Now that an all-too-brief summer seems to sadly be over, it’s time to get back to business. Months ago I promised an All Australian update, and here it is. I had a few more things planned but time was running out, so I think maybe we’ll do this again in the near future and add some addendums to it sooner than later. What we do have to offer in the now are interviews with Owen from Straight Arrows and Lynton from from Satanic Rockers; a recap of Home Blitz’s Australian tour and some downloadable music from their radio appearance; an All Aussie record review section; and and interview we did with Brendon from NGL a few years ago and some writing from him on RIP Society’s Success Summit from 2010. These two articles were meant for publication in a print zine that never happened and I hated to see them languishing on my desktop. Without Brendon’s help I would never have been able to have such an appreciation of the modern Australian music scene that I love so much. I miss having him telling me which bands suck and which are genius, among many other things. I also need to thank DX for all of his help in keeping me current via Distort and correspondence, as well as Owen from Straight Arrowns and Al from UV Race who answered many questions for me and Rich Dropkick for his assitance and help over the years. And a GIGANTIC thanks to Bruce Saltmarsh. Without Bruce I would never have been able to hear so many great records by so many great bands. I’ve had a lifelong obsession with Aussie music, from spending my allowance on AC/DC cassettes, to hearing my first Saints records, to hearing The Scientists for the first time (both “versions”), a decades long chase/infatuation with the Black Eye Records label/”sound”, still pursuing a Waste Sausage comp to this day, a love affair with Cosmic Psychos, right up to today and driving hundreds of miles to see ECSR and reading issues of Negative Guest List and Distort front-to-back multiple times in order to squeeze every kernel of information out of them. I’m just thrilled to be able to watch the amazing scene over there from afar with the help of some very gracious human beings mentioned above. I was thinking of writing an editorial about what it is that makes Aussie music so great, but after asking a few people questions along those lines it just seemed sort of silly. We all know what the magic is, and any bunch of words I could string together (no bullshit/no frills/grunt/swamp/burl/blahblahblah) will never do it justice. Have at it here. As I said, now that the weather is less favorable for gardening and outdoor beer drinking, expect more from us more regularly: we have a tall stack of reviews just about ready to go, some long-in-the-works interviews finished and even some serious blogging coming up. Thanks as always for everything, all of you, and see you soon.