ATP NY- last mention.

I promise this will be the last time I boast about crow over mention my trip to ATP.
But this review I wrote may give you an idea what it was like.
And can I just say what a pleasure it is to be back at the Bar again.

Thank you,

one and all. One of the people who gave me this psuedonym is dead. The woman who encouraged me put the breath of life back into it no longer speaks to me if she can avoid it. But many other kind folks have willingly offered me sofas, beers and cold hard cash (and yes, that is in descending order of importance) over the past twelve months.

The Barman still tolerates my antics now and again- and I owe him a beer.
But, y'know, I still love doing this thing that I do, under whatever name, at whatever time or place.

Here are the details of some things I particularly enjoyed doing/seeing/being part of this year.

Here is a pic of me and some buddies having too much fun:


L>R Rene, me, Grong, Paul Kidney.

Album of the week- Niagara & the Hitmen: "St. Valentine's Day Massacre"

This took a while to come out, and then a leetle while longer for my copy to filter through. But it's here now, and it's all good.
Long story short- what you get here is Sydney's Hitmen backing gen-u-ine legend Niagara on an eight song live set that's all killer, no filler. Then the Hitmen chuck in a couple more live numbers, just because they can. Everyone sounds hot, everyone sounds like they are having a ball. It is, as the liner notes say, the closing of a circle and a fine reminder of the influence of Ron Asheton.
They don't make too many of 'em like this anymore, sadly.

Album of the week- The Intercontinental Playboys: "Hymns Of The Flesh"

A fine album this, on my mate The Barman's I94 Bar Records.
It's a throwback in some ways, both echoing the "band as gang" spirit of days gone past and carrying a distinctly retro edge, which is mainly reinforced by the heavy use of Hammond organ. And by "heavy use" I mean it replaces bass guitar in the four-piece line up.
It has an agreeably sleazy edge at times, too. They've been knocking round for a while- this includes a couple of bonus tracks that go back to 2004- and will be making a return trip to Melbourne in a few weeks to launch this properly.
Until then, whack the disc on, adjust your smoking jacket, and peruse some gentlemen's literature while enjoying "Bad Queenie" and "The Maestro's Shadow".

the return of La Femme

Yes, yes, I know the Celibate Rifles are in town this weekend, playing with the Double Agents at the Corner, and, yes I know that Sixfthick are playing their last Melbourne show before their European tour at the Rob Roy, but for my money there is only one show worth going to- the return of a rejuvenated La Femme.
I never saw them live back in their heyday, so I'm really looking forward to it. More details here at the I94 Bar. If you can't make the show, at least have a listen to the recently reissued album.

Thanks to Ian & Stuart for giving me that intro para, too.

Just too fucking busy

Look, I wrote a great Seminal Rats piece for the I94 Bar last week, AND I'm more than halfway through a long La Femme piece AND a huge Lethal Weapons feature for I94 as well, AS WELL AS doing a few bits for Mess And Noise (albeit under a different name) AND I saw the Double Agents at the Espy on Saturday, AND I went out for dinner on the Melbourne Restaurant Tram for dinner tonight. I'm cooking BBQ at a good friend's 50th birthday party at the Tote on Friday. It's my birthday on Saturday, and I may be out of a paying job in a month.
So, yes, I'm still here, but a tad distracted. OK?

Celeb review on I94 Bar

Working on the outer fringes of the music biz, as I do, I often feel very privileged to catch a glimpse of little bits of the day to day, back and forth stuff that makes things tick.
One such is an email I was copied in on last week, from Sacred Cowboy Garry Gray, to the Barman, editor of my regular haunt, the I94 Bar.
Garry had submitted a review of a record that I don't believe is available in Australia yet, and this is what he said:

Gentlemen,
I have unearthed a classic album, finished this year by an unsung hero of rock, a friend of mine, and a fucking great human being-Mick Mashbir. Before you start saying "Ah, not another mate" (he is also a mate of Penny's), I promise you this is a great album by a great artist.
I stand by everything I say in this review, and if you guys dug the original Alice Cooper Group as much as me, you won't feel any different to me. This man played lead guitar on nearly every song on 'Billion Dollar Babies' and 'Muscle of Love', AND toured extensively with the original ACG group. The guitar is fucking wild and the lyrics, great. The missing follow up to 'Muscle Of Love', a missing original ACG album? I'm lucky enough to have the disc...you can get a good preview on CD Baby.
Be great if you could post this review of Mick's disc as soon as possible. I know it's not usual but I've given it 5.5 beers. Attached is a JPEG of the cover, the correct amount of beer, and the review.
Listen to this one....you'll be blown away.

best regards

Garry

Of course it went up on the Bar.
Go here to read it.

Kim Volkman- "Heaven & Hell" CD

Considering how many people come to this blog via the I94 Bar site, this may be superfluous, but anyway...I worked hard on this Kim Volkman CD review, and the CD is a great piece of work. He has some tracks up on his myspace- you really should give them a listen.

Bang! Records- Butcher Shop reissue

Saw this note over on the I-94 Bar

Spain's Bang! Records are doing a re-issue of the back catalogue of Tex Perkins' noise terrorists the Butcher Shop and need your help. On the 1990 Normal pressing of the "Pump Action" CD, there was a bonus track called "Deep Throat". Neither Bang! or Tex can come up with a copy. if you can help out with a burned copy of the song, drop Juan a line here. You'll make a mad Spaniard and Mr Perkins very happy.

which triggered a vague memory of being given a cassette of Butcher Shop demos by Lachlan MacLeod back in 1989 or so. I dug it out last night- watch this space.

Podcasts

Seems like everyone's got a podcast (and a blog, and a myspace) going on these days.
One 'cast I try to keep up with is Dixiegrrl's Hangin' On For Mercy which is available over at Garage Punk.
And now the Barman has posted the first edition of his Drunk & Disorderly online at the I94-Bar.
Click through to listen, enjoy.

Radio Birdman

Some of you are probably aware that I spent a fair bit of time earlier this year immersed in the return of Radio Birdman . I played "Zeno Beach" endlessly, reviewed a couple of their Melbourne shows, updated their Wikipedia page and lobbed a load of links and other bits and pieces into the I-94 Bar's Zeno Beach site. I did it because I wanted to, and enjoyed every minute of it.
So I was hugely surprised and pleased to get a parcel in the mail the other day, containing an enormous one sheet poster for the September 29th show at the Live Club, in Milan, and a beautiful limited edition print of this Stainboy work of art:
Not sure how it made the journey from San Francisco to my house, but it's gonna look mighty fine up on the wall.

A quiet weekend

My first dose of rock & roll came from a 7 year old kid doing a fantastic karaoke version of "It's A Long Way To The Top" at a primary school fete on Saturday afternoon.
I did catch a bit of Kim Volkman & the Whiskey Priests
at the Greyhound on Saturday night though. What I heard sounded fine, and Kim gave me a copy of his new CD, which is even better.
My life is a something of a train wreck at the moment, for reasons I won't go into, but if you think I'm being a bit lazy about posting here, well, check out the amount of new stuff that just gone up on the I-94 Bar. Those Box of Fish, Earaches, Chuck Norris Experiment & Hell Crab City CD reviews are all mine, with more to come this week.
And thanks to Wes, who emailed me to point out that Box of Fish were actually on the "Flowers In The Dustbin" compilation, not "Why March...?", and that both of these fine Aberrant releases were among those reissued on CD in 1996, on Small Axe Records. My stupid mistakes, as usual.