album

The new release on I-94 Bar Records is the debut album for Sydney garage supergroup 69BC. The self-titled CD by this shadowy, primal quintet is 20 years in the making and it's 17 tracks of raw and raucous Rock Action. 

Staggering from the smouldering ruins of a Pismo Beach after party, a handful of survivors retreated into the bowels of innumerable rehearsal rooms two decades ago. They have finally emerged to claim their revenge in the new Millennium. This band may have links to the likes of the Psychotic Turnbuckles and Sheek the Shayk. 69BC is Rok Bolder (vocals), Vince Cuscuna (guitar, backing vocals), Dave Wong (guitar), Adam Silverwright (bass, backing vocals), Nix (drums).

The CD releases on October 19 and pre-orders are open now at the link below. It will also be available as a download.    

So it’s goodbye from them. After 12 years of playing gin places, late-night dives and boltholes all around Australia, a US tour, two EPs and two albums, with one final lap of honour, Sydney's Hell City Glamours will be no more. “Deux” is the farewell long-player and it’s a pretty good way to go out.

When Big Black toured UK in 1987, playing their last gig in Europe, they had a few members of Wire come up on stage. Afterwards, having played with his heroes, Steve Albini commented: "Tonight we’ve walked with giants."

Wire are giants in a world of pygmy bands. Chrome are legends among giants.

One Thousand Years sound like they’ve spent that accumulated amount of time listening to their dads’ record collections. And exactly why is that a bad thing? Rock and roll’s grim hold on the collective consciousness is eroding by the day so if bands like this West Australian quartet are going to fly the flag, who are we to complain?

Australian cult power pop singer-songwriter John Dowler, best remembered for his groups Young Modern and the Zimmermen (and their classic 1985 single “Don’t Go to Sydney”), is returning with a new album, "12 Stiches".

It's the second long-player for John Dowler's Vanity Project. and comprises 10 new band originals, a Brian Wilson tune and an interpretation of Split Enz’s “Time for A Change”.  



Half A Cow is releasing "12 Stitches" digitally and on CD on May 1 and it's preceded by an EP, "A Certain Reputation". It features the first single “Billy’s Pizza” and three non-album tracks - new versions of Spare Change’s acerbic and artful “Let’s Get Rich Together” and the Zimmermen’s chiming “Ordinary Man”. Get it here.

The hard-to-find New Christs live album - previously available only as a CD and sold mainly at shows on their last European tour - is looming on vinyl. French label Pitshark is issuing the imagnitively titled "Live" in an edition of 500 copies only.

The gig was recorded in 2011 at the final night of Sydney's Excelsior Hotel and rocks royally. Rob Younger and guitarist-keyboardist Brent Williams re-mixed 11 tracks especially for vinyl.

You'll find the Pitshark website here.

If you're sweating release of the new studio album, "Incantations", we expect to have copies for sale at the I-94 Bar next week.

The Scientists’powerful brand of deranged swamp-rock returns with a vengeance on June 11th, when Los Angeles’In the Red Recordsunleashes “Negativity”, an all-new magnum opus and the first full-length album by the Australian band’s penultimate line-up in 35 years.  “Outside”' is the single first release from the album, out to the world today.

The bruising 11-track collection features aScientistsconfiguration much beloved by connoisseurs of the band’s work: singer-guitaristKim Salmon, lead guitaristTony Thewlis, and bassistBoris Sujdovic, all veterans of the group’s defining 1981-85 outfit, and drummerLeanne Cowie, who replaced drummer Brett Rixon on the storming 1986 release "Weird Love".

Real Gone – The Naked Lunch (self released)

Hello Barflies. The Farmhouse has been rocking these past few weeks as I’ve been kindly gifted an advance copy of The Naked Lunch’s album “Real Gone” and it’s full of surf-punk-pop tunes.

The album is a couple of covers as well as the single, also called “Real Gone” which I reviewed a few weeks back hereat the Bar, so I was very excited when this landed.

With a band lineage like The Eastern Dark, the New Christs, Orange Humble Band, Happy Hate Me Nots, Lemonheads, Pyramidiacs, The Scruffs and Eva Trout among others, you’d have high expectations and “Rx”, the debut album for Sydney supergroup Loose Pills, matches the label on the bottle.

_{Martin Philby photo.}

The band that we thought couldn’t be killed, The Beasts – aka surviving members of the Beasts of Bourbon – are releasing a new studio album and it will be the last chapter.

“Ultimo” was recorded over two days at Melbourne’s Union Studios, during a break from the nationally sold-out Alive Tour earlier this year, and it will be released on December 13 via Slick Productions through MGM.

An 11-track live recording, it includes a collection of Beasts’ classics and fan favourites, none of which appeared on the limited edition “be suburban” EP that was sold on tour.

Starcrazy – Starcrazy (self released)

As the lights fade on 2024, it would have been a travesty not to review “Starcrazy” in full instead of just including the album in a Top Ten list. Glam rock with a touch of Van Halen isn’t the usual fare around these parts but stay with us because the debut LP for this Sydney band is one sweet ride.

My first glimpse of Starcrazy in the wild was during capacity-constrained COVID, in the confines of The MoshPit, the cosiest drive bar in Sydney. The band were then aged in their early to mid-20s. I remember being in awe at their skill levels but being confused by the range of their set and thinking how great they would be if they worked out their band identity.