Happy landing for world-class East Coast Low on their new album

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By The Barman

The Barman

08 September 2025

Hits: 8248

Badlanding – East Coast Low (Crankinhaus Records)

It’s been a decade since they formed and four years since East Coast Low hit their straps on the “Seas on Fire” album, and “Badlanding” shows a band that’s even more self-assured and in control. 

Is it coincidence that some of the best Australian albums of the last few years have come from satellite cities of Sydney? “Badlanding” proves that East Coast Low are as good as anything to have emerged from the grit-flecked city of Newcastle in the last 30 years.

“Badlanding” rocks hard but has an unmistakable swagger. With Rob Younger at the production helm, its varied collection of songs sounds powerful and coherent and there’s an array of sonic exclamation points apparent. Rick O’Neill’s mastering widens the soundscape nicely with no loss of edge.

• crankinhaus records
• east coast low
• badlanding

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Phoenix rising at Lazy Thinking and guess who's the Belle of the ball

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By Ed Garland

Ed Garland

07 September 2025

Hits: 7162

Belle Phoenix with Jeffery Wegener and Ken Gormly
+ Fabels
Thursday, 4 September 2025
Lazy Thinking, Dulwich Hill, NSW

WORDS: Ed Garland
PICTURES: Keith Claringbold

With her elfin appearance and cat’s eyes, Belle Phoenix, is part musical performer and part Factory girl, and surely would fitted into Andy Warhol’s Bohemian scene of 1966. Her sweet vocal has held her in good stead as a backing singer on other people’s albums, but she’s steadily built an impressive body of work with her own material.

Belle Phoenix’s music would work as a soundtracks to European movies (indeed, she did live in Europe for a time with Finland a home base.) It has hints of the spoken word spirit that pervaded the San Francisco of 1958 when alcohol-fuelled beat poetry nights were all the rage, long before anyone had an inkling of the Summer of Love that was lay ahead.  Yet, Belle can also sing like the angels and produce pure soprano bliss amidst her swamp darkness.

• ken gormly
• belle phoenix
• fabels
• lazy thinking
• jeffrey wegener

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The Fadeaways return for lightning five-day Australia and New Zealand tour

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By The Barman

The Barman

05 September 2025

Hits: 9126

Tokyo’s wildest garage punk trio, The Fadeaways, are returning to Australia this November - and are heading to New Zealand for the first time.

It’s six shows in five days covering both countries by The Fadeaways who are marking their 20^th anniversary.

The band had a scare recently when guitarist Assman was invovled in a work accident that resulted in a broken ankle but he will be fighting fit for the tour.

Supports are to be announced but all gigs are expected to sell-out based on the reaction to The Fadeaways’ last Australian visit in 2024.

The Fadeaways
Australia and New Zealand
NOV
13 – Marrickville Bowlo, Sydney
14 - PFR Lounge, Brisbane
15 – River Rocks Festival, Geelong (5pm)
      - Half Baked Festival, The Gem Bar, Melbourne (10pm)
16 - Space Academy, Christchuirch, NZ
17 – Whammy Bar, Auckland, NZ
Australian tickets
NZ tickets

Four against the world: 20 years of RUST

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By Ed Garland

Ed Garland

01 September 2025

Hits: 10801

 Garry Campbell in full flight. 

WORDS: Ed Garland
PHOTOS: Jules

I am the first to admit I got it wrong about Sydney band RUST.  

You these hear stupid comments around the scene (by those who claim to be “in the know“) that RUST is a right-wing Oi band.  As time’s gone on, the penny has slowly dropped.

First,  I watched the band put in a blistering set at The Metro in Sydney support of Stiff Little Fingers and they impressed me .

A couple of years later, pre-Covid, I caught them at Time and Tide in Dee Why in one wild punk night. They struck me as a solid Oi cross-over punk band, but maybe but not my thing.  

• sydney
• lobby loyde
• midnight oil
• the ozskas
• the clash
• northern beaches
• rust
• Garry Campbell
• wings and tins
• rebellion

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Can't control youself? Grab this classic re-issue

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By The Barman

The Barman

31 August 2025

Hits: 6821

Legendary Australian drummer James Baker is gone but won’t be forgotten. The debut single by the co-founder of The Victims, The Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts of Bourbon and Dubrovniks is being posthumously honoured by a re-issue of his debut single. 

Cheersquad Records & Tapes is re-pressing the James Baker Experience’s  "I Can't Control Myself" b/w "Born To Be Punched" 45 in all its shambolic glory on its 40th anniversary.

It features a pounding cover of The Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself" because James was the world's biggest Troggs fan, and would occasionally venture out from behind his drums (handing his sticks to Brad Shepherd) to sing it for an encore in his Hoodoo Gurus days.

