MD Horne heads down the road less well travelled

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By The Barman

The Barman

22 April 2020

Hits: 4673

Red Dirt Bituman - MD Horne (self released)

This is a clever stripped-down blues-rock album, a stark and personal journey full of evocative twists and turns and as grittilyAustralian as its wilfully mis-spelt title suggests. 

“MD Horne” is Mark Horne, Sydney bassist for many bands but most notably the brutal 300 st claire and Johnny Casino and the Secrets. Mark recorded it on a sojourn to Spain, where his mate Johnny is domiciled. MD handles acoustic guitars and vocals, and Señor Casino plays everything else.

“Red Dirt Bituman” is Horne’s debut solo album and its title plays on the dichotomy of a man torn between his connections to the city and the bush. Truth be told, most Australians cling to the coast like limpets on a tin boat and wouldn’t be seen dead on a dirt road. M.D. Horne, has travelled plenty of dirt tracks and blacktops and his music speaks of both.

• johnny casino
• mark horne
• MD Horne
• red dirt bituman
• red dirt
• bitumen
• 300 st clare

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A Cult classic revisited

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By The Barman

The Barman

18 April 2020

Hits: 3853

40th Anniversary Agents of Fortune Live 2016 - Blue Oyster Cult (Frontiers Records)

And you’re asking, Why? And possibly with good reason. For starters, it’s 2020 and that makes the anniversary four years late, right? And surely these guys aren’t still going?

They are - albeit with just two original members. Australia was lucky enough to host them a few years ago. The last studio album was “Curse of the Hidden Mirror” 19 years ago (and it was pretty good.) There’s even a new studio record pending. This live celebration is a valid addition to the BOC catalogue, even if most of the appeal will be for rusted-on fans.

• blue oyster cult
• patti smith
• 40th anniversary
• agents of fortune
• frontiers records
• buck dharma
• eric bloom
• albert bouchard
• allen lanier

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Breaking Bread over a Calimocho or three

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By Rafa Sunen

Rafa Sunen

18 April 2020

Hits: 4206

_{The Breadmakers.}

It took an express airmail consignment of his favourite tipple Calimocho - that'd be cheap red wine and cola, for the uninitiated - before we at The I-94 Bar persuaded RAFA SUNEN to take on this assignment. The mission for the singer from Los Chicos, Spain's premier party punk-country-garage-soul band, was to pin down members of Melbourne's R&B garage veterans The Breadmakers and interrogate them about their new album, "The Breadmakers".

Los Chicos have toured Australia many times and anyone who's seen them will know that keeping Rafa still long enough for him to fire off a few questions was half the challenge. Digging up members of the shady crew called The Breadmakers - in a fit state to undergo questioning - was the other.

• los chicos
• mikey young
• the breadmakers
• rafa sunen
• lazy dik
• bootpolish lacey

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Sparks of punk and glam brilliance power "Electric Junk"

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 January 2020

Hits: 4716

Electric Junk - Jeff Dahl (Iwannabeahoople Records/Ghost Highway Recordings)

Jeff Dahl w,as born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1955 and then relocated to Hawaii in 1960. He moved to Los Angeles and the rest is SoCal punk rock history.

This most underrated singer-guitarist has released about 26 albums, serving time in the wonderful Angry Samoans and going on to play with with Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys) ,members of The Germs and 45 Graves, and collaborating with Poison Idea. Not a bad rap sheet. He's now living back in Hawaii. 

Receiving Jeff's new album, "Electric Junk", I was very exited to hear some new tunes from this living legend. Let me tell you: It just rocks with those songwriting and guitar playing skills shining like a harsh Hawaiian sun.

• poison
• ghost highway
• stiv bators
• los angeles
• deniz tek
• jeff dahl
• made in hawaii
• electric junk
• ghost highway recordings
• angry samoans

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Someday we'll all get outta here

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By Flash Rebel

Flash Rebel

08 April 2020

Hits: 5916

... ruminations of a horrified social distancer on his evaporating way of life in the shadows of the green death plague.

• joan jett
• circus of power
• fugazi
• john prine
• marianne faithful
• mark blum
• little steven
• ryan maher

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Mind blown by a bloody French love letter

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By Ron Brown

Ron Brown

06 April 2020

Hits: 3101

Love is Blood - Frenchie's Blues Destroyers (self released)

Hello, I-94 Barflies! Hopefully, you're all well and healthy folks, and with all this self isolation it certainly gives you plenty of time to listen to the music we love.

Sometimes, something comes along and totally blows your mind. Well, ain't that just fine. So if you want your mind blown, you have to get your gloved hands on this fucking masterpiece.

Frenchie's Blues Destroyers are from Austin, Texas, and "Love Is Blood" is full of dirty sounds. It's based on huge guitar riffs and some quality vocals. But this ain't a blues album; this is garage rock meeting pop, with just a dollop of country blues.

• texas
• frenchies blues destroyers
• love is blood
• austn

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Film project shines a light on Aussie powerpop legends

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By The Barman

The Barman

06 April 2020

Hits: 3952

One of Australia's finest power-pop bands, Melbourne's Little Murders, are the subject of a forthcoming documentary but the project needs an injection of fan funds to push it over the finishing line.

Director-producer Matt Wilson has been documenting the history of Little Murders and its founding and sole continual member Rob Griffiths. "Little Murders - 40 years on the smell of an oily rag" has a funding target of $6000 and is 40 percent of the way to the goal.

"In our ageist society it's rare that a musician in his 60's can maintain what is essentially a pop band and bring it to a level allowing a tour in Japan in 2019," Wilson writes.

• powerpop
• little murders
• rob griffiths
• documentary
• the fiction
• matt wilson

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Freshly baked and impossible to resist

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By The Barman

The Barman

04 April 2020

Hits: 4393

The Breadmakers - The Breadmakers (Soundflat Records)

The Breadmakers are a Melbourne institution in a town that has plenty of them. They’ve been peddling their authentic brand of rhythm and blues around the Victorian capital, its environs and various parts of the world since 1989, and their seventh album sounds as fresh as any of its six predecessors.

R&B. Everybody’s on the correct page regarding R&B, right? The term’s been appropriated by the global music machine in recent decades, and applied to bland, largely soul-less genre of soft pap that permeates the airwaves like an insidious virus.

• garage
• soundflat records
• garage blues
• the breadmakers
• r&b

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Gimme some skin. The Bobby Lees are made for measure

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By The Barman

The Barman

30 March 2020

Hits: 4626

Skin Suit - The Bobby Lees (Alive Naturalsound)

If you were on the cusp of releasing your first "real" record, had US and European tours booked and ran head-first into the current viral shit show, you'd feel like you'd been whacked around the head with the Unlucky Baseball Bat, wouldn't you? Such is the lot of a young band in The Age of The Phlegm Plague.

Upstate New Yorkers The Bobby Lees sound mightily pissed-off on "Skin Suit", but the album was recorded long before Covid-19 was kicking anybody's arse.

The Bobby Lees play snotty, raucous blues thrash with all the rough edges left intact. Little wonder that Jon Spencer produced "Skin Suit"  - the band's explosive blues sound is right up his alley.

• alive naturalsound
• new york
• richard hell
• garage blues
• the bobby lees
• bo diddley
• jon spencer
• pussy galore

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