Valve Records

26/02/2025

A succession of deranged broligarchs addicted to a deranged scale of wealth - eat the planet.

I played a fictional billionaire on TV. It’s time world leaders got serious about taxing the real ones, says the actor Brian Cox

19/02/2025

We are on the precipice. Once the addict refuses to acknowledge their addiction as being an addiction then intervention is unlikely and it is all downhill as the infection rages... the cards have been dumped on the table so fast and hard the legs are buckling. Get me that fix!

Resilience and resistance comes in the form of community and care for others. Radical abundance. Prepare.

Go George... paint the picture that devolves in front of us.

It could be wildfires, a pandemic or a financial crisis. The super-rich will flee to their bunkers – the rest of us will have to fend for ourselves, writes columnist George Monbiot

18/02/2025

Stay tuned all right... and here included. Their greed for power and wealth knows no ends or decency... they know this is all coming to an end so the right bring their might to keep it coming their way like never before. They have started fining the homeless for being homeless... when their right wing inflected economic policies enervates financial distribution thus greater inequality that leads towards more destitution...
They claim insurance companies need to be broken up to bringing down the policy cost when it is their denialist inaction and the increasing international climate crises that is increasing the risk thus inflating the cost - large insurance companies at least can better absorb the financial shocks to some degree. There is nothing positive about their policies for the greater good of society, environment and climate. Stay aware and educated.

I’m far from certain that staying engaged will make a difference. What I do know is that if we all tune out, there’s no hope at all

17/02/2025

In a world where the arts will be cajoled, censured, censored and subjugated to the demands of corporate minded autocratic governments getting their cashed up claws on the world because their luxury of life is threatened by a failing unsustainable system... interesting to reflect on the story of the PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in the late 80s.

Banned and jailed under Czech communism, the Plastic People of the Universe helped to bring the regime down in 1989. Inspired by Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground, and friends with Vaclav Havel, their incredible 40-year history is one in which music and politics are inseparable

14/02/2025

LAST QUOKKA - SAVE OUR PUBS single out now.
https://consumevalve.bandcamp.com/track/save-our-pubs

PREORDER the album https://www.valverecords.com.au/shop/
VINYL HERE: https://www.valverecords.com.au/shop/product/last-quokka-take-the-fight-to-the-bastards-vinyl-pre-order/
CD HERE: https://www.valverecords.com.au/shop/product/last-quokka-take-the-fight-to-the-bastards-cd-pre-order/
CASSETTE HERE: https://www.valverecords.com.au/shop/product/last-quokka-take-the-fight-to-the-bastards-cassette-pre-order/
DIGITAL PRE-ORDER: https://ffm.to/takethefighttothebastards
BANDCAMP HERE: https://consumevalve.bandcamp.com/album/last-quokka-take-the-fight-to-the-bastards

See LAST QUOKKA on tour:

TOURING WIth DZ DEATHRAYS Weekend Warriors tour
FEB 13 – Bunbury PRINCE OF WALES and Pretty Uglys
FEB 14– Margaret River THE RIVER and Pretty Uglys
FEB 15 – Scarborough INDIAN OCEAN and Pretty Uglys

TOURING with THE PEEP TEMPLE
MAR 22 & 23 - Fremantle BUFFALO CLUB and Grub
MAR 29 - Sydney FACTORY THEATRE and The Melodrones
APR 4 & 5 - Melbourne CORNER HOTEL and Party Pest

As well as their own shows..
MAR 27 - Lismore METROPOLE HOTEL and GUSSET RATS and MA*****ST
MAR 28 - Brisbane PFR LOUNGE with GUSSET RATS and WHOROBOROS
MAR 30 - Sydney THE VANGUARD with O.M.R.
SUN 6 APR - Melbourne THE TOTEL HOTEL with guests

from the album LAST QUOKKA - Take the Fight to the Bastards

11/02/2025

Horses in full.

