The Barman's Rant

Merry Christmas From The Ramones

2009-12-25T05:21:00.001+11:00

A Parting Gift Before Hiatus

2009-12-24T14:13:00.004+11:00

January is down-time at the I-94 Bar. A couple of things will be up before year's end but this blog will be on va-ca. So whatever you're planning, have a good one.

Dave Laing from Savage Beat Records sent this trailer for the forthcoming Runaways movie. Looks pretty promising.

Public Image Limited

2009-12-20T07:37:00.003+11:00

First report of the initial PiL gig on John Lydon's post-Pistols band's reformation tour is positive. This YouTubeage supports the opinion. Was it 1985 when PiL came to Australia? I heard it was with a line-up made up of session hacks so I kept away.

New Gurus

2009-12-17T06:30:00.001+11:00

They've disabled embedding of the video so you'll just have to go here to see the new single.

Finally, a small justice

2009-12-16T10:48:00.003+11:00

Continuing our Stooges theme and the pilloring of the Rock and Roll Hall of Lame at every opportunity. Overnight it was announced that The World's Forgotten Boys have been announced as 2010 inductees. Finally! Along with ABBA and The Hollies!

It's the eighth time the Stooges had been nominated and the greatest tragedy is that they're going to cross the line without Ron Asheton on-board, at least in the physical sense.

I know the Hall of Lame is a joke, presided over by turds who don't know their arse from their elbow, but if the elevation/descent/enshrinement of a band as perfectly fucked up as the Stooges occurs then maybe, just maybe, people will sit up and take notice, and realise that they don't have to consume bland, soul-less music they're spoon-fed.

You got a better idea?

House band for hire

2009-12-14T22:51:00.004+11:00

Some guy named James Williamson turned 60 recently and look who he played with in the party band. That's host Scott Thurston on the far left, who turned over his Culver City, California, home for the event. You may know him from Tom Petty's band these days but many years ago he was in a more notorious outfit.

Continuing along the line that's Mike Watt on bass, Scott "Rock Action" Asheton behind the traps, Steve Mackay with his sax and (far right) Strait James.

Ring any bells?

Weddings and parties a speciality. Robert Mattheu took the photo.

Pass some Stones

2009-12-13T07:04:00.000+11:00

Here. No, I don't have the faintest idea either. Something to do with people who have lots of time on their hands.

Norwegian families spread Turbonegro love in Indonesia

2009-12-12T05:28:00.001+11:00

Here's a gem I found on the Turbonegro site. It's from reality show Den Store Reisen (The Big Journey) on Norwegian TV station NRK, in which families are shipped off to the jungles of Indonesia to live with the Mentawai tribe.

The song is "I Got Erection". I'm told by Queensland writer Andrew Stafford, who recently took a trip to Norway, that Tubonegro are quite mainstream up that way.

On a more serious note, TBNGR are playing a few shows in Europe with Euroboy declaring he's cancer-free after his recent run of treatment.

All I want for Xmas...

2009-12-11T05:16:00.002+11:00

...is an air ticket. That's not too much to ask, is it?

I would like the band (Iggy and the Stooges, that is) to refrain from playing Ig's solo stuff. As much as Strait James had a hand in "New Values" as producer and all, this is a Stooges show and they should perform Stooges songs. The insertion of "The Passenger" et al into their set in Brazil last month just didn't fit, after listening to a shoddy MP3 audio download of the gig.

Niagara speaks, you listen

2009-12-10T14:07:00.004+11:00

Brett Callwood has profiled the Detroit diva of Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival fame in the Metro Times, with a focus on her relationships with the late Ron Asheton and present minder/beau Colonel Galaxy.

Now, I dunno about the Hitmen being "hired hands" - more like co-offenders to my way of thinking - but the rest of the piece is a really good read. And if you haven't caught up with the Niagara & The Hitmen live album "St Valentine's Day Massacre" (out on Savage Beat/Shock in Australia and Steel Cage in the rest of ther world), you ought to be shot with a ball of your own shit, to put it bluntly.

R n R Hall of Lame (2) closes

2009-12-10T11:07:00.002+11:00

The Rock and Roll Hall of Lame people in Cleveland opened a New York City "annex" about a year ago. It closed earlier this week. This columnist in Cleveland says he knows why. I like the cut of his jib.

In The Raw debuts

2009-12-09T10:29:00.009+11:00

"In The Raw" was a song by mid-'80s Sydney noise terrorists Lubricated Goat. They played it on national TV in 1988 and created outrage because they performed...In The Raw.

I well remember the sceeening on a Thursday night on the Andrew Denton-hosted "Blah Blah Blah" show. The tabloid reaction was predictably over-the-top and I presume the media were given advance copies of the footage just to make it all the more easy to froth. Yes, there was a bit of schlong dangling but these days you'd see more Big Swinging Dicks at Sydney financial district bars like The Establishment on a Friday night.

The event itself and its fall-out is the subject of a documentary that's been a long time coming. It'll finally see the light of day after six years at this weekend's Meredith Festival outside Melbourne, says maker Cousin Creep.

Cousin Creep has spent a fair chunk of time documenting the music around the anarchic scene that was the Black Eye label, itself a noisy spin-off from the Red Eye imprint. You can find his blog here.

Red Eye was eventually swallowed up by a major label and vestiges of its origins remain in the form of the Sydney shop of the same name. As for Lubricated Goat, they were one leprosy-ridden limb of the Black Eye label, which celebrated aural experimentation and dissembling of rock and roll.

As an aside, Stu Spasm from the Goat ended up being married to riot grrrrl ,over and shaker Kat Bjelland (Babes In Toyland) for a while.

Public nudity for free beer and so-bad-they're-good cover songs played a big part in live shows by Black Eye bands. Personally, I thought a lot of the scene reeked of smack and unmusicality for the sake of it, but I can't deny the confrontational power and fuck-you attitude that it had. Key scenesters grew up to be merchant bankers, lawyers and creative directors - so you know it had to be one fucked up circle.

"It's Christmas Time Again"

2009-12-07T08:03:00.004+11:00

That's a tune Chris Klondike Masuak committed to vinyl as his contribution to a charity LP called "Rockin' Bethlehem" back in the days when schooners of cheer were around two bucks. You can download a copy of the song to hang on your Myspace by clicking on that link or the title of this post.

DFFD has a blog

2009-12-07T07:25:00.004+11:00

The Dictators have a blog happening. Thanks to LIndsay Hutton for the tip.

You can track them on Twitter, too, if that's your thing. Follow here.

While there's not much occurring on the live front, 'Tators members have all sorts of projects on the boil. Top of the heap is JP Patterson's new album "The LP{ Is Dead" which we'll be reviewing at the Bar very soon.

ZuelWatch: Sexy, jugs and just a hint of rock 'n' roll

2009-12-02T09:52:00.005+11:00

An unremarkable couple of days on the Bernard Zuel front since we kicked off ZuelWatch. The Sydney Moaning Herald's chief music writer has penned a piece on AOR classical artist Katherine Jenkins headed "Sexy, drugs and just a hint of rock 'n' roll".

Bernie doesn't compose the headlines so we'll cut him some slack there, but why you'd actually write about someone who walks in the shadow of La Queen of Bland, Celine Dion, soul-sucking apparition Michael Buble (Bubblehead) and the Evil Dutch King himself, Andre Rear (pun intended), I'd not know.

Then again, Katherine Jenkins is headlining the annual Sydney Yuletide family fest Carols in the Domain. And she does have a nice rack. Caddy, pass me the five irony, please.

Weekend at Bernie's

2009-11-30T06:56:00.005+11:00

As far as mainstream music writers go, Bernard Zuel of the the Sydney Morning Herald writes stuff that's neither here nor there on the I-94 Bar radar screen. Much of the time it's the latest British indie pop thing, and he has a leaning to innocuous country music. What really stands out, however, is Bernie's predilection for reviewing good looking female recording artists he'd like to, er, put on high-rotation.

The latest is "rootsy" (term used under advisement) American singer-songwriter Jess Klein (who doesn't even have an album out in Australia.) Bernie's weekend review wasn't available for online perusal, but you can see some of his finest work regarding Perth blues-rocker Abbe May here. Slip it in, indeed!

Now, Abbe's record doesn't fluff around when it talks about sex - in fact that's all it talks about - but you can see there's a long-term fixation on Bernie's part. You can't help but that think if Abbe ever wants a room, Bernie's going to be reaching for his credit card. Zuel rhymes with...?

There's nothing wrong with linking music to sex. Rock and Roll is essentially all about sex and death, but some of Bernie's more florid writings read more like a personal ad on a bad online dating site, or billboard copy for the clinics selling erectile dysfunction cures. Here's a modest sample:

When May sings, she pins you back and holds you up like some giant dangling a floppy doll: helpless and happy to be so. When she curls around a hard-nosed lyric she sends a charge through you like that first powerful crush you had on an impossible target: bring the pain, please.

Enough pain already, Bernie! And we know this line could be directed in our general direction (if Bernie cared)...

All those boys, and boy critics, in thrall to blokey "hard" bands repeating on history and themselves like some all-in burping competition would do well to shut up and see the truth. Abbe May has those bands for breakfast.

