Author Archives: dan

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters

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Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters

Dead Kennedys

Plastic Surgery Disasters

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/1575148-Dead-Kennedys-Plastic-Surgery-Disasters

Year Of Release: 1982

Review

Dead Kennedys is one of my favourite punk bands of all time, and this is probably my favourite album from them. Which is unusual, as I owned copies of both Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables and the excellent compilation Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death before I owned this one, but this one is still my favourite. It might be a question of time passing and having some more opportunities to listen to the album. Dan, what are you on about? Let me explain. I first owned Plastic Surgery Disasters on cassette, and not long after I bought it, my cassette player chewed up some of the tape. Fortunately, I was able to unscrew the shell and cut out the chewed up tape and re-tape it. Whilst I was able to save the cassette, it did mean that Trust Your Mechanic always sounded messed up, as did Bleed For Me (on Side B). I’ve since purchased a copy on CD and a vinyl pressing and am thus able to listen to the album more frequently. The joys of fragile cassettes!

Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters cassette

In any case, this is a brilliant hardcore punk album, and one that I think stands up well over forty years later. And I’m not the only one to think that – there’s a great (and gushing) review over here. Dead Kennedys is, and always has been, an absolutely fascinating band. And whilst I’m sad that Jello and the rest of the band could never work out the issues they had, I’m beyond stoked that they managed to put out what they did in the brief period they were making records together.

Standout tracks on this one are the aforementioned Trust Your Mechanic, Terminal Preppie, Halloween, and Riot. Special mention goes to Moon Over Marin, still one of my favourite DKs tracks, and one that I play at least once a week. I haven’t posted a photo of the cover – but you can see it here if you really want to.

Rating: 9.5/10

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – Shootyz Groove – Jammin In Vicious Environments

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Shootyz Groove - Jammin In Vicious Environments

Shootyz Groove

Jammin In Vicious Environments

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/2402222-Shootyz-Groove-Jammin-In-Vicious-Environments

Year Of Release: 1994

Review

I was fortunate enough to see Shootyz Groove perform live in 1995 at Le Théâtre Barbey in Bordeaux, supporting downset. They were amazing live, and I very happily bought their live EP on CD from the merch table.

Sadly, I don’t have a lot of information to share about the band, but I do know that things didn’t last as long as they perhaps should have, and the band never seemed to reach the heights that they possibly should have either. It’s almost as if they were about five years too early to gain mainstream (or at least broader) acceptance. But I remember there was some great rap / rock crossover happening in the early to mid-90s, and Shootyz Groove deserve to be mentioned among the big names like downset., Rage Against The Machine, Dog Eat Dog, and the like.

This is a fun album, and is one that is best played loud. I had a copy on tape for many years before tracking down a CD version and, eventually, a vinyl pressing (thank you Japanese record sellers with reasonable shipping prices and a Yen in decline). Standout tracks are Respect, In The Ocean, Soulfreak, Walkin’ In The Fog, and R.I.T.W. If you can get hold of this album, and you like rap / rock crossover bands from New York, and songs about disco cigarettes, I think you’ll really enjoy this album.

Shootyz Groove - JIVE cassette

Rating: 9/10

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – Def Leppard – Hysteria

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Def Leppard - Hysteria

Def Leppard

Hysteria

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/10660430-Def-Leppard-Hysteria

Year Of Release: 1987

Review

I was given a copy of this album on cassette for Christmas in 1987. I was still at primary school, but starting to appreciate the finer things in life, like hair metal. And this album really delivers when it comes to that. I’ve not purchased a Def Leppard album since – why push your luck when you’ve already found perfect?

I didn’t know much about Def Leppard back then, and I’m still woefully ignorant. I did hear something about the drummer’s accident around the time, but will likely still go to Hell for giggling hysterically when I first heard it referenced in Bloodhound Gang’s Why’s Everybody Always Pickin’ On Me? There’s something about the British metal bands – they seemed really prominent in my youth. But that might just be because down here in the colonies we’re raised on more British than American fare.

Lyrically, there’s not a lot going on here, but that’s perfect for this kind of album. Pour Some Sugar On Me? Super catchy track, but no idea why anybody would pour sugar on someone. Other stuff, sure, but sugar? Is it a euphemism? We’ll never know. I didn’t understand then, and don’t really understand now. Even Kurt Loder noted in his Rolling Stone review that this album struggled with lyrics, but that didn’t matter. What matters is that this album is filled with tracks that you’ve likely already heard, and maybe even sung and danced to.

Standouts for me are the aforementioned Pour Some Sugar On Me, as well as Rocket, Women, Hysteria, Love Bites, Animal, and Gods Of War. It’s a fun album, and one that I still have on semi-regular rotation.

