They’re from Bavaria in Germany and their name is French for “Very Goods” so is it any wonder most of the rest of the world thinks Europe is a confusing place? There’s nothing muddle-headed about the brand of rock and roll this four-piece pub rock band pumps out on this four-track vinyl EP, however.

Two guitars and edgy, strangled vocals sit pretty well around these parts and The Tres Biens have cornered their own part of the market. The sound borrows from English bands like Graham Parker and The Rumour (especially on the opener “Factory Boy/Factory Girl”) and the pacing is relentless.

Putting parochialism to one side, Australian ‘60s punk is vastly underrated with all but those who dig deep, so this gem from Canadian label merits more than your passing attention. Originally issued in 1966 with a different (tamer) B side, it’s one of those catchy freakbeat classics that stands tall in any company.

The In-Sect were a show band who did what any of their ilk with an ounce of self respect did and mutated into a garage-beat outfit with no pretensions. Contemporaries of the Masters Apprentices, they had a handful of singles before fading away with members going on to Jeff St John, The Twilights and Ram Jam Big Band.

Don't feel sorry for the fact that, at the time of writing, only five people “liked” Fringe Dwellers on Facebook. It’s just that the music of this veteran Sydney trio is much better than their online self-promotion.

They’ve only been around a few months and this three-track CD single is Phringe Dwellers’ first foray into “product”, but it indicates that there could be enough in the kit bag to stretch to a worthwhile album. The songs hark back, relentlessly, to inner-Sydney circa the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and that’s where the band’s spiritual roots lie.

Guitarist-vocalist John South and bassist Carl Edman were members of formidable blues-rockers The Hunchbacks back then, while drummer (and past I-94 Bar scribe) Simon Li is an expatriate Melbourneite who was brought up on a diet of the Powder Monkeys. While the music never reaches those intensity levels, it does hit hit its own mark.

What would there be not to like? Double-jangle melodic pop with a hooky melody on one A side and a soaring piece of extended majesty with a searing guitar solo on the second.

It’s what used to be called a Super Band. Which is to say the members have graced a lot of “name” acts from Sydney’s underground past. That might be important to anyone with a modicum of history but Joeys Coop also stand on their own feet. The song-writing is strong and the playing equally so.

“Take Me Away” is the pop song and it’s a beauty. The feel from Andy Newman and drummer Lloyd Gyi is rock-solid but it’s the simple interlocking of Brett Myers (Died Pretty) and Matt Galvin (Loose Pills, Eva Trout, Perry Keyes, Happy Hate Me Nots, Barbarellas) on guitars that builds the song,. Ex-Decline of the Reptiles singer Mark Roxburgh’s warm vocal elevates this to top-shelf pop.

Along with half of once-underground Sydney, I know Bob Short. Unlike the rest of Sydney, it seems, I’ve only seen the scrote play once and, because he was rather brilliant, he rates a decent listen and a proper review of his first 7”.

This isn’t an essential purchase, not in this world of freebie downloads and rubbish music. Surely?

Well, actually I rather love this little record, and it looks super in my collection. And, as I understand from Bob’s accompanying pitiful blurb that there’s an LP in the works, all this is as far as I am concerned, most certainly essential. Why?

So settle back on Granfer’s knee and I’ll tell ye a story young feller …

This single is great and odds are that the album from which this comes, "False Memory Lane", would be even better. Let’s get the antecedents out of the way first.

The Galileo7 is the latest vehicle for ex-Prisoners bassist Alan Crockford, whose band was at the vanguard of the Medway garage rock wave in the UK. The Prisoners bit the dust in 1986 but Rockford has been dutifully playing this garage rock-pop stuff since then and this is a new line-up of his current band.