Lest you dismiss this post as a cheap shot, be aware that we're not the first people to notice. A couple of labels around town have noted that it's a waste of time sending most promotional material to BZ unless the act in question is good looking and female. Further afield, there's at least one PhD paper in the offing that references Bernard Zuel's drool.

So in honour ofT Great Man, I'm kicking off ZuelWatch, an occasional and fun space for referencing any Bernie-isms and making sure he gets a date. Even if he is married. Post comments in the usual place or email scans of past indiscretions or goss to barman@i94bar.com

London Calls Again

2009-11-27T06:28:00.000+11:00

There's yet another legacy edition of "London Calling" coming, if it's not here already. Online magazine Quietus says something very perceptive about it:

However, the problem with London Calling is in its inconsistencies and incoherence. For what is seen as a "brave" album in the context of its time, there is little that links each track to the other in form and fluidity. The shuffling rigmarole of Vince Taylor's 'Brand New Cadillac', and the crapulous slur and turgid bass-walk of 'Jimmy Jazz', are only to be saved by the Bo Didley-like 'Hateful' at the start. It's the aural equivalent of a trifle: somewhat confused as to what it is, ingredients and influences have been thrown into a bowl with a lack of care and clarity, but a whole lot of enthusiasm that tries to cater for every taste.

"London Calling" is a sweeping, sometimes dated and occasionally ham-fisted attempt to say something to everyone. That's a strength and a flaw. I wonder if the Clash would have been given enough rope (sorry) to make an album like it in this era. They tried again with "Sandanista" and that time were found wanting.

There was something very exciting about hearing it at the time and even cultural rent boy Molly Meldrum's gibbering endorsement on Countdown (admit it - you watched it) couldn't spoil it entirely.

More of that review here.

Robert Quine's Tube Screamer (Revisited)

2009-11-26T16:26:00.001+11:00

Sold on eBay for 41 US bucks. Just in case you were dying wondering.

Robert Quine's Tube Screamer

2009-11-25T23:35:00.002+11:00

Someone is selling it on eBay here if it's not gone by the time you read this. Who wouldn't want to own a pedal owned by the guitarist responsible for some of the most beautifully noxious sounds committed to tape? Gracias to Steve Gregory for the head-up.

Xmas comes early...and it's Hard To Beat

2009-11-25T23:16:00.002+11:00

In the shape of Santa suit-wearing Stooges cover band The Scrooges:

So great an idea they should bottle it. Oh, wait...

2009-11-20T09:06:00.006+11:00

The idea of cross promoting wines through association with famous bands is a clever one that US company Wines That Rock have launched. No word on whether the beverage inside the bottle matches the bullshit but we can anticipate that with a retail price of about $20 in Aussie money, the stuff would be passable.

Pink Floyd and their mainstream multi-million dollar earner "Dark Side Of The Moon" has been chosen as the first band to be matched with a wine, in this case a 2006 Cab Sav. There are more varietals coming, including Rolling Stones and Woodstock dedications.

There are some endless possibilities here and it shouldn't end with a piss up over a glass or three of Pink Floyd plonk. How about a line of Iggy-branded Passion Pop? Surely Shane MacGowan deserves a range of not-too-delicate-on-the-palate gut rot that you could brush your teeth in? The magnificent Jet could have their own varietal that tastes like cheap versions of everything else, but is ultimately low-alcohol and thoroughly unsatisfying.

Revival a night no-one with half a brain should miss

2009-11-20T07:03:00.000+11:00

Just 10 bucks to see this line-up? You'd have to be mad to pass it up if in the area. Online tix have just gone on sale here.

Klondike cuts loose

2009-11-19T18:18:00.000+11:00

Nick Cave, Wolfmother and young bands who pose but can't play get the treatment from Aussie music Hall of Famer Chris Klondike Masuak (Hitmen, Radio Birdman, KN40, the New Christs, the Screaming Tribesmen et al) at music website Mess & Noise here. Nice one Blockster!

It's not too late

2009-11-19T07:22:00.005+11:00

But it might be soon. The Hitmen shows at the Sando (with all new band room) this weekend are looking like sell-outs. You can score tix online here.

Main support both nights are Decline Of The Reptiles who have a new album in the can. The fantastic Snoozefests open Friday and vets Young Docteurs do the honours on Saturday.

Do you call this a Velvet Underground reunion?

2009-11-19T06:55:00.004+11:00

Probably not but the NY Public Library's description is as vague as all get-out in regards to what they're doing. David Fricke from Rolling Stone is on the bill so it's probably a Q & A session. Reed, Yule and Tucker doesn't have the same ring to it as the Velvet Underground.

Sterling Morrison has an excuse but where's John Cale? Something tells me he may not have been invited - or wouldn't have turned up, given the presence of one other party.

Props to Stupefation for the heads-up.