Rating: 8/10

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – AC/DC – Blow Up Your Video

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AC/DC - Blow Up Your Video

AC/DC

Blow Up Your Video

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/16120715-ACDC-Blow-Up-Your-Video

Year Of Release: 1988

Review

I have no idea why AC/DC is as popular as it is. I mean, it’s honest, blue-collar rock and roll, but a lot of it sounds the same (according to my wife). I do know that anytime I travel overseas, people ask me about them. The French seem to really love them. “Australien? AC/DC?” Oui, oui. Regardless, I enjoy listening to them from time to time, but I’m a casual (albeit staunch) supporter at best. I was first introduced to them in primary school via the father of my best friend at the time (shout out to Richard). I remember watching the back catalogue of music videos on Rage one night at a sleepover at his house. I was young, but I knew this is what rock and roll was all about.

I had limited exposure to the early stuff (only coming to appreciate it much later), but I do remember on my 12th birthday my parents gave me a John Farnham LP. I received some of the folding stuff from friends and family and went down to Chandlers to pick up a copy of Blow Up Your Video. The second side promptly got a scratch on it (during Nick Of Time) and it wasn’t until around 2020 that I picked up a new pressing. My parents’ turntable was quite unforgiving when it came to dishing out punishment for careless operation.

If the Internet is to be believed, this is the last AC/DC album that Brian Johnson received a writing credit on. This album is all balls to the wall rock and roll, and standout tracks for me are the aforementioned Nick Of Time, Heatseeker, That’s The Way I Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll, and This Means War. Probably not the best AC/DC album out there, but it’s my favourite. I won’t be accepting questions at this time.

Rating: 8.5/10

Brisbane VMUG – September 2026

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The September 2026 edition of the Brisbane VMUG meeting will be held on Thursday 24th September at Christie’s, 320 Adelaide Street, Brisbane from 4pm to 5:30pm. It’s sponsored by Canonical and Broadcom and promises to be a great afternoon.

Here’s the agenda:

VCF with Ubuntu (Peter Hauck – Broadcom and James Gill – Canonical)
Secure platform deployment with secure package management for the private cloud.
  • Secure Automated Deployments for Complex Workloads
  • Building custom secure VKS platform based on Ubuntu.
  • Ubuntu fun with Automation
Architecting for Failure: A Deep Dive into VMC on AWS’s Multi-AZ Resiliency (Dan Frith – Broadcom)
Multi-AZ SDDCs promise continuity when an Availability Zone goes dark – but what actually happens in the seconds and minutes after that failure domain disappears?
  • How a Multi-AZ SDDC distributes management and compute across independent failure domains, and how vSAN managed storage replication keeps data consistent across AZs before failure occurs.
  • VMC on AWS instance types
  • Roadmap (Version updates, vSAN enhancements, and more!)

Canonical and Broadcom have gone to great lengths to make sure this will be a fun and informative session. You can find out more information and register for the event here. I hope to see you there. Also, if you’re interested in sponsoring one of these events, please get in touch with me and I can help make it happen.

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – Bad Brains – I Against I

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Bad Brains - I Against I

Bad Brains

I Against I

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/31311003-Bad-Brains-I-Against-I

Year Of Release: 1986

Review

This is the perfect album. I know I’ve said that about a few albums on this weblog, but this one is really it – the perfect album. I was first introduced to Bad Brains via the older brother of a classmate in high school who loaned me a CD of I Against I in the early nineties. By that time, I’d heard Henry Rollins and Bad Brains perform a cover of Kick Out The Jams on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack, I’d seen some advertisements for Bad Brains albums in Thrasher Magazine, and I was hungry for more.

This album is a heady mix of fast-paced punk rawk mixed with riff-heavy melodies and all kinds of stuff in-between. This is a guitar-laden album unlike the earlier albums from Bad Brains, and H.R.’s vocals are something else (for more background on why – check out this article).

This was one of the first albums I bought on vinyl when I moved to Brisbane and had access to real record stores, and I’m so glad I did. It’s since been released in various colours and there’s a “Punk Note” edition as well (I love the Punk Note covers – they just seem really crisp).

Standout tracks on this one are all of them, but I Against I, House Of Suffering, She’s Calling You, and Sacred Love are probably my favourites. This is a true, no-skips album. 31 minutes and 53 seconds of everything you need to get on with your day. To get some idea of the energy the band brings, check out the various live clips on YouTube, and the music video for the title track is great too.

