Overload.

Guh.
It's been a busy few days. Lemme see if I can remember it all.
Thursday- Rowland S. Howard at the Prince of Wales.
Friday- Witch Hats and the Stabs at the Tote.
Saturday- YIS at the Tote.
Sunday- Mark Steiner & Thomas Borge at the Sporting Fox.
Monday- the first "Last Tram Home presents" night at the Old Bar.
I've been busy. Last night at the Old Bar was great- Aktion Unit played as a four piece, Crystal Thomas teamed up with Kim Volkman, and the Late Arvo Sons blew the roof off. Then I got to play old singles til 3.00am Thanks to everyone who came along- we are already planning the next one.
But now, I am going back to bed.

X (still) marks the spot

Whatever misgivings you might still have about a Rilen-less X treading the boards, consider putting them aside and having a gander at the re-formed band when they strut their stuff in Melbourne and Sydney. The occasion will be the re-launch of "At Home With You", shortly to be re-packaged (with bonus live disc) by Aztec Music.

May 3 at Ding Dong (Melbourne) and May 17 and 19 (the Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills, Sydney) are the dates. Most of what you need to know is on the poster above (click on i t to read it), except for the fact that Sydney punters can buy their tix from the Excelsior this week (probably from Wednesday.) Do not wait. The two nights will sell out fast.

The other thing you need to know if there's a distinct possibility that this line-up (Steve Lucas-Cathy Green-Kim Volkman) will be in a studio soon, recording a host of old previously unrecorded X gems.

Phew.

Well. What a weekend- three days worth, too.
On Friday I caught GUT, Kim Volkman & the Whiskey Priests, Intoxica & Sixfthick at the Greyhound. All good- and the place was nicely full too.


Saturday I went by the Corner Hotel early to say hello to Vinz and the others from Demi Dero Inc. then over to Exile On Smith Street, where I was too early for Tiger By The Tail. Went down to the idGAFF to see if the rumour of Sixfthick doing a last minute show as part of the GAFFStock weekend was true- it was, and they did.
Recovery session at the St. Kilda Bowling Club on Sunday went on a little too long, though. I had a very quiet day on Monday, I can tell you.
Except that it wasn't really that quiet- the tinnitus that has been bugging me off and on for the past few years is in full flight right now. The loud constant feedback-like whine in my left ear, and sometimes in my right, is making it hard to concentrate, hard to hear, and hard to sleep. It looks like I may have to give the music- especially live music- a break until I can get this fixed.


Thanks to Belinda for the shots of Sixfthicks Ben & Geoff Corbett at the Greyhound

The return of X

Last night I was lucky enough to be sitting in the right place at the right time, and so to be invited to watch X rehearse for their upcoming dates.
In a stinky pub back room, that usually holds about 200 people, there were five of us- Steve Lucas, Kim Volkman, John Hall (drummer for these dates) a sound guy called Wal & me.
You can quibble all you like about whether this is the "real" X, but don't ignore the music. For my money, this sounded like the real deal- an opinion confirmed by (long term fan & friend of the band) Fred Negro when he stuck his head in for a minute. Really, though, they needed nothing from me, or Fred, so I just sat and enjoyed it,
"But what did they play?" I hear you ask. What I saw went like this:
"TV Glue"- spiky ringing guitar to the forefront, Steve taking the spoken vocal.
"Degenerate Boy"- again, that guitar sound, wrung out of a new Epiphone.
"Moving On"- some trouble with the final few bars' speed metal assault, quickly ironed out.
"Dipstick"- played faster than I've ever seen it done before.
And more- "Oxford Street Nick" "I Like You And You Like Me" ("Oh, I light up so easily-ah...") "Halfway Round The World" (all slashing old style punk chords) "I Don't Wanna Go Out" (I was grinning like a schoolboy for the duration of THAT) and a very sharp take on Del Shannon's "Runaway"...
Questions?
Yes, Rilen is absent, but yes, I think Kim is a great fit as his replacement. Yes, Steve can still be a bit tetchy at times, but yes, these are his songs and he still enjoys- loves- playing them. Worth noting this is not the only project he has on the go, either. Cathy's absence from the stool was explained to me but it's not something I want to go into here.
You would be a fool to miss your chance here.
Dates, links etc- well, here's the band , here's Steve, here's Kim and here's Cathy .
And this is probably a good place to note that the Aztec Music reissue of "At Home With You" with bonus tracks, is now scheduled for May.

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.

Music for January (part II)

What a great way to open my account for the year- Tiger by The Tail & Kim Volkman at the St. Kilda Bowling Club, last Friday night.
It was hot, it was crowded, it was great. I may have had several beers- I vaguely recall harrassing Richard Sharman to take my picture for a change.
Anyway- on to this weekend.
Almost exactly 20 years since Rob Younger & Jim Dickson pulled the New Christs back together, (March 1987 according to this:) the current line up line up hits town for a couple of shows- Thursday 11th at the Tote and Saturday 13th at the Espy- which is free, so you have no excuse to miss it. I may have to stand down the back, for some reason my ears have been ringing constantly for the last month or so.
February is already shaping up well, with SixFtHick playing Melbourne on the 16th, 17th & 18th. And yesterday I got a heads-up that X-rated US funk/soulster BlowFly is coming out for a national tour with Dr. El Suavo. I believe they are still looking for "exotic dancers" for some dates, feel free to drop the Doc a line if you're interested.

click that New Christs pic to enlarge & read

Some more plugs

Some tough calls to be made over this festive weekend.
Friday night is a toss up between Penny Ikinger & the Evolution playing for free at the Pint on Punt in Windsor, or Tiger By The Tail over at some new place in Collingwood, called Exile On Smith Street.

Then on Saturday Kim Volkman is at the Greyhound
Like I say, tough calls, each of 'em. Maybe you should just stay home and wrap yourself in tinsel. Or not.

Some plugs...

Friday night in Sydney:

I wish I could go to this, I'm already regretting missing TSOOL when they were in town last week. And the New Christs are playing too...yeah I know it's not on my usual turf, but so what?

And on Saturday night in Melbourne, at the Old Bar in Fitzroy:


That's a great line up- think of it as an early Christmas present.

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.