Scott Walker - Bish Bosch

Farmer In The City

From Tilt

Be warned if you've never heard this prepare to

have your mind blown. Surely one of the

greatest songs of the 20th century.

"I'll punch a donkey in the streets of Galway" 

Jolson & Jones

From The Drift

It's all happening now. Scott Walker has a new LP out 5 years early. I'm still processing/getting used to The Drift. Geez man give me some time. He must be going through a creative period I mean The Drift was only released in 2006, The one before that Tilt was '95 and if memory serves Climate of The Hunter was like 1984. Slow down man you'll give yourself a heart attack! Anyway I've had a quick listen to Bish Bosch and well it's what you would expect. How do I describe that? I'll get back to you on that. There did seem to be little cracks of light here and there. One track almost had a groove happening. Another had a little Bossa Nova/Tropicalia/Samba? interlude going on. Hang on am I sure? Diehards don't be disheartened these were very brief moments if they happened at all. It's the usual esoteric Walker walking into a future like no other. Some choice lyrics are 'Nothing clears a room like the removal of a brain' and another where he compares himself to a 'Wildflower Garden, an English Garden'. There are even some rock like textures on Phrasing with 70s metallic riffs popping up randomly amongst other little surreal psych bits.  One track Pilgrim has this great percussive backing while he he sings about a room full of mice and blowing bullfrogs with a straw. Then he sings about staring into the bullfrogs eyes before they burst, you know the usual kind of of lyrics for a song. On The Day The "Conducator" Died (An Xmas Song) the final track, the backing could be Slint on really strong painkillers with sleigh bells for percussion and then there is a mini Jingle Bells riff on the bells right at the end   I love these people who get more hardcore and don't become complacent and boring in their old age. It's definitely worth aspiring to this being an awkward renegade who doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks. I can imagine him now in his old age still drinking a truckload in the company of sophisticated women with maybe a little something else on the side to get himself going/not going, know what I mean. Or I can see him as being a quiet, solitary, studious and creative man in his abode occasionally going for a walk in the park. Maybe he's somewhere in between which could explain a few things.

Havin' a little sip old skool stylee.

Scott has a secret weapon in Peter Walsh his producer who also accompanied Walker on production duties for Pulp's  underrated but tremendous final LP We Love Life.  Walsh has been with him since The Climate Of The Hunter. If I have this right he also produced one of the greatest Church LPs ever Heyday from 1985. That was such a beautifully produced record that it is much to my amazement they never used him again. I always thought Heyday was produced by The Apartments Peter Milton Walsh until today. Anyway i thought both Peters were the same Peter so it made no difference to me. Maybe Peter Milton Walsh should get Peter Walsh to produce the next Apartments LP.

Boy Child from Scott 4

Couldn't resist some old School Scott from '69.

Who else was doing shit like this back then?

Moon Wiring Club - Today Bread, Tomorrow Secrets

 

 

 

Ghostland and departed Buildings

I dig this video and by the looks its

shot on some very old taped over hundryd

times tape. Great synchronicity  between

sound & vision.

 

 

Anyway you know what that means there's a new Moon Wiring Club LP and CD coming out and this is exciting news. Doncha just love the whole aesthetic of the band, the music, the artwork and the film clips? They are in are in total control of everything and it works beautifully. 

 



Turkish psychedelic Music 2 Blog

I keep forgetting to give a big shout out to Bilek from  http://turkishpsychedelicmusic.wordpress.com/ who has been back for a while now with his blog sequel to the Turkish Psychedelic Music Blog which I wrote an obituary for earlier this year and Bilek was kind enough to write some nice words to me. These can be found here on my blog. Anyway his sequel is a beautiful blog and a hell of an improvement on the old one. So good luck to his new venture and hopefully there will be some great new discoveries for me and the rest of the people in the blogosphere. The subtitle is Anadolo Folk, Pop, Rock, Jazz. Happy days.

Cheap Shots VI

Byron Bay in Black and White.

October 2011

This is my fave in this series.

This was an amazing white tree. I wish I'd captured it
better. It is only a crappy $50 phone though.

Looks like some kind of walking snowman emerging
from the sun's glare on the river.

My other fave in this series,

Friday Night-Party like it's the late 80s!

These 2 Smiley Faces are totally separate trax.

Jolly Roger Acid Man

I wonder what Jolly's doing now?

Was this his only song?

Baby Ford Oochy Koochy

He was all set to be a superstar wasn't he?

He had a string of hits then he released a

shite cover of Children of the Revolution

and we never heard from him again.

D Mob Acieed

*There was a fine line back then between annoying and sublime wasn't there? I suspect the annoying factor comes from somewhere deep within these youngsters to create a generation gap and to stamp a genre all their own.  

Notes for a future Manifesto/Theory/Philosophy

Some Quotes:

"Just because you are doing something in inverted commas doesn't mean you're not doing it"
Quote from Tim Space Debris at Cardrossmaniac2, 23/11/12.

"What is there in uselessness to cause you distress"
The title of an AMM song from AMMMusic 1966.

I had more but I've forgotten where I read them. Anyway some food for thought that may one day be put into some kind of coherent passage of words.

Other Stuff

*I saw a bunch of musicians in the states are doing a tribute to The Band's Last Waltz concert/movie. Fuck me wasn't the first one tedious enough. Imagine what it'll be like with 2nd and 3rd rate indie musicians doing it. I feel sick. Are they gonna get Marty to film it as well, now that would be weird. No hang on they should get some 2nd rate Scorsese wannabe to film it. Hang on that starts to make the concept almost interesting. When is this shit gonna end? Didn't Nels Cline used to be some kind of avant musician?

