Pocketwatch plans to Break Out in Sydney this Friday

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By The Barman

The Barman

12 August 2024

Hits: 1508

_{Photo by Emma Wand Photography.}

Sydney prodigies Pocketwatch will release their latest EP, “Break Out”, this Friday with a high-profile show at Marrickville Bowlo with supports Liquid Zoo and Overboard. Tickets are selling here.

“Break Out” is a four-track EP produced by multiple ARIA winner Wayne Connolly that continues to showcase the band’s established power pop sound while exploring new creative directions.

• wayne connolly
• pocketwatch
• break out

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Pocketwatch plans to Break Out in Sydney this Friday

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

12 August 2024

Hits: 1004

_{Photo by Emma Wand Photography.}

Sydney prodigies Pocketwatch will release their latest EP, “Break Out”, this Friday with a high-profile show at Marrickville Bowlo with supports Liquid Zoo and Overboard. Tickets are selling here.

“Break Out” is a four-track EP produced by multiple ARIA winner Wayne Connolly that continues to showcase the band’s established power pop sound while exploring new creative directions.

• wayne connolly
• pocketwatch
• break out

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Amazing Grace

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

11 August 2024

Hits: 1846

Grace Cummings and Band
Metro Social Club, Sydney
Saturday, August 3 2024
Photos: Sandra Kingston

Grace Cummings is a once-in-generation Australian artist.

It is two years since I first caught her at the Great Club in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner-west, with less than a hundred others on a cold Thursday night.

It was a show by a remarkable artist with swagger and brutally heart wrenching songs that left us in awe.

Accompanied by a band with attitude, she took her vocals from a whisper to paint-stripping level, leaving the hairs on your arms standing up.   

Her remarkable album “Storm Queen” has been on my turntable regularly since, but her records don’t fully capture the live experience.

• sydney
• ramona
• grace cummings
• metro social
• louis king

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Plying his trade: Charlie Owen says it's song over style

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By John McPharlin

John McPharlin

11 August 2024

Hits: 2087

 _{Onstage with the "Searching For Charlie Owen" show at Sydney's MoshPit Bar in 2023.}

Master guitarist Charlie Owen  - notably of Beasts of Bourbon, New Christs, Tendrils, Tex Don and Charlie, Divynils, Working Class Ringos and Louis Tillett among many others - is on the road along Australia's East Coast in August and September, touring his music and spoken word show "Searching for Charlie Owen", the dates for which are here.

It's an engrossing and emotional stroll through his own back pages. We decided to mark the occasion by pulling this nugget from our archives. It's was conducted in Melbourne in August 2022 by then I-94 Bar writer John McPharlin. 

* * * * *   

JM: Charlie, I guess the first thing that's going to knock most people out of their chairs when they start reading this interview is your interest in techno music. Can you tell us how you got into that and what you've been doing with it?

CO: I don't have an interest in techno music; I have an interest in all music. My reason for playing it recently is the same reason for any other music I've played. I hear it and hear what I'd like to do with it, not liking what I've heard... it's not because I like what I hear, it's what I'd like to do with the medium.

• new christs
• tex perkins
• charlie owen
• australian tour
• tex don and charlie
• louis tillett
• don walker
• searching for Charlie owen
• 2024
• working class ringos

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Japan's King Brothers return to Oz, packing a new LP

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 August 2024

Hits: 1696

Japan’s Iconic blues punk band King Brothers are returning to Australia in September and local label Cheersquad has announced a limited edition 12-song tour LP to coincide.

Known as Japan's most dangerous live act and their unique blend of barbed-wire blues and toxic punk rock, King Brothers promise a tour that will leave crowds breathless. This will be the band's first Australian tour since 2016.

The tour LP, “Hell Oh! Oz”, will be limited to 300 copies - 150 in fluro-green and 150 in green/white marble - with a download card and will be released on August 23. It’s available for pre-order here.

• cheersquad records
• 2024
• king brothers
• austraian tour
• hell oh! oz

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Ex-Dubrovnik Peter Simpson writes his return with "Letter to London"

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By The Barman

The Barman

05 August 2024

Hits: 1749

Peter Simpson, former member of The Dubrovniks and The Spectre’s Revenge, has stepped back into the spotlight with a new single, “Letter to London”.

Described as “a piece of ragged rock/pop”, “Letter to London” ruminates on a long-distance relationship that has run its course.  Simpson plays guitar and sings, bass is by Marco Gal and Dom Simpson plays drums.

