Spoilt for choice as Spawn and Cable Ties weave magic

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

06 August 2023

Hits: 2975

Cable Ties 
at Max Watt’s, Melbourne
Spawn 
at The Catfish, Fitzroy, VIC
Friday, 4 August 2024

I missed the supports for the Cable Ties  (pictured right) album launch tonight at Max Watt’s, not because of any indifference on my part – Maggie Pills, Porpoise Spit and Our Carlson are all acts worthy of checking out  – but because I was waylaid at The Catfish in Fitzroy caught up in Spawn’s sprawling psychedelic journey. 

I first saw Spawn at the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood in late 2020. Coming a few weeks after the Victorian Government had released the shackles of the second lockdown of that year, the gig was liberating, a timely reminder of the critical importance of live music to the contemporary social and economic fabric. 

The fact it was also a benefit for Spawn bass player Jewel De Gelder, who, tragically, would pass away a couple of years later, added a layer of poignancy. 

Spawn is a band rife for observation, analysis and cerebral contemplation. Come for the stoner-psych riffs and pot pouri of cultural influences, stay for the trip. The concept of a personal journey is caught somewhere between the cynical discourse of the corporate management industry and the slightly disconcerting hand-produced flyers advertising self-help retreats for members of the information class lost in a middle-class existentialist void. 

But when you’re at a Spawn gig, you’re swept up in a spiritual quest. Close your eyes, feel the mood, roll with the moment. Sabbath-strength riffs, a sitar wielded like a stoner-rock axe, an Eastern musico-cultural inflection that renders 60s raga-rock a cheap middle-class white boy imitation in comparison. As for Sarita McHarg’svocals, wow, that’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before, in this world at least. 

• melbourne
• live
• cable ties
• spawn
• all her plans

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Japanese voodoo rockers Bailtones head to Oz

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By The Barman

The Barman

02 August 2023

Hits: 2590

Japan’s premier exponents of voodoo rock, Baitones, are heading to Australia in October, playing shows in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

With two decades of rocking in their home country under their belts, Bailtones will be making their first foray overseas.

Likened to the Birthday Party crossed with Gun Club and the Cramps, Baitones recall all of the above but still manage to remain uniquely creepy and glitteringly sexy, as well. 

Ugly Things magazine says:

“If you're into Nuggets, Pebbles, The Sonics, The Cramps’ ‘Gravest Hits’ or ‘60s garage punk in general then you really should pick up this record, a Japanese band that takes this style and make it their own. This music has never sounded that hot before.“ 

Our spy who has caught them in the flesh in Japan adds:

“If Las Vegas was an outfit, these guys would be wearing it. Holographic gold lame, leopard skin, fishnets, abundant bare flesh trimmed with bones and fur adorn Baitones, like some mutant Mae West cannibal from the year 3000.

"Baitones create a fashion all of their own, part burlesque cutie, part jungle beast and part sci fi villain.”

Judge for yourself at these shows:

Bailtones (JPN) Australian Tour
OCT
4 – Old Bar, Fitzroy, VIC
5 – Brightside, Fortitude Valley, QLD
6 – The Duke, Enmore, NSW
7 – Zombie Cannibal Stay Gold, Sydney Road, Melbourne, VIC

• japanese
• australian tour
• bailtones

Detroit DoGs unleash a vinyl re-issue with bite

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By Tim "Napalm" Stegall

Tim "Napalm" Stegall

01 August 2023

Hits: 3947

“We're the most underground, underground band out there,” says Loren Molinare of the Detroit-born-and-bred early L.A. punk veterans The DoGs, whose second LP “Hypersensitive” from 2012 will finally be released on vinyl via prestige Polish punk ‘n’ roll label Heavy Medication Records on September 1. 

“We’re really proud to reissue this ‘lost classic’ for the first time on vinyl,” says Heavy Medication president Derrick Ogrodny. “We're honored to work with such protopunk legends and think it’s about time these DoGs had their day.”  

“We're one of the last bands with original members that actually sound like a proper Detroit rock band,” continues Molinare, the man Ogrodny calls “the Pete Townshend of punk rock.” “And yes, I mean some things never change. We carry on that tradition. That's what we do.

“We're just kind of picking our spot. We're white trash Detroit rock ‘n’ rollers about the same age as the old black blues men who were out doing it before they died. A lot of our peers have passed away, and we do not take it for granted. 

• detroit
• stooges
• mc5
• the dogs
• los angeles
• heavy medication records
• mary kay
• Lauren molinare
• Tim stegall

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As a scribe's tale, it's flamin' groovy

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By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

31 July 2023

Hits: 3829

Shake Some Action: My Life in Music (and other stuff)
By Stuart Coupe
Penguin Books

“You’re talking to Stuart Coupe?” remarked my wife excitedly, after I told her I’d catching up with Stuart at the tail end of an impending work trip to Sydney. “Tell him I used to read his column in ‘Dolly’ all the time! We all did!”

To thousands of teenagers – especially teenage girls – in the 1980s, Stuart Coupe was the guy who wrote that column in Dolly, championing music he liked, dissing commercial dross he didn’t, and offering various observations and advice on various non-music topics, including kissing and the art of romance.

