The movie really delivers with legendary stories, cliches, rockers and hangers on in the scene. It’s more a bar room yarn than a doco of say Nick Broomfield standard (who produced Kurt and Courtney and Biggie and Tupac). Nor does it geniunely consolidate Lemmy as a hero in the way the Ramones doco or Julian Temple’s movies have (Filth and the Fury and the Joe Strummer one).  All this could be forgiven though. It’s a celebration of Lemmy as a top bloke and a great musician. Nothing more, nothing less. On that premise, it’s OK and I’d see it again any time.

What cannot be forgiven though is the quality of the print that they screened in Melbourne. The aspect ratio was all wrong, so all the titles on screen got cut off! The quality of the video was like Youtube on the big screen. For $17.50 cinema prices, you expect a full quality print. Not something that looks like a dodgy download. It was a packed out screening and I don’t think we were the only ones disappointed at the quality. It felt like a really, really bad way of paying back fans for their patience when this movie could’ve gone straight to DVD a year ago.  Thanks for nothing MIFF!

Lemmy will screen again on August the 4th 2010. More details on the Lemmy Movie at MIFF.

Last night Melbourne’s Arthouse Hotel was nicely packed out with quiff hair styles and hot rod heels on stunning looking rocker girls resembling the ultimate 1950’s librarian fantasy. If this gig is anything to go by, the Rockabilly scene in Melbourne is burgeoning and god bless it. The mosh was full of familiar friendly faces. And for what may look like an all out fist fight in the most is just good fun fist banter.

Despite the mohawks and barrel chested tall boys that would scare you shitless in a dark alley, toes are stepped on people shoved and even beer spilt. But everyone is friendly and nothing turns ugly. A good night is had by all because thankfully this is a cool scene made up of very cool people. There’s something really funny about a six foot something greaser standing at the edge of a mosh, barely moving as he’s pushed and shoved. All the time balancing his stubby, with his back to the band as if nothing’s happening.

Sure enough as lactic acid seeps its way into every sore muscle of my post mosh body, the Kingswoods did rock. Lyndsey had some wireless guitar cord conception that was awfully modern for the 1950s. But nonetheless it allowed him to romp through the crowd and even jump on my mate Ben’s shoulders for an impromptu off stage piggy back – whilst playing! These guys play good, sweaty raw rock and roll and get a good fan fare doing so.

It seems at least half the mosh know these guys personally. But its the rough as guts Aussie Tinged rock that got them out on a Friday night, not simply helping a mate. Well adept at audience participation, half way through the set, a punter brings three Sambuca shots to the stage in what seems a familiar ritual to the band. It wasn’t the only time the band to and froed with the audience.  This is a band well worth checking out. If nothing else for the colourful tunes and the aesthetic.

You can find out more about the guys here on Facebook.

A fine array of Epiphone Dots. Mine is the colour on top.

This post is prompted by the several guitar store visits where there are many of these models getting around. My model is a Korean made version about 6 years old. I bought mine new and have been very, very happy with it despite its natural yellow, urine like finish. It cost me about $1200 Australian Dollars, which is significantly more than what newer models are going for now. Especially the Dot Studio that goes for around $600.

Now we get to the short and skinny. These sub $1000 versions seem to be made in either China or Indonesia or somewhere. They definitely look the business, but they don’t sound it. I tried a Chinese one out the other day and it totally lacked character. So my advice to you if you want a cheap, quality and versatile guitar look out for the Korean Epiphones from the early noughties. Like the early Ibanez guitars of the seventies, they really rock for comparitively little cash to a real Gibson.

For those not in the know, the Epiphone Dot is a cheaper version of the Gibson ES335 – the Chuck Berry guitar. Its sister guitar is the Epiphone Casino which John Lennon played (They look the same but the construction is more like an acoustic guitar). It’s a semi acoustic with big beautiful F-holes and it’s a big heavy lug that makes a Les Paul look compact. Despite its size, it rewards you with a big, sweet sound and awesome tonal versatility. You can go light and funky or super heavy as you wish, all on the one guitar.

