mucho sonar

They’re a six-piece, face-melting, horn-infused punk rock band from Newcastle in Australia, if you didn’t know, and Mucho Sonar are hitting the road to promote their fifth and first live album, “Live at Punkfest”, in October and November. You can have a sneak preview of the LP here.

Hi I'm Squatter the Cockatiel. I share a house with Chris Converse (4ZZZ and Punkfest) and Cathy Kerlin (Punkfest and Platform 5 Cafe and Bar) so I get to meet the really cool GC's* and hear some great music.

I am also a 4ZZZ subscriber.

Here is my top ten releases of 2022, in no particular order:

The Owen Guns- Dawn of the Braindead

Mitch, Please - Yes Thanks

The Square Tugs - "Monster Hits"

Eviction - "Demo"

The Interrupters - "In the Wild"

The Disables - "No more Rules, No more Ruled"

Mucho Sonar - "Under the Influence"

The Cutaways - "Cheap Curtains"

Topnovil - "Stand Tall"

Masochist - "Bloom"

Hope you enjoy my selection and like the picture. I am way more popular than Cathy or Converse.

Love and chirps,

Squatter

*Cockatiel for Good C_nts

 Ten musical things I dug in 2024.

• The Hard-Ons got to celebrate 40 years of ravaging the stage. Still as high-energy and still as true-to-form, brutally honest as ever. And a brand new doco to boot. Go see it. It’s great. Oh, and next year marks 40 years since the release of their debut EP, “Surfin’ On My Face” (ED: On Mark’s label Vi-Nil Records). Just sayin’!

• Middle Kids released an album that was completely hitsville from go to woah. Their previous releases all had a couple of great standout tracks, but “Faith Crisis Part 1” is their ultimate opus. Infectious indie pop that sits on the edge of mainstream and subsequently shits all over half of the commercial shit that has been released this year. 

• Elestial are a band that hails from Newcastle in Australia, and their nicely structured dream-pop is a beautiful shot of razored honey.  I was lucky enough to have them do a chunk of the INDIE SOUNDS launch tour throughout July, and they nailed every show. A nicer bunch you couldn’t meet. 

• Chamberlane are an indie pop punk band out of the Sunshine Coast. They jumped onto a last minute slot on the INDIE SOUNDS tour to help us out, and despite being hungover to the max from a festival the day before, they kicked the shit out of it. They’ve just finished a bit of an east coast tour and I was lucky to have them on board as part of the recent Vi-Nil Records showcase at The Recky Pacific Palms. Fun at a furious rate! 

Indie Sounds from Newy and The Hunter – Various Artists (Vi-Nil Records)

He’s never been seen in anything other than a T-shirt and one of his own label’s trucker caps, but it’s easy to picture Vi-Nil Records label boss Mark Fraser as the Pied Piper of the New South Wales Central Coast and Newcastle music scenes.

The analogy has to stick like baby shit to a blanket after the release of his second collection in the Indie Sounds series. Fraser is batting 2-0.

Picking a bunch of local bands and presenting two songs each on CD and vinyl is some brave/crazy idea in these days of diminishing economic returns.