June 6, 2009

BRISBANE RADIO ADDS SUPPORT

"All Your Love" tracks "Spinning Wheel" and "Another Girl Another Planet" featured on the Subterranea show on 4ZZZ-FM last night. Thanks to hosts Judy Jetson and Poly Phonic and look for a studio interview with them and Mick Medew in the near future.

KLONDIKE'S NORTH 40 GETS GLOWING RAZORCAKE REVIEW

The folks at Razorcake are pretty discerning so it counts when they give the Klondike's North 40 album "The Straight Path" a stellar write-up. "Sometimes a 'legend' comes through." read more here.


May 18, 2009

MELBOURNE AIRPLAY

Cheers to Maria Sokriatis of Melbourne radio station 3CR for giving the title track of "All Your Love" a spin last week. 4RRR's Judy Jestson did the same in Brisbane. Good onya Judy!

May 12, 2009

SYDNEY RUMOURS LAUNCH

The Sydney launch of "All Your Love" by Mick Medew & The Rumours is at The Vanguard, Newtown, on Sunday, June 7. Special guest are the reformed Decline Of The Reptiles and Ghost Valley. Order tickets online here. Brisbane launch to-be-announced.

May 9, 2009

ORDER "ALL YOUR LOVE"

Order your copy of "All Your Love" by Mick Medew & The Rumours. It ships postage-paid for $A24.99 in Australia and $A27.99 if you're overseas. We're previewing the title track and "ready To Fall" on our Downloads page.

Reactions to a pre-release promo for radio of the title track have been positive with the song debuting this week on Dixiegrrl's "Hanging On For Mercy" podcast on the Garagepunk Network. Sounds great alongside Silver Apples, Radio Birdman and Shocking Blue.

May 4, 2009

IT SOUNDS HOT!

We have the master in our hands. Here's the Rumours album tracklist and the cover art:

Spinning Wheel (Mick Medew)
When The Wood Is Brown (Mick Medew/Tony Cardinal)
All Your Love (Mick Medew)
Ready to Fall (Mick Medew/Ron Peno)
Overdo Everything (Mick Medew)
Way Down Low (Mick Medew)
Start The Show (Ash Geary)
Another Girl Another Planet (The Only Ones)
Mary Jane (Mick Medew)


May 2, 2009

"ALL YOUR LOVE" - MICK MEDEW & THE RUMOURS

The title of the new Mick Medew & The Rumours album is "All Your Love". There'll be a radio-only single of the title track going out so keep your ears open. The album includes a co-write with Mick Medew and his old bandmate from The 31st Ron Peno called "Ready To Fall" and a stinging cover of The Only Ones' "Another Girl Another Planet". We'll announce the release date next week.


February 13, 2008

iNTERCONTINENTAL PLAYBOYS JOIN THE LABEL

I-94 Bar Records are toasting the signing of Australia¹s leading exponents of suave voodoo garage rock and roll, The Intercontinental Playboys.

The Playboys have been treading the boards in their home country for the last decade, winning a reputation as one of the hardest-working outfits on the underground garage scene. Their new album, 'Hymns of The Flesh', was conceived over mint juleps on the terrace of a decaying plantation mansion while the Playboys were on holiday in Louisiana.

Plans to lay down tracks at a resort in Bermuda were dashed when visa irregularities and a paternity suit (settled out of court) had them turned away at the border. The Playboys do their best work in the dark anyway and recording had them locked away in catacombs underneath Tardis Studios, at Marrickville in Sydney's Inner-Western Delta, for the best part of a year.

It was serious business, fuelled by hard liquor (shaken, not stirred) and Cuban cigars. The Playboys even undertook a vow of abstinence, eschewing pleasures of the flesh to conserve bodily fluids and maintain a pure focus on the sessions.

Post-production, guitarist Benedict Van Der Smuts applied a series of experimental electro-magnetic sound treatments to the finished tape, which was passed through a bath of animal blood blessed by a Haitian voodoo priest.

The result is "Hymns of the Flesh", which treads a similar path to one established by their debut, "Ladies, May We Introduce Ourselve"', and then deepened by 2005's "Sonic Seducer"', but has a whole new bag of hooks thrown in.

While it's true that the Playboys still mine that rich Œ60s musical stream first tapped by the Cramps, the Music Machine, Question Mark & the Mysterians and the Fuzztones, they apply their own skewed vision.

Working without a safety net (or bass player), they apply thick layers of organ (Michelangelo Alluro) and fuzz (Benedict Van Der Smuts) to an irresistible rock and roll beat (Lorenzo-Bob de Chauvel), upon which charismatic frontman Tom Von Spatula lays down his sermons.

The Intercontinental Playboys rock like the house band from the Island of Dr Morpheus with a chronic fuzz fetish.

Theirs' is a hypnotic but probing sound that¹s won many hearts down the years, and the Playboys have supported the likes of Rocket Science, You Am I, The Strokes, T-Model Ford, The Monarchs, Freddy Negro, Penny Ikinger, the Persian Rugs and JJ Speedball.

