New music from Kent Steedman and friends

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

07 October 2019

Hits: 4396

There's new music from Celibate Rifles guitarist Kent Steedman out today. Radio KSG is the group and it also features Russell Baricevic from Bored! on bass and Stew Cunningham from Leadfinger on vocals and guitar. "Place of Care" is the song and is available online only and is a preview for an album to be released next year. Go listen in iTunes or on Spotify. 

• bored!
• kent steedman
• celibate rifles
• russell baricevic
• stew cunningham
• radio ksg

The Scientists - The Scientists (In The Red)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

07 October 2019

Hits: 4137

Iconic bands recording new music years after their prime-time is fraught with peril. Recapturing old magic is nigh impossible when every member has inevitably moved on, musically speaking. Only a few succeed.

The Scientists - as in the Salmon-Thewlis-Cowie (Chock)-Sudjovic line-up - have been an off-and-on, reformed concern for years, coming together for occasional festivals or the odd juicy support tour as, and when, members are available. They put together this five-song 12" vinyl EP between Australian shows and released it to promote their first US tour in 2019.

These days, their laboratory is spread over two continents with guitarist Tony Thewlis living in the UK and the rest of the band in Australia, so parts of the recording have been worked up inisolation and stitched together. Knowing how the sausage was made, in this case, doesn't detract from the taste. The EP, and the single (an updated oldie) that goes with it, rocks in its own uniquely primeval way. Completists should note that it was was proceeded by a digital-only single in 2017.

• scientists
• kim salmon
• boris sudjovic
• leanne cowie
• in the red
• tony thewlis
• the scientists

Read more …

The asthethics of being The Messthetics

Details

By Patrick Emery

Patrick Emery

07 October 2019

Hits: 4151

_{Joe Lallo, Anthony Pirog and Brendan Canty. Antonia Tricarico photo.}

“There’s no line between improvisation and self-indulgence!” It’s all the same thing, so just be forewarned before you come to our shows. It’s rampant self-indulgence, 100% of the time!” laughs Brendan Canty, drummer with Washington DC band The Messthetics.

Canty’s reply to my question is deliberately facetious: The Messthetics explore the jazzier side of rock’n’roll, eschewing the melodic and lyrical hook of a vocalist for an improvisational instrumental sonic aesthetic enabled via guitarist Anthony Pirog’s reedy guitar lines. But the contrast between The Messthetics’ exploratory style and the brutal discipline of Canty’s former band Fugazi is stark.

“We don’t have a vocalist, so I like to think that Anthony’s guitar lines are the vocals,” Canty says. “There are times of course when we do rampant self-indulgence but for the most part we have written music, and we try and diversify what we play and make it interesting for everyone.”

• the mark of cain
• australian tour
• the messthetics
• brendan canty
• joe lallo
• anthony pirog

Read more …

Braindead (Resuscitated) b/w SurvivalsKills - The Scientists (In The Red)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

06 October 2019

Hits: 4528

This double A-sided single of new recordings from the reconstituted Scientists, released in time for their recent US tour, is all kinds of wonderful. You could spend hours ruminating about what lineup of the band was/is definitive but you’ll be hard to please if the current configuration of Salmon-Thewlis-Sujdovic-Cowie (nee Chock) doesn’t please. 

“Braindead” is an old song re-done and although it dates from a later period, it recalls the sound of the earlier “Blood Red River” with a steak of sustained feedback and fuzzy guitar counterpoint. Kim Salmon and Tony Thewlis sound like they’re having five kinds of fun and the relentless engine room lays down a simple but effective feel. Handclaps add a touch of groove that past productions sometimes sacrificed in pursuit of volume.

“SurvivalSkills” lands the band squarely back into the swamp as Salmon intones grimly over a cauldron of barely muted guitar. It’s more abstract and reminiscent of the 1980s band’s later explorations while in Europe, sans drum machine. “There’s always a cost,” Kim reminds us. In this instance, it’s well worth you putting down your heard-earned and making a beeline for the In The Red website. There's a 12" single with another 7" in the wings, both on the same label. 

Kim will be launching that one, a new split solo/Scientists single and his biography, "Nine Parts Water One Part Sand. Kim Salmon And The Formula For Grunge", at Memo Music Hall in St Kilda, Melbourne, on November 9.

1/2

• kim salmon
• in the red

Pyrmont b/w Kick The City - Thee Evil Twin (Stamp Out Disco)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

06 October 2019

Hits: 3523

Old school punk from Sydney in the style of Johnny Dole & The Scabs. These guys are an evil trio, not a duo, but who cares about theirnumerically-challenged state-of-mind when the output is good?

The A side is about being a punk who's lost in the once seedy and now gentrified suburb of Pyrmont. The anger is real. Flip the platter and the Twins are expressing how much they want to “kick this city in the balls”. Many share that sentiment and there's mor than a whiff of a singalong in this one.

