Blood On The Keys – James Leg (Alive Naturalsound)

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By Ronald Brown

Ronald Brown

30 August 2016

Hits: 6342

Let me start by saying I have been a  Black Diamond Heavies devotee since I first heard a bootleg recording of their first album ‘You’re Damn Right”’ way back in 2005. When the latest album by James Leg (aka John Wesley Myers), vocalist, keyboardist and one half of that band turned up for review, I already knew what I was about to hear.

This is without doubt some of the rawest soul/blues/punk rock ‘n’ roll and coolest Fender Rhodes electric piano playing you’ll ever hear, along with the dirtiest Whiskey-smoked growl that has ever been put to tape. Yes, folks, this album is a winner. It’s dirtier and louder than most other things, and just fucking awesome. It’s the future, the past and present, all rolled up into a tight joint, ready to smoke, get high and just rock the fuck out. There are no disappointments here.

• james leg
• alive naturalsound
• black diamond heavies
• blood on the keys

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New Tek album coming down the turnpike

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 August 2016

Hits: 4997

Radio Birdman boss Deniz Tek's latest solo album, "Mean Old Twister", will be released by Citadel Records on September 30.

Stand-out tracks are said to include the straight-ahead, high-powered guitar rockers "Burned Black" and "Prison Mouse", "Comanche", a shimmering surf instrumental, the Stonesy ballad "Table For One" and "Free At Last", an all-acoustic diversion from the electric guitar attack.

"Mean Old Twister" was recorded with the same band which appeared on the last Tek album "Detroit". Drummer Ric Parnell is best known for his work in Spinal Tap and Atomic Rooster. Bassist Bob Brown has been working with Deniz since the 1992 Australian tour supporting Deniz's first solo album "Take It To The Vertical".

Lending a keen ear to the process, Radio Birdman bandmate and famed producer Rob Younger stepped in to supervise the mix.

• radio birdman
• citadel records
• deniz tek
• mean old twister

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Get more than a Glimpse of Dinosaur Jr

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 August 2016

Hits: 4738

Tickets for Dinosaur Jr’s looming return to Australia January go on sale today. They’re touring off the back of their new album “Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not”, their first since 2012 and their fourth since 2005’s unlikely reformation.

Four albums into their rebirth and Dinosaur Jr look to have no sign of slowing up. Album of the week slots on Double J, FBi, SER and glowing reviews across the planet stand testament to their staying power and the songs of J Mascis. Dates after the link:

• live
• tour
• australian
• j mascis
• dinosaur jr

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The Saints return - and Hitler isn't happy

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 August 2016

Hits: 5349

The Saints (without Ed Kuepper, if you had to ask) will play three intimate, exclusive Australian shows at Melbourne’s Gasometer Hotel in October. Chris Bailey will be joined by early ‘80s drummer-turned-journalist, Iain Shedden, Pat Bourke on bass and You Am I’s Davey Lane on guitar.

Hitler’s reaction to the news is above. The dates are below and as the venue is quite intimate, bookings are recommended.

Wednesday 5 October – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne (18+)
Thursday 6 October – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne (18+)
Friday 7 October – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne (18+)

• live
• saints
• ed kuepper
• iain shedden
• chris bailey
• davey lane
• pat bourke

Split LP - The Bevis Frond & Fraudband (Kasumuen Records)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

28 August 2016

Hits: 4098

It’s a split 12” LP. Five tracks one side, one track on the other. Which is a great idea; two bands showcase themselves for half the price of the vinyl. Yes, it’s vinyl. More bands should do this.

Fraudband are a secretive bunch; you don’t really know their names, ages, or what their favourite colour is, whether they’re hipsters from Pillockville, young WTFs from the stale burbs or leathery old farts in those vile brown leather jackets which were so in among the more money than taste twats in 1986. Fraudband (brilliant name, I’m sure you’ll agree) want their music to speak to us.

• fraudband
• bevis frond
• Kasumuen Records

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Victory Motel Sessions - King Mud (Alive Naturalsound Records) & The Power To Kill - Beyond the Stars (Beyond the Stars)

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

28 August 2016

Hits: 8384

These two discs were each made (mostly) by a two-piece band, drums’n’guitar; and vox and guitars, respectively. They’re both something I wouldn’t have believed possible: successful two-person rock’n’roll that sounds fantastic. Each album does have a few other elements, but they’re precious few and … and again, I wouldn’t have believed it, but … you don’t really miss the others that much. Why?

