Some things I've been listening to

“Hats Off To The Cheats”: New album by the tightly-configured Melbourne powerhouse on Off The Hip. Catchy as swine flu.

“Finland Freakout” Nothing succeeds like excess and the Pink Fairies were experts in that area. A stunning 1971 show.

“All Your Love”: Mick Medew & he Rumours’ debut. It’s on our label but that doesn’t mean we can’t rave about it. The formal reviews will come from others however. Did I mention they play The Vanguard in Sydney on Sunday night?

The forthcoming Intercontinental Playboys album. I had to listen to this to see what the final pre-production master sounds like. It wasn’t an un-enjoyable task. You will dig.

“Washing Machine”: Sonic Youth rule and the new album “The Rapture” is right up there, but “The Diamond Sea” may be their sweetest/sharpest 19min36sec ever.

"All Your Love": Mick Medew & The Rumours

Out June 1 on I-94 Bar Records.

Spinning Wheel (Mick Medew)
When The Wood Is Brown (Mick Medew/Tony Cardinal)
All Your Love (Mick Medew)
Ready to Fall (Mick Medew/Ron Peno)
Overdo Everything (Mick Medew)
Way Down Low (Mick Medew)
Start The Show (Ash Geary)
Another Girl Another Planet (The Only Ones)
Mary Jane (Mick Medew)

Rumours album is more than a rumour

Good news on the Mick Medew & The Rumours album front and it should be out in the next month.

The title is "All Your Love". There'll be a radio-only single of the title track going out so keep your ears open. The album includes a co-write with Mick Medew and his old bandmate from The 31st Ron Peno called "Ready To Fall" and a stinging cover of The Only Ones' "Another Girl Another Planet".

Keep an eye on I-94 Bar Records for cover art.

Peter Perrett looks back

The Old Fart's retrospective music magazine of choice Mojo has a detailed look back on The Only Ones here. I should have paid more attention to their body of work in the past so maybe the prospect of re-issues will make me.

Mick Medew & The Rumours' stinging cover of "Another Girl, Another Planet" on their forthcoming album (on I-94 Bar Records, of course) is another reason to go back exploring. Here's the original:

In case you haven't already heard

I-94 Bar Records are delighted to announce the signing of Australia's leading exponents of suave voodoo garage rock and roll, The Intercontinental Playboys.

The Playboys have been treading the boards in their home country for the last decade, winning a reputation as one of the hardest-working outfits on the underground garage scene.

Their new album, 'Hymns of The Flesh', was conceived over mint juleps on the terrace of a decaying plantation mansion while the Playboys were on holiday in Louisiana.

Plans to lay down tracks at a resort in Bermuda were dashed when visa irregularities and a paternity suit (settled out of court) had them turned away at the border.

The Playboys do their best work in the dark anyway and recording had them locked away in catacombs underneath Tardis Studios, at Marrickville in Sydney's Inner-Western Delta, for the best part of a year.

It was serious business, fuelled by hard liquor (shaken, not stirred) and Cuban cigars. The Playboys even undertook a vow of abstinence, eschewing pleasures of the flesh to conserve bodily fluids and maintain a pure focus on the sessions.

Post-production, guitarist Benedict Van Der Smuts applied a series of experimental electro-magnetic sound treatments to the finished tape, which was passed through a bath of animal blood blessed by a Haitian voodoo priest.

The result is 'Hymns of the Flesh', which treads a similar path to one established by their debut, 'Ladies, May We Introduce Ourselves', and then deepened by 2005's 'Sonic Seducers', but has a whole new bag of hooks thrown in.

While it's true that the Playboys still mine that rich '60s musical stream first tapped by the Cramps, the Music Machine, Question Mark & the Mysterians and the Fuzztones, they apply their own skewed vision.

Working without a safety net (or bass player), they apply thick layers of organ (Michelangelo Alluro) and fuzz (Benedict Van Der Smuts) to an irresistible rock and roll beat (Lorenzo-Bob de Chauvel), upon which charismatic frontman Tom Von Spatula lays down his sermons.

The Intercontinental Playboys rock like the house band from the Island of Dr Morpheus with a chronic fuzz fetish.

Theirs' is a hypnotic but probing sound that?s won many hearts down the years, and the Playboys have supported the likes of Rocket Science, You Am I, The Strokes, T-Model Ford, The Monarchs, Freddy Negro, Penny Ikinger, the Persian Rugs and JJ Speedball.

' Hymns of the Flesh' will be released in mid-2009 with the band playing selective shows until then and a more extensive run of shows thereafter.

The Intercontinental Playboys join Klondike's North 40 and Mick Medew & The Rumours on I-94 Bar Records. Release of the debut album for Mick Medew & The Rumours is imminent.

www.i94barrecords.com