golden robot

Fake is Forever - The Wreckery (Golden Robot)

Yes, I've heard the Beatles’ new old song. 

No, I didn't know what to expect, and as it turned out I enjoyed it. Loved the piano and John's voice. Naturally, not their best work, and tinged with (insert emotion here) the loss of two of the band's four corners.

Yes, the Internettery is awash with characters pissing on it, for the most part dissing it for not being a light cheery pop song, or not like “the Stones” - whoever they are.

Strange how one expectation can trigger a predictable response, isn't it? “The Beatles song” is certainly aimed more-or-less in the direction the band would have taken, I think, had not that cowardly spit Mark Chapman decided he so much resembled Holden Caulfield that he could get attention LIKE THIS. Disappointed with real life - as so many of us are - Mark Chapman was a weasel who seemed to have been looking for a hook on which to hang his identity/ notoriety hat. I suspect he enjoys being known for that one dreadful, stupid thing.

Vibrations, yours and mine - Johnny Casino (La Vila Nova/Beluga Records/Golden Robot)

With the world turning to shit in every sense of the term, what's a poor boy to do other than play in a rock and roll band? The answer, in strange times of social distancing, is to record an album solo and pare the songs right back to resemble what they were like when first written.

Plenty will testify that going naked in front of a microphone is harder than it sounds - even with very few people watching. Johnny Casino's "Vibrations, yours and mine" was recorded in a modest Spanish studio in four hours, with some pedal steel and backing vocals overdubbed later courtesy of Hendrik Rover (Los Deltonos). 

It was done pre-COVID but serves as a good template for how to go about things - which is with loads of emotional investment, a good deal of spontaneity and, importantly, heart.

Australian rock band Leadfingerand Golden Robot Records are pleased to announce the release of “Silver & Black”, the  long-awaited new album and their first since 2016’s “Friday Night Heroes”. 

The album will be launched at Marrickville Bowling Club on Saturday, April 2 with support from Rubber Necker and Hellebores and tickets are on sale here.  Tour dates appear below.

The story of “Silver & Black” began not long after the career high of the first tour of Europe in October 2017 when the band's singer/songwriter, Stewart Cunninghamfell ill and was shockingly diagnosed with lung cancer.

Following almost two years of treatment that included losing one of his lungs and a long, painful recovery the band began to try and regroup, not even knowing whether Cunningham would be able to play and sing again.

Somewhat miraculously things slowly fell in to place in the isolation (and therapy) of the rehearsal room and then in and around Covid and lockdowns the band managed to write and record the new album at Garth Porter'sRancom Street Studio in Sydney with Brent Clark producing.

Interloper - Ed Clayton-Jones (Golden Robot Records)

The past is a mystic portal. You know? Maybe not so much if you're under 24 years; but, if you survive long enough, you draw on the past more than the present, simply because 1) there's a lot more of it, 2) there's a lot you missed the first time, 3) you're finally beginning to put the pieces of your youth together and 4) your thirties and forties will just have to remain unexamined.

Not all of us ponder our beginnings, but we should, because it's how we got here. And some of that getting here was pure luck as much as anything. Anyone who thinks that they were predestined or that their life was written by god... sorry, chum, you think you're way more important than you actually are. Remember that last roast lamb? Could've grown up and had a happy life, but guess what..?

Perennial I-94 Bar favourite Johnny Casino has a limited edition of seven-inch singles out under the apt name “5x7 - The Days of Wine and Cola”. 

The physical boxset is in a run of 200 copies only and is available on Bandcamp here or through European labels Folc (Spain) and Beast (France). The digital edition is out on all platforms through Golden Robot Records.

Now living in Spain, the man once known as John A Spittles is the founding member and songwriter of the great Australian rock 'n' roll band Asteroid B612, Philadelphia PA's Johnny Casino's Easy Action, the rotating line-up that is Johnny Casino and the Secrets (featuring the who's who of Australian rock 'n' roll), The Egos, The Lord Street Sound,and Carrie Phillis and the Downtown 3.

Casino is a musicila journeyman always looking for new challenges whether it’s a riff to plunder, a melody to celebrate or a moment to capture, so let's allow Johnny describe the concept of the release: