Filth – The City Kids  (Very Fried Artists) 

“Filth” is one helluva punk-glam headbanging album that has to be heard and played loud. The City Kids are out of the UK (with a bit of Danish blood) and this is their second album.

Named after a Pink Fairies song (later covered by Motorhead), “Filth” has The City Kids poised to be heavy metal’s next big thing. Dave Sanders’ drumming, in particular, on this is fucking outstanding.

I was once told  by a very well-known Australian drummer  that every band is only as good as the drummer. Obnoxious prick that he was, he was spot-on. Sanders is 100 percent on the money.  Just WOW!

My Way Or The Highway – The Dark Clouds (self released)

When I was a little chap, I was in England and received a tip to listen to the John Peel show on the radio.

Those shows have stayed with me; Peely was a distinctly dotty individual with broad and peculiar taste. The BBC tried hard to get him to quit by stuffing him into unlikely slots and wishing his fans would fuck off. I recall, however, one show in which only a couple of songs had made a mark on me (one was by The Outcasts, one was the Cure's first single), and then, right at the end, he played The Sex Pistols.

Good god, that really cleared the sinuses. There was a clarity about the band, a rawness which hardly any other band possessed at the time.

Monster Hits – Square Tugs (self released)

If variety is the spice of life, Brisbane’s Square Tugs are the celebrity chefs of Australian punk rock. The trio’s debut album “Monster Hits” is a curry with enough popping flavours in it to set off your tongue, and lyrics to get your brain into gear at the same time.

They’re not of pensionable age but they’re not spring chickens either, so the odds are short that a glimpse into the Square Tugs’ record collections would throw up some interesting and familiar selections. 

Did you know Square Tugs originally formed as a Circle Jerks tribute band?

Theater of Cruelty – Iggy and the Stooges (Easy Action)

And back down the rabbit hole we go…

It’s apparent that all that exists in the way of Stooges demo's and live recordings is probably in the public domain by now. The chances of somebody unearthing another “Goose Lake” desk tape, or a slew of pre-production demos that the band misplaced, is a longshot.

So, Stoogephiles, we are done and dusted.

Not quite.

Home Science – The Warts (Outtspace)

You have to look hard to find Uralla on a map of New South Wales. Nestled  in the Northern Tablelands, not on the way to anywhere in particular, it’s a town of 2,000 people and not the sort of place you’d expect to find a band like The Warts. Or so the cliche would have it.

The Warts have been around for a couple of years and with the benefit of hindsight (along with their Bandcamp) it’s clear that they began life with more than a passing interest in Krautrock acts like Neu.

At least that’s how their 2019 album “Weakened by Mange” sounds when they were a quartet. Fast forward to now and long-player number two, “Home Science”, is closer to Fugazi without the same sense of economy.

Dawn of the Braindead – The Owen Guns (Outtaspace Records)

Excuse the sneaky little  Zappa-ism but does humour belong in punk music? You betcha. Australian punks The Owen Guns are prima facie evidence.

They may know them from their previous EP or from their song about Donnie Trump beinbg repeatedly pulled from YouTube. If not, here's a nice way to make their acquintance.

Hailing from Sydney and its sometimes awkward cousin city Wollongong and with roots in a bevy of old school punk bands, the four-piece Owen Guns deliver a dozen powerful and puerile tunes on their debut album on Outtspace. 

If burning down churches, stomping on racist skinheads and putting the Doc Marten into Bono ain’t your things, better break out your Leonard Cohen box set, adjust your chakras and do whatever it is that’s done with patchouli.