It’s Time - Pocketwatch (self released)
Pocketwatch sprang out of the garage and onto the Sydney music scene just on a year ago, and within months were a “must see” with their infectious and full-on energy shows.
Capturing the spirit of 1977 and the melodic British punk of The Jam and The Clash, they had lashings of melodic hooks. Their youngest member was only 15-years-old which limited the venues they could play. Despite that handicap, they had a work ethic - and it showed. They became tighter with every gig and delivered some blistering shows.
Songwriter Angus Ross emerged out of his bedroom with a batch of songs he’d been creating for a fews years and teamed with the amazing rhythm section that is Jamie Woodward on bass and Sam McInerney-Wand on drums.
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- By Edwin Garland
- Hits: 3371
Should Have Smelt a Rat – The Howlin’ Rats (self released)
The debut album from this Newcastle, Australia, trio is an auspicious one. Its sound harks back to the early ‘70s, and it sits out in the blues rock cosmos like an orphan child of Chain, Blue Cheer and the early Deep Purple.
Unlike the body of work that Chain left behind, it’s light on for the boogie beat. The Howlin’ Rats cook up a main of prog rock-tinged doom with a mild sense of psychedelics-induced foreboding on the side. It’s the blues, Scotty, but probably not as you know it. Someone get them on a bill with Datura4.
The Howlin’ Rats came about from a jam at a 2019 open mic at Hiss & Crackle Records in Newcastle’s Wallsend Delta when nobody else showed up.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 1870
Beautiful Decline – Richard Duguay (Cursed Blessings Records)
I've already told pretty much everyone I still know personally about this one-in-a million original black cat, Richard Duguay, who's been kickin' around the glam rock underground maybe even longer than myself.
He's played with everybody from Personality Crisis to Duff's solo band, there was even talk of him replacing Izzy Stradlin in Guns N Roses at some point.
I'm obsessed with all his songs-you know they get compared to vintage Bowie and Alice and 70's punks like the Heartbreakers, but for me what makes his music so resonant besides the stellar production, amazing guitar tones, lived it vocals and poetic heartfelt lyrics is the simple fact that Richard is expressing his own uniquely distinctive point of view and doing it all his own way with imagination, guts, and style and flair.
His wife who he collaborates with also has a really good voice.
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- By JD Misfortune
- Hits: 2630
Chirality - Michael Canning (Ghostjogger Records)
Michael Canning, a UK-based New Zealand scientist and occasional multi-instrumental character, has released his fourth LP. Which is joyful, groovy, interesting and downright fun.
The word "chirality" comes from the Greek “kheir”, meaning “hand”; a familiar chiral object. It's a term used by chemistry and physics characters. To quote a textbook: "Stereoisomers are isomers that differ in spatial arrangement of atoms, rather than order of atomic connectivity. One of their most interesting type of isomer is the mirror-image stereoisomers, a non-superimposable set of two molecules that are mirror image of one another. The existence of these molecules are determined by concept known as chirality."
But you knew that, right?
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 1803
Replay the Adverts - TV Smith and The Bored Teenagers (Easy Action Records)
You say you liked the punk stuff at the beginning? If you don't have the first Adverts LP, “Crossing the Red Sea with..”, or their second, “Cast of Thousands”, then this will do nicely.
Sure, we weren't at the fabled 100 Club, or the infamous CBGBs in the Bowery, or the Mermaid in Sparkhill when Swansplayed ... but we have our own memories of the fantastic, never to be repeated underground.
And, let's face it, the only thing that elevates a shithole is the scene we punters and creatives make. When the scene ebbs and flows away, the shithole is still a shithole. I bet CBGBs is a lot cleaner now (it's a designer clothing shop) and while the 100 Club is still around at a different location, it's well and truly part of the establishment. Perhaps appropriately, the Mermaid stands as a gutted derelict after a fire.
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- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 2689
Travels and Travails – Penny Ikinger (Off The Hip)
Originally slated to be a Best of album, “Travels and Travails” is a collection of 11 songs from Penny Ikinger’scareer, spanning 2004-23. Considering it was recorded with half a dozen different bands in various places around the world, it hangs together remarkably well.
There’s no real need to reference Penny’s musical beginnings in the hothouse that was Sydney’s underground in the 1980s. It’s as an artist in her own right back in her hometown of Melbourne, that she’s made her mark.
She also has a appetite for taking her music offshore. These are collaborations with artists from France, Australia, Japan and the United States – live and in the studio. Fans will recognise the odd re-working of previously released material, but most cuts are new.
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- By The Barman
- Hits: 2393
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