Historic double-header matches legend Chad Morgan with The Johnnys

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By The Barman

The Barman

23 May 2022

Hits: 2802

• the johnnys
• marrickville bowling club
• chad morgan
• link and pin

"The Kids Are All Wrong" returns

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By The Barman

The Barman

22 May 2022

Hits: 2566

A slightly edited version of the mockumantary about Sydney '90s garage punk misfits The Crusaders, "The Kids Are All Wrong", is back on Vimeo after some sad sack had the oriignal cut taken down. Enjoy! 

• sydney
• crusaders
• garage punk
• the kids are all wrong

Patti raises Cain while living on Tulsa time

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By Tom Couch

Tom Couch

18 May 2022

Hits: 3818

Patti Smith and her Band 
Cain's Ballroom
Tulsa, OK  U.S.A.
Friday 6 May 2022

Patti Smith and her band were booked to play Cain's Ballroom as part of the Bob Dylan Center Grand Opening Celebration here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

After visiting the Bob Dylan Center earlier in the day, she posted on Instagram that she'd be "Raising Cain at Cain's".

I saw The Patti Smith Group at Cain's back in 1978. It remains one of the greatest concerts that I've ever experienced.

• bob dylan
• patti smith
• lenny kaye
• cains ballroom
• oklahoma
• jay dee daugherty
• jackson smith
• tony shanahan

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Kinda blue and cooking, X man Steve Lucas pushes his own boundaries

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By Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

Robert Brokenmouth & The Barman

18 May 2022

Hits: 3283

Cross That Line – Steve Lucas and The Rising Tide (Aztec Music)

Steve Lucas, last man standing from Australia's mighty underground legends X who, back in the day, I expect would have thought of themselves as a powerful rock band. Live, no-one would want to follow them ... and like The Saints and even Radio Birdman, they got called "punk" anyway. Pigeon-holing is for pigeons and gugs. I'd love to have been able to see X and Rose Tattoo in the same week.

Like many veterans of the music industry, Lucas has an unavoidable musical legacy. Which I expect can be both a blessing and a curse. So, for those expecting X Mark 32 and won't take no for an answer ... "Cross That Line" ain't for you. I always thought 'punk' was a state of mind about expressing the individual, not everyone wearing the same uniform and going to the same gigs. My approval or t'otherwise of any record is irrelevant, no matter what the genre. Remember, I'm a big fan of (among others) Gzutt, Peg Leg Sam, Thelonious Monk and Jon Wayne.

• blues
• melbourne
• steve lucas
• joey bedlam
• x band
• cross that line

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A '70s tale of tragic mis-steps

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By JD Stayfree

JD Stayfree

08 May 2022

Hits: 3457

JOBRIATH A.D. (2002)
Written, produced and directed by Kieran Turner

Weird times we live in, to paraphrase John Waters. We've gone from people rebelling against rules, to becoming fanatical lil' rule-mongers, themselves. That's some crazy shit, and you gotta wonder what's up with all that.

Probably the most moving film I've seen since "Beautiful Darling", the also poignant Candy Darling story, is "Jobriath A.D." You might know he was one of the first openly gay, glam, wouldbe seventies rock stars, who was first discovered whilst singing in the Broadway play, "Hair". In the hippie dippy era, he made a baroque pop album with a band called Pidgeon. He was drafted by the army, went AWOL, and did time in a military psychiatric facility. He came from a tragically broken family and his mom never fully accepted him, because of his sexual identity which caused him acute pain. He was a really sweet, upbeat, positive force as a young person, a painter/singer/composer/piano playing prodigy but the cruel music industry weasels around him kinda turned him more cynical and sad, almost overnight.

He was living in an unfurnished squat in L.A. as a male hustler when it seemed he was rescued by a huckster manager famous for nightclubs in NY named Jerry Brandt-Brandt overhyped Jobriath as the next Elvis, Beatles, and Bowie all rolled into one. He appeared on oversized billboards in Times Square, in splashy magazine advertisements and on the sides of buses in major cities. He had a cool live band actually, called the Creatures, with some kooky costumes by Stephen Sprouse.

• jobriath
• jerry brandt-brandt
• kieran turner
• eddie kramer
• hendrix

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Flowers For Jayne's guitars are in bloom

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By The Barman

The Barman

06 May 2022

Hits: 3957

Dangerous Woman – Flowers For Jayne (self released)

Guitars are unfashionable, ergo Sydney’s Flowers For Jayne will never be musical flavour of the month with contemporary tastemakers or scenesters. And that’s fine. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re not one of those people anyway. You think R&B is Stax or Motown 45s and hip hop is nothing more than softcore aural wallpaper.

Drums, bass and guitar (turned up loud) with a voice somewhere in the middle is a timeless configuration. Flowers For Jayne is a classic “power trio” - both in the heavy sense of the term and for having a keen sense of dynamics.

The band is the vehicle for vocalist-guitarist Jayne Murphy, former Lime Spiders member and woman about Sydney town, and she’s joined by ace rhythm section Jess Ciampa (drums in Bernie Hayes Quartet, The Nature Strip, Dog Trumpet, Jeff Duff Band, Smelly Tongues and others) and Phil Hall(Sardine v, Dropbears, The 68 Comeback, Lime Spiders, Flaming Hands, Matt Finish, Roddy Ray'Da & The Surfin' Caesars).

• phil hall
• flowers for jayne
• dangerous woman
• jayne murphy
• jess ciampa

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It's a Sunny winter

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By The Barman

The Barman

05 May 2022

Hits: 3170

It’s been a long time between shows but Sunnyboys are re-emerging for a three-state Australian winter tour.  

When they last toured in 2020 Sunnyboys chose the salubrious surrounds of Taronga Zoo, Melbourne’s Forum and the like; this time though, the band will get down and sweaty playing intimate venues more akin to their breakout year of 1981.

Melbourne pop-rockers Even will join the fun in Sydney and Melbourne while former Screaming Tribesman Mick Medew will bring his band The Mesmerisers to Brisbane and Byron Bay. All shows are on-sale tomorrow May 6 at feelpresents.com

Sunnyboys
JULY
1 – Factory Theatre Sydney + Even
9 – The Corner, Melbourne + Even + Little Murders
15 – Great Northern, Byron Bay + Mick Medew & The Mesmerisers|
16 – Princess Theatre, Brisbane, + Mick Medew & The Mesmerisers
Tix here

• mesmerisers
• feelpresents
• sunnyboys
• even
• australian tour
• mick medew

Digging for Treasure yields more gold

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By The Barman

The Barman

01 May 2022

Hits: 4553

Raining Treasure 2: More Australian Indie Gold Covers – John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special (MGM/Foghorn)

Tribute bands are mostly a blot on the musical ecosystem, right?. OK, they provide a fertile spawning pond for young players and pay bills for the oldsters, but most cover acts faithfully mimic role models just to milk money from morons.

This isn’t about the odd cover thrown into a set of originals because the drummer and the rhythm guitarist like the song or the band jammed out a loose approximation of a chart hit at rehearsal two nights earlier and wants to be ironic.

No, this is a gripe about hacks making money by mindlessly sating the appetites of dim RSL club masses who don’t know what they like but sure do like what they know. These people dance when they should know better or clap hopelessly out of time in the way that only middle-aged white people can.

Which is not territory into which “Raining Treasure 2” ventures on this eclectic collection of songs by Aussie bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s .

• waterfront
• sports
• radio birdman
• flaming hands
• john kennedy
• 68 comeback special
• love gone wrong
• raining treasure vol 2
• angels

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WHO ARE THE ART POLICE? Garden Cops, Shadow-Bans, Gentrification Shit-Libs, and a Hot New 45 by MICHAEL MONROE!

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By General Labor

General Labor

29 April 2022

Hits: 6844

There's a sorrowful joy
I've known since I was a boy
Joyful sorrow, I guess
It's a maimed happiness... -David Johansen

I ain't had no fun since the Hammersmith Palais.." - Demolition 23

"Well so long, liberty-let's forget you never showed, not in my time." -Joe Strummer

"You built your refuge, turned you captive just the same..." - Duran Duran

While billionaire oligarchs Bezos and Musk race to Mars in duelling dick rockets, accuse each other of being compromised by foreign powers and demand bigger handouts for their space companies from Biden (which they will probably get) and TV watchers cheer for their preferred Super Scientific Space Savior, Wal-Mart has raised the prices of all their food by like, a lot.

What used to be a dollar fifty, is four bucks, basically. You are a captive audience of the Walton family, if you live somewhere where they killed off all the mom and pop shops of old downtown Main Street. Nine dollars for a GMO watermelon that is white on the inside, has no nutritional value anymore and is almost tasteless thanks to Gates and Monsanto. But your posh celebrity friends will tell you Vandanna Shiva is a conspiracy theorist. Or that Julian Assange works for..."RUSSIA!"

I bet your little town has some insufferable gentrification hipsters in it. Retro hair-do's and deep cocaine pockets, always on iPhones makin' deals, doing their hustles, with sunglasses, nice shoes, and no manners? Taking over your downtown? Indie-martyrs, are they any less evil then big biz, super titanium ultra villain, Monopoly despots? Yeah, probably, 'cause they don't usually have the power to hire positive PR stories in mainstream media or crush unions and shit, but they almost always treat their employees and own clientele like garbage, until they drive themselves outta business.

• general labor
• hanoi rocks
• michael monroe
• hello disaster
• electric angels

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