The Hoodoo Gurus’ Dave Faulkner has described it as a “huge gamble”, but the inaugural Dig It Up! may well have proved there’s a gap in an over-crowded market for genre-specific events. The series – which travelled to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, before wrapping up in Perth over the weekend – brought together complementary bands spanning psych, garage and ’50s-’60s rock’n’roll for the 30th anniversary of the Gurus’ watershed single ‘Leilani’. It featured iconic acts such as The Fleshtones, Redd Kross, The Sonics, Kim Salmon, The Sunnyboys and Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), but also some “newer” bands ...

KATE HENNESSY and AARON CURRAN report on the inaugural Dig It Up!, which took over four venues in Sydney on April 22. The series commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Gurus’ watershed single ‘Leilani’. Photos by CHRIS TURNER . KH: In his welcome message in the Dig it Up program, Hoodoo Gurus’ frontman Dave Faulkner says: “Dig it Up is NOT seeking to carve up the potential audience into marketing segments with a little bit of this for the ‘this’ people and a little bit of that for the ‘that’ people.” It’s a neat summary of why it feels so ...

After a 14-year absence, Sydney’s legendary The Sunnyboys returned to the stage in emphatic style yesterday (April 22). Billed as “Kids In Dust”, the four-piece were the not-so secret act at the Sydney leg of the Dig It Up! Hoodoo Gurus’ invitational at The Enmore Theatre. The band’s original line-up – Jeremy and Peter Oxley, Bill Bilson and Richard Burgman – elicited one of the biggest responses of the day, performing classics such as ‘Tunnel of Love’, ‘Happy Man’, ‘Let You Go’, ‘My Only Friend’, ‘What You Need’, ‘Liar’, ‘Show Me Some Discipline’ and ‘I'm Shakin’. They closed with ...

Set times have been announced for the forthcoming Dig It Up! Concert series, which really is shaping up to be the Big Day Out “for the beer bellied Rock Pig Fraternity” as one Facebook user so eloquently put it. Curated by The Hoodoo Gurus to coincide with the 30th anniversary of their watershed single ‘Leilani’, the event will see performances by the likes of The Sonics, Died Pretty, The 5.6.7.8's, Redd Kross and the Gurus themselves in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. The Sydney leg of the event will feature “mystery band” Kids In Dust ...

Could The Sunnyboys be about to reform? All signs point to YES... Rumours are rife that the band have been added to the Sydney leg of the Dig It Up! mini-festival in April. If so, they'll be joining the likes of The Sonics, Died Pretty, The 5.6.7.8's and Redd Kross who are all set to perform at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on April 22. Festival organisers have announced that a band called Kids In Dust will be added to the lineup...a name under which The Sunnyboys used to play when testing new material back ...

Are The Sunnyboys the latest additions to the Sydney leg of the Dig It Up! mini-fest in April? Curated by The Hoodoo Gurus to coincide with the 30th anniversary of their watershed single ‘Leilani’, the event will see the likes of The Sonics, Died Pretty, The 5.6.7.8's and Redd Kross perform at The Enmore Theatre in Sydney on April 22. And according to the latest missive from organisers, they’ll be joined by “seminal” Sydney act Kids In Dust, who “performed just once, at the Sydney Trade Union Club in the early 1980's, but appeared ...

Michael recently sent me this wonderful piece of Gold Coast/ Brisbane music history. Some great tracks on this I especially like the track Triple Z in my head as it goes through all the great shows that were on the station back then. Jeremy Oxley who went on to the Sunnyboys did his apprenticeship here as a 17 year old and other went on to the excellent Gold Coast band The Seven Ballerinas But I shall put you over to Michael who can tell you all about this band! Thanks Michael! The Strand was Tait Brady (vocals), Keith Mackay (bass ...

der sound ist so knuffig, wie der twang es zulässt, immer zwischen offensiv erwachsener attitüde und teddybär. zum in die wange kneifen und auf der flucht genau davor. wenn flying nun auf den lofi der frühen neunziger trifft, man den gesang noch etwas schief in die mitte hängt, dann kommt in etwa heraus, was the twerps bezwecken. zusammengefunden im späten 2008, richteten sich der gitarrist und sänger marty frawley und der bassist rick milovanovic auf was längeres ein. nicht nur, dass man schnell zu einer der fähigsten popbands melbournes avancierte, mit julia macfarlane an der zweiten gitarre und patrick o ...

