Here's a bomb you won't want to defuse

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By Robert Brokenmouth & Edwin Garland

Robert Brokenmouth & Edwin Garland

09 May 2021

Hits: 4197

H-Bomb b/w Supersonic Hero - Jupiter 5 (I-94 Bar Records)

First up I confess I only know one of the members, Peter Ross the bass player, and love him and label head The Barman. Even so, I wouldn't say I liked a record just to please them. They know if I didn't like this, I'd (1) tell them, and (2) refuse to review it.

The Barman asked if I wanted to review this. Funny, when friends ask me to review stuff, the paid professional refuses, because if the disc is shit, how do you say it's shit without pooping on your friendship? Also, the Chief Editor or Drunk In Charge will squeak about conflicting interests. Well, for some people that's invariably the case. Our pollies have always had a talent for entertaining us with stories like “I didn't know”, “It was like that when I got here, honest” and “Look, define blackmail...”

You've all been in a similar situation, I'm sure. Perhaps not as a reviewer (nor, indeed, as a blackmailing fuckstick), but maybe rolling out on a Friday or Saturday to see your friend's band and, boy, did they suck the fat one. Thereafter, each weekend until the band thankfully collapses amid acrimony and blame, your excuses come thick and fast, from “her indoors is sick” to “I crashed the car” via “the dog ate my mobile” and “the police found my nightstick”... 

• dictators
• i-94 bar records
• jupiter 5
• h-bomb
• supersonic hero

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Ed's best will come in a box

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By The Barman

The Barman

07 May 2021

Hits: 3608

Fetishists alert! Ed Kuepper is on a vinyl re-issue spree so of course he has to have a limited edition box set. “Behold the Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper” will contain:

• 1 x Ed Kuepper Singles LP on green, yellow, blue or black vinyl
• 1 x Laughing Clowns LP on clear vinyl.
• 1 x The Aints! LP on red vinyl.
• 1 x autographed 8” x 10” Laughing Clowns photo by Judi Dransfield Kuepper
• 1 x high quality Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper iron-on transfer
• 1 x The Aints! vinyl sticker.
• 3 x press releases printed in full colour on quality stock.

Naturally, it will be housed in a beautiful black lift-top box. The run is limited to 100 copies and ships from May 28. You can order exclusively here.

• ed kuepper
• box set
• exploding world of ed kuepper

Crash-landing in Erskineville

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By James Wallach

James Wallach

03 May 2021

Hits: 4668

_{Angelo, Jay and The Celebrity Roadie front up for Jupiter 5.}

Jupiter 5
+ 50LgE
The MoshPit, Erskineville
Saturday, May 1, 2021

The Moshpit is such a great venue. Located down the Sydney Park end of Newtown, this is the sort of establishment you would walk past during the day and not even be aware that it existed.

It is, virtually, a corridor with some lounges inside the entrance, a bar, some tables and chairs then the stage. Fantastic intimate vibe with a lot of band memorabilia lining the walls, craft beers on tap and friendly staff and clientele. The Moshpit is currently celebrating three years of operation with many great bands playing - so now you have an extra excuse to visit this iconic venue and check it out.

• launch
• moshpit
• 50LgE
• jupiter 5
• h-bomb

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Fully sick, fully improvised

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

02 May 2021

Hits: 2522

The Plague Year – The Vomit of the Universe (self-issued)

Headbangers of the world alert! 

The Vomit of the Universe songs are: "The Plague Year", "Magna Hominum Dercependo", "Shiva Laughs and Smiles" and "Igne Natura Renovatur Integra". The 'A' listed here as playing guitar, bass guitar, drums & synthesizer is our old Adelaided chum Adam Blake, sometime sack-flasher at Hydrocephallus.

Vomit of the Universe, however, is an entirely alternate vehicle, a more directed mindset. Elements of grandiosity which make metal so appealing are used to maximum effect (without over-egging the omelette, as so very many bands do). Yet the approach, and rhythm, reminds me of some Krautrock, as well as opera, and quite a few classical pieces (Shostakovich springs to mind).

• vomit of the universe
• adam blake
• the plague year

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Shimmering malevolence

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

02 May 2021

Hits: 3302

Mutator - Alan Vega (Sacred Bones Records)

"Mutator" is Alan Vega's 12th solo album and also his first posthumous record of (apparently) several more to come on Sacred Bones Records.  Vega also released nine collaborative LPs in his lifetime, Suicide a total of five studio and five stand-alone live albums (not including a rather incredible box set). Not a bad innings at all. 