It's all very basic in its production with a nice and meaty guitar sound. Thee Evil Twin aren’t flashy and that’s a good thing. This one’s a limited run of 150 and likely will sell out - just like their other 45s. Go here for a copy. 

• sydney
• stamp out disco
• thee evil twin
• pyrmont
• kick the city

I’d Much Rather Be With The Noise - Rattanson (Open Mind)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

05 October 2019

Hits: 3963

The DIY ethos is less a gimmick and more a way of life these days for the 99 percent of musicians not enslaved by a major label. It's either practical, necessary or all too easy to hole up in your bedroom and let those ideas pour out onto a hard drive without someone else calling the shots and charging your own money for it.

There's a defiite upside and also a downside.  Rattanson is a case in point.

Rattanson is a one-man garage pop multi-instrumentalist from Sweden and "I'd Much Rather Be With The Noise" is his second album under that name. A former member of powerpo act Fanscene and garage rockers The Rawhides, he's gone solo to focus on his own songs.

Rattanson played all the instruments on his first record, 2017's "Full Scale Shakeability", and also on this one except for drums, for which he recruited Anders Björnlund from the Turpentines and the HiJackers. He'll have a bass player in tow to play the songs live.

• garage
• powerpop
• sweden
• rattanson
• guitar pop
• open mind

Read more …

Mystery Train – Chickenstones (Crankinhaus Records)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

04 October 2019

Hits: 6478

This is one angry sounding record. Its 11 songs seethe and burn with fuzzed-up, roaring guitars and are propelled by an engine room whose controls are set for the carpark just outside the Gates of Hell.  

That’s a place with which Chickenstones main man Andy “Doc” Temple Ellard has become familiar over the last 18 months. In early 2018, he and the band were riding high on the back of a new album, “Johnny Streetlight”, and preparing for a tour of Europe when Doc got a tap on the shoulder from some fucker called Cancer.

Now, that prick comes in many guises and the kind that came cold-calling was especially nasty and persistent. Doc is a Registered Nurse so he had an understanding of what would be involved, but all the forewarning in the world doesn’t make the fight physically easier. Many rounds of treatment later, Doc’s emerged at the other end - with shorter hair and a deeper suntan - and he’s still looking over his shoulder.

• chicken snake
• sydney
• blues rock
• andy doc temple ellard
• crankinhaus records
• mystery train
• johnny streetlight

Read more …

Marrickville to go into Meltdown when this lot touch down

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

30 September 2019

Hits: 3579

Hey Sydney! All roads lead to Marrickville's Factory Floor on Friday, December 6 if you're a fan of garage rock when Outtaspace present their first "Outtaspace Garage Meltdown" mini-festival.

Heading the night are Sore Points from Canada, making their first Australian tour. Said to be the outcome of "Buzzcocks rolling a spliff with The Damned, passing it on to Cock Sparrer, Blitz and then Lemmy", they'll be promoting their EP "Not Alright".

They';re being joined by girl-boy garage duo Thee Cha Chas (Melbourne) via a Japan and Oz East Coast tour, hosts The Dunhill Blues (touring their new album "Second Prize in a Beauty Contest"), Wollongong's Fangin’ Felines (ex Nitrocris, Booby Traps) and the raw 'n' powerful Thee Evil Twin. Grazza from Stamp Out Disco will man the DJ decks. 

The extravaganza is backed by I-94 Bar and Young Henrys Brewery with tickets available here.

• marrickville
• factory floor
• thee evil twin
• sore points
• thee cha chas
• outtaspace garage meltdown

Shake Yer Popboomerang Vol 3 - Various Artists (Popboomerang)

Details

By The Barman

The Barman

29 September 2019

Hits: 6746

Great pop music is timeless. The proof is right here in the 37 rare or previously unreleased tracks on this compilation of Australian bands from Melbourne label Popboomerang.

Ask yourself this question: When did Pop - as the ‘60s defined it - become uncool with the masses? Who forced it to go sit in the naughty corner with its rowdy sibling Rock and Roll and its odd cousin Free Jazz? Best guess is when the corporatised music industry ate itself in the 1980s and all the people with emotional intelligence were replaced by spreadsheets. 

Melbourne pop fan Scott Thurling and his prolific label just deals with it. With more than 100 releases in the back catalogue, for almost 20 years it’s been the go-to place in Australia for “real” pop - not the soulless pap that passes for the same for most people. As you might work out from the title, “Shake” is the third volume in a series and the label’s fourth compilation. A handful of these tracks date back 20 years but you'd never know.

• dm3
• powerpop
• loose pills
• little murders
• p76
• shake your popboomerang
• volume3
• scott thurling
• popboomerang
• nic dalton
• charles jenkins
• ups & downs

Read more …