Quite literally Johnson have time-lined his life in cars. There’s plenty of highs and lows. From lights randomly popping out of his Lotus to the abject misery of owning anything made by British Leyland. There’s the odd insight into life on the road. Whether it’s bunking on the tour bus or being chauffeured around Europe in an executive limo in style. His band mates don’t make it out unscathed either and there’s plenty of falling in love on the road. Only with British convertibles and not slutty groupies.

It’s full of short, funny (some very funny) and punchy anecdotes. Via cars, he manages to leave no part of his life unscathed and that’s what’s truly miraculous and perhaps why Johnson decided to go this route for his biography – and it does work. There’s a sense that as a standard biography it would be too tight lipped and laconic. No question he has no problem opening up over some put banter about his cars though. But sadly it kind of lacks substance. Honestly I read this book cover to cover in three days. A decent reader could easily do it in a night. Not to Johnson’s detriment. This is a fantastic read. If only it could be longer.

Hairy rock and roll geeks representin'

Some weeks in podcasting are just gold. Michael Butler, the rock and roll geek in his aptly named Rock and Roll Geek show interviews Nardwuar the Human Serviette this week. These two guys are great rock nerds that have been doing podcasts for quite some time. Well Nardwuar has since before podcasts on college radio for decades!

But first let’s talk about the relative newbie. For a few months now I’ve been catching the RNR Geek Show through iTunes. Michael Butler [host] is a ‘have bass will travel’ kind of professional muso that focuses most of his efforts on podcasting these days. He’s played in bands such as Exodus and now plays in Jetboy amongst many others. Each week he puts out about an hour long podcast on anything from classic, commercially ignored rock albums to his favorite recipes. If nothing else, he’s very easy to listen to and extremely consistent. As a bass player, his insights into the recording of classic albums makes for good geek listening too.

Nardwuar is the master of a bizarre, kind of take-the-piss-and-run style of interviewing. Yet true to his bizarre roots, the quality of his research is often flawless, often flabbergasting the interviewee. He’s an icon in his native British Columbia, Canada and a veteran of plaid clothing! Since 1987, there’s no one that Nardwuar hasn’t interviewed – well no one that matters anyway. From getting dangerously close to offending a still young Henry Rollins, to blindsiding President Gorbachev in a passe press conference. He’s driven several interviewers to take unusual and often confrontation actions, including has been porn mogul Al Goldstein, has been Skid Row rocker Sebastian Bach and Alice Cooper. Along the way, he’s befriended Jello Biafra, Josh Homme and Joey Shithead from DOA to name a few and gotten himself beaten up by Sonic Youth!

In short there’s no one in this world quite as out there as Nardwuar, and this is one of very few times I’ve heard him as the subject of an interview. He still speaks slightly in character (perhaps he’s become the character) but also topically about his music, past experiences and how he earns a crust.

Despite not being through Mr Butler’s preferred feedback channels, I’d like to thank you very much for the Nardwuar interview. I share your admiration for the guy and he’s definitely a bona fide rock geek god. Definitely one of your better ones, a real surprise and a real treat. Keep it up. For the love of god, check it out!

ITunes users can find the interview by searching the iTunes store for ”. Otherwise find it on the Rock and Roll Geek Show web site. And don’t forget to check out the masses of interviews at Nardwuar.com! Doot-do-da-doot-do…Doot-do.

Lemmy - all smellier than everything else.

Walk past any pharmacy or the cosmetic section of any department store and you will be inundated. As if we can’t get enough of Shitney Spears and Gwen Stefani in the general zeitgeist, we need to apparently smell like them. Everyone from Ewan McGregor to Kylie Minogue now has their own fragrance – yours for just a few hundred bucks. It seems celebrities themselves have become brands; bright, shiny objects for our mass appeal and consumption.