In King Mud’s case, the songs and the delivery gain, hold and manipulate your attention; their two covers (you should be familiar with at least one) taken over by the Mudders to such an extent they may as well have written it themselves.

King Mud are Van Campbell from the Black Diamond Heavies and Freddy J IV from Left Lane Cruiser. They’re full-on rock’n’stuff, the kind of busy guitar which tells the story, shoves the song forward and devil the details. There’s a distinctive ‘70s American style to the Mudders, but you can clearly hear innumerable UK influences as well.

• left lane cruiser
• alive naturalsound
• black diamond heavies
• king mud
• beyond the stars

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R.I.P. Thug co-founder Peter Read

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By The Barman

The Barman

17 August 2016

Hits: 14022

_{Thug with Peter Read pictured left.}

Thug co-founder and Black Eye Records artist, Peter Read, has passed away. The circumstances are unclear but a friend said Read had been battling liver cancer and was thought to have been in remission. He was living in Melbourne.

Read (Leather Moustache) and Tex Perkins (Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums, later to join Beasts of Bourbon) formed electro-punk band Thug in Sydney in 1987, initially to make home recordings. Thug became one of Sydney's most confrontational live acts, with chaotic 20-minute sets featuring dancers, theatrics, bizarre electronic equipment and—at one performance—an entire audience showered in flour. Thug gigs would end with members mock-brawling amongst themselves, at times sparking audience participation.  

Thug, along with Lubricated Goat and Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, were part of the underbelly of the Sydney indie rock scene, releasing music on the Red Eye Records offshoot, Black Eye Records. 

Thug's debut single was the "Fuck Your Dad” b/w “Thug". Along with the “Mechanical Ape” EP and “Electric Woolly Mammoth” album, it was released on a CD, “Everything Is Beautiful In Its Own Way”.

Read temporarily joined Lubricated Goat for their infamous nude-on-national-TV performance of “In The Raw”. More about the Black Eye bands at Cousin Creep’s website. He went on to work as a Front of House sound operator. 

• tex perkins
• thug
• peter read
• black eye records

Pig City becomes a label, signs Some Jerks and Sabrina Lawrie

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By The Barman

The Barman

16 August 2016

Hits: 4578

It started at a Some Jerks gig at the late, lamented Beetle Bar in Brisbane. Journalist Andrew Stafford, author of Brisbane rock history "Pig City", approached his friend Sean Clift, of Red Dust Music Management and drummer with local thug-rockers Lords of Wong.

“Listen,” he said. “This band is great. Everyone here loves ’em. If we can’t sell a few hundred of their records we’re dumber than I thought. Maybe we’ll lose a bit of money but fuck it, let’s do it anyway.”

Several months later, Some Jerks asked Staffo if he’d write them a bio for their new record. “Well, yeah,” he said, “But, funny you should mention it. Would you like to be on this new record label Sean and I are putting together? Then I’ll have to do it!”

And so, after a fair bit of planning and a couple of false starts, Pig City Records was born – a vinyl/digital only model, with Some Jerks’ second album, "Strange Ways", to be the first official release in October, with the vinyl limited to a special hand-numbered run of 300 copies.

• brisbane
• pig city
• andrew stafford
• sean clift
• some jerks
• sabrina lawrie

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Evocative show summons up the spirit of Vic Simms' lost classic

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By David Laing

David Laing

16 August 2016

Hits: 4964

_{Luke Peacock and Vic Simms.}

Conceived by Luke Peacock of Robert Forster-produced Brisbane outfit Halfway, The Painted Ladies are a black and white supergroup brought together to celebrate and reinterprete the classic 1972 live-in-prison LP "The Loner" by Koorie country iconoclast Vic Simms.

The band released the fabulous album "Play Selections from The Loner" in 2014. Produced by longtime Simms spruiker Rusty Hopkinson of You Am I, the album revealed a fabulous and rootsy rockin’ combo and an all-killer set of songs, highlighted by the unabashed all-Australian classics "Get Back Into the Shadows" and "Stranger in My Country".

Both are depictions of a young black man’s life experience that remain both lyically potent and musically thrilling. In the Painted Ladies’ hands the former became a hard-driving pop-soul rocker, and the latter a sullen and beautiful, six-minute moan of alienation and anguish that builds to the sort of electrical storm that your average Died Pretty or New Christs fan should identify with. (And yes, I’m talking to YOU!)

• rock
• live
• vic simms
• koori
• luke peacock

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