Vive Le Rock - Looking Sharpie....

For those about to read - we salute you: rock. rollers and rumblers - fill your bovver boots with the latest Vive Le Rock - an Aussie special, featuring a piece from you know who on the Australian/NZ only Yoof Cult - Sharpies...

Dig around the back pages you'll also find me giving a critical ear to  Johnny Thunders live L.A.M.F. A couple of reviews submitted, which didn't make the final edit due to space issues were - Beat Bespoke 6 and the Memphis Dawls - but nothing goes to waste, so dig in below


Le Beat Bespoké 6 
Detour Records 
7/10 
Turn on, tune in, freak out - Underground, overground rumbling free

The essence of Beat Bespoké volume 6 straddles the 67-72 era when mods became rockers, rockers turned hippy and hippies got heavy. The mood of these freshly-picked finds is one of frizzy hair, fuggy clubs, open air freak-outs and underground festivals. From the fuzzy stoner rock of Jerry Holmes ‘I’m The Man’ and Spontaneous Generation’s ‘Purple Purple’ to Chris Rayburn’s ‘One Way Ticket’ with its thumping drums and Are You Being Served strings, to the in-kraut sound of Marian Ruxell’s ‘It’s So Much The Better’ and the galloping garage of The Tears ‘Rat Race’ - BB6 gathers together a collection of heavy mod, garage nuggets and psych pop that wouldn’t sound out of place on the Dracula AD 72 soundtrack. A new addition to an already healthy back catalogue, and where the New Untouchables begin to give Psychic Circle's Instro Hipster series a run for their money





Memphis Dawls - Rooted to the Bone 
Madjack Records 
7/10 
Hello Dawlies – potent debut from the Jack White endorsed all-girl trio

For all of its broad country trimmings and western trappings, echoing from The Carter Family and Tammy Wynette to The Handsome Family and Doc Watson, scratch beneath the surface of the Memphis Dawls Sun Studio recorded album and I wouldn’t be surprised to find a broader book of influences subtly colouring the collection that makes up Rooted to the Bone. ‘Liar’ has the soulful horns and harmonies of Aretha in Alabama for her Muscle Shoals sessions ‘Skin Like a Cage’ could be an Allen Toussaint twist on Bacharach and David standard. While the American Gothic of ‘Shadows’ shuffles with a dark-hearted gumbo groove. And ‘Please Don't Leave Me’ takes a transatlantic hop to tap up Kate Bush, Bridget St John and The Beatles. An album of folk-soaked confessionals and galloping cowgirl anthems with a pop sensibility that saddles it somewhere between Gillian Welch and Aimee Mann