"Hymns of the Flesh" will be released in mid-2009 with the band playing selective shows until then and a more extensive run of shows thereafter

.

http://myspace.com/intercontinentalplayboys


January 10, 2009

RUMOURS IN HOME STRETCH

Mick Medew & the Rumours are putting the finishing touches to the last batch of songs for their as yet untitled album. Recording at Black Box Studio in Brisbane under the expert hand of Jeff Lovejoy last weekend went smoothly. Finals mixes and mastering and it's done.



October 14, 2008

MICK MEDEW & THE RUMOURS

I-94 Bar Records is delighted to announce the signing of Brisbane band Mick Medew & The Rumours.

The Rumours have been an off-and-on concern in their hometown for five years, scoring some choice supports but only recently landing themselves in the studio to cut their debut album.

Featuring one half of The Screaming Tribesmen and two guys who should have been there all along, The Rumours are everything you remember and hold dear about good rock 'n' roll guitar music: hooks, chops and melody.

Vocalist-guitarist Mick Medew is one of Brisbane's underground rock and roll elder statesmen with a history spanning the internationally-signed Tribesmen, seminal legends The 31st and more recently The Bluebirds.

Guitarist Ash Geary was a member of latter-day Tribesmen line-ups and '90s blues-rockers The Lost Boys and also plays with Brisbane-via-The Bowery gutter punks JJ Speedball.

The engine room is manned by Paul Hawker on bass and newcomer Adam Cole on drums.

Their as yet untitled album is being recorded at Black Box Studios in Brisbane under the production hand of friend Jeff Lovejoy and is scheduled for release in late 2008 or early '09.

The Rumours' sound isn't a million miles away from that of the Screaming Tribesmen - Mick's distinctive vocal and the well-honed twin-guitar Medew-Geary crunch inevitably make it so - but there's a little more more room to move in the songs.

Citing a long list of influences including MC5, Thin Lizzy, Roky Erickson, Blue Oyster Cult, the New York Dolls, David Bowie, The Dictators and Manitoba's Wild Kingdom, The Rumours recall all those touchstones but apply their own take.

Mick Medew & The Rumours join Klondike's North 40 (featuring Hitmen and ex-Radio Birdman guitarist Chris Masuak) on I-94 Bar Records.

They'll support the Hitmen on selected dates of that band's "Monkeys Gone Wild" national tour with gigs at Coolangatta Hotel on the Gold Coast on November 28 and The Living Room in Brisbane on November 29.

More information and an unmastered song:

http://myspace.com/rivercityrumours

March 19, 2008

KN40 ON THE AIRWAVES

Scads of airplay happening for Klondike's North 40 around the world with strong support from Austria, Germany, France and now Canada. Winnipeg campus radio station CKUW is airing the album on its "New and The Notable" program and Jeff Monk of Uptown magazine wrote a glorious review which says in part: "Bouncing from mid-tempo rockers to poignant burners, KN40 delivers in spades. This could be one of the top albums of this, or any, year".

Read it in full here.

January 15, 2008

RAVE'S RAVE

First review is in from Brisbane. This is from street paper Rave:

My uncle tells me these bands were great

Led by Radio Birdman guitarist Chris ‘Klondike’ Masuak it’s no wonder that Klondike’s North 40 have managed to create this rocking power-pop album. Although the melodically abundant guitars make this album, the other musicians are also of respectable musical backgrounds.

Helping to rebuild a sound dissolved over time is Scott Morgan from the legendary Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, Angie Pepper of The Passengers and John Rooney from Orange Humble Band and The Lonleyhearts – all on the mic!

Generally the vocal performances get the job done, with layered vocals you don’t really hear much anymore. However, the lyrics are rather basic. The drums, keyboards and bass are adequate too, yet one can’t help but feel that they’re there to give the guitars a break every once a while. That isn’t a bad thing of course, because obviously this is a guitar album, and when that’s taken into account it’s a very decent one. - DAVID FANNON

Melbourne's Beat magazine is fullsome in its praise:

Chris ‘Klondike’ Masuak is probably best known as guitarist with Radio Birdman. Beyond this notable aspect of his ancestry, Masuak was a founding member of the recently reformed The Hitmen (which provided the basis for the first line-up of the New Christs) turned up in the latter-era Screaming Tribesmen, and member of the surf combo The Raouls and blues-influenced The Juke Savages.

Masuak’s latest musical escapade is Klondike’s North 40, an outfit closer to his rock roots, but with plenty of subtle variation. Released on the fledgling I94 Bar Records (the progeny of the I94 Bar webzine), The Straight Path sees Masuak joined by a few former Juke Savages cohorts, with guest vocals from Angie Pepper (Passengers), Scott Morgan (Sonic’s Rendezvous Band) and John Rooney (Orange Humble Band).