The B side is the New York Dolls-inspired original "Born To Be Punched" which was recorded not long after James and the Gurus parted ways. It features a young Tex Perkins on bass and James' mate from the Scientists and later the Dubrovniks, Rod Radalj, as well as Tex's mate Stu Spasm on guitars.

The first ever release on Red Eye Records, it features brilliant cover art from label founder John Foy. Cheersquad's edition will be released on October 7 in five coloured variants - 100 of copies of each – and you can find the full details and place a pre-order here.

• james baker
• cheersquad records
• john foy
• redeye
• i can't control myself

"Black Milk" to celebrate fallen friends and kicking against the pricks

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 August 2025

Hits: 11838

The Beasts aren't the Beasts of Bourbon. but they both share members and a sense of fierce perversity.

So when The Beasts play their show to mark 35 years since their immediate forebears, the Beasts of Bourbon, birthed the "Black Milk" album at The Forum in Melbourne on September 12, expect it to hit emotional heights and to venture into unchartered territory.

The sun is setting over Sydney and on the line is Tex Perkins, singer for both bands and, with Kim Salmon (guitar) and Boris Sujdovic (bass), a survivor of the original line-up of the Beasts of Bourbon.

• kim salmon
• boris sudjovic
• james baker
• tex perkins
• the johnnys
• charlie owen
• the beasts
• ezra lee
• black milk
• cash savage
• the forum

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Neverland Ranch Davidians are a cult worth joining

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 August 2025

Hits: 10371

Shout It On The Mountain – Neverland Ranch Davidians (Heavy Medication Records)

Any band with a name that fucks with the memories of cult leaders Michael Jackson and David Koresh in equal measures has to have something going for it. Snappy nomenclature is one thing, but this Los Angeles outfit also has substance to back it up.

Neverland Ranch Davidians trade in scuzzy punk rock intertwined with funk and greasy R ‘n’ B. “Shout It On The Mountain” is their second long-player and it’s on Polish label Heavy Medication, a refuge for acts like The Primevals, Streetwalkin' Cheetahs, The Meatbeaters and Pat Todd.

• los angeles
• heavy medication records
• Neverland Ranch Davidians
• shout it on the mountain
• tex mosley

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Jump Head-first into this riotous and righteous collection of rock and roll stories

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By The Barman

The Barman

22 August 2025

Hits: 6628

Headonism
By Peter Head with MJ Cornwall
(BookPOD)

The history of Australian rock and roll is chockablock with yarns about people who had their shot at The Big Prize. Adelaide-born Peter Head (nee Beagley) gave it a better shake than most,  rising to prominence as pianist for prog rockers Headband, touring his bum off and playing in a pre-AC/DC band with some bloke named Bon Scott.

This is a man who rubbed shoulders with everyone from Elton John to John Mayall, John Farnham to the Rolling Stones. Adelaide-raised, Head did what a lot of Aussies did in the‘60s and followed his nose to work as a muso in England...only to suffer the same fate as many, if not most, of his peers and have it rubbed in Pommy squalor.

In the ‘80s Head transplanted himself to Sydney and became a fixture in the piano bars of Kings Cross. It was probably a natural progression for a bloke who kicked off his career as a 13-year-old backing bump-and-grind dancers in seedy Hindley Street bars. Along the way, he directed stage shows, toured nationally with the likes of Robyn Archer, carved out a regular place on the bill of the Adelaide Festival, filled in as backing pianist for “Here’s Humphrey”. 

• rolling stones
• bon scott
• elton john
• mark cornwall
• mj cornwall
• headonism
• peter head

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The Gin Palace soars before Swaggerland puts iceing on the collaborative cake

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By John Ventoura

John Ventoura

18 August 2025

Hits: 10781

_{Happy Hour at The Gin Palace.}

The Gin Palace
+ Swaggerland
Factory Floor, Marrickville
Saturday 9 August 2025 

On a wet and miserable Sydney winter night, a cosy Factory Floor welcomed around 50 punters to  share an intimate musical experience. It was the long awaited gig to launch The Gin Palace’s online single “Petrichor” and album material from Bronwyn Eather’s latest project  Swaggerland 24.

First up The Gin Palace: A super group of players, with a pedigree drawn from, among others, Crow, Glide, and Copperline, they are a six-piece band and welcomed us with a short set of songs from upcoming album, “The Year of the Dog”. As it turns out, it was a set that was almost too big for this little stage, as The Gin Palace powered through an effortless and positive set of numbers with their unique, euphoric sound.

• factory floor
• peter fenton
• marc lynch
• the gin palace
• swaggerland
• bronwyn either

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