Album Review: Jim Keays - Age Against The Machine

There ain’t no age to rock’n’roll — cite: Seasick Steve to Iggy Pop — if you’ve got the chops, the voice and the attitude.

Unless of course you’re Australian. If this album had come from the UK or US, the artist would be critically acclaimed, lionised by the cognoscenti and headlining the next round of international festivals. Instead, it’s the late Jim Keays, frontman of The Masters Apprentices, presenting a second selection of the kind of underground garage gems that made the Nuggets compilation an essential addition to any respectable indie kid’s collection the past 35 years.

Had he lived, it might have put Keays back in the game in the way Russell Morris’ career has been rejuvenated by his immersion in the blues. Keays was never going to go silently, a rocker to the end, and that attitude and that voice is what drives this album, the follow-up to Dirty. Davey Lane once again shreds likes there’s no tomorrow, Dallas Frasca duets on the down’n’dirty blues-rock of Dig A Hole and Keays brings a satisfying chill to the obscure early Cheap Trick cut, Heaven Tonight. There’s one oft-covered Australian nugget in The Atlantics’ Come On. If you want to know what rock’n’roll should really sound and feel like, crank this up and raise a glass to the late, great Jim Keays.