**Here's a collaboration I'd really like to see Skrillex V Umberto. Doncha reckon that'd be good? Or would it end up sounding like some kind of witch-house? Either way I'd like to see that happen.

***What ever happened to Salem?

Still in the 90s

I can't seem to escape the 90s anymore. A couple of weeks ago I saw a terrific band  Chinese Handcuffs who had me flashing back to slowcore into post-rock Godspeed stylee. Then there is this bar I sometimes frequent and I swear the last 4 or 5 times I've dropped in they have been playing Afghan Wigs. Then there is hip hop which I hadn't listened to willingly for something like 15 years but after going back to Hardcore/Jungle etc. it made perfect sense to check out some of those gems from the 90s and even further back. You know before it all went a bit shit. I'm even gonna put some old DJ Shadow onto my I-Pod in a minute. I never thought I'd listen to those records ever again but listening to Wagon Christ the other day put me mind of this stuff. I was really diggin Throbbing Pouch, Wagon Christ's 90s classic. Still can't bring myself to put on Tricky or even other 90s faves Mouse On Mars. I guess it's only a matter of time.

I was nearly thinking of abandoning an end of year best of 2012 article which will be due soon but I've come out of my fear of the present and have started listening to recent LPs again. Artists might not be breaking much new ground but there is still some great shit out there worth listening to.

A picture from the park a couple of
weeks ago just because. Nice.

Posting Youtube Clips Is My Rage

I know I use the youtubes a little bit too much. Growing up as a kid in Australia though it has always been a dream (along with thousands of others I suspect) to one day programme Rage. Rage is an all night Music show on the ABC on Friday and Saturday nights. On Saturday night they have a guest programmer for the first 3 or 4 hours. Name any Australian band/artist or any international touring artist and chances are they've probably been a guest. The most memorable for me being Steve Kilbey in like 1992, Johnathon Donahue in the the late 90s, Michael Hutchence had a go and more recently filmmaker Richard Lowenstein was a fabulous guest. I've missed hundreds and probably some of them were probably my favourite bands/artists. Anyway I'm just playing Rage fantasy guest host a lot of the time.

*NOTE: Probably best not to play The Birthday Party's Nick The Stripper or Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division as they get played every week. There's probably plenty of guest bits up on Youtube.

 

Post Remix

I've done an extended remix of my post on Information Overload from earlier this month. Check it out it's better, has more words and makes more sense.

Andy:"I'm not so sure space."
Edie:"C'mon Andy it'll be a hoot!"

Knife Party

So I've been listening to Knife Party's Rage Valley EP. All these words have have been going through my head: EDM, Brostep, The Zone Formerly Known As Dubstep, Mentasm, Rave, 90s, Belgian Hardcore, DJ Excel, Acen, Big Beat, Omni Trio, Electro, Just When You Thought It was Safe, Trip II The Moon, Nowtro etc........

Both of these from Rage Valley EP 2012

This is from '92

This is from 1994.

Can you believe this is from1991?!

That's 21 years ago!

This is from 1991 as well!

*Just how now is Nowtro?

Me suspects not very.

**This doesn't necessarily make Knife Party a bad combo. I really enjoy them a lot. It makes them for example akin to something like The Stems in the 80s. They were a fantastic 60s influenced Australian rock band who were very enjoyable in much the same way Knife Party are. We knew the Stems were like 60s bands and even knew they loved The Yardbirds, The Electric Prunes, Creedence, The Easybeats, The Standells, stuff off The Ugly Things comps (Australia's Nuggets if you like), Nuggets etc. This did not take anything away from them, in fact I still think they are brilliant to this day. They were beyond pastiche and mere referencing. Whether Knife Party stand up 20 years down the track is a moot point really. Maybe this is what they mean by Nowtro. I'm enjoying them for now. If they still stand up in 20 years that's a bonus but who really cares. Now is what it's all about.

***I guess this is supposed to be a presentation on where Knife Party are coming from. I know I've used a couple of these clips before but I felt it necessary for the context of this piece.

RE: Disco Inferno

DI go pop but not as we know it.

So someone said Disco Inferno experienced critical indifference in their lifetime as a band but I recall a dude from Lime Lizard waxing lyrical about them thus alerting me to their existence in 1991. In Melody Maker '91 they were described as "exploring glacial zones" on their Closed Windows and Science records. In '92 their sound was also described as "Bitter and brooding beauty.' While in 1994 Disco Inferno's DI GO POP LP was placed at no. 3 in the out rock end of year list in The Wire. I would almost say they were critical faves but I don't really know what the more mainstream press were saying at the time. The possibilities seemed endless for this kind of experimental rock (if you could call it that). When was the last time you could say that about a band performing loosely within the rock idiom? Seeing The Boredoms a couple of years ago in full giant guitar neck/percussion overload mode would have been the last time I could have said that. Swans circa Soundtracks For The Blind.  A band I saw perform once in the early 90s at The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda called Peril also had that future's up for grabs anything could happen vibe going on too. They consisted of Australian and Japanese experimental musicians including Michael Sheridan and Otomo Yoshihide if memory serves. Anyway I dunno what happened to Disco Inferno after that GO POP classic.

One of the noisier tracks off the excellent
DI GO POP LP.

RE: Caitlin Moran

You know I was looking at the cover of moranthology the other day and was thinking you know Caitlin Moran with her docs, coloured hair, shorts and bright clothing would actually not look out of place as a member of Ned's Atomic Dustbin circa 1991. This tickles me.