- The Stickmen were essentially unknown outside of their hometown of Hobart. This year they laughed in the face of obscurity by playing to thousands at ATP’s I’ll Be Your Mirror, then just recently having their first couple (and only couple) of albums reissued with love by Homeless. It’s been a good year for The Stickmen – they’ve got some dedicated fans, alright.

Self-titled and Man Made Stars have essentially been out of print since their respective 1998 and 1999 releases. There was a compilation released on Solar/Sonar in 2008 that incorporated songs from both albums as well as a handful of stand-in live recordings. It didn’t have everything though, and recent admirers will find new, a love in discovering the album version of Measure Your Limbs.

Outside of some other rock bands from Tasmania at the time, Mouth / Sea Scouts and others, there aren’t many bands that sound like the Stickmen. Not a lot of bands use turntables like The Stickmen do and that is to say, “tastefully” and “with grace”. Their songs are frenetic and hypnotic at the same time. One listen and you’re just scratching the surface. Tasmania just so happens to breed some of the most uniquely interesting bands in the world, then and now.

Mikey Young is in charge of the remastering duties. He’s an in demand guy - worked on around 50 (give or take) records this year. He’s paid a lot of careful attention to the guitars; they’ve got a lot of bite. In comparison to the original CD releases, the bass is a lot thicker and the vocals are noticeably clearer too.

Look, it’s never been easier to listen to these forgotten Aussie classics and they’re on vinyl for the first time to boot. Just make sure you pick up that compilation too so you make sure that you have some Stickmen to hoon around the streets to.

- Josh Watson.