Baby, Let Your Hair Hang Down – Steve Lucas and the SLXpress (self released)

The follow-up to last year’s “Cross That Line” album, this concise collection of rootsy blues with country and soul undertones works a treat. 

While Steve Lucas will (rightfully) always be known as one of the principal members of the incomparable X, he’s continuing to build a solo musical identity of his own. The SLExpress project suggests an irresistible - or convenient - parallel with David Johansen And The Harry Smiths, the trad blues vehicle for the former New York Dolls frontman.

Driving South – Highway 61 (Rum Bar Records)

The album only took 30 years, a pandemic and a bout of leukaemia to make. The reunification of these four friends three decades after they were a working band produced this very good collection of blues based rock ‘n’ roll. And thank fuck for that.

I love this album but, hey, I’m a bit biased, being a big fan of everything Frank Meyer, music-wise. Highway 61 is Frank Meyer (Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) on guitar and vocals. Andy Medway on guitar, Mike Knuton on drums and Russell Loeffler on bass and vocals. 

Quick backstory: Playing the LA circuit in the early ‘90s, these blokes basically burnt themselves out. As Mike Knuton says, they were playing as many gigs as they could get. They split up but remained close. Then Andy Medway was diagnosed with leukaemia.

Dark Country- Sonic Garage (self released)

Sonic Garage burst on the Sydney music scene about two years ago with "Asteroid", which what the best local single released in 2021.  The album it came from, “Space Travels”, was raw, tough street level Northern Beaches rock that referenced the Stooges, Dictators, and Radio Birdman.

It was a record from the tradition of that area’s melodic, guitar driven, gritty and surf-tinged music, in the tradition of the early Midnight Oil, Celibate Rifles and The Hellmen.

Harder Yakka – Shandy (Bovver Boogie Records)

If there’s a higher energy rock and roll band in Greater Brisbane, weight-for-age, you know our email address. Only Dr Bombay comes close. So why wouldn’t you be onto this collection of pre and post-pandemic recordings faster than a Moreton Bay seagull on a chip? 

Remember sharpie rock? Shandy covers that base but with less overt boogie and more of the sort of rock rhythm that rolls. 

Recall Oi? The shout-out choruses are still here but the kicking is more to do with excising jams than taking off rival soccer fans’ heads. “Harder Yakka” has a larrikin charm that’s Australian-made, due in no small part to the distinctly Antipodean crunch in the guitars.

Hypersensitive – The DoGs (Heavy Medication Records)

Here are two truisms: Life is full of great bands that you’ve heard of but never heard. Hindsight is fantastic because it lets you make up for what you missed the first time around.

This album by the Los Angeles-via-Detroit trio (not to be confused with the French band of the same name) came out on CD in 2002. If you missed it, you’re excused because it didn’t have massive distribution. It re-appearance as a vinyl LP on Heavy Medication is your chance to make amends.

The DoGs grew up in Michigan in the late ‘60s – outside the axis of Detroit and Ann Arbor, it must be said – and were on undercards to bands like the MC5 and the Stooges. They made the move from Lansing to the Motor City as its place in the rock and roll firmament began to decline.

It’s Time - Pocketwatch (self released)

Pocketwatch sprang out of the garage and onto the Sydney music scene just on a year ago, and within months were a “must see” with their infectious and full-on energy shows.  

Capturing the spirit of 1977 and the melodic British punk of The Jam and The Clash, they had lashings of melodic hooks. Their youngest member was only 15-years-old which limited the venues they could play. Despite that handicap, they had a work ethic - and it showed. They became tighter with every gig and delivered some blistering shows.

Songwriter Angus Ross emerged out of his bedroom with a batch of songs he’d been creating for a fews years and teamed with the amazing rhythm section that is Jamie Woodward on bass and Sam McInerney-Wand on drums.