My week in rock: Fu Manchu and The Darkness

This has been a most crazy week. Sunday night I went to see Fu Manchu and that was the only plans I actually had. I got to the show, spoke to the promoter and in a passing comment just said “Shame we didn’t organise an interview for the mag this tour” and he said “you [...]

GWAR and Las Vegas…

On Sunday we headed to Joliet to see the band GWAR and I was given a media press pass to interview the band regarding their stage show and what not. We headed to Joliet around 2pm as I had to interview the band at 3. Got to the venue on time and the stage was being set-up. [...]

Andrew WK in Milwaukee plus more…

  Yesterday, Rhea and I headed to Milwaukee to see Andrew WK perform his I Get Wet album in its entirety. We Got to Milwaukee about 5pm and checked in to our hotel; the Ambassador Hotel, which turned out just perfect as it was no more than a minutes walk to the AWK show at [...]

Reckless records and deep dish pizza = awesome day

Today was awesome. Rhea and I headed to Chicago to have a meal at Chinatown and then head to the other side of Chicago to go record shopping at Reckless Records on North Milwaukee Avenue. We headed down that way and parked and walked towards Quimbys which is an awesome zine and alternative bookstore, kinda [...]

The Volo Auto Museum, Illinois

Today was a good day. Woke up and headed to the mall and went through the records at a Hot Topic. It was quite a horrible experience. Not the best shop to go shopping for records in but I was killing time while Rhea was busy at University. From Hot Topic I went to a [...]

I still hate flying!!!!

So on Sunday night we headed to this great place called the Slidebar as my friend, Sal, was playing a show with his band, Electric Frankenstein. I hadn’t seen him or his band in 10 years (the last time was at Nottingham Rock City; funnily enough, it was the same day that the Wildhearts recorded their Vanilla [...]

Vinyl Solution, In N Out Burger, Guitar Center and Goodwill….

Huntington Beach – went to a record store called Vinyl Solution and I gotta tell ya, this shop had one of the best vibes going on. I walked in and was welcomed by the owner and started in on the $1 records looking for that next album to feature in my future HEAVY columns. No [...]

A long time ago (yesterday)… In a galaxy far, far away (USA)…

So after a lengthy flight, and by lengthy I mean 14 hours in one sitting, I made it. Let’s keep in mind that I awoke after 6 hours and the turbulence was freakin’ me out as per usual. Me and turbulence have never been the best of friends and this flight didn’t help mend any [...]

Five important and essential Australian rock singles you should all own.

On Friday night, I was at The Tote hotel watching Leadfinger do their album launch for their brilliant new CD, “We Make The Music”, and before the gig, I was talking with Stewie Cunningham (Leadfinger main man) and James Cassidy (Muscle Car’s lead guitarist) when a discussion turned to the most important singles in Aussie [...]

NEW SCREECHING WEASEL SONG POSTED ONLINE!

Back in 1991, I think it was, I went record shopping at my fave record store at the time, Thrash Grind Grunge, in Adelaide. There was this guy named Greg and he was running a distro called Spiral Objective out of the store. All you had to do was bring the catalogue in with you and you got [...]

DEAD KENNEDYS ANNOUNCE AUSTRALIAN TOUR!

Australia Uber-Alles Tour 2011 Wow, I never thought I’d see the day when this happened but the good folk at KillRockStar Entertainment are doing the unthinkable. The Dead Kennedys were first in Australia in 1983 and now they are back and ready to shake the foundations of our shores again. Now, I know there is the whole argument [...]

Thankyou for the memories, 2010… You rocked my world!

I gotta say, 2010 was a pretty good year for music. I see on blogs and forums where people just werent that impressed with the output of music in 2010. Well, if you’re bored and you missed these, maybe you should check them out as thse are the albums that blew my mind these last 12 [...]

SPIDERS IN THE BISCUIT JAR

Back in 1990, myself and 2 friends, Ben and Darren, were at my house one Friday night eating pizza, talkin’ shit, listening to records, etc. and we were in the kitchen and suddenly noticed there was a spider crawling on the kitchen lightshade. I searched everywhere for some insect spray but we were all out. We [...]

TOP 10 RECORDS I HAVE FOUND FOR $1

Record shopping is pretty much my favourite hobby. Wherever I go in the world, you will always find me browsing the shelves of used record stores looking for gems. While in the USA last year, out of the 110 records I bought, I managed to secure around 80 records for $1 each. This is what I [...]

MICHAEL MONROE and GINGER in Japan.

So what happens when you mix 2 awesome singer / songwriters with a kick ass country? You wind up with this interview. Shot during the band’s time in Japan earlier this year for the Summersonic festivals, you will find some interesting stories and anecdotes from Michael regarding the band and how they got together to [...]

THE DEVIL DOGS – Bilbao, Spain, 1991

Hunting through all my video tapes, I came across this little gem of a video of the almighty Devil Dogs. I remember the day I discovered the Devil Dogs, I ordered some records by the New Bomb Turks and also a 7″ called “Radio Beat” by the Devil Dogs all cos the review that was in [...]

RAMONES – Performing a Medley for the MTV Awards, 1995.

Back in 1995, the MTV Movie Awards was not something I would usually sit down and watch, mainly because I knew the likes of John Waters, Russ Meyer and Herschell Gordon Lewis weren’t going to be receiving any awards for anything anyway but before the program started, there was a comercial break. During this commercial break, [...]

HEAVY METAL GROUPIES

I found this on another video. This must be from the late 80′s. Here in Australia, this show, Hard Copy, was shown on our TV’s on Friday nights. It was kind of like an entertainment meets current affairs type show and would always have some kind of sleazy segment on the show. Whether it’s a [...]

HEAVY METAL SUICIDES

So back in the day, around 1989 I think, this was shown on TV here in Australia. Page One was a current affairs type program that played on late night television on Channel 10. I remember the night clearly: I was in the lounge room laying on the floor, my mate was sitting on the [...]

The 5.6.7.8′s and Japanese Culture

I love Japan, it’s as simple as that. I have been there a number of times and you really can’t beat the awesomeness of the place. It’s like one giant amusement park with lots of bright lights, nice people and great music. This video below was a segment from a TV show on Japanese culture that was [...]