
The Big Shake Up! Vol 2 – The Dunhill Blues (Evil Tone/Outta Space)
Never mind the confusing title (Volume 2? Where’s Volume 1?) For those who are numerically challenged (guilty as charged) or not watching closely, this is the fifth full album for The Dunhill Blues. And their best yet, for a number of reasons.
Throughout their 20-odd year career, The Dunnies have been a shifting cast of players, with Dan (vocals and guitar) and Adam (bass and vocals) the constants. They could be a hit or miss proposition on any given night or recording session, depending on how many beers they had on board.
The band’s mission was always to have fun while rummaging through garage rock’s trash - and if you didn’t like that, there were always Powderfinger gigs to fall asleep at.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 4787
Green Apple – The Pingers (Evil Tone)
Like an episode of that boring TV circle-jerk "QandA", there’s something to offend everyone on the debut album for Aussie punks The Pingers. Excessive drinking; scoring ecstasy from your mum and putting it in your bum; debates about who’s a cunt and who’s a fuckwit and; shitting your pants are among topics debated (and that’s just the first four songs).
Teagz (vocals), Casey (guitar and vocals), Ollie (bass) and Steeno (drums) don’t come to praise punk rock, they come to colloidally evacuate its bowel, and they’re using base humour as a lubricant.
“Green Apple” is a barrage of rapid-fire punk that’s over in 20 minutes. It’s two girls and two guys with 10 original songs - one briefly reprised in death metal style so I suppose that makes it 11 - and a cover of “Phone keys smokes wallet” by The Frangipanis.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 4836
Ghost - Velvet Parade (Kasumuen Records)
In what promises to be a huge weekend, this Saturday (May 3) Velvet Parade will be in Adelaide ahead of their Japanese tour, supported by The Cold Field and Electric Badger.
Velvet Parade is Cold Harbour's Vincent J. Kramer is on guitar, Fraudband's Don Drum is on drums, The Coves' Pete Azzopardi is on bass, Ashley Jones (from Matt Malone and The Holy Spirits) is on keys, and (former Adelaide boy) Ripley Hood on vox ...
Sorry, why is Rip a former Adelaide boy?
Well, he found the railway station, is what I heard...
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- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 4722
Living Between The Lines - Frank Meyer (Kitten Robot)
Hello Barflies! Have I got a ripper album for you...“Living Between The Lines” is the first Frank Meyer solo album and it is a wonderful record
Frank, of course, is a founding member of The Streetwalkin Cheetahs, and guitarist for Handsome Dick Manitoba (ex-The Dictators), legendary LA punk band Fear, and vocalist for James Williamson (Iggy and the Stooges) in James Williamson & The Pink Hearts.
His other bands include Spaghetti & Frank, Trading Aces, Highway 61, Sweet Justice, and Thor. So he has lots of form.
- Details
- By Ronald Brown
- Hits: 4350
Adjustment Disorder – The Institutionalist (self released)
The Institutionalist is a post-punk creation from the sonic laboratory of Ernie O, a gifted but unassuming producer, engineer and musician from the fringes of Melbourne.
At this point we’ll declare that The O Man is the mastering wiz-of-choice for many discerning labels, I-94 Bar Records, among them. His playing history includes Suburban Urchins, The Photon Belt, The Undecided By Default and Vocabularinist, none of which are household names. That’s what you get for misspending your youth in Tasmania. In a fair and just world, however, “Adjustment Disorder” would change that.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 5026
Motor City Is Burning: A Michigan Anthology 1965-1975 – Various Artists (Grapefruit Records)
Proof positive, if it was actually needed, that a Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll existed in one of the 50 states of the USA other than Califonria and that it encompassed much more than just the Stooges and the MC5.
In Australia, of course, we have a skewed view of the so-called “Detroit Scene” (a name that almost no Americans of my acquaintance use, by the way.) We learned from the teachings of Radio Birdman leader and expat Michiganite Deniz Tek who landed here to study medicine in 1974, spreading the word about those bands in evangelistic fashion.
Of course Birdman were always much more than those two trace elements - they were just the ones on the high-energy scale that caught the imagination of most. If you’ve ever engaged the Kona Coffee Farmer in conversation for more than five minutes you’ll know his passion for the Stones and his knowledge of local acts like the SRC and the first band he saw live, Ann Arbor heroes The Rationals.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 3209
Buckle Rash – Broham (Bad Apple/Dark Roasted)
Country Music doesn’t rate much space around these parts but scratch the surface hard enough with a wooden nickel and you’ll find it, lurking like a grinning red-headed uncle in rock and roll’s family tree. The births of the modern versions of the blues and country appear on American timelines that run through the Appalachian backwoods and the mid-western dustbowls of the 1920s.
The Australian strain of Country Music, on the other hand, is much more bastardised. It rose to prominence in the post-World War II years. In the ‘70s, media maven John Laws hitched his wagon to it, telling a generation: “You’ve never been trucked like this before”.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 3353
Chinese Democracy Manifest: Greatest Hits Vol 2 – Mazinga (self released)
Born in the 1990s Basement Scene of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and honed in countless dive bars across the wide expanses of The Great Lakes State, cosmic punks Mazinga have re-emerged after a decade break with their second long-player. The title, “Chinese Democracy Manifest: Greatest Hits Vol 2”, is a mouthful but the record packs a big enough punch to make your teeth rattle.
The band calls it "Maximum Cosmic Punk". Coffee farmer Deniz Tek labels it “tight as hell with great rhythm playing behind killer solos” and drums that remind him of the late Scott Asheton.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 3266
Good Times Gone Bad – Peter Simpson (Verified Records)
It was in a review of ex-Dubrovniks member Peter Simpson’s “Return of the Diletante” EP that we asked, ‘Where’s the full-length album?’, and “Good Times Gone Bad” is the answer. The good news is that it was worth the eight-year wait.
“Good Times Gone Bad” winds the sonic clock back to Australian underground rock’s halcyon days of the 1980s, when guitars were blaring out of pubs on every second inner-city corner and even permeating mainstream radio. A more simple time with simpler songs, and of course, most good times inevitably do go bad.
At times, “Good Times Gone Bad” sounds like The Dubrovniks with less of thefr latter-day gloss. Inevitable, really, with Simpson front and centre and old bandmates Chris Flynn and Boris Sudjovic along for the ride on backing vocals. That said, it’s a Peter Simpson record. He wrote all nine songs, plays guitars and sings.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 3795
More Articles …
- Pinning noise to the Masthead and going for Broke
- The Mezcaltones message: If the hat fits, wear it
- It's the end of the world as we know it and Guttercats feel fine
- Sonny and stars shine brightly on "Parallax in Wonderland re-boot
- Hoax returns from the grave, three decades later
- Iggy live again and he's no Passenger
Subcategories
Behind the fridge
Artifacts and reviews from days gone by.
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