Steve Kilbey: During the early days of Covid 19, I met a guy called Julian who asked me to be in a short silent film he was making called ‘Space Junk’. ‘Space Junk’ was about a stranger (moi) who comes to a remote-ish Australian town during the pandemic and has a number of adventures including aliens and angry villagers and other various kinds of weirdness.

The film got kinda finished and had a couple of screenings in a room but then seemed to be abandoned and never properly completed. Julian then repurposed it for a musical about a washed-up and ageing rockstar called Lord Jim (moi again) who takes a strange crew off to Tibooburra searching for his comeback.

Julian asked me to write all of the songs for the musical, which I did and enjoyed doing too. I recorded them all with a wonderful band of players who also appear on my albums 11 Women and The Hall of Counterfeits, whom I dubbed the Winged Heels.

Well then after sitting in the can for ages I have decided to release this weird collection of tunes. They are in no particular order so you’ll just have to figure it all out for yourself. Or just make up your own plot and story and sit back and enjoy. I have also thrown into the mix some contemporaneous songs I was working on with the Heels at the time but I now look upon them as perhaps part of the musical and let you try to make some sense of all this.

Steve Kilbey, band singer, songwriter, bassist, painter, writer, poet, actor, sage, dispenser of
arcane wisdom is one of Australia’s most loved artists.

The popular song “Under the Milky Way” won the “Best Single of the Year” award at the
Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awards event in 1989. For his work with
The Church, Kilbey then accepted, together with his bandmates, an induction into the ARIA
Hall of Fame.

Steve got his first bass guitar at age 16, joined a band at 18 and went on to form a number of different groups before forming The Church in 1980. He has gone on to release many solo albums and collaborations with recording artists from around the globe.

“Kilbey’s solo recordings are challenging and evocative. . . joyous and dreamy to saturnine
and sardonic” – Ian McFarlane.

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Gareth Koch and All India Radio Release ‘Song For Philip Glass’

February 20, 2025 Marshall Cullen

Philip Glass looms large as a pioneer & exponent of the minimalist movement in 20th century music. In ‘Song for Philip Glass’ Gareth recorded a series of repeated sequences to emulate the Glass style, gradually adding layers of classical guitar, acoustic guitar & bass. Each of the sequences is preserved throughout the track & the layering of new motifs, or ‘riffs’, generates the evolution of the track. ‘Song for Philip Glass’ seeks to evoke the spirit of the composer’s work, while integrating pop, folk & ambient music styles.

Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a sizeable repertory across multiple genres spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects, rock & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.

All India Radio have created shimmering aural edifices that cross genres across 30+ releases since the late 1990s. All India Radio albums have featured cameos from many of Kennedy’s favourites: Steve Kilbey (The Church), prog metal legend Devin Townsend, Ed Kuepper (The Saints), Graham Lee (The Triffids), and David Bridie (Not Drowning Waving). Martin’s music has featured in CSI, One Tree Hill, The Lying Game, Emmerdale, Bondi Rescue and many more.

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The Mezcaltones Release Single ‘City Lights’

February 13, 2025 Marshall Cullen

Don’t worry if you missed their sell out run at Tamworth Music Festival last month , you can catch The Mighty Mezcaltones at any of the following dates:

The latest single ‘City Lights’ from The Mezcaltones’ fifth studio album is Chapter One of ‘The Trials of Don and Jenny’. This swampy tune about north coast surfers visiting the emerald city is a cautionary tale about moths and flames.

Northern Beaches Band The Mezcaltones perform regularly at Sydney venues – The Orient (The Rocks), Marrickville Bowlo, Collaroy Beach Club, Brighton RSL to name a few. They have also performed at eight Tamworth Country Music Festivals; Groundwater CMF; Blues on Broadbeach; Sydney Blues & Roots Festival; Dashville Skyline Festival; and Greazefest.

Their last album ‘Agave Soirée’ entered the Australian Blues and Roots airplay charts at #7 before spending five months embedded in the Top 20. The band are putting the finishing touches to their fifth album ‘Big Hat No Cattle’, scheduled for release in March.

Their sound can be difficult to describe – mixing original songs with rare tracks you might find on Robert Rodriguez/Tarantino movies or B-Grade 60’s Sci-Fi Flicks the guitars are richly infused with surf tones and 60’s Twang served up with a healthy dose of Cowpunk brashness. One booker described them as “Mexican Hillbilly Surf Music”. One punter said “lf Johnny Cash surfed he’d have sounded like you guys”.

Their atics are captivating. The band is fronted by vocalist Col Padre (who engages in tongue in cheek choreography) and dancer/singer/percussionist Mimi. Mimi is renowned for her routines involving gymnastic ribbons used as whips, hula hoops, fans and whatever else she can lay her hands on. Big Daddy K from 2RRR’S Sydney Sounds show described the Mezcaltones as the best live band in Sydney.

The costumes make for an outstanding visual – four guys dressed as party hire Cowboys and two girls dressed as Spanish gunslingers with several minor costume changes throughout the show involving masks, veils and mirror shades. Sounds corny… sure is.