The Art of Ray Ahn

Local (to my neck of the woods) dude Ray kinda has to be considered somewhat of a punk-rock legend I guess (the Hard-Ons have been all over the country this year on their 25th anniversary tour for fucks sake), but it's hard for me to see him as such, seeing as how modest he is about it all. Regularly hanging out at shows talking to kids, always putting 200% into his performance at little pubs, regardless of crowd size - Raymond is a friendly, stand-up guy with no bogus rock-star pretensions.


I'll admit I've never been into the Hard-Ons too much myself, but I'm a die-hard rabid fan of his heavy spacerock/hard rock/psych/punk/whatever band Nunchukka Superfly, that he plays bass in with Hard-Ons singer/guitarist Blackie and ripping drummer Joel Ellis. My gal Bowie and I recently worked out that in the last seven years we've seen them somewhere in the vicinity of 30 times. They rock and they play REALLY FUCKING LOUD. Please go to their myspace (link above) and listen to my personal fave songs "Couch" and "Get Fucked".

He's got another drum/bass duo called WOG with drummer Robbie Avenaim. They're more experimental with lots of shouted chanting going into furious drum/bass attacks. I've only seen 'em a couple of times but they were RAD. Also, they have a song called "Wog Rocks Your Liver" (which sounds nothing like the Verbal Abuse song).

Neither Nunchukka or WOG have received anywhere near the attention they deserve, and I really urge you to seek out their CDs and have a listen - you won't regret it. For Nunchukka I recommend starting with "III".

So, as if three active bands weren't enough, Ray's a talented artist too. I guess he's pretty well known for all his Hard-Ons covers, but he's also done a bunch of cool art for diverse bands the world over. Here's a selection of his stuff:

for a comp of Brisbane bands

for Melbourne rulers Fire Witch

Kloakao from Spain

Ryokuchi from Japan

record shops didn't like this Blood Duster cover

some Hard-Ons stuff









(Cheers for this Ray, see ya out soon.)

Finally, best AC/DC cover ever...

Editor's Note: First post from our new teammate Aylmer, creator and curator of the always-fascinating Unflinching Eye. We thank him for his contribution, and also for finally making IllCon an international affair. Fuck yeah.