Tickets for Dinosaur Jr’s looming return to Australia January go on sale today. They’re touring off the back of their new album “Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not”, their first since 2012 and their fourth since 2005’s unlikely reformation.

Four albums into their rebirth and Dinosaur Jr look to have no sign of slowing up. Album of the week slots on Double J, FBi, SER and glowing reviews across the planet stand testament to their staying power and the songs of J Mascis. Dates after the link:

The Saints (without Ed Kuepper, if you had to ask) will play three intimate, exclusive Australian shows at Melbourne’s Gasometer Hotel in October. Chris Bailey will be joined by early ‘80s drummer-turned-journalist, Iain Shedden, Pat Bourke on bass and You Am I’s Davey Lane on guitar.

Hitler’s reaction to the news is above. The dates are below and as the venue is quite intimate, bookings are recommended.

Wednesday 5 October – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne (18+)
Thursday 6 October – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne (18+)
Friday 7 October – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne (18+)

_{Thug with Peter Read pictured left.}

Thug co-founder and Black Eye Records artist, Peter Read, has passed away. The circumstances are unclear but a friend said Read had been battling liver cancer and was thought to have been in remission. He was living in Melbourne.

Read (Leather Moustache) and Tex Perkins (Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums, later to join Beasts of Bourbon) formed electro-punk band Thug in Sydney in 1987, initially to make home recordings. Thug became one of Sydney's most confrontational live acts, with chaotic 20-minute sets featuring dancers, theatrics, bizarre electronic equipment and—at one performance—an entire audience showered in flour. Thug gigs would end with members mock-brawling amongst themselves, at times sparking audience participation.  

Thug, along with Lubricated Goat and Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, were part of the underbelly of the Sydney indie rock scene, releasing music on the Red Eye Records offshoot, Black Eye Records. 

Thug's debut single was the "Fuck Your Dad” b/w “Thug". Along with the “Mechanical Ape” EP and “Electric Woolly Mammoth” album, it was released on a CD, “Everything Is Beautiful In Its Own Way”.

Read temporarily joined Lubricated Goat for their infamous nude-on-national-TV performance of “In The Raw”. More about the Black Eye bands at Cousin Creep’s website. He went on to work as a Front of House sound operator. 

It started at a Some Jerks gig at the late, lamented Beetle Bar in Brisbane. Journalist Andrew Stafford, author of Brisbane rock history "Pig City", approached his friend Sean Clift, of Red Dust Music Management and drummer with local thug-rockers Lords of Wong.

“Listen,” he said. “This band is great. Everyone here loves ’em. If we can’t sell a few hundred of their records we’re dumber than I thought. Maybe we’ll lose a bit of money but fuck it, let’s do it anyway.”

Several months later, Some Jerks asked Staffo if he’d write them a bio for their new record. “Well, yeah,” he said, “But, funny you should mention it. Would you like to be on this new record label Sean and I are putting together? Then I’ll have to do it!”

And so, after a fair bit of planning and a couple of false starts, Pig City Records was born – a vinyl/digital only model, with Some Jerks’ second album, "Strange Ways", to be the first official release in October, with the vinyl limited to a special hand-numbered run of 300 copies.

Aussie pop-rock supergroup The On and Ons have been busy recording their follow up to the highly acclaimed album "It's The On and Ons Calling", along with a bit of touring including a Radio Birdman support. Later this month there'll be a gig with a special preview of songs from the new record.

Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney is the venue on August 27. The On and Ons wil lbe supported by Loose Pills and Chicanery. Every punter receives a free download of a new On and Ons single, "Run About".

The On and Ons contain former members of the Screaming Tribesmen, Hoodoo Gurus and Barbarellas. Details of their launch event are on Facebook here.

Loose Pills have recently returned from a break, supporting Died Pretty and featuring at the Mazstock festival in Northern NSW. They are in blistering form.

Chicanery are an exciting bunch of young ladies and formed at the age of 15 during high school. The group has played numerous shows since then. Now university students, the band has begun recording their debut EP, set for imminent release. "Open Road" is the first single from the upcoming EP, written for a documentary titled "Pontiacs Down Under", and has enjoyed some good radio play.

Get on down. Cheap drinks and food. Only $15 at the door.

One of Australian rock roll’s few truly dangerous frontmen, Garry Gray (ex-Sacred Cowboys), is making a rare Sydney appearance with his crack band The Sixth Circle on November 18, presented by the I-94 Bar.

Garry Gray and The Sixth Circle are playing The Factory Floor in Marrickville with soulful rock soldiers Leadinger and street-level Northern Beaches rockers Chickenstones.

Melbourne-based Gray is a true survivor and legend of the Australian underground music scene. As crazed, chainsaw-wielding frontman for the Sacred Cowboys, he and his bandmates left a legacy of five studio albums and trademark singles, “Nothing Grows In Texas” and “Hell Sucks”.

Blasted by Molly Meldrum on Countdown as the worst band he’d seen in five years, Sacred Cowboys wore the insult as a badge of honour. They disrupted and devastated Australian audiences in the ‘80s and late ’90s with line-ups that included members of Beasts of Bourbon, The Models, Wet Taxis , Paul Kelly and The Dots and JAB.