May 2006 - Australian Music

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The Cosmic Psychos fast became one of my most favourite bands of all time after a friend of mine introduced them to me a few years ago. They play an iconographically-Australian style of buzz-saw punk rock that is as far removed from both British and American punk as you can get. They're not quite pub rock, but they embody it's spirit whilst working outside the genre. Oddly, they're more referenced by the Australian indie rock scene than respective 'punk' circles, have been covered by overseas bands such as Pearl Jam and L7, and even had one of their albums produced by a pre-Nirvana Butch Vig.

The Psychos... Blokes You Can Trust

The Psychos are essentially a bunch of farm lads from Melbourne or thereabouts, and they formed as a four piece called Spring Plains in 1982. Three years later they fired their singer and moved the vocal-duties in-house to their bassist and changed their name to the Cosmic Psychos. The line up ran as thus...

Ross Knight - Vocals, Bass
Peter Jones - Guitar
Bill Walsh - Drums

...and they quickly went about releasing some solidly rocking albums and EPs.

DISCOGRAPHY

Down on the Farm (1985) EP
Self-titled (1987) ALBUM
Go the Hack (1989) ALBUM
Slave to the Crave (1990) LIVE ALBUM
Blokes You Can Trust (1991) ALBUM
Self-titled (1991) reissue of 1987 ALBUM and 1985 EP together

Palomino Pizza (1993) EP
Self-Totalled (1995) ALBUM
Unplugged (1996) Acoustic EP
Oh What a Lovely Pie! (1997) ALBUM
15 Years, a Million Beers (2001) COMPILATION ALBUM
Off Your Cruet (2006) ALBUM

The albums 'Blokes You Can Trust' and 'Go the Hack' are essential Australian classics as far as I'm concerned. From 'Self-Totalled' onwards the Psychos seemed to get even heavier, adding distortion to their bass for maximum chainsaw effect! They released 'Off Your Cruet' just two months ago and it happily refuses to mix it up in any way whatsoever... the Psychos are just as comfortable doing what they do as AC/DC seem to be.

Guitarist Peter Jones left the band in 1990 to become some sort of scientist I think, and was replaced by Robbie Watts. The Psychos have toured all over in their time, supporting the likes of Pearl Jam overseas and playing to appreciative crowds in places like Texas.

Off Your Cruet, the latest album

The Cosmic Psychos continue to endure today, though they play shows somewhat intermittantly. Their latest album is their first studio album in almost ten years, and they've said in recent interviews that they prefer to takes things easy rather than force albums out every year or two. I imagine this idealogy stretches to their touring habits. I finally got to catch them late last year and they were amazing. I missed them on their recent album tour but hopefully they don't leave it too long to come back to Sydney.

Their website - Cosmic Psychos

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Punk

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Flyers

May 26th 2006 10:24

I've just been going through my archive of flyers and thought I'd chuck some up for fun. Over the years I've collected quite a few flyers, mostly Sydney, Western Sydney and Blue Mountains ones from 1998 through to now. Unfortunately I threw a lot out when I last moved but I managed to save a few on my computer by scanning them. I used to have a whole wall plastered in them but a lot of those are gone.

Rocks flyer, from their last reunion show (they do reunion shows every few years, this one is from 2004 or thereabouts)

ADI show in Penrith - Unpaid Debt, Fat Slinky, Spudgun, Save Some For Daddy

This one is from a benefit show that raised money to help save the ADI site in Western Sydney from housing development (an ongoing struggle that will probably eventually be lost). I have a special place in my heart for cut n paste flyers, not enough people do them these days I think. Photoshop and the rise of graphic design tafe courses have helped eradicate 80% of old school cut n paste flyers from the 'scene'. Obviously, a lot of properly designed flyers look really rad, but there's something about cut n paste that just seems more fun. It's certainly more D-I-Y, and has a lot more heart in it... if a statement like that can be applied to the art of making flyers hahaha.

An interesting and cool flyer from a Penrith show (2002-ish)

hardcore in Sydneytown circa 2001

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Flyers from old shows

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Extra Limb

May 25th 2006 09:17

Extra Limb (from left to right); Alex, Sean and Darren.

The first time I saw Extra Limb I was all like 'whaaaaa?' cause they were playing the sort of upbeat, fast punk rock that no one else seems to play in Sydney. This was about two years ago at the Bat and Ball. Thankfully, they're still going strong now and keeping it thoroughly and utterly real.

They formed in 2002 and are made up of Alex Sepansky (bass and vocals), Darren Kennerly (guitar and vocals) and Sean Rodgers (drums). They used to have another drummer called Ben but he left about eight months ago (I think - don't quote me on it!)

