This Masthead – Infinity Broke (Love As Fiction Records)

If Jamie Hutchings’ better-known band of the ‘90s, Bluebottle Kiss, was a child of grunge (at least in the ear of the major label to whjich it signed), Infinity Broke owes its parentage to something less well defined and commodified: Dissonance.

“This Masthead” is the band’s fourth album and now on Perth label Love As Fiction, usually a home for ‘90s re-issues. The quartet is loosely built on a drums-guitar base that brings a stack of influences to bear. The PR blurb says: “Hypnotic avant rock with teeth” and (for once) it’s accurate.  

Formed in 2013 by Hutchings (vocals and guitar) after Bluebottle Kiss wound down (for the time being, as it turned out), the rest of the band is his brother Scott Hutchings (drums and guitar), Tyrone Stevens (drums and percussion) and Reuben Wills (bass). “This Masthead” grew out of jamming, and the loose spontaneity at its heart is immediately apparent. Its nine songs balance noise rock with faint melodies. It’s not straight up rock. It is addictive. Take the plunge.

Big Hat, No Cattle – The Mezcaltones (self released)

Sydney’s Mezcaltones make Tex Mex music for people who’ve never been south of the Albury-Wodonga border. It twangs and pumps in all the right places with surf overtones baked in and a sprinkling of spice over the top.

These four guys and two gals (one of the latter on percussion and Flamenco dancing) in black and matching cowboy hats have been around the block more than once. They’re from the Northern Beaches - a place like the Shire in its insularity, only without functioning public transport -  but conversely, they’ve fronted more Aussie country-blues festivals than Barnaby Joyce on a Resch’s bender, sorry, study tour.  

Rise & Fall of the Last Civilization – Guttercats (Wishing Well Records/Lucinda Records)

Scratch the surface of the underground rock and roll globe and there’s a whole lot of goodness lurking deep underneath with its roots in myriad and unexpected places. France’s enduring and esoteric Guttercats are a case in point, and this is Album Number Six.

French rock and roll cops a lot of flak  – some of it deservedly so. The place is rampant in high culture and the low brow stuff like rock and roll frequently gets trampled on. Deep down, the French do love refinement. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so it doesn’t pay to judge every book by its Tri-colour cover.

Parallax In Wonderland – Sonny Vincent (Dead Beat Records)

Tracking the career of New York City punk original Sonny Vincent is a tall order. The man is nothing if not prolific and he’s has had more labels than a printshop out the back of a bootleg distillery.

This album was first unleashed in 1998 (on vinyl only as “Hard In Detroit”) and the latest iteration, on CD and LP on Cleveland label Dead Beat, has been re-mastered and is a marked sonic improvement.

First, an aside: The original wasn’t my entry point into the raw music of Sonny Vincent, but it's where the relationship really took off.  You can draw a line through earlier bands like Testors and Shotgun Rationale, but “Parallax” coalesced everything that makes Sonny’s music great: frenzied punk energy, guitars and melody, laced with passion and verve.

Hoax – Hoax (Driving South)

Hindsight is a fine thing and it’s clear that the combined impact of grunge, corporate clumsiness and the commodification of music through disgitisation did many bands a disservice in the 1990s. Hoax was probably one of them.

Hoax was a staple of the live circuit in Newcastle, Australia, in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, opening for a slew of touring bands while building a local fanbase. Hoax took their lead from punk rock (whatever that is) and suffered constant line-up changes. They came and went, with the core of Geoff Mullard (vocals and guitar) and Anthony Dean (drums and vocals) going on to many other bands.

Montreux Jazz Festival 2023 – Iggy Pop (Ear Music)

Live is where it’s at for Iggy, Always has been. These days, the tours aren’t as frequent and stage diving is out of the equation, but he remains a peerless live performer at age 77.  But yet another live album?  

The obligatory scene setter: This is a “greatest hits and deep cuts” show on which Ig is backed by a seven-piece band. The three-piece horn section includes Leron Thomas, who featured on the “Free” album, and Corey King, who plays with Mary Bilge.  Sarah Lipstate (aka soundscape guitarist Noveller and also from "Free") is on board with French foil Greg Fauque (handling the lion’s share of the lead breaks), as well as jazz pianist Florian Pellissier.