A gun named Tommy

G’day Rolls,

You could be forgiven for thinking it’s all fuzz pedals and amps stacks in the world of SC. Truth is, the ol’ tune collection is as random as a hobo playing hopscotch in a pair of clogs.

One fuzz-free dude (in the musical sense) I’ve been digging for quite some time is Tommy Guerrero. I first knew old mate as a skateboarder. He’d pop up in the skate vids that formed the backdrop of my teen years. So, it was not surprising really that it was in a skate shop in Shibuya, Tokyo, where I first came across his music. The album was ‘From the Soil to the Soul’ and featured some really cool artwork by Barry McGee. It only took about 30 seconds of skipping through the tracks in-store before I was handing over my hard-earned for it. I’ve since managed to get my greasy mitts on a few more albums of his, and they’re all equally as grouse.

So, punch a hole in a watermelon, stick in a straw and let Tommy’s sounds carry you away to somewhere nice. Like Towradgi.

Hey Hey It's The Best Frickin' Saturday Ever

G’day Rolls,

Cruising the old Netscape Navigator is like panning for gold. In your scouting about you come across plenty of mud, but occasionally, just occasionally, you stumble upon a nugget of gold that leaves a little trickle running down your inner thigh. Well, old son, it’s safe to say that I was squelching in my boots when I found this little rip-snorter. It’s the grouseness for so many reasons – a pre-teen Saturday night institution, Darrel ‘The Head’ Sommers in his prime and Wollongong’s finest export (after you and I, of course) fuzzing it up like it was 1996.

Prepare for a musical boner.

Brisbane's only got one Ball

G’day Rolls,

Thought it high time I get some solid Aussie goodness up on the blog, and it don’t come much denser than Rollerball. Thankfully, the fine chaps have compiled this little gem of a clip, which is grouse, because getting any kind of finger to keyboard action is frickin’ tough going at the minute.

Let there be Ball:

Back in black. And hot pink, with white trim

G'day Rolls,

It has been a while, old son. Too long, in fact. And there’s only one way to bounce back from such a hiatus, and that’s with some serious riffage. So, strap into that four wheeler behind your desk and lube up your eardrums. Here comes a double dose of the good stuff…

Get down to the countdown

G’day Rolls,

What was that? ‘Long live the list!’ Hells yeah! And what better way to keep the list alive than by bunging up the week’s top 5 tunes. I’ll be honest, there’s every chance they won’t be the freshest sounds doing the rounds, just grouseness that gets my foot kicking the shagpile.

The plan is to refresh the list every week, that way, you’re guaranteed a countdown at least once every seven days. Shimmy!

5. Natural’s Not In It – Gang of Four
   (A Brief History of the 20th Century)

4. The Under Dog – Tommy Guerrero
   (From the Soil to the Soul)

3. Going Steady – Death From Above 1979
   (You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine)

2. Rock-N-Rol’e – Brant Bjork
   (Keep Your Cool)

1. Mongoose – Fu Manchu
   (California Crossing)

You’ll feel this one, Rolls, old son.

No regular John

G'day Rolls,

You can't possibly have a credible blog about loose tunes without paying tribute to the voice of desert rock, John Garcia. I fondly recall a childhood spent rolling around on my skateboard, sippin' Slurpees and smashing bootlegged Kyuss cassettes on the ol' walkman.  Thems certainly were the days.

So, in the spirit of long necks and sticky index fingers, I thought I'd list my ten favourite Johnny G moments, spanning a few of the deadly rad bands he's lent his chops to. Here goes:

10. Our Desert Home - Hermano

9.  Fatso Forgotso - Kyuss 

8.  Un Sandpiper - Kyuss

7.  The Prizefighter - Slo Burn

6.  Exam Room - Hermano

5.  If Only Two - Unida

4.  Conan Troutman - Kyuss

3.  Cain - Unida

2.  Freedom Run - Kyuss

And number one:

Billy on the boil

G'day Rolls,

You and me are similar in many ways. We love tunes. We love chicks. We love chicks who play tunes. We love chicks who play tunes raw.

Well, Bill Withers isn't a chick, but he does dig 'em. He also likes his tunes raw, as you'll witness in this performance of 'Use Me'. It's got heart. It's got soul. It's got a dude playing drums in his pyjamas. That's raw.

The other thing that makes this a ripper of a performance is Billy's orange skivvy. You see, any normal dude clad in the same get-up would have keeled over from heat stroke half way through a song like this. But not Billy. His bionic self-cooling system lets him belt out soul-drenched classics, while shedding only a few beads of sweat. Smooth as.

Let there be Bon

G'day Rolls,

I was kicking back the other day, mapping out the Shadows Cast stage routine in my head (well, what the Shadows Cast stage routine will be once I've left the bedroom and found the necessary band members), and I soon realised that what I needed was a gimmick. A rock 'n' roll gimmick. Not a tacky gimmick. A straight-up, legit, I'll smack you in the chops if you laugh at me gimmick. AC/DC.

You see, there aren't too many grown men, let alone rock 'n' rollers, who could squeeze into a pair of duds that their mum bought them when they were 12. And if you think I'm talking about Angus's school uniform, guess again. What I'm talking about are the super skinny, waist-high, ball chokers Bon is stiff-legging around the stage in here in this frickin awesome live rendition of Sin City. Hats off to you, Bon. If there's one serving of meat and potatoes I don't mind poking me in the eye, it's yours, old son.

Circulation is overrated anyway.

Nothing to worry about

G'day Rolls,

I was cruising the Tube again and stumbled upon this little gem. It's Clutch, it's rockin' and it's off their latest record, From Beale Street to Oblivion. Get your grubbies on it. If you don't, Neil Fallon will come after you with those crazy eyes and glare at you until you do. They say even Chuck Norris bought the record just to avoid a stare-off. That's respect. 

Oh yeah, one more thing, keep an eye out for the dude eating the harmonica. He is rock.

The track is called 'Electric Worry'. Smash it up.

A little cola?

G'day Rolls,

I dug up this little rip-snorter, filmed at our very own Big Day Out. Actually, I think this was the year I drunkenly whizzed on the back of some dude's legs in the main arena. Good thing he was wearing footy socks.

Anyway, Josh Homme deserves his own dashboard figurine, suction capped up there next to Jesus and The King. Yeah!

Rockin' Rolls

Good bloke, my mate, Rolls. Biggest music fan I know, and really the inspiration for this blog. You see, one day, Rolls and I were strong-arming a couple of ambers, shooting the breeze (quite literally, I recall, as he'd just farted) when I had a revelation. I needed another beer and Rolls, a lemonade shandy. As I returned from the bar, shandies in hand (I wanted to see what all the fuss was about...no, really), I had another revelation. Rolls was going to get a blog dedicated to his love of tunes. Look, I know there are a squillion trillion blogs about music, but riddle me this, are any of them dedicated to my mate, Rolls? No. None. Until now.

So, Rolls, old son, here she is. She's not looking too flash at the minute, but give it time. This will be a space of big riffs, poor punctuation and less than funny humour. Couldn't ask for much more really.