smudge

_{Mark Fraser photo.}

The Hard-Ons have announced the supports for their “I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff's Been Taken” Australian tour - their first with their new line-up which features new singer Tim Rogers.The tour comes on the back of the band's first ever ARIA Top 5 album, and takes in all East Coast capitals and key regional hubs.

The tour was pre-empted by NSW warm-up shows at The Link & Link in Woy Woy (December) and Frankies Pizza by The Slice in Sydney (February), billed under the name Clandestine Sausage, attracting rabid fan attention.   

The list of supports includes strong locals as well as a couple of bands with a shared history on the Alternative Charts in the '90s – namely Smudge in Sydney and The Meanies in Melbourne. Sydney's C.O.F.F.I.N. are main support for tour closer at the Corner in Melbourne. 

For full dates, click More.

_{Matt Allison photo}

Superchunk
+ Smudge
The Sydney Crowbar, Leichhardt
Friday, December 13, 2024

1991 has gone down in folklore as “The Year That Punk Broke” and in many ways it’s true. A wave of underground music swept across music channels - in particular in the USA.

It’s also that there was a surge in guitars being bought and we can attribute this mostly to Nirvana.Scratch under the surface, and a crop of new bands had been springing up like green shoots across America for years. Releasing records on labels like Matador, SST and SubPop,they’d been criss-crossing America in broken vans, living on pills, booze, junk food and small shows  

All the action was being documented in fanzines and the underground bible Alternative Press. For me, it was even cooler than the British wave of punk as it was more street-level and organic. Names like Afghan Wigs, Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland, Laughing Hyenas, Mudhoney, TAD, Pixies and Lemonheadswere the staple diet in the period prior to Nirvana releasing “Nevermind”.

Every year The Barman makes the call-out for the Top Ten. Every year I can’t reduce mine to only ten.  Near impossible. I have cheated and there way too many highlights. For me personally, it was good to step out and do an acoustic gig for the opening might of Bryan Cooke’s musical photography exhibition in Sydney.  I used to play these shows at The Excelsior, Hopetoun and Manly Fishos and aim to do more this year.

Live Gigs

1. Grace Cummings in several places
It has  been a long time I have seen one artist or band four times in a year. I was envious of other people as Grace’s local performances, up until recently, have very rare. In fact, it’s been almost 18 months between Sydney shows. Notably, one was a warm-up prior to a gruelling American and European tour that included a live performance on the Steven Colbert late show.  

Four months later came an actual album launch for “Romana” at Sydney’s Metro Social in August. Then I won a lottery for a spot at the Phoenix Theatre, and finally caught a packed Crowbar show in early December.