The I-94 Bar’s Bob Short once observed that most people don't get into much music past their 20s, and I agree; and Suicide are a classic example. Of the people who fell head over heels for this outfit when they first heard their first LP (I still remember where and when I heard it, and also when and where I heard a UK bootleg of the Clash support gigs) most seem to rave only about that first LP, but seem unaware of the second, or even the ROIR tape, or any of the band's later LPs.

Of Vega himself, only a handful seem aware of the extraordinary impact his first two (now unavailable) LPs had on the underground, and the overground impact his third, "Saturn Strip" had, particularly in Europe.

• new york punk
• suicide
• alan vega
• martin rev
• mutator
• sacred bones records
• liz lamere

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Primevals keep powering into their second life

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By The Barman

The Barman

02 May 2021

Hits: 3327

New Trip – The Primevals (Triple Wide)

Four decades and 11 albums into this caper, Glasgow’s Primevals are doing the rough and ready rock and roll thing as well as anyone, and better than most.

Well into their second life after reformation, their consistency is astounding. “New Trip” was spawned in lockdown, recorded over two fraught months in late 2020 and hit the online racks, via the band's own imprint, early this year.

• new christs
• glasgow
• gun club
• triple wide
• the primevals
• new trip

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Saturday is blast-off for Jupiter 5

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 April 2021

Hits: 3546

The latest release on our own I-94 Bar Records is on sale and it's a killer. It's the debut 45 for Sydney band Jupiter 5, "H-Bomb" b/w "Supersonic Hero" and it's unveiled at The MoshPit in Erskineville, Sydney, on Saturday night. 

Pre-sales of the vinyl are here and come with an instant download of both A sides and a live cover of the Dictators' "Minnesota Strip", which is on the limited edition CD exclusively on sale at gigs.

Jupiter 5 is a fuzz-laden garage-punk and hard rock five-piece with DNA extracted from Sheek the Shayk, Hitmen DTK, Thurston Howlers, 69BC and the Psychotic Turnbuckles. 

They'll be supported by 50LgE, a bulldozing trio from the NSW Far North Coast making their Sydney debut and comprised of former members of the Psychotic Turnbuckles and The Eastern Dark. Doors open at 8pm or you can buy a pass to stream the show here.

• psychotic turnbuckles
• single launch
• moshpit
• 50LgE
• The Eastern Dark
• jupiter 5
• h-bomb
• supersonic hero

Dez Dare previews album with stinging new clip

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By The Barman

The Barman

29 April 2021

Hits: 2788

Operating in the crystalline shadows and existential backwaters of the psyche, Dez Dare constructs psych-hymns and soft-punk that punches you in the brain while tenderly calling you to inaction.

No other time calls for expression more than times of suppression. Trapped in reclusion under the germs' eye in the UK, expatriate Aussie Darren Smallman (BATTLE WORLDWIDE, Low Transit Industries, Thee Vinyl Creatures, The Sound Platform and Warped) has built a Frankenstein's Monster within his own house. Bolted together with old pedals, guitars and synths, he is about to release an album’s wortrh of tracks about existence, social normality and the illusion of reality.

New single “Dumb Dumb Dumb” is lifted from the forthcoming new album “Hairline Ego Trip”, out on June 4 on Ch!mp Records and is available for pre-order here..

• dez dare
• darren smallman
• chimp records
• hairline ego trip

Make the Zeros your new Heros

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

27 April 2021

Hits: 3891

"News From Nowhere" - Atomic Zeros (Ghost Highway Recordings)

If you don't like rock'n'roll, you'll hate the Atomic Zeros. They are all your worst irritants combined: garage, MC5, punk, surf, garage and Radio Birdman overtones.. But also: much of the phrasing reminds me more of Chris Bailey back in the day (see "Electric Chair"). Curious how insistent the Zeros are; yet so modern they seem compared to the rather lame “modern” music.

They've broadened and fleshed out their sound, but one major element remains: they sound bloody enormous. Play loud at people who like Justin Bieber and crap that's everywhere that you have to try so hard to like, and that red-haired git as well. No, not John Lydon, though he probably wouldn't like it either.

• spain
• atomic zeros
• ghost highway recordings
• dirty game
• news from nowhere

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