Keepin’ Up With The Jones – The Ballbusters (Vicious Kitten)

You might question the validity of this four-song EP from the Worcester, Massachusetts, band that used to be Rick Blaze and The Ballbusters until their frontman’s demise in 2011 following protracted health issues. After all, it’s been 23 years since their second album and first for Vicious Kitten (the “Manhattan Babylon” CD) and one of the guitarists, Dave Cuneo, has also since shuffled off this mortal coil.

It was easy back then to write off Rick Blaze and The Ballbusters as yet another Thunders-besotted outfit from the backblocks whose fascination for JT's dubious lifestyle choices got in the way of them making it out of their own backyard. The cover art for this EP is all a bit too obvious but its arrival prompted re-visits of “Manhattan Babylon” and its 2001 follow-up “People’s Republic of Rock and Roll”, and they retrospectively hold up as righteous slices of swagger that owe as much to Mick and Keef as  J. Genzales.  

I Cyclops b/w Pride of the Savanna – Guerrilla Teens (Heavy Medication)

There’s a certain irony in three-fifths of a Long Beach, California, relocated to Portland, Oregon, putting out a single on a label run by an expat American based in Warsaw, Poland, when you realise that the first recording of the original group from which the trio sprang came out on a label in Yugoslavia back in the late 1990s. Confused, much? Let’s make it simple…

Guerrilla Teens feature ex-The Humpers singer Scott “Deluxe” Drake up front, aided and abetted by old bandmates Jeff Fieldhouse and Saul Koll on guitars. The Humpers were up with the best of a crop of Sympathy For The Record Industry labelmates like The Lazy Cowgirls, out of L.A. Bill Connolly (bass) and Anna Anderson (drums) make up the Teens’ line-up. Ex-Lazy Cowgirl Pat Todd hipped me to a copy of their album so the ears were receptive to hearing thie single.

Two Car Garage – Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes/Formula Juan – Grand Pricks b/w Chronica Majora – The Tall Stories (Stanley Records)

You’d like a dollar for every two-bit punk that ended up playing bastardised country, wouldn’t ya? How about three songs for the price of two?

Which brings us to this spilt single featuring always productive Sydneysider Dave Favours and his well-travelled Roadside Ashes and recent Newcastle match-ups Grand Pricks and The Tall Stories. The three bands crossed paths in a saloon off the Pacific Highway one boozy night and this EP is the by-product.

Relief - Art Gray Noizz Quintet b/w  Don't Go There - Gravel Samwidge (Sound Pressing)

Traditional venting opening: Increasingly, we seem to be surrounded by them, don't we? These appalling creatures who always know what's right, even though they don't. And they're so self-obsessed, so over-focussed, that they can't for the life of them see how wrong, how ignorant they are, nor the damage they do.

This single is far, far more important than the trolls and vermin lurking in the limelight, sucking up all the oxygen.

First, most split singles sound like opposites wrestling in glue. “Relief” and “Don't Go There” is a classic match-up. While these songs aren't like the same band, both have a similar filthy, driving sound dripping with droll, nasty humour. Not that you'll be laughing, you'll be too busy tripping over the rug and spilling your gin and tripping over the cat.

Exile in Warsaw: All Down The Line – Pat Todd and The Rankoutsiders b/w Rip This Joint – Guerilla Teens (Heavy Medication Records)

From a selfish perspective, this is canny timing. The Stones have a formidable new album out and Pat Todd is embarking on a solo tour of Australia. If you’re a regular I-94 Barfly you’ll know that anything with the band moniker “Rankoutsiders” on it rocks like a motherfucker and this split 45 on Poland’s greatest rock and roll label (hence its title) is more proof.

Pat’s beefy delivery isn't close to a Jagger drawl but sits just right regardless, doing justice to the loose and limber original. The guitar pairing of Nick Alexander and Kevin Keller live up to the Taylor-Richards combo that came before them. There’s no radical re-arrangement evident or needed, just a killer band revelling in playing a great song.   

Flip it and it’s more Stones circa “Exile”, this time from Portland, Oregon. Fiery five-piece Guerilla Teens rip you a new one. Vocalist Deaf Jeff (aka Scott "Deluxe" Drake, ex-Humpers) hangs on for grim deaf as his veteran band runs through one of the Stones’ finest boogie moments a few miles per hour faster than the original. The Thunderesque guitarwork is icing on this cake. The mark of a good cover is when it leaves you wanting to hear some originals and this ticks the box. 

Buy it

Mother - Members of The Professors (self released)

You'd think that all the barrels had been scraped. It's not as if there hasn't been a pile of annotated double CD sets purporting to present a Nuggets-style reproduction of the punk/new wave, not-so-halcyon Australian sounds of the late ‘70s.

Okay, I know that Filth were recorded at the Adelaide University gig but I can only assume those tapes have vanished.

But other than that, what could be still out there?

I should have known something was up when late '70s inner-Sydney raised guitarist Bruce Tindale started posting gleeful pictures of yore on his Facebook page. This morning I was rudely awakened by a ding on my phone. The ding led to this.