Asteroid B612 announce Australian shows

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 August 2025

Hits: 311

For the first time in 25 years, seminal Sydney underground rock´n´roll band Asteroid B612 will light up Australian skies with a select run of shows in November. The gigs will the band’s first chance to present their new album “Roads, Stars”, out now on vinyl LP and CD and via all streaming platforms.

Asteroid B612 came hurtling out of Sydney´s Northern Beaches in the early 90´s and was a guitar-powered force of nature, recording five albums and playing endless tours throughout Australia and once across the USA.

The core of the band - schoolyard buddies Johnny Spittles aka Johnny Casino, singer Grant McIver and bassist Benny Fox - were brought up on a musical diet of heartfelt, soulful, blazing rock´n´roll.

Dissembling in 2002, they reunited for eight concerts in 10 days through Johnny Casino's adopted home of Spain with an Australo-Spanish lineup. This is where the idea of recording new music was hatched.

It’s a slightly re-tooled version of the band with the passing of bassist Scotty Nash. Tickets go on sale from venue outlets at 0900 (AEST) today.

Asteroid B612
Australian Tour
NOV
6 – La La La´s – Wollongong NSW
7 – Marrickville Bowling Club – Sydney NSW
8 – Avalon Beach RSL Club – Northern Beaches NSW
14 - The John Curtin Hotel – Carlton Melbourne VIC

• johnny casino
• asteroid b612
• australian tour
• 2025

"Better Now" is the first taste of Van Ruin's album

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By The Barman

The Barman

31 July 2025

Hits: 433

Following on from last year’s debut EP, “Jails, Death & Institutions” (Crankinhaus Records), Van Ruin has rapidly upped the ante with their first album, ‘Trauma Magnet” ahead of their first European tour in September 2025. “Trauma Magnet” unveils a cast of characters whose fallible traits play out against a backdrop of high-energy rock and roll and hook-laden songs.

The members of Van Ruin's history in Australian rock is pretty vast - they've been a part of crucial acts like the New Christs, Lime Spiders, Deniz Tek Group, The Visitors, ME262, Decline of the Reptiles and Chris Massuak’s Dog Soldier, as well as East Coast Low, Hell Crab City, Chickenstones, Loose Pills, The Panadolls and Aberration. 

Van Ruin are Phil Van Rooyen - Vocals/Guitar, Alan Creed - Guitar/Vocals/Keyboards, Andy Newman - Bass/Keyboards and Stuart Wilson - Drums/Vocals

“Trama Magnet” is being released on vinyl, CD and streaming and you can pre-order on Bandcamp or the label site, or pre-save.

• new christs
• lime spiders
• the visitors
• filmclip
• van ruin
• better now
• trauma magnet
• deniz tek group
• chris masuak's dog soldier

Don't snooze: One-off Oz show for Yoshiko of 5.6.7.8's on sale

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 July 2025

Hits: 496

Yoshiko, lead singer of Japan's 5.6.7.8's, is coming to Sydney to perform a solo performance for the first time at the intimate MoshPit Bar in St Peters on Sunday, September 14.

The gig went on sale today and is already cruising towards a sell-out so expect no tickets on the door. Grab a pre-sale one here or miss out. Doors open at 3.30pm.

With a sell-out tour of Australia in March with the 5.6.7.8's under her belt, Yoshiko is going to be belting out a completely different set of Japanese floor shakers and rockin' garage tunes.

She’ll be previewing a record she’s recording with her Sydney backing band, Cheetah Beat, purveyors of “sleazy surf and sinful serenades”. Cheetah Beat are coming in hot after their recent sell-out show at The MoshPit in July.

They’ll be joined by Jupiter 5, stalwarts of ‘60s and ‘70's rock'n'roll with brute force and grooviness. Dirtbag will open the shindig fresh from his appearance at the renown Wild Weekend festival in Spain with his primal one-man band racket.

• cheetah beat
• moshpit
• jupiter 5
• dirtbag
• 5.6.7.8's
• yoshiko

Power trio delivers more than a sugar hit on their debut album

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

28 July 2025

Hits: 1766

The Sugar Beats – The Sugar Beats (Vinil Records)

It was a Saturday afternoon earlier this year when I stumbled on a Sugar Beats set. I was filming a documentary at MoshPit Bar in Sydney.  There were whispers on the grapevine that the band was awesome.  So, we raced down with a cameraman and a buddy in tow, in the hope that the band would deliver.

The word on the street was correct. Live, The Sugar Beats were overwhelmingly tight, blistering, gutsy and hooky, a  three-piece playing high-powered punk rock.

• nitrocris
• the strike-outs
• the sugar beats
• adam vines
• morgana ancone
• vinil records

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Sydney music community pitches in for Dan Dunhill

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By The Barman

The Barman

28 July 2025

Hits: 831

Sydney musician Dan “Dunhill” Batchelor has hit hard medical times and bandmates have opened a GoFundMe campaign.

