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By The Barman

The Barman

17 March 2026

Hits: 546

• keith claringbold
• vanilla chainsaws
• paul berwick
• vi-nil records
• marc scully
• fowl weather vein
• trench gashes
• paul timmins
• paul simpson
• mark nicholson

Fowl Weather Vein – Fowl Weather Vein (Vi-Nil Records)

There’s a moody dynamic and tension in the playing that makes “Fowl Weather Vein” (by the Sydney band of the same name) compelling listening.

Stylistically speaking, the album’s no easy beast to pin down, despite the band’s fairly standard configuration of one guitar, keys drums and bass. It’s highly-strung and intense music that recalls Magazine or even Buzzcocks without the buzzsaw rush. But that's only half the story.

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By The Barman

The Barman

14 March 2026

Hits: 433

• flippin' kick outs
• johnny gretsch
• sonic maze

Sonic Maze – Flippin’ Kick Outs (self-released)

The splintering of what used to be called mass media has put a universe of sounds at everybody’s fingertips and they only need to pay a pittance - if anything at all. The onus really is on you and me to step carefully. lest we tread in dog shit.

It really is a maze out there – as the title of the second album from Sydney’s Flippin’ Kick Outs attests.

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By Edwin Garland

Edwin Garland

03 March 2026

Hits: 690

• ollie olsen
• rowland s. howard
• 1978
• jeffrey wegener
• young charlatans
• janine hall
• eminent vinyl

1978 - Young  Charlatans (Eminent Vinyl)

If you go on YouTube you can see a remarkable clip of two 18-year-old kids, Rowland S Howard and Ollie Olsen, being interviewed by the ABC. As the teenagers walk down St Kilda Road in Melbourne, they are jeered at for looking like aliens with art school aesthetics.  

It was 1978 and a vastly different time in Australia. In the beige, conservative world ruled by the Tories and the Country Party. Every second house had porcelain ducks on its wall and a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. The Robert Menzies vision of Australia ruled and the fashion mindset embraced Dennis Lillee’s porn star moustache and safari suits.

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By Robert Brokenmouth

Robert Brokenmouth

28 February 2026

Hits: 769

• charlie marshall
• harem scarem
• family affair
• gaian soul
• louie marshall

Family Affair - Gaian Soul (Charlie Marshall)

Because I've been in a tunnel several years long it's been a while since I reviewed a CD. I won't say I'm out of the tunnel because I'm not. As most music writers know, LP or CD reviews always take up a lot of time (the book I'm currently beavering away at doesn't get much of a chance when reviews come tapping at the door. Poor little thing).

However. I was asked if I would do a CD review to get The Barman out of a hole and I rashly said yes, so this will probably be the last for a while, so there.

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By Bob Short

Bob Short

28 February 2026

Hits: 896

• the damned
• brian james
• captain sensible
• not like everyone body else

Not Like Everybody Else – The Damned (earMusic)

Growing up in Sydney in the ‘70s, betrothed to the rise of punk music, you and most of your fellow travellers understood that this music had roots.  It did not appear out of vacuum.  It was a folk art built upon a tradition.

While folk art maybe sneered upon by some, it creates a sense of community and shared history.  And punk rock is counter culture.  It celebrates the outsider by counter-intuitively placing the outsider within the shared myth of the outsider.

Humans love our smoke and mirrors.

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By The Barman

The Barman

24 February 2026

Hits: 409

• rich hope
• Planned Obsolescence Recording & Novelty Inc
• kive at the anza club

Live At The ANZA Club - Rich Hope (Planned Obsolescence Recording & Novelty Inc)

There was a time when you could walk into a designated rock and roll club in most sizeable North American  cities and try your luck, knowing that you might just stumble on a band that would make it the best night of your month.

It may still be the case in musical hotbeds like Austin and Nashville. No idea because it’s been such a loooong time between long-haul trans-Pacific flights. But that's the scenario that Canadian rocker Rich Hope tried to replicate on “Live At The ANZA Club”.

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