After a three-year wait, Witch Hats have finally produced a follow-up full-length to their abrasive, singular debut Cellulite Soul . Recorded in Melbourne with US expat Casey Rice (Tortoise, Dirty Three), Pleasure Syndrome dials back the swamp/sludge factor of Cellulite Soul . More open and inviting, it sounds like a band no longer ashamed of their pop smarts. Pleasure Syndrome is also noteworthy for guitarist Tom Barry’s increased presence, and the fact that lead singer Kris Buscombe actually sings on most of the songs. You can stream the album in full below. Here are some of the highlights: ‘The Bounty ...

Ups & Downs’ new compilation provides a glimpse of what might’ve been, writes RENÉ SCHAEFER . Ups & Downs are an interesting case study of timing being crucial to the rise and fall of a band. Formed in 1983, they soon fled the oppressive environs of their native Brisbane (aka “Joh-town”) for the more amenable environment of Sydney. The band’s psychedelically-tinged jangly guitar rock saw them quickly hailed as local proponents of the emerging Paisley Underground. Despite the fact this musical style took its cues from ’60s bands like The Byrds or Doug Yule-era Velvet Underground, it was a refreshing new ...

Over and Beyond and Through (Tate/Bolland)/ Ha! Ha! Ha! (Tate/Bolland/The Poles) Recorded at Basilisk Studios Engineer - Martin Bishop Produced by the Poles Scott Bolland - Vocals Joseph Borkowski - Bass Andrew MacLennan - Drums Scott Stone - Guitar & Backing Vocals Michael Tate - Guitar This single, one of the 500 individually screen-printed 45s is the band's sole release from April, 1981. The Poles (much like the Patients) are frequently recalled by fellow musicians of the post-Saints Brisbane musical landscape as having been an exceptional, if not influential live band. The year is 1978. Kenmore. Clinton Walker's having a party at his family home. Mick Tate, Janine Hall and Scott Bolland decide to form a band. By the time conversation turned into playing, Janine meets up with Rowland Howard and Ollie Olsen who are up from Melbourne for a weekend in Sydney and with Jeffrey Wegener they form the Young Charlatans. The band moved to Sydney in November 1979, and played alongside the Laughing Clowns on numerous occasions at the Metropole; and shared bills with the likes of the Sunnyboys. Dave Tyrer was an early guitarist in the band was replaced by Scott Stone. Tyrer later played in the Go-Betweens for one show in July 1980 armed with a Roland guitar-synth, along with former Toesuckers drummer Clare McKenna (who later went on to play with Xero and the Holy Ghosts). This was the only ...

An old Australian music mag called Sonics from 1982 that featured the Sunnyboys touring setup as a cover story. Click to enlarge pics for reading.

Matty shares with us a rip of a rare give away Ep from the legendary Sunnyboys. Thanks Matty! "... taking the novel approach of giving for your birthday, the sunnyboys doled out this little gem to their congregated faithful- a free 7" EP containing 4 live tracks, at a gig to celebrate their first birthday in 1981. One this country's finest, they exploded over an unsuspecting public in the early '80's and, sadly, imploded a (too) short while later leaving behind a trail of 3 albums and a slew of magnificent singles in their wake. Thankfully those singles, and ...

Divorced from its grunge-rock context, Aztec’s two-disc Tumbleweed retrospective sounds remarkably fresh, writes RENÉ SCHAEFER . Aztec Music’s tagline is, “Preserving Australia’s rich musical heritage.” For those of us who still vividly remember the grunge era, it’s funny to think of the early 1990s as part of such a legacy. It seems like it was just yesterday that flannel shirts, dirty jeans and overdriven riff rock ruled our stages and airwaves. But then you suddenly realise that Mudhoney first toured here 21 years ago and that Tumbleweed were the contemporaries of Nirvana, not their disciples. Born in ...

M any years ago, I received in the mail an awesome compilation titled The Violence Inherent in the System that contained 22 killer European garage and punk rock tracks that were compiled by the ever resourceful Steve Gardner of NKVD Records . It’s certainly one of the better compilations that I’ve ever heard and the last I checked Steve was all but giving them away (although in some cases he was doing that as well). Anyways, out of all the bands contained on the comp., the ones I gravitated towards the most were put out by a French label ...