Frankly this whole thing is pathetic and I have an idea to turn it on its arse: Lemmy the fragrance. It will come in a hip flask made of old German World War Two surplus with a big German eagle on it. Forget high notes of Brazilian Sandalwood and patchouli, Lemmy the fragrance smells of denim, leather cowboy boots, Malboro Reds, Jack Daniels and Coke, sweat covered Marshall amps and fresh amphetamines. This is a fragrance, finally, that will melt knickers and scare small children.

For those who don’t like wearing Lemmy the fragrance, you can have it with Coke on ice. Or for the die hard, it will come in a snortable form. Either way, you’re never going to end up in some poncey hip hop bar wearing this stuff and it should help rid the shelves of the next Paris Hilton fragrance which probably would smell of chlamydia and wet patch.  Oh yeah and it would make Lemmy live on forever, which seems inevitable anyway.

What more could you ask for? Willy Nelson the fragrance? Well that would be the smell of smoking a spliff at your grandfather’s house which limits its potential. So Lemmy shall have to do.

Let’s look at the stereo aspects first. In this particular unit (Geneva L – middle of the range), you get a 100 watt stereo with two tweeters and two woofers in the one unit. Now Geneva tell you in their brochureware that you get a much better stereo sound with all the speakers in one unit. Without a graphic EQ though, I had one punk song that you couldn’t hear the vocal track at all the way Geneva have setup the mix. The guitars sounded amazing though! In short, most stuff sounds amazing. Even daggy old MP3s of very poor quality sound surprisingly good. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you’ve been missing on your old stereo.

The Geneva stereo with the optional stand

The build quality is fantastic. I could stare at the back of this unit for hours (sad as that is) because there’s no plastic and it’s so well thought out and it’s like a Sherman tank! The attention to detail extends to the polishing cloth and cool little cloth bag for all the accessories you get. Unwrapping this thing is a real Christmas day experience!

This particular unit comes with the iPod dock. It’s not fully compatible with the iPhone, but I’m yet to see one that is. One nice feature is that it asks you if you want to go into flight mode when you dock, so calls won’t interrupt your music – sometimes. I’m still working out the nuances of it. It also has a traditional line in jack so you can play non iPod MP3 players through the unit.

Furniture nerds will totally appreciate the a piano quality lacqured finish, or the option of a natural walnut finish. I went the red. The heavy unpolished aluminium stand, a $300 AUD option, looks fantastic. This stand also lets you run the cables through it to hide all those garish wires. One thing’s for certain, this is not a ‘bright, shiny object’. It won’t look obsolete like last year’s Nokia phone when the next one comes out. It’s designed to be appreciated. The remote too has been designed to look good and be minimal yet totally usable. No flashing lights or any bullshit.

Despite the strengths, the is one undeniable issue with the Geneva: for such a small unit it’s bloody expensive. Having said that, if you want a unit that looks this good that doesn’t have six or seven separate speakers and sounds fantastic all the time, it’s probably quite cheap. I suspect to get something that sounds better than this would be a lot closer to $10K than the $2K this one costs. This is definitely not a mass produced stereo with a mass produced sound.  Your friends will never understand but who cares. It’s a fantastic unit without being that’s not too nerdy and definitely not too bling. If you appreciate the finer things, just get one!

EDIT: drummers will love the sound of this unit. It’s really well suited to hi-hats and cymbal type sounds. Has to be heard to be believed.

The Avengers have some heavy 80s influences, particularly Judas Priest a bit of Motley Crue (the good early stuff). Better still their singer Ayid can whail out the high notes just like Sebastian Bach and Rob Halford. Like Aussie boys Bogan Nation, they wear their colours on their sleeve. But make no mistake, these guys are a kick arse, denim clad, 80s rock revival – and god bless them for it.