Singer will visit US, UK and Europe later this year alongside members of the original band who recorded the classic punk text

09/02/2025

LAST QUOKKA come out fightin' for your rights with latest album TAKE THE FIGHT TO THE BASTARDS. Out MAR 14 on vinyl, CD, cassette, digital through Valve/MGM. Pre-order details below.

Latest single SAVE OUR PUBS shakes it all up this coming FEB 14 - available streaming hot from all the best drinking spots you can dial your way into.

To complement this battle slab they take it all on the road with a menu of pit stops across these warming lands playing with the likes of DZ DEATHRAYS, THE PEEP TEMPLE, GUSSET RATS, MA*****ST and more - call it a National Tour 2025.

West Australian punks Last Quokka return with Save Our Pubs, the latest single off of their upcoming album Take The Fight To The Bastards, out via Valve Records. Save Our Pubs is a call to arms for all Australian (and un-Australian) beer drinkers, pool players, footy fans and chicken parmi lovers to save our most cherished cultural institution: the pub.

The big corporates are buying our pubs and turning them into gentrified yuppie wastelands, devoid of taste, character and good pub feeds, and Last Quokka are bloody sick of it. An impassioned Trent Rojahn takes aim at the new soulless bars with their plastic pints, lack of sticky carpets and overpriced soggy chips. His rants are backed up by a tightly wound and intense band who explode in the anthemic chorus to “save our institutions!” A message that surely even someone as thick as Peter Dutton could understand.

STREAMING here https://ffm.to/saveourpubs
BANDCAMP here https://consumevalve.bandcamp.com/track/save-our-pubs
and here https://lastquokka.bandcamp.com/

LAST QUOKKA - NATIONAL TOUR 2025
Touring with DZ DEATHRAYS Weekend Warriors tour WA
THUR 13 FEB - PRINCE OF WALES Bunbury
FRI 14 FEB- THE RIVER Margaret River
SAT 15 FEB - INDIAN OCEAN Scarborough

Touring with THE PEEP TEMPLE
SAT 22 MAR - BUFFALO CLUB Fremantle SOLD OUT
SUN 23 MAR - BUFFALO CLUB Fremantle SOLD OUT
with THE PEEP TEMPLE and GRUB

SAT 29 MAR - FACTORY THEATRE Sydney
with THE PEEP TEMPLE and THE MELODRONES
Tickets from https://www.wingsing.co/tour

FRI 4 APR - CORNER HOTEL Melbourne SOLD OUT
SAT 5 APR - CORNER HOTEL Melbourne SOLD OUT
with THE PEEP TEMPLE and PARTY PEST

THUR 27 MAR - METROPOLE HOTEL Lismore
with GUSSET RATS and MA*****ST
Tickets at the door

FRI 28 MAR - PFR LOUNGE Brisbane
with GUSSET RATS and WHOROBOROS
Tickets from Oztix https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/499640bf-f944-45f1-bc83-e74672344742

GUSSET RATS are a heavy riff punk band from Lismore. We like screaming about all the things in life, mental illness, addiction, funny s**t, stuff we hate, every day struggles and other important messages that no one needs to hear, but too bad coz we are loud. https://gussetrats.bandcamp.com/album/wake-up
MA*****ST is a hardcore punk band an emphasis on playing diverse and safe shows, promoting inclusion and empowerment. Their songs are filled with feminist fury and unrestrained rage, with a constant reminder that we can all do better and have the potential to change and grow. https://masochistpunk.bandcamp.com/track/hoax
WHOROBOROS are a three-piece riot grrrl act, focused on empowering women to speak their minds and rebel against a male-dominated scene. https://whoroboros.bandcamp.com/track/there-goes-the-neighbourhood

SUN 30 MAR - Sydney THE VANGUARD - FREE ENTRY
with O.M.R.

