australian tour

_{Kim Scott.}  

Formed in Adelaide in the early 1980s and based on the core membership of brothers John (guitar) and Kim Scott (bass), The Mark of Cain was always something of an enigma in the Adelaide, and Australian independent music scene. 

The Mark of Cain took its initial musical cues from English post-punk bands like Joy Division and Gang of Four; the band’s muscular sound was complimented by a existentialist lyrical bent, inspired by John Scott’s interest in the writing of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Herman Hesse, spliced with figurative militaristic imagery. 

The fact that the Scott brothers, both qualified engineers, held down day jobs in the Department of Defence added to The Mark of Cain’s mystique. 

_{Knighty and Mad Macka: They Really Like Beer.}

Australia’s favourite beer-fuelled legends Cosmic Psychos are back with their twelfth studio album “I Really Like Beer” on Friday November 7, and they’re hitting the road the very same day. No mucking around. Tickets for all shows are on sale now via cosmicpsychos.com.au

Recorded to tape with Paul Maybury at Secret Location Studios between Knighty's vineyard duties and Country Fire  callouts, the new record is classic Psychos. As raw, loud and gloriously dumb as ever - with the occasional life lesson hidden under a pile of riffs. 

The first sip comes in the form of "I Like Beer", a touching love letter from Ross to his true love. This one comes to life with an absolutely bonkers video (we’d expect nothing less).  You can watch it after the fold. 

The Hard-Ons kicked off their “I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff's Been Taken Tour” - their first tour with new singer Tim Rogers- with three sold out shows on the weekend, only to hit a hurdle yesterday. 

The group issued a statement this morning:"

We regret to advise that the band has unfortunately been struck with Covid, with one of us testing positive earlier today, so under current Public Health Orders they're required to self-isolate. As a result, we’ve had to reschedule this week’s shows. These performances will however proceed on the following dates. Existing ticket holders do not need to do anything as tickets will automatically apply for the new date. 

The re-scheduled New South Wales dates are:

Wed June 1 - Wollongong, La La La's - tickets here
Thu June 2 - Sydney, Factory Theatre (for Great Southern Nights) (with guests Flowers For Jayne) - tickets here
Fri June 3 - Newcastle, Cambridge Hotel - tickets here
Sat June 4 - Avalon, Avalon RSL (with guests Raising Ravens) - tickets here

Shows in Canberra, Adelaide, Geelong and Melbourne will proceed as scheduled. 

_{John Greenwood photo.}

The Damned, The Adverts and Generation X. What do they have in common? The UK music media savaged their second albums.

The Damned broke up, then got back together and they're the Johnny Walkers (or the Undead) of the punk movement. Generation X broke up while their lead singer took their last single and turned it into a huge hit. Billy Idol is the blonde undead of the punk movement.

The Adverts... well, they broke up. The singer, TV Smith, was prevented from continuing using the name (even though it was his name and the band was essentially him and the bass player, FFS)... and cue an incredible self-determinism.

On later listens, the second LPs by all of the above deserve far better than the “it's different” kicking they received.  And to this day, TV Smith still can't let go of his creative imperative.

_{Dave Studdert.}

When drawn to writing about Tactics, their new album and their forthcoming Australian tour, I had a youthful flashback to being a 17-year-old and moving down to Sydney from the bush. Armed with smudgy-ink copies of RAM magazine, I was aware of so many bands that I knew mostly in name only: Midnight Oil, Hitmen, The Saints…and some weird shit (at least in my mind) like The Tactics, Thought Criminals and Dead Travel Fast. I was like a sponge and I wanted to see every one of them.

I had a hunger for a tapestry of sounds and new, sharp sonic edges - stuff that was so far from the bland radio fodder like Cold Chisel and Dragon. I left a live music scene centred on a dilapidated pub by a river that often flooded…a place with peeling paint and populated by old tradies with battered faces, professional alcoholics and underage kids. We watched the odd cover band and the place was home to weekend rock-stars playing poorly -delivered Chuck Berry riffs. The alternative was the local blue light disco that usually ended in a bloodbath by the end of the night.

So, I moved. I headed to Sydney.

Jello-less since 2001, the Dead Kennedys are bringing their brand of seminal punk back to Australian audiences, 25 years since they first hit our shores and th first time since 2014. 

The band - these days that's East Bay Ray, D.H. Peligro, Klaus Flouride and singer Skip McSkipster - is doing a quick hit-and-run of four shows in a week.  

The Dead Kennedys had a huge impact in Australia in the 1980s. Their albums - “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”, “In God We Trust, Inc”, “Plastic Surgery Disasters”, “Frankenchrist”  and “Bedtime for Democracy” – sold by the thousand at a time when punk had yet to break into the mainstream, and kept selling big numbers for decades.

Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows alumnus and DIY garage rock icon, Toody Cole, has returned  to the stage after a six-year break ,and is sweeping through Australia this month.

Toody Cole and Her Band is an underground showcase, playing songs from Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows, both of which Toody played in with her late husband of 50 years, Fred Cole. Her band features Christpoher March (Jenny Don’t and the Spurs) and former Pierced Arrows bandmate, Kelly Halliburton. 

No-one embodied the DIY/Independent spirit more then Fred and Toody. There are many bands that have achieved cult status, but not many get their own city paying tribute to them, with Portland declaring October 5 “Dead Moon Night”.

Toody spoke to Matt Munster from her Portland house, just after here return to Portland from gigs in Spain.

Expat Aussie fuzz 'n' beats rocker Dez Dare is returning home from the UK for shows to celebrate the release of his fourth album, "A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin."

The media release is worth reproducing verbatim:

On past records Dare has fought beasts and beats alike, waging a fuzz war and tackling the biggest topics the world has to face; Doom scrolling, capitalist demagogues, a passionate dislike of the beach in summer. On this record he leaves the sardonic frustration behind for sarcastic existentialism, zeroing in on the big philosophical questions, and the pedantic shards of nonsense that make up our existence.

Piling up the synths, noise boxes and guitar pedals, Dez set about building a soundscape of noise and ideas around the nature of reality, time, and how we interact with them. From the music you would play in your last moments, to the reverse Darwinism of modern society, to arguing with time itself, and very boring people talking at you, all is covered here for the aspiring existentialist. 

Dez Dare is self-produced Darren Smallman (ex-Low Transit Industries, Warped, The Sound Platform)and he's three decades producing music, releasing and touring bands, and doing live sound. A product of the coastal Victorian city of Geelong,  he was introduced to the DIY punk and rock scene at 15.

_{John 'Gaoler' Sterry. Rick de Pizzol photo.}

Gang of Four
God God Dammit Dammit
Lion Arts Centre, Adelaide
November 5, 2019

Gang of Four are touring Australia and New Zealand and played Adelaide earlier this week. They were fucking brilliant. Exciting. Brutal. Gigantic. Fun, too. But... pointed and magnificent.

It's a no-brainer. Go see them while you can.

Right, well. A little context. When I was asking a few friends if they were going, one said, 'they sound like every other band'... well, no they don't. See, the thing is, over the last 40 years a lot of other
bands have picked up on their style, which is now familiar.

The Beastsare back. The band whose core membership is drawn from surviving members of The Beasts of Bourbonis undertaking an Australian tour...and have revealed that it’s under doctor’s orders. 

The long-awaited “The Church of Simultaneous Existence” album from Ed Kuepper and his Aints! Is almost upon us, with a September 21 release date announced for CD, LP and digital formats. The album will be accompanied by an Australian tour taking in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and WA over October-November, culminating in a show at the Meredith Music Festival on December 7.

This version of the Aints! differs from previous ones in its focus on not only revisiting the material of the original Saints but mining a well of woodshedded songs intended for what would have been that band’s fourth LP.

_{Barney "Boogie" Williams on keys and Danny Hadley on guitar and vocals.}

The Animals and Friends
The Gov, Adelaide
May 28 2024

Expectations are a bugger of a thing.

We don't know we have them until we find ourselves hung-up by our own preconceived ideas.

Take Chain. The blues band. They're gritty, muscular, and utterly themselves. 

Yes, I've been watching a few recent live things on YouTube, prompted by a Melbourne chum who went to see them a week or so ago. He was blown away.

Ed Kuepper is marking his 50th year as a recording artist with an Australian tour backed by The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper in July and August.

This line-up of The Exploding Universe off End Kuepper will feature the talents of drummer Mark Dawson, bassist Peter Oxley, keyboard player Alister Spence and brass arranger Eamon Dilworth and naturally they will tackle material from right across Ed’s illustrious career.

Six years after his last visit to Australia, former Radio Birdman guitarist Chris “Klondike” Masuak is returning with his hand-picked local band, Dog Soldier, for a select run of East Coast shows.

Masuak and Dog Soldier will play a three week tour with shows in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.

Masuak’s musical history reads like a muscle car ride through the mean streets of Australia’s rock and roll underground.

The Canadian-born prodigy achieved notoriety as teenage guitarist for Australia’s legendary Radio Birdman, and then waged a War Against The Jive with the country’s hardest working rock and roll band, The Hitmen.

Next came a stint with the original live version of the New Christs, followed by international prominence with the chart-busting Screaming Tribesmen.

A member of the ARIA Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Masuak has an impressive back catalogue of rock, pop and blues releases under his own name and fronting the Viveiro Wave Riders. He is now based in Galicia in northern Spain.

Dog Soldier comprises bassist Tony Bambach (Aberration, Green Spiders, ex-Lime Spiders) and drummer Stu Wilson (Aberration, Leadfinger, ex-The Rivers, ex-New Christs,ex-Lime Spiders).