What can I say about Extra Limb? Two things come to mind - Alex has a fairly distinctive style of singing and his ultra-fast bassplaying is ultra-cool. The band all gels together really well and are a fun band to watch if you like bands like Screeching Weasel, NOFX, The Lillingtons, Groovie Ghoulies, etc, etc (all that old wave American pop punk I guess).

the Extra Limb monster

If you go here - Extra Limb website you can download some older songs off their demo.
But you can also go here - Extra Limb myspace and download some new tracks off their new EP 'We Stay Crispy in Milk'.

When asked about the lack of like-styled bands in the Sydney scene, vocalist and bassist Alex asked "IS THERE A PLACE IN THE SCENE FOR POP PUNK THAT DOESN'T SUCK???" For the moment they're happy to concentrate on playing shows in their home town rather than touring so if you live in Sydney and see their name around (and I know I've said this about every band I've spoken on this blog so far - but hey, that's the point) go check 'em out!

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Punk

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Kampei!

May 24th 2006 09:04

Kampei are a Sydney-based pop/punk/ska band who love to mix it up with the best of them. I don’t know why I wrote that, it doesn’t even really mean anything. Sorry.

Kampei

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Punk

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Screaming Jets

May 23rd 2006 08:50

Hits n Pieces album

You may cringe, but I actually like the Screaming Jets. Who here in Australia has never EVER sung along to a Screaming Jets song? C'mon, not even when you were a youngster? Not even when you were drunk?!

The Jets (as they are sometimes affectionally known) were probably the last great Australian pub rock band. They formed in 1989 in Newcastle out of the remnants of a band called Aspect. They won a Triple J Battle of the Bands comp fairly early on, which led to their debut EP 'Scorching Adventures of the Screaming Jets'. In 1990 they signed to rooArt, who would go on to release most of the Jets' stuff for the 1990s, including all their biggest hit singles. They've had a fairly extensive discography in their 18 years of sporadic rocking, here's my attempt at recounting it

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Rock

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The Quickening

May 22nd 2006 08:40

Holy shit. The Quickening are a band from Brisbane and they came down and played some shows in Sydney this weekend just gone and they are pretty much my new favourite band. They're a bunch of freaks... the guitarist was so jammy, he made it all look so easy. And the drummer was playing his single kick pedal like it was two kick pedals. I don't kid!

The Quickening's album

Here's some MP3s

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Punk

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The Internet

May 19th 2006 05:43

the internet

In the last five years it has become easier and easier for independent bands in Australia to tour interstate. I know this firsthand… I started playing in bands ten years ago and it was almost impossible to build up the contacts necessary to travel interstate without first getting some sort of name for yourself. Now, I find that you don’t even have to do that and I think it’s all thanks to the Internet.

You see, the Internet is a wonderful and magical place where everybody is friends with everybody else and everybody is respectful of each other’s differences… no, not really. I just think that the rise of online music sites and the forums that often go hand-in-hand with them has helped build up various Australia-wide communities. Now, obviously, this isn’t directly responsible for bands finding it easier to travel interstate to play shows but I think it definitely helps make people more contactable across great distances – especially in Australia where we are forever oppressed by the ‘tyranny of distance’. This oppression is lessening every day, thanks to the immediacy of places like forums, messageboards, myspace and blog networks. One of the bands I am in finds out about at least half of our shows via myspace and email… so to all the fuckwits who continuously weep over the Internet killing music, Jesus Christ – live in the now

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Helping YOU

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Peabody

May 18th 2006 04:56

Peabody

Peabody are a Sydney indie/rock band who formed around 1995 (I assume this was the year, everywhere I look the same bio tells me that they formed ‘in the mid-90s fresh out of high school’) in Campsie.

They parted ways with their first drummer not too far into their years and got a drummer called Dave for a while, who was replaced by Graeme Trewin in 1999

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Rock

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Spilt Milk

May 17th 2006 03:23

Hello! This blog is about Australian bands... that can mean anything from Midnight Oil or the Easybeats right through to, say, The Focus or Game Over. It doesn't matter if the band is still going or not, if there's anything to say about it I'll say something about it. Some of this will just be reminiscence of bands that came and wen't. Like today's band... Spilt Milk (1994-1999).

Matty

Spilt Milk were a Western-Sydney based punk band that started in 1994... the original lineup consisted of Matty Albert (guitar, vocals) and three other guys - Warwick McGee-Wright, Daniel Paterson and a guy called Steve. Everyone except for Matty left or was kicked out sometime not long after formation (teething days I guess). Marty Durkan came on board on bass and Lee Graham joined 6 months after that on drums. After another 6 months, Lee was replaced by Damien Elliot... this was the most stable lineup and the one that I'd think most people probably remember when they think of Spilt Milk

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Punk

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