A co-founder of The Dunhill Blues, the band described as “Sydney's best B-grade garage-punk rock party outfit” (plus a few others), Dan recently kicked both cancer and an auto-immune disease to make a full return to work, gigs and family life.

Last month, he was hit by meningitis on a trip to Greece for partner Ves's significant birthday. He was treated in an Athens hospital and deemed fit to fly home.

“After receiving further treatment back home, Dan was well enough to return to his job... until The Big Setback,” explains bandmate Adam Dunhill.

“Last week, Dan was at work when he noticed his vision was blurred. He called Ves to pick him up, which she did... and took him straight to hospital for emergency treatment.

“Turns out, a rare complication of meningitis is blindness due to brain or optic nerve damage. The medicos reckon Dan was three hours away from total blindness, so it's very lucky Ves called it the way she did.

“Dan now has permanent damage in one eye, and is still in hospital being treated to prevent total vision impairment. It's heavy. And yeah... while this gives Dan time to work on his new blues guitarist name (and rest and recover, of course), the reality is this: the latest medical episode has emptied Dan and Ves's emergency fund.”

You’ll find the GoFundMe launched by The Dunhill Blues. Link and Pin Café and record label Outtaspace Presents here.

• gofundme
• the dunhill blues
• dan dunhill

Tick Tick Boom! Swedish royalty puts the rock back into midweek Sydney

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 July 2025

Hits: 1124

The Hives
+ Clamm
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday, 23 July 2025

In these austere times, a full Enmore Theatre midweek sounds as unlikely as an affordable round of drinks in a Justin Hemmes-owned pub, but there you go: If the joint is full to the gills by 8pm on a Wednesday, it must be a Hives show.

Dunno about you but I’ve been following The Hives since they formed in Sweden in that eruption of Scandi Rock at the start of the ‘90s. The six albums are all top-shelf fun but the live experience had somehow evaded me. So, it’s off to the Enmore on a school night that I must go.

The urgings from people like The Celebrity Roadie not to miss this were still echoing in my tinnitus-scarred ears as I sipped my first beer. The Barmaid had even feigned interest by asking if the band would sing in English (not that she was going) but, really? It’s a self-evident truth that The Hives speak fluent Rock and Roll. Their dialect is universal.

• enmore theatre
• australian tour
• clamm
• 2025
• the hives

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A night with a legend and an emergent star

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By Ed Garland

Ed Garland

20 July 2025

Hits: 2340

John Cale
Xani
The Recital Hall, Sydney
July 10 2025

Do you remember that annoying kid in Year Nine at school? The one who used to badger you with his arrogance and who raved about obscure songs and artists to prove he was superior? He would rattle off their names like a machine gun, firing off the titles of B sides of obnoxious Rush singles and dropping the name of some obscure European prog band that had elves on the cover of their debut album. 

You, on the other hand, had discovered “Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal” by Lou Reed and had proudly made the connection that it had Dick Wagner on guitar who was now playing with Alice Cooper. And the ever-annoying wanker classmate would declare that the Reed record that I had just bought at Ashwood's was "shit" because it was “commercial” before name-dropping someone called John Cale.

• sydney
• john cale
• xani
• the recital hall

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Girl Monstar are back with a new album

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 July 2025

Hits: 1204

Trailblazing Melbourne garage-pop/hard rock band Girl Monstar are back with their first new music since 1992. 

The first all-female band to gain a national profile in Australia in the late '80s and early ‘90s. Girl Monstar played more than 200 shows and shared stages with Iggy Pop, the Ramones, Sonic Youth, the Hard-ons, GOD, the Hoodoo Gurus, The Divinyls, Poison and Skid Row.

You can hear and buy the new single “Blue Cat With Green Eyes" on Bandcamp and it will be followed by a new album, on Vicious Kitten Records, in October.

“Blue Cat With Green Eyes” is the impetus for the reunion and was written by singer-guitarist Sherry Rich as part of a Philosophy Unit while studying a Creative Arts Industries degree in 2017.

• vicious kitten
• Blue Cat With Green Eyes
• girl monstar

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Thirty years later, the sound is still Soft 'n' Sexy

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 July 2025

Hits: 1057

Flashback to 1995: Dave Graney was crowned ARIA Best Male Artist and ”The Soft ‘n’ Sexy Sound” was certified gold (when it meant something) in the Australian charts.  As someone once said: “Those were different times”.

Flash forward to 2025 and Dave Graney and The Coral Snakes are undertaking an Australian tour in October and November, playing “The Soft ‘n’ Sexy Sound” from go to whoa.

In the words of Mr Graney: “Looking forward to getting back into this Shelby GT500 of an album for a celebratory tour.

• dave graney
• australian tour
• the coral snakes
• the soft 'n' sexy sound

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