Not being a reader of the magazine, I wasn’t familiar with Coupe’s work with “Dolly”, though his by-line did appear in regular dispatches in music magazines and newspapers. Decades later I interviewed Coupe for my Spencer P Jones biography; one thing led to another, and he became instrumental – in fact, was the critical force – in my obtaining a publishing deal. So, full disclosure, I consider Stuart Coupe a friend and sincere supporter of all the best things in music. 

“Shake Some Action” tells Coupe’s story, from his childhood in Launceston, to his formative years in Adelaide as a music writer, to syndicated columns (and "Dolly"!), the chaotic world of band management, the heady, drug and alcohol fuelled world of music industry largesse and the harsh economic reality of tour promotion and label ownership. 

• stuart coupe
• patrick emery
• shake some action
• bruce springsteen
• penguin books
• green records

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pocketwatch's Sydney launch is no wind-up

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 July 2023

Hits: 3636

Sydney teenage powerhouse rock trio pocketwatch, will mark the release of their debut EP, "It's Time" in their home town on Friday. Rock along to Marrickville Bowling Club and you’ll receive a CD copy as part of your admission.

“It’s Time” will also be on all major streaming platforms from August 4. Support acts are Polly and Vertigo and tickets are here.  Accompanied under 18s will be admitted.

• marrickville bowling club
• pocketwatch
• it's time
• polly
• vertigo

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Richard Duguay's latest is nothing like a decline

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By JD Misfortune

JD Misfortune

25 July 2023

Hits: 2804

Beautiful Decline – Richard Duguay (Cursed Blessings Records)

I've already told pretty much everyone I still know personally about this one-in-a million original black cat, Richard Duguay, who's been kickin' around the glam rock underground maybe even longer than myself.

He's played with everybody from Personality Crisis to Duff's solo band, there was even talk of him replacing Izzy Stradlin in Guns N Roses at some point. 

I'm obsessed with all his songs-you know they get compared to vintage Bowie and Alice and 70's punks like the Heartbreakers, but for me what makes his music so resonant besides the stellar production, amazing guitar tones, lived it vocals and poetic heartfelt lyrics is the simple fact that Richard is expressing his own uniquely distinctive point of view and doing it all his own way with imagination, guts, and style and flair. 

His wife who he collaborates with also has a really good voice. 

• glam
• richard duguay
• beautiful decline
• duff
• cursed blessings records

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When Wrongs sound so right: Jody Stephens in conversation with Darryl Mather

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By Darryl Mather*

Darryl Mather*

30 July 2023

Hits: 2633

_{Luther Russell and Jody Stephens in Those Pretty Wrongs duo format.}

As drummer and a founding member of the legendary Big Star, Jody Stephens is an icon to so many of today's musicians. The musical legacy of Big Star is as omnipresent as it's ever been and undoubtedly this enormous global respect is due to the band's recording of three of the greatest albums ever set to vinyl.

A hugely successful reformation by Big Star in the early ‘90s produced a world tour and a fine fourth album. Pleasingly, over this past decade, Jody has gone on to create even more marvellous music wth a duo outfit with Luther Russell, Those Pretty Wrongs. 

As a songwriting pair, their music is refreshingly honest, supremely melodious and inherently tender in its style. And the recordings are super hi fi harking back to the quality of John Fry’s famous work at Ardent Studios with Big Star. 

It is therefore the music of Those Pretty Wrongs I primarily wished to focused on in this Q&A in advance of Those Pretty Wrongs’ exciting upcoming second tour of Australia. I was especially keen to seek a deeper understanding of how Jody’s own musical journey influences the music of Those Pretty Wrongs. 

• big star
• australian tour
• those pretty wrongs
• jody stephens
• Luther russell
• darryl mather
• orange humble band

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Michael Canning's science of pop

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By The Barman

The Barman

19 July 2023

Hits: 1933

Chirality - Michael Canning (Ghostjogger Records)

Michael Canning, a UK-based New Zealand scientist and occasional multi-instrumental character, has released his fourth LP. Which is joyful, groovy, interesting and downright fun. 

The word "chirality" comes from the Greek “kheir”, meaning “hand”; a familiar chiral object. It's a term used by chemistry and physics characters. To quote a textbook: "Stereoisomers are isomers that differ in spatial arrangement of atoms, rather than order of atomic connectivity. One of their most interesting type of isomer is the mirror-image stereoisomers, a non-superimposable set of two molecules that are mirror image of one another. The existence of these molecules are determined by concept known as chirality."

But you knew that, right?

• pop
• new zealand
• michael canning
• chirality
• ghostogger records

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Teen no longer but boredom isn't an option

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

18 July 2023

Hits: 2812

Replay the Adverts - TV Smith and The Bored Teenagers (Easy Action Records)

You say you liked the punk stuff at the beginning? If you don't have the first Adverts LP, “Crossing the Red Sea with..”,  or their second, “Cast of Thousands”, then this will do nicely. 

Sure, we weren't at the fabled 100 Club, or the infamous CBGBs in the Bowery, or the Mermaid in Sparkhill when Swansplayed ... but we have our own memories of the fantastic, never to be repeated underground. 

And, let's face it, the only thing that elevates a shithole is the scene we punters and creatives make. When the scene ebbs and flows away, the shithole is still a shithole. I bet CBGBs is a lot cleaner now (it's a designer clothing shop) and while the 100 Club is still around at a different location, it's well and truly part of the establishment. Perhaps appropriately, the Mermaid stands as a gutted derelict after a fire.

• tv smith
• easy action records
• bored teenagers
• replay the adverts

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