The Stems are back with a cool new single, "Deep Freeze" and live dates

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By The Barman

The Barman

11 April 2025

Hits: 499

Fresh from last year’s sold-out 40th anniversary 2024 tour of Australia and Europe, and following on from single “Falling from the Sky”, The Stems have released a new sseven-inch.

“Deep Freeze” arrives in the lead up to their much-anticipated East Coast Tour and festival appearance at The Gum Ball festival in New South Wales.  It’s the second single from the band’s forthcoming album and is a classic freakbeat-R&B stomper. Yiou can hear it here. 

“Deep Freeze” is on Cheersquad Records and Tapes on all streaming platforms and on limited edition 7" vinyl in translucent blue (100 copies), translucent teal (100 copies), and black. Buy it here.

The Stems
East Coast Australian Tour
*with special guests
Rinehearts
APR
23 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC*
24 – Crowbar Sydney, NSW*
25 – Gum Ball Festival, Hunter Valley, NSW
26 – Old Museum, Brisbane, QLD
Tickets

• dom mariani
• the stems
• australian tour
• east coast
• deep freeze

Sydney's old soldiers salute unstoppable Frank and the sensational Sex Pistols

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By The Barman

The Barman

09 April 2025

Hits: 1977

Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter
Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Quick summation: They rocked. They were a massive ball of fun. The New Guy was his own man; Frank Carter doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not. The band behind him is still three-quarters of the Sex Pistols - and monstrously good.

Statement of the obvious: The crowd was old. Sure, there was a sprinkling of curious young millennials who’d been browsing their parents’ record collections, but mostly it was codgers bordering on, or of, pensionable age.  I haven’t this many senior citizens in one place since Oatley RSL had a disability scooter rally on the concrete apron outside the entrance, where the old dears listen to piped music as the clock counts down to the poker machine room’s 10am opening.

• sex pistols
• glen matlock
• steve jones
• paul cook
• australian tour
• 2025
• frank carter
• hordern pavilion

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Hats off to the Sex Pistols - and especially Frank Carter

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

07 April 2025

Hits: 2409

_{Carolyn Fenech photo.}

Sex Pistols with Frank Carter
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide

First and most important: skip whatever preconceptions you may have.

JUST GO.

People will be talking about this tour for decades and believe me, you really don't want to be telling folks how this band were loads better at the 100 Club as they change your colostomy bag in your fucking retirement village.

The squeakers of "sacrilege"  have had their say on the interwebs, and now it's time for Frank Carter's name (and back catalogue) to be on everyone's minds.

• sex pistols
• glen matlock
• john lydon
• steve jones
• sid vicious
• johnny rotten
• paul cook
• frank carter

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Pinning noise to the Masthead and going for Broke

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By The Barman

The Barman

06 April 2025

Hits: 659

This Masthead – Infinity Broke (Love As Fiction Records)

If Jamie Hutchings’ better-known band of the ‘90s, Bluebottle Kiss, was a child of grunge (at least in the ear of the major label to whjich it signed), Infinity Broke owes its parentage to something less well defined and commodified: Dissonance.

“This Masthead” is the band’s fourth album and now on Perth label Love As Fiction, usually a home for ‘90s re-issues. The quartet is loosely built on a drums-guitar base that brings a stack of influences to bear. The PR blurb says: “Hypnotic avant rock with teeth” and (for once) it’s accurate.  

Formed in 2013 by Hutchings (vocals and guitar) after Bluebottle Kiss wound down (for the time being, as it turned out), the rest of the band is his brother Scott Hutchings (drums and guitar), Tyrone Stevens (drums and percussion) and Reuben Wills (bass). “This Masthead” grew out of jamming, and the loose spontaneity at its heart is immediately apparent. Its nine songs balance noise rock with faint melodies. It’s not straight up rock. It is addictive. Take the plunge.

• infinity broke
• bluebottle kiss
• jamie hutchings
• this masthead
• love as fiction

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The Mezcaltones message: If the hat fits, wear it

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By The Barman

The Barman

03 April 2025

Hits: 809

Big Hat, No Cattle – The Mezcaltones (self released)

Sydney’s Mezcaltones make Tex Mex music for people who’ve never been south of the Albury-Wodonga border. It twangs and pumps in all the right places with surf overtones baked in and a sprinkling of spice over the top.