Their tour will re-trace Klondike’s storied career, drawing on material from his key bands - with a few surprises thrown in.  

I-94 Bar Records & Promotions presents
Chris Masuak & Dog Soldier 2023 Australian Tour
MAY
19 - House of Music & Booze, St Peters, NSW + Starcrazy + The Dark Clouds + PocketwatchTickets
21 - Link and Pin, Woy Woy + The Silver Dragons (1.30pm)Tickets
26 - Northcote Social Club + River of Snakes + Electric PurrsTickets
27 - Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong + Baby 8 + Sacramento SweatersTickets
28 - Smiths Alternative, Canberra + Il Bruto (7pm)Tickets
JUN
2 -Stag and Hunter, Newcastle + Joeys Coop + East Coast LowTickets
3 - Federal Hotel, Bellingen + Nikki Websters
4 - Vinnies, Gold Coast + The Square Tugs + Mick Medew & UrsulaTickets

The great Alejandro Escovedo (The Nuns, solo) is coming to Australia and New Zealsnd in March and two more Aussie shows have been announced. He’s doing extra gigs at Brisbane’s Junk Bar (early and late shows) and the Camelot Lounge in Sydney. What’s more, he’ll be accompanied on guitar by Tim Rogers of You Am I.

Escovedo's new album "The Crossing" features goes spots by James Williamson (Iggy and the Stooges) and Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys.) His Australasian tour is stripped-down but the clip below gives you an idea of the power of the man's music. Full dates and ticketing information in the Read More link.

Cheap Trick
+ The Angels
The Palais, St Kilda, VIC
Wednesday, 13 March 2024 

Hello I-94 Barflies! I hope you are all in fine form. Myself, I’m still recovering from seeing the amazing Cheap Trick at The Palais Theatre in St Kilda and they did not disappoint.

Dragging myself out of bed at 430am for a 1000 kilometre public transport round trip is never pleasant and as the years creep by, travelling does get more fiscally challenging. But family and live rock ‘n’ roll is what gets me off the land and out of The Farmhouse. First, let me say this if you’re ever in Melbourne The Pint On The Punt in Richmond is a nice place to start your drinking, get a feed and sleep on a lumpy mattress. It’s also within walking distance of the now boring suburb of St Kilda. 

Australian tour dates by US punk veterans FEAR have been announced and tickets are now on sale.

With vocalist Lee Ving and original drummer Spit Stix still on board, the group features former AFl and Tiger Army bassist Geoff Kresge, and Eric Razo of The Henchmen on guitar.

FEAR's 1981 performance in the iconic Penelope Spheeris documentary "The Decline of the Western Civilization" is  legendary, and frontman Lee Ving has  carved out an acclaimed acting career, with appearances in "Flashdance", "Clue", "Streets of Fire" and more than 30 other film and television productions.

Ving is also a key member of Sound City Players, appearing in the 2013 documentary and accompanying soundtrack project led by Dave Grohl.

FEAR
Australian tour
JUNE
26 - Marrickville Bowlo - Sydney
27 - Thrashville Festival - Hunter Valley
28 - La La Las - Wollongong
JULY
3 - The Tote - Melbourne
4 - Vinnies Dive Bar - Gold Coast
5 - The Brightside - Brisbane
Tickets

 _{Ash Naylor, Dave Shaw. Dom Mariani and Julian Matthews are The Stems in 2024. Craig MacLean photo @shot.by.mac.}

It’s called anticipation. You’re in a band. You’ve re-convened after a very long lay-off. The line-up’s now well-rehearsed, fed and watered, and it’s the lull before the storm that will be the first day of your 40th anniveresary tour. 

Rock and roll is more waiting than playing. Dom Mariani knows it well. He’s on the line from a hotel in Melbourne where The Stems are poised to undertake their first Australian tour this week in five years (thanks COVID) before taking off on a sweep through Spain and Italy.

Oh no. There’s a brief coughing fit. It's from Dom’s end. 

“You all right?”

They call themselves “Australia’s foremost proponents of Post Adult Complaint Rock” and they’re touring their new album with an extensive run of national dates.

Sydney’s Front End Loader have been a constant on the Australian music scene since 1991 and “Neutral Evil” is their seventh album. It’s described by by the band as “terrible music by terrible people about terrible things” and if it’s half as entertaining as the blurb promoting their tour, it’ll be a winner:

Another Japanese rock band is landing in Australia. This time it’s TsuShiMaMiRe making their Down Under debut, hitting Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney in February.

Known worldwide for their explosive live performances, razor-sharp musicianship and fearless genre-blending sound, TsuShiMaMiRe have spent more than two decades carving out a fiercely loyal cult following across Japan, North America and Europe.