The Cairo Gang is Emmett Kelly; American based guitar-slinger and songwriter extraordinaire. Emmett is also one half of The Double and sideman to both Ty Segall and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. Master Kelly is in town for his Sydney & Melbourne appearances with The Double (also featuring Jim White) and will perform his Melbourne exclusive Cairo Gang show as support to the Scientists on October 28th at the Corner Hotel and for a free headline show on October 19th @ The Tote. Grab a taste of The Cairo Gang here.

“ … the first two Saints albums are brilliant records — if you listen to them, they’re not a punk-rock band, they’re like a really souped-up garage-rock band, toss in some horns– that’s some pretty interesting stuff.” – Keith Morris (Black Flag / OFF!)

The success of Ed Kuepper’s largely sold-out Solo & By Request national tour has been carried over into The Aints Play The Saints (’73 – ‘78) national tour with the news that their show at Melbourne’s Caravan Music Club joins the Sydney Factory Theatre show in being sold-out! But wait there’s more; due to demand Sunday 26th November has been set aside for a new performance at iconic Queensland venue Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast. Tickets on-sale Friday 1st September via aussieworld.com. And in related news all support acts have now been confirmed and include appearances by Harry Howard, Mick Medew, The Breadmakers and The Living Eyes. Full details here.

Rehearsals for The Aints have begun! Ed Kuepper, Sunnyboys Peter Oxley and Alister Spence and Paul Larsen (The Celibate Rifles / The New Christs) will be joined by a 3-piece brass section for all shows while Herr Kuepper his self will be working with the (Tym) Club 76 guitar pedal custom designed by the amazing Tyms Guitars, Brisbane. Says Ed “The Tym Club 76 pedal is a beautiful sounding reverse engineered version of my fairly unique first run MXR Distortion plus pedal from 1974. It sounds the same … the real deal.”Continue reading →

Meantime the Ed Kuepper Solo & By Request shows are making some noise of their own with two sold-out shows in Nambour prompting a third & final show on the afternoon of Saturday August 12th August. Bellingen too is on the move with Saturday 19th August sold-out – a second show on the afternoon of August 20th has been added there.Continue reading →

We’re not generally prone to falling for sensationalist headlines but in this instance … “I take no satisfaction in any American going hungry. Knowing that a lot of the people who voted for Trump might face grim challenges because of this kick-ass conservative belt-tightening, it is of no interest to me to remind them what they signed up for. All I can think about is an elderly person being hungry and frightened, and it makes me sick.” Read the full Henry think-piece here.

Undertones bass player, author of Teenage Kicks (My Life As An Undertone) and BBC radio producer Michael Bradley – via The Guardian – provides a guided tour of The Undertones birthplace, Derry Ireland. Check here for the sites that begat such Undertones classics as Teenage Kicks, Get Over You, My Perfect Cousin, and You’ve Got My Number. Michael and his four Undertones brothers tour Australia for the first time this July. Tickets are on-sale now!