- Details
- Written by: Geoff Ginsberg
- Hits: 8611
Pssst…Like Rock? I think got something for ya. Like a disappeared postcard that got mailed 35 years ago, this showed up on my porch and promptly blew the doors off. It’s the first Rockets recording since they disbanded in the early ‘80’s.
Monster drummer and songwriter Johnny Bee Badanjek (think Detroit Wheels, Free Ride, Welcome To My Nightmare) has relaunched The Rockets with Jim Edwards - a fantastic singer, and a badass group of Detroit musicians.
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 7007
Rising from the ashes of trio Hy-Test, BRUCE! (capital letters compulsory) is a band from the once-industrial musical nursery of Wollongong, south of Sydney, that plays skull-crushing guitar rock with occasionally complex arrangements. This EP showcases four of their simpler tunes delivered to mostly damaging effect.
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 12272
Punk turned peace activist Ivan Suvanjieff - originally known as Mark Norton from the Ramrods - is a former Cream writer and film maker as well. Here's episode one of his series, Detroit Punks, featuring interviews with pre-eminent Motor City music names.
is with John Brannon of Easy Action and Negative Approach.Ivan Suvanjieff and Dawn Eagle head PeaceJam, a multiple Nobel Prize-nominated organisation working for social justice. More information at Peacejam.
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 9162
One of the lesser-known musical pleasures in Australian over the last decade has been the quirky garage sound of the Hekawis, a fuzz-and-organ-driven combo prominent on the Brisbane and Melbourne underground music scenes. Churning out release after release, partly via the then prolific Courdroy label (who happened to own the country's sole vinyl pressing machine for a period in the '90s), the Hekawis pushed all the usual '50s and '60s buttons but came up with a sound unlike any other of their ilk.
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 5529
Flashback to 1994. A momentous and tumultuous time for music.
The world tragically loses Kurt Cobain and tragically gains the Presley-Jacksons (yep, that happened); the Eagles reform and charge $100 a ticket for their shows; Woodstock re-hits New York state; Korn introduces nu-metal to the universe; "Parklife", "Definitely Maybe", "Grace", "Dookie", "Crooked Rain Crooked Rain" and "Stereopathetic Soulmanure" all hit the shelves… and somewhere amongst all of it, Sydney band Smudge releases its debut album, "Manilow".
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 6674
It’s the third album for one-man bent bluesman Chicken Diamond and it marks another point on his descent into sonic hell. Ten songs of dirt-flecked distortion with a rusty sawtooth edge.
The Chicken’s coop is France where anything that has the odour of being musically underground is driven so far below the surface you’d need a miner’s helmet and a canary in a cage to find it. Thankfully, brave labels like Beast are around to facilitate tours of the aural subterranean catacombs and cast some light.
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 7147
Pismo Beach rock and roll legends the Psychotic Turnbuckles returned to Sydney's Lansdowne Hotel on June 28 with BRUCE and Bunt in support. It was the first Turnbuckles show at the venue in 25 years. At the last one, Slash from Guns and Roses was in the crowd.
Click READ MORE for a gallery of stills from video footage shot by Luke Nukem on the night.
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 7473
“Yummy!” marked the Hard-Ons’ arrival on a major label's promotional roster and you had to be mad, deaf, both or no longer breathing not to hear the greatness in the songs. A decade-and-a-half later with a re-mastering job in place, it sounds even better.
- Details
- Written by: The Barman
- Hits: 8367
There’s a news story that’s been doing the rounds of mainstream media about a man with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who was given a brain implant that turned him into a Johnny Cash fan.
If you want to delve further, the journal “Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience” (yeah, I read every issue) describes the case of “Mr B”, a 58-year-old Dutch man who had suffered severe OCD from the age of 13. The insertion of a brain pacemaker apparently turned him into a follower of The Man In Black.