Rating: 10/10

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – Viagra Boys – Street Worms

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Viagra Boys - Street Worms

Viagra Boys

Street Worms

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/13414158-Viagra-Boys-Street-Worms

Year Of Release: 2018

Review

I wanted to start this review with a shout out to the KPunk podcast. It was hosted / curated / put together by Kevin Dunn (KD) and ran from 2007 until 2022. It was a great mix of classic punk and new punk and gave me an opportunity to rediscover classics I’d forgotten about, whilst also discovering new music. And each episode could fit on one side of a C90 cassette – which obviously had great appeal. I first heard Otoboke Beaver (a topic for another time) on this pod, and episodes 182 and 183 introduced me to the Viagra Boys tracks Just Like You and Sports.

The music video for Sports is also hilarious and absolutely worth checking out. Viagra Boys are a real treat to see play live, and you never know what you’re going to get on any given evening. The first time I saw them was at the Brightside in 2019 – a tiny (cosy?) venue in Brisbane – and there might not have been more than one or two hundred people there. It was a fantastic gig. I’ve been lucky enough to see them play once more since then. I gave my ticket to my little sister when they played here in early 2026, as she’d never seen them live. I recommend the experience if you haven’t had the opportunity.

If you can get a hold of the extended edition of this album, some of the bonus tracks will make the effort worthwhile. Standouts for me are Slow Learner, Jungle Man, and Beijing Taxi, along with the aforementioned Just Like You and Sports.

Rating: 9/10

Random Short Take #108

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Random short take #108. Looking for old news? You’ve come to the right place. Let’s get random.

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – Down By Law – Punkrockacademyfightsong

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Down By Law - Punkrockacademyfightsong

Down By Law

Punkrockacademyfightsong

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/master/130199-Down-By-Law-Punkrockacademyfightsong

Year Of Release: 1994

Review

Punkrockacademyfightsong is Down By Law’s third album, and the only one I knew about for quite some time. It’s not that I didn’t like it (or the band). On the contrary, I thought it was brilliant. But for whatever reason (mainly due to limited funds and other musical interests I was pursuing) I never really got around to examining the Down By Law catalogue until many years later. This album was another one of those ones my friend (RIP Fat Greg) recommended to me some time in 1995 or 1996. I had this one on a tape with Rancid’s Let’s Go on the B-Side and I think that was a nice combination.

It starts out with the blistering Punk Won and delivers a loud, raw, punk rawk album that is nonetheless melodic in places. The cover of The Proclaimers’ 500 Miles is extremely well done (“And if I haver, whatever the fuck that means”), despite the original being an insanely irritating song. But it’s tracks like Hit Or Miss, Flower Tattoo, Minusame, Punk As Fuck, and The King & I that really shine on this album. Besides the occasional short interlude, this album is all fast tracks and catchy lyrics. There aren’t many songs that you need to skip on this one, if any at all. It’s a great point in time snapshot of the California punk sound of the early to mid-nineties and I recommend you check it out (despite the Proclaimers cover).

Rating: 8.5/10

Sunday Afternoon Vinyl – Beowülf – 2 ¢

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Beowülf - 2 ¢

Beowülf

2 ¢

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/1541461-Beow%C3%BClf-2-

Year Of Release: 1995

Review

I know, I’m writing about a CD, not a vinyl release. I don’t think this album was ever pressed on vinyl. I remain hopeful that one of those shonky labels in Europe will take a run at putting an unofficial pressing out at some stage. I hadn’t really heard of Beowülf before a friend (RIP Fat Greg) gave me a copy of this CD to listen to some time in 1995 or 1996. I was a big fan of Suicidal Tendencies, so enjoying an album from one of the founding bands of the “Venice scene” probably wasn’t going to be a real stretch. But I was surprised by just how much this album kicks arse. The music is fast, the lyrics aren’t overly taxing, and there’s some positive messages buried in there.

You might be familiar with the title track 2 ¢ – it was featured at the start of the Tank Girl movie. I can’t for the life of me work out why it wasn’t included in the soundtrack. As tempting as it is to blame Courtney Love (“Executive Music Coordinator”), I don’t think it’s entirely her fault (if at all). There’s some chatter about possible limitations of soundtrack length at the time (because most everything was being produced for CD, rather than vinyl) but I don’t know if that’s it either. It might have been a licensing issue, or a result of the band somewhat imploding following the release of this album. It all happened before everyone’s business was all over the Internet, so there’s not a lot of information to be had about the real story.

In any case, this is a cracking 40-something minutes of thrash metal / punk rawk. Standout tracks are the aforementioned 2 ¢, Throw Your Rock, Bullet Hole, and Life Ain’t, Life’s Only. But this is really a no skips album. A little hard to get hold of, but worth it if you can find it.

Rating: 9/10