copies.
MC50 is the all-star band assembled by the late Wayne Kramer to mark the 50th anniversary of “Kick Out The Jams”. It comprised Kramer and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) on guitars, Brendan Canty (Fugazi) on drums, Billy Gould (Faith No More) on bass, and Marcus Durant (Zen Guerrilla) on vocals. Matt Cameron (Soundgarden/Pearl Jam) alternated on drums.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 2225
Service Station Chicken - Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes (Stanley Records)
Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes make country music for people who don’t like country music. That’s a truism, not a slur.
The point is that the players’ background in underground Oz rock and roll, circa late 1980s rolling into the ‘90s, is apparent in their playing. You play enough sticky carpet dives where patrons demand to be impressed and you become a harder player. At least that's how it was before streaming. These Roadside Ashes have a work ethic honed over some years.
- Dom's new country-inflected gem has pop at its core
- Ex-Trash Brat Brian McCarty's soulful letter from the Motor City
- Woolworths Flu Shot is just what the doctor ordered for you jaded Boomers
- Do you like FÄHM? Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do
- Masuak's Dog Soldier charts its own course on new album
- Belligerent Dickhead? He's been called worse
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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
Fresh Reviews
-
A little reflection to be free as Chris Bailey closes the Saints chapter
07 February 2026
-
Sacred Cowboys ride high on a new Manifesto
30 January 2026
-
One Monstar of a return
27 January 2026
-
Humble Jim and his Family Dog deliver a classic
07 January 2026
-
"10 More" will make you believe to your soul
06 January 2026