Masuak is at his best when he’s in rocking mode – Sounds of Wailing (a comment on violent conflicts across the world) is propelled by a tight beat and a characteristically effusive Masuak solo, the poppish fast rock of Recipe for Disaster is reminiscent of the Hitmen in its earliest guise (the opening lick brings to mind Midnight Oil’s Bus to Bondi), Original Sin (featuring Morgan on vocals, and co-written by Deniz Tek) has a set of classy rock’n’roll hooks Bunnings would be well advise to keep in stock and Angie Pepper’s too-often neglected vocals give a lease of life to Traffic Jam that might otherwise have been ignored. Sad Sad Prison illustrates Masuak’s ongoing affection for the blues and Stupid Planet is arguably the most honest appraisal of the failings that plague the global environment.

There’s a few bonus tracks thrown in for good measure, including the Hendrix influenced Voodoo Weatherman and Masuak’s bluesy ode to gas guzzling American behemoths, Big Finned Cruiser. Chris Masuak is unlikely to escape the ‘member of ...’ genealogical introduction, but with The Straight Path he’s proved that he’s got plenty to say for himself. - PATRICK EMERY

January 7, 2008

Lindsay Hutton of The Next Big Thing blog (and ex the zine of the same name) has this to say about The Straight Path:

The esteemed Antipodean info-portal is now a label and what better way to kick off such a venture than with Chris Masuak's current outfit. I know that most of you folks of a certain vintage are familiar with this guy's guitar slinging prowess. However, there may be readers that fell by here by accident so let's address that possibility. Chris is the Australian Ross The Boss and Scott Kempner sort of rolled into one. His work with The Hitmen (Shock has just reissued two sets to prove it) and Radio Birdman is the stuff of legend. Heck, he was even on the Manitoba's Wild Kingdom album. We're not dealing with chopped liver here.

Several generations of rock'n'roll kudos are wrapped up in all this. Old and in the way but positively bustling with that trademark stringbending. "Recipe for Disaster" takes place in the good old Four Winds bar. A tale of a bona fide catastrophe. "The Straight Path" is a head-banging example of a man wearing his indulgences well. It might introduce younger folks to these at the same time as it pushes the buttons for those of us who miss those rolls in the thunder. BOC fans will find much to transport them back to their old haunt. Screamin' dizbuster cocktails all round.

The place where this would work most effectively is presumably in a club, louder than hell in a churchlike environment. The surf/metal cut and shut of "Gershwin May Consider" is a prime example of what is and always shall be the holy grail of our raison d'être here at this cyber rag.

December 22, 2007

Another glowing review in Sydney street paper Drum Media:

Transplanted Canadian guitarist Chris ‘Klondike’ Masuak has a couple of places in Australian rock. Perhaps unfairly, he’s been relegated to second banana status behind Deniz Tek’s pyrotechnics in Radio Birdman. Other names on the CV include the recently reactivated Hitmen, the New Christs and best line-ups of The Screaming Tribesmen.

He’s always deserved better than mere sideman status, his playing almost always muscular and melodic, and with some pop sense – though that’s pop as ion The Flamin’ Groovies model, rather than Abba.

It’s a shame for a number of reasons he hasn’t put out a record under his own name this century such is his reputation and skill. If anything, that means he’s maybe trying to fit too much into this album. So here he goes from gas pedal down hard rock road tune of Recipe For Disaster to the eight-minute workout of the appallingly punned Traffic Jam, with the still magical voice of The Passengers’ Angie Pepper spiralling through it.

Classic Detroit-style Volga Boatmen backing vocals arch in throughout and Masuak’s own voice has just enough roughness in it to fit., though the guest singers like Pepper and Sonic’s Rendezvous’ Scott Morgan seem to be getting plugged a little more than necessary. In basic live line-up, the North 40 is a more than serviceable power trio of good order, though even in that guise now Masuak has handed on the vocal duties.

It growls, it twists, it goes alright. – ROSS CLELLAND

December 20, 2007

A great review in Germany's leading zine, The Ox, can be found online here. For the non-German speakers, here's a translation:

When the right album comes along we each to the label boss – Thus to the man from Australian Webzine I-94 Bar. Conviction has one Chris ‘Klondike’ Masuak the Mastermind from KLONDIKE’S NORTH 40, formerly of Canada (hence the name) now Australian immigrant sideman and Guitarist playing with diverse bands from Down Under of Rank and Name: : RADIO BIRDMAN, THE HITMEN, THE NEW CHRISTS, SCREAMING TRIBESMEN, THE JUKE SAVAGES, THE RAOULS ... With KLONDIKE'S NORTH 40 he has however entirely his own specific Band, playing Guitar and Singing as well as self producing (besides Rob Younger’s half) The Music? Refreshingly clear cross section of all the above mentioned bands partnered with almost poppy Aussie-Rock, balanced with solid distortion and partnered with a high pitched Masuak. An all round pleasing work for all those purchasing, and embracing the above mentioned bands. (Joachim Hiller)

November 22, 2007

The Klondike's North 40 album"The Straight Path" is in Australian stores now. Band leader Chris "Klondike" Masuak featured in a segment with Kev Lobotomi on Melbourne's 3PBS-FM, details of which you can read here.

The first review of the album is up at the I-94 Bar. Incestuous, we know, but no money changed hands, we swear...

17 September, 2007

Read all about the forthcoming release in Sydney street paper The Brag here.