All Things BGP - Black Ghost Party (self released)

It’s fact, not theory, that when Sydney and Brisbane musicians of a certain age and underground persuasion seek a sea change, they head for the New South Wales Far North Coast. And why not? It’s often wet and always humid, but the parts not spoiled by hideous yuppies and mad anti-vaxxers are damned idyllic.

Can’t tell you whether all the members of Black Ghost Party are Lismore born and bred or blow-ins from the Big Smoke, but it’s not  important. They’ve been alternately cajoling and searing local ears since at least 2004 so they're part of the furniture, and this release of 11 songs is available on LP or as a download.

Collaborations from Stustustudio – Stu & The Connections (Crankinhaus)

Vaguely new wave-sounding pop from a combo led by well-credentialled Sydney drummer Stu Wilson (Loose Pills, Hammerfish, Aberration and ex-Lime Spiders, New Christs, Chris Masuak & The Harbour City Wave Riders, and the Soul Movers) and it’s damned good. Six tracks  - one a stripped-down alternate version – that showcase some adept song-writing and a disclination to be pigeonholed.

Stu’s one of the rare breed of drummers who sing - and that even rarer strain of drummers who sing well. He’s in the upper register and writes pop songs to suit. Wilson gets a bit of assistance – Sienna Egan, vocalist for his other current band The Rivers is prominent among a list of notable collaborators that includes bassist Andy Newman (ME-262, The Visitors). Matt Galvin (Barbarellas, Happy Hate Me Nots) and Ryan Elsmore (Loose Pills).

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".

“…there’s pretty things in Palookaville…” - Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders (Hound Gawd!)

Unless you’re one of the lucky few you won’t have yet heard the latest album from ex-Lazy Cowgirls frontman Pat Todd and his pack of old stagers, The Rank Outsiders. So what’s the point of a song-by-song description? You’ll forget the song titles before you clap ears on the real things, anyway. So let’s dispense with that bullshit and tell you how it will make you feel, instead…

Slap it onto the turntable or whack it into the player. Crank it. Good and loud. The opening G chord of “All The Years #1” kicks in and hangs in the air, and it’s like an old friend just walked in the door with a case of cold beers and a headful of fresh stories. 

It’s all jagged riffs and Todd’s impassioned vocal, urgent and insistent. It sounds immediately familiar, yet fresh, a menu of yarns set to punkish, rootsy rock and blues, basted in minor chords and a harmonica dry rub, and roasted in a slow cooker.

Loud As Ever – Various Artists (Sound As Ever)

Every generation of music lovers grows up thinking its era was the best. So it goes with those who ploughed through puberty in the ‘90s, a time now digitally immortalised  (as all things are) by a Facebook page, “Sound As Ever”, dedicated to Australian independent music from 1990-99.

“Sound As Ever” is a snapshot of what life looked and sounded like on the fringes of Australian music in the ‘90s. It has an audience of 72,000 Facebook users after just a year. Like any retrospective, some of what’s thrown up is gem-like and some is shite.

Personally, the ‘90s were a letdown: Once the tidal wave of grunge had subsided, it left a lot of mediocrity on the surface and it seemed there wasn’t much Real Rock and Roll left. Bands like the Powder Monkeys and New Christs that were grossly underappreciated at the start of the decade criminally remained so at the end.

Waiting in a Corner - Jackson Reid Briggs and the Heaters (Legless Records)

Ever since The Enlightenment pulled away the fig-leaf of irrationality of religious justification, we’ve convinced ourselves that there is some rational basis for existence, some ultimate purpose to which we are cleaving, some end game of cognitive understanding.

Along the way there have been heated philosophical disputes, heresy trials, corrupted social policy programs, perverse economic theories and the same merry go-round of war, peace, famine and indulgence that has always characterised human history. No wonder Jean Paul Sartre decided to raid the top shelf of his local pharmacy in an amphetamine-ravaged attempt at deconstructing it all.  

Does existentialism belong in rock’n’roll?  According to the press release, Melbourne’s Jackson Reid Briggs and the Heaters’ new album, “Waiting in a Corner”, “explores the idea of waiting and searching for something that isn’t specific. Just a sense of something coming".