It’s been a long, stop-and-start journey for Simpson, who was a keyboardist in Perth pop band Teeny Weenys when he relocated to Sydney in 1980. The band broke up despite Double Jay airplay and Simpson performed in various groups before switching to guitar and fronting The Spectre’s Revenge.

Playing an eclectic style of rock that drew on everything from surf instrumentals to acoustic ballads to a kind of punk jazz. The band’s only official release, 1985’s “No Moon at Midnight “b/w “(I wanna be like) Maynard G Krebbs”, reached number one on the alternative charts in Sydney and Melbourne.

In the meantime, various other Perth expatriates had gathered in Sydney in bands such as The Scientists and Hoodoo Gurus. In 1987, Simpson got together with some ex-members of these bands to form The Dubrovniks.

A couple of hit indie singles and an ARIA-award-nominated debut album made The Dubrovniks bigger than anyone had anticipated, and they were soon touring Europe, recording a second album, and even breaking into the mainstream Top 40.

• peter simpson
• the spectre's revenge
• letter to london
• the dubrovniks

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Gentle Ben & His Shimmering hands urge you to splash on some "Brut"

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By The Barman

The Barman

05 August 2024

Hits: 2067

_{That's Gentle Ben on stage at Binic last month or The Bubble Boy from Seinfeld. You be the judge. Photo by @dujouraulendemain}

It’s a line in the media release that we just have to use: “Like the one-night stand you hoped to never see again, Gentle Ben & His Shimmering Hands are back to ruin your life, break your heart and make your loins quiver”.

The Brisbane “haute couture swamp rockers” (their words again, not ours)  left France a few days ago in a smouldering, postcoital ruin, after smashing out 13 shows over 15 days, playing at a former tobacco factory under a big-top, in a 14th century pub, and in front of 10,000 fanatical French fans at Binic.

Gentle Ben turn their sights to the East Coast of Australia this month to unleash their new album, “Brut” on French label Beast Records. It's available in Australia through Spooky Records and it's procurable here.

• beast records
• spooky records
• australian tour
• gentle ben and his shimmering hands
• brut

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Brisbane to say farewell to Fred

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By The Barman

The Barman

05 August 2024

Hits: 1191

The Brisbane music scene was devastated by the loss of stalwart performer Alan "Fred" Noonan in May 2024 following a long illness. Fred’s extensive community of bandmates will come together for ‘and event, "Rocky’s Boogie", at the Tivoli in Brisbvane this Saturday, August 10 to celebrate Fred’s legacy from the last 40-plus years.

It is no exaggeration to say that Fred was a Brisbane punk rock legend. Prior to co-founding Blowhard in 1989, Fred was a member of pioneering punk bands Brothers Of Feedback, New Improved Testament and Public Execution (who supported Dead Kennedys in 1984).

Fred was with Blowhard from 1989 to 1993 (and intermittently since). In 1991, via his cowpunk alter-ego Rocky Outcrop. He formed side-project The Fred Band, which ended up being one of Brisbane’s longest-lasting musical legacies. After leaving Blowhard in 1993, Fred co-founded Sixfthick, another enduring Brisbane institution.

Fred also took Brisbane punk's status to the international stage, undertaking several overseas tours with Sixfthick and The Jim Rockfords and finding a second home in France's Brittany region.

• brisbane
• sixfthick
• public execution
• fred noonan
• fred band
• tivoli
• blowhard

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Japan's The Fadeaways leave a stunned Australia in their wake

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

04 August 2024

Hits: 2167

_{The Fadeaways at The Crowbar the night before. Shona Ross photo.}

The Fadeaways (JP)
+ Jupiter 5
+ Dirtbag
MoshPit Bar, St Peters, NSW, Australia
Sunday, July 14 2024

Sometime in the 1970s, American garage rock started to become in vogue among a hip crew that lived in a few households of each other in the inner city of Sydney.  It was an area that was home to Deniz Tek, a medical student from Michigan, Rob Younger and John Needham among others.  Their reference point was the ”Nuggets” compilation, put together by Lenny Kaye from the Patti Smith Group.

In Australia, the album’s availability coincided with us taking a  fresh look at our home-grown ‘60s bands, many of them also purveyors of perfect three- minute slaps of attitude and beat that were recorded with amps about to blow and guitars that could be purchased for 20 pounds.

The Purple Hearts, Missing Links and The Creatures were the more obvious names to drop. The more obscure a single you could talk about, the cooler you were, and the actual items became the Holy Grail, to be played while you read your imported copy of Creem magazine.

• jupiter 5
• moshpit bar
• the fadeaways
• dirtbag

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