These four guys and two gals (one of the latter on percussion and Flamenco dancing) in black and matching cowboy hats have been around the block more than once. They’re from the Northern Beaches - a place like the Shire in its insularity, only without functioning public transport -  but conversely, they’ve fronted more Aussie country-blues festivals than Barnaby Joyce on a Resch’s bender, sorry, study tour.  

• big hat no cattle
• the mezcaltones

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The Cruel Sea set their controls for the heart of the Winter sun with theatre tour

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By The Barman

The Barman

31 March 2025

Hits: 1302

Reformed The Cruel Sea are heading out on the road on the back of their fabulously soulful summery long-player, "Straight Into The Sun", with an Australian winter tour.

The onetime inner-Sydney instrumental surf band turned spicily eclectic chart-busters are promising two-set shows in theatre venues, visiting five states and the Australian Capital Terrritory. 

Recent runs of selected headlining shows and a national tour supporting Cold Chisel attracted rave reviews. 

This itme out you can expect Tex Perkins and Co to deliver the new album in full and a bracket of classics.

The Cruel Sea
"Straight Into The Sun Tour"
MAY
1 - Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide SA
2 - Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne VIC
3 - Canberra Theatre, Canberra
16 - Anita’s Theatre, Wollongong NSW
18 - The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley QLD
31 - City Recital Hall, Sydney NSW
JUN
5 - The Regal Theatre, Perth WA
7 - Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, Mandurah WA.
Tickets
Tom Wilkinson photo

• australian tour
• the cruel sea
• 2025
• straight into the sun

Thrashville goes against the tide to reveal 25-band line-up

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By The Barman

The Barman

31 March 2025

Hits: 1054

_{Flashback to Thrashville 2023.}

Heavy Hunter Valley music festival Thrashville is back on the New South Wales map at the town of Dashville in Lower Belford on Saturday, June 28. The news flies in the face of a wave of festival cancellations, and organisers are going with 25 bands over four stages. 

Heading the first line up announcement are Melbourne punks Private Function, hard core stalwarts King Parrot, raw and powerfully eclectic MUDRAT, hard mosh beasts Volatile Ways, blistering heavy-hitters Frankenbok, Simpsons themed Dr Colossus and rising folk-punk superstar Slim Krusty.

• private function
• 2025
• thrashville
• king parrot

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Sex Pistols are No Fun? Frankly, you have to be joking

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By Stephen Vineberg

Stephen Vineberg

28 March 2025

Hits: 3739

The Sex Pistols - featuring Frank Carter 
Teenage Cancer Trust
Royal Albert Hall, London
24 March 2025 

In short, a fantastic, fun show. Frank Carter is an inspired choice as front man. He brings incredible energy and respect to the songs and, to my mind, vanquishes any concerns of the Sex Pistols being a "karaoke act" without John Lydon. 

I was almost reluctant to see the reformed Sex Pistols. I had seen Generation Sex last summer, with Billy Idol supported by Paul Cook and Steve Jones. That was close to karaoke or perhaps closer to cabaret, as Billy Idol himself looked like a wax figure from a Hammer Horror Film. That day Glenn Matlock had played on the same bill with Blondie. I thought that was as close as I would ever get to seeing the Sex Pistols perform. 

• sex pistols
• glen matlock
• london
• steve jones
• paul cook
• frank carter
• teenage cancer trust

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A bouquet of guitar from Flowers For Jayne

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By Keith Claringbold

Keith Claringbold

23 March 2025

Hits: 1607

It’s Never Easy – Flowers For Jayne (self released)

Sydney’s Flowers For Jayne have created a reputation for delivering “chunky” pop and rock. It’s all down to that crunchy Les Paul being used. The title track of last year’s “In The Keep” was a classic example, with its super catchy chorus, killer guitar tones and first rate production. It was one of my favourites in 2024.

The new FFJ single , “It’s Never Easy”, starts with a more mellow acoustic guitar leading the way but fear not, as the song builds , that familiar guitar crunch is there. It'sanother melodic rocker from the pen of Jayne Lily Murphy, who plays guitar and keyboards, and sings lead and backing vocals, with able assistance from Mary-Anne Cornford on bass and Peter Timmerman on drums.

The video for “It’s Never Easy” will be launched here on March 28.  The single will be launched on Sunday March 30 at the Gasoline Pony in Sydney and event details are here.

• flowers for jayne
• it's never easy