The band don’t just sound like Judas Priest either. They’re tight, original and have a good look going. ALl the things that mattered in the old school days. Judging by the photos on the liner notes in their CD, they get a reasonable following in KL too.

So if you find yourself in KL, forget buying rip off Nikes on Petaling St. Get your arse down to Asnawy’s store and tell him how hard his band rocks! Honestly, there’s nothing better than finding a metal band that can really play in KL. Proof the world does truly rock and that Asia isn’t all sappy pop ballads. Thanks again for the CD dude. Best souvenir ever.

Check out The Revengers on Myspace.

If you want to check out the OKR Combination store, you won’t be disappointed. The address is:

K 12 Central Market, Jalan Hong Kasuni
50050 Kuala Lumpur

For those of you that don’t know of them Skunk Anansie are a British four piece that melded the best of dub/reggae with metal and rock. Tough girly girl Skin fronts the band and is like a black, sexy and female Peter Garrett! Even the name itself is like a split between black and white. Skunk being the obvious and Anansie I think is some kind of fairy tale Jamaican spider or something. Hey it toughened up the name though!

SA only released 3 albums. A more political, metally debut with Paranoid and Sunburnt, which was sampled by the Prodigy on Fat of the Land. The next one was Stoosh. This was far more melodic and mellow and showed a completely different style of songwriting. Skin’s vocals were awesome and it’s almost a Hendrixy vibe to some ballads like Hedonism. Probably because a bloke called Len Arran got involved. Stoosh is definitely one of my favourite albums of the early noughties.

Sadly the final opus Post Orgasmic Chill could’ve been a lot better. It had some epic songs on it like Follow me down, The Skankheads and Charlie Big Potato. But wreaked of filler tracks, songs written around effects pedals and contractual obligation. The writing on the wall of a break up was clearly there. Fortunately you could tell there was still plenty left in the band and thankfully it looks like there’s still a lot of fight left in the dog!

Even each respective member is awesome. Aside from the raunchy Skin (whose done at least two solo albums), Cass the bass player is a Barbadosian(?) dreaded monster who rocks right out. Mark the drummer has been known to break more than just sticks he hits so hard and Ace the guitarist rocks it pretty hard.

I’m told by Mr Facebook group guy (does the internet ever lie?) that surprises are imminent. If nothing else the Skunks are a high energy, rock band with a big dub and dance twist. There hardly your boring arsed Nickelcrack, Matchbox 20 FM rock. So brace yourself from something awesome! Looks like the Skunks are back!

Angry tells some great stories about anything and everything from hanging out with Slash on Sunset Strip whilst recording his solo album, to taking the piss out of Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil. To be honest, I was really nicely surprised to see that the Rosie Tatts and Angry as lead singer, DO get the recognition they deserve stateside. Especially when so many Americans hear with shock and awe that AC/DC aren’t from the US! Yup, they cut their teeth in good old Australia.

Unfortunately you have to give a black mark to the CMS boys though. Although Rose Tattoo are clearly well known in US metal circles, they weren’t aware of Angry Anderson the media celebrity. It might come as a surprise to some non Aussies to find that Angry has done heaps for various charities. In one current affairs show at least a decade ago, he used his cebebrity and clout to get a K-Mart store to ‘donate’ $25000 worth of toys on the spot. By donate I mean walking into the store with cameras and taking them. No one says no to Angry! And this week just past, he got his boat race on a bush fire telethon quicker than you can say ‘tits up’ – which he in fact did!

So when Chris and Neely took the piss asking if he was mortified when Steve Irwin died, Angry more than likely would’ve known Irwin through his TV work. If not quite well. Anyways thanks to the CMS guys for interviewing Angry. It was a great surprise and a real treat. Next you have to really cover all bases and interview Turbonegro from Norway! Or the Iraqi metal band that just got refugee status in New Jersey Acrassicauda.

P.S. this interview is available by Podcast or several other options on their website theclassicmetailshow.com