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  • penny and gregGreg Sawers & Penny Ikinger - photo by Loene Carmen

    PENNY IKINGER
    Siolo artist and ex-Wet Taxis and Sacred Cowboys member
    Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    2020 started with a bang! I was treated to an ear-splitting performance from X at their Bushfire Relief Benefit show at The Spotted Mallard. in Brunswick, Melbourne. It was like travelling through a time warp littered with gritty rock n roll riffs and howls. The ones that X do best. They’ve still got it!

    I was taken on another spin by a stellar line up of Guitar Wolf (Japan), 5,6,7,8’s (Japan) and Rocket Science at The Tote and also saw Japanese band The Jetboys at the same venue. Guitar Wolf and The Jetboys, arguably two of the best punk influenced rock bands of this day and age, are brutal. They play loud & fast with utmost conviction. Whatever it was they were singing about I was sure it was sacrilegious. It felt that way and that’s what counts.

    The Schizophonics (USA) also performed in Melbourne (The Tote again!). This relatively youthful three piece exploded all over the stage and reassured that rock 'n' roll is not dead. Not that I ever thought it was, but that’s what ’they” keep telling me…

  • plenty of soapIf you enjoyed the Laughing Clowns and their slightly wonky, soaring horns, and which Hunnas later wielded to equally great effect, you're in for a treat. Speedboat (from Adelaide) supported both bands and, I can attest, to great effect. While LC and H&C certainly influenced Speedboat, one wonders if the influence was all one-way. 

    If you don't know Speedboat, what they were about came from many unlikely sources (their name apparently springs from an Elvis movie), and I'm not giving away the joy of Tom Stehlik's liner notes).

    Liner notes? Do Speedboat rate that? 

    By fuck they do. 'Plenty of Soap' holds the equivalent of four LPs plus a fistful of singles and b-sides, Stehlik's liner notes actually tell the story of the band. Frankly, most bands - especially a band held in such high regard as Speedboat (and all without a recording contract) - fuck up entirely. 

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I-94 Bar Records and Promotions presents
The Psyhcotic Turnbuckles Xmas Cage Match
Psychotic Turnbuckles
_ Bahne Super-Flex
+ The Chainsaw 4
Marricville Bowlo, NSW
- Dec 21
Ticets

Lord Rochester (UK)
DEC
19 – The Gem Bar
w/  The Breadmakers
21 – The Town Hall Hotel, Melb, VIC
31 - Lyric’s Bar, Perth

John Kennedy & The New Originals
Live at the Marrickville Bowl Tour
DEC
21 – Golden Barley, Enmore, NSW (solo)
23 – Velvet Fog in-store, Katoomba, NSW (solo)
27 – George Lane, St Kilda, VIC (solo)
+ Nick Batterham
Tickets
28 – The Old Bar, Fitzroy, VIC (solo)
JAN
11 – Cave In, Woolloongabba, QLD
(with Murray Cook)
Tickets
17 – Smiths Alternative, Canberra, ACT
Ticket
18 – Marrickville Bowlo, NSW
Tickets
25 - Side B Vinyl Bar, Blackheath, NSW 

I-94 Bar Records and Promotions presents
"The Post New Years Eve Apocalypse"
Jupiter 5
+ The Jane Does
+ The Sugar Beats
The Men From U.N.C.L.E.
Marrickville Bowlo, BSW
- Jan 4
Tickets

Chimers Australian Tour
JAN
31 -  La La La’s, Wollongong
+ special guests

“Hotter Than Donut Grease Tour”
Grand Pricks
+ Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes
+ The Tall Stories
JAN
21 - Tamworth Hotel, Tamworth

The Stranglers
50 Years In Black  
2025 Australasian Tour
MAR
13 - Powerstation, Auckland. NZ
15 - Meow Nui, Wellington, NZ
16 - Christchurch Town Hall, Christchurch, NZ 
19 - Enmore Theatre, Sydney
20 - The Tivoli, Brisbane
22- Forum, Melbourne
23 - The Gov, Adelaide
25 - Astor Theatre, Perth
Tickets

I-94 Bar Records and Promotions presents
Grooveyard
+ Il Bruto
Smiths Alternative, Canberra
Ticets
- Feb 7
+ The On and Ons
+ Van Ruin
(city debut)
- Feb 8
Tickets 

I-94 Bar Records and Promotions presents
The Mick Medew & Ursula 4
"In The Zone"
NSW Album Launches
+ East Coast Low
+ Jupiter 5
Stag & Hunter, Mayfield
- Feb 14
+ The Dark Clouds
+ Jupiter 5
Marricville Bowling Club
- Feb 15

 

 

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