SUN 6 APR - Melbourne THE TOTE HOTEL - FREE ENTRY
with guests

Western Australian garage punks LAST QUOKKA combine acerbic, socially conscious lyrics, heavy rhythms and catchy guitar riffs to create poignant, dance-inducing punk music. One part piss-taking, one part gut-punching and one part booty-shaking – all served up on a bed of frenetic garage punk music. Fourth LP, Take The Fight To The Bastards, out MAR 14 2025 on Valve.
PREORDER VINYL, CD & CASSETTE HERE https://www.valverecords.com.au/shop/
and DIGITAL PRE-ORDER https://ffm.to/takethefighttothebastards
Metropolitan Groove Merchants Last Quokka

06/02/2025

“Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.” - Gordon hempton

Our increasingly noisy world has been linked to cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression, as well as hearing loss. But that’s not the only reason we need more peace and quiet in our lives

21/01/2025

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/28/what-not-rose-macaulay-review

This forerunner to Brave New World is a protest against social control with a love story at its heart

21/01/2025

Indeed... what a s**tshow surrounds this newly gowned idiot emperor. A corona of cancer. Was he wearing any clothes? Welcome to the chaos and greed. People always gotta learn the hard way. Scum always floats to the top. Once there you can skim it off.

Confusing and capricious, he started as he means to go on. To all the leaders pledging to work with him: good luck with that, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

21/01/2025

THE NECKS
This Saturday JAN 24
Old Museum.

The Necks are one of the most revered cult bands of our time. Known for their hypnotic live performances and sprawling, improvisational works that slowly unravel, shift, and metamorphose—no two shows are ever the same. More than 30 years into their career, The Necks continue to surprise with their unique mix of experimental jazz and meditative minimalism.

The Necks album Bleed explores a sublime language of stillness. With a single, 42-minute composition, the trio masterfully express the unspeakable beauty of decay and space in yet another distinct entry in their vast and stunning body of work. With a prolific career spanning film and theatre, The Necks have released 22 albums to outstanding critical acclaim and have collaborated with artists including Brian Eno, Underworld, Swans, and many more.

08/01/2025

01/01/2025

Getting’ s**tified! Go back to community radio where the real folk are. Seek out the release in that of CD and VINYL. Pursue the actual pathways of creative expression. The answer of course to this is basic - ENGAGE. Consciously consider creativity. Let's face it those that sit back allowing the machine to determine their interests and taste are not that deeply interested in music and artists - it is just application of background sound to fill a space or that of time. Nothing to do with delving into the creativity of humans... the distinction of individual expression/group connection.

The Ghosts in the Machine: Spotify’s plot against musicians
by Liz Pelly:

Spotify’s plot against musicians

01/01/2025

2025 - the year of the autocrat smashup. The careering destruction of greed gets some unregulated acceleration on the sharp bends of global unsustainability. Watch the money flow like blood on the highway... (or is that more appropriately lowway) as it trickles into the gutters of our grime.

On Tryanny; On Freedom's - Timothy Snyder:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jan/01/elon-musk-donald-trump

“I think we overestimate Trump and we underestimate Musk,” Snyder said. “People can’t help but think that Trump has money, but he doesn’t. He’s never really had money. He’s never even really claimed to have money. His whole notion is that you have to believe that he has money. But he’s never been able to pay his own debts. He’s never been able to finance his own campaigns."

"I wanted Muskovia because I wanted the idea of Russia to be there in the background, because a lot of smart Russia hands are saying this all the time: this is kind of like the 1990s in Russia. You have the doddering, rich-but-not-very-rich president [Boris Yeltsin], surrounded by more youthful, more active, ambitious oligarchs. That’s the kind of scenario [America is] in.”

Timothy Snyder says world’s richest man is likely to exert uncomfortable influence over White House

26/12/2024

To live with the birds... fill the skies with their wild free purpose of flight. Flights of imagination.

Dale Edwards fled abuse and violence in NZ 40 years ago, and has rediscovered his humanity in giving animals another chance at life

26/12/2024

"On a political level, the indie sleaze era was marked by a hedonistic nihilism that was at best naive, at worst straight up reactionary. Much like the optimistic, collectivist radicalism of the 1960s gave way to the grim, individualistic cynicism of the 1970s as barbarism triumphed over socialism, the socially conscious 1990s were obliterated by 9/11.

This singular event caused such a massive political and cultural backlash that the vast majority of the American public cheered on the Bush administration as it hacked a bloody swathe through the Middle East. Tastemakers like the owners of Vice weren’t going to throw their lot in with the Republicans, because that wasn’t cool, but they also weren’t going to stick their necks out, because they were capitalists, so they settled on a detached, postmodern whatever shrug where everything was a big joke and it was cringe to care. (It should come as no surprise that the guy doing ironic racism and sexism in the Vice dos and don’ts is now an out and proud leader of the far right.)"

So much of early 2000s ‘indie’ music was nothing but a backward-looking rerun of movements past

23/12/2024

Now this is a picture of real society... caring for people at large. Doing their best to provide where possible. This is how we evolve. Not the hyperindividualist pursuit of "me me me - who cares about other" kind of world that late stage capitalism is fostering in all it's sociopathic addiction madness. Intervene and rehabilitate this monstrous state of unbeing. Reject capital intensification. Seek the collective goodness and generate a system of equality and diversity. Break this broken cycle and touch the circular!

A small cafe serves as a hub for vulnerable individuals to drop in for a free meal and a chat

23/12/2024

Greed and fear of loss drives the obsequiousness of bowing to the fascist regime coming hard and fast over the years ahead... this is a civilizational turn in time. The moment when this depraved colonist system enslaved to the extreme escalation of wealth hits the wall of it's time... these despicable inhumane creatures rushing to impose their dictatorial dominance know this as well. They rush like uncouth pigs to soak their pig snouts in the mud of their greed... slurp it all down into the spiraling drain as long as their fantasy lifestyles are maintained they will take no prisoners (that costs money) just the growing wreckage low way of their decimation of life and nature... NATURE is the only deep state of our origins. The rest is systemic s**t stealing from the poor to satiate the rich! Nothing to do with nature.

And don't think this stops there... oh no this feeds into the right wing might of greed here as well as Emperor Dutton assumes his entitlement to wield his nuclear baton and push that fear and desperation many now hold - thinking the right policies are to the benefit. Absolutely not... in economic and welfare terms they are furthest away possible. Anything below the upper middle class is just fodder for these creatures... we are mainly just there to serve their shallow interests using any xenophobic tool they can get their petty minds around. Not one thing they offer is of greater value to a co-habitative society at large. It is only about divide and conquer for the greater greed possible. Figure this out fast people otherwise life is going to get extremely hectic... forget about the foray of convenience!!!

“The way some in the mainstream media have already decided that acquiescence is their way of self-preservation not only is naive but dangerous because without that we don’t have an informed citizenry. It’s supposed to be without fear or favor and media is acting out of fear. And by way of acting out of fear, they are giving Trump the favor that he wants.” Tara Setmayer (Seneca Project)

“Do not obey in advance”, said: “One worries that in the US regime the censorship part is going to be taken over by people who are a million times richer than you suing you. The threat of being sued by a Trump or a Musk or whatever - a person who already controls the government and the economy - means every ‘little person’ has to be worried.” Timothy Snyder (On Tyranny)

“The guardrails are good but they they need people to uphold them. This is true of the political guardrails – Congress, the political parties, the courts – but it’s also true of the broader societal guardrails: the private sector, the media, and there I would say I’m struck by the apparent speed of the capitulation. It won’t have the kind of friendly corporate encouragement that it had in the first term. People will have to think more like dissidents..." Bill Kristol (Defending Democracy).

People from tech executives to foreign leaders and even some mainstream media figures are ‘acquiescing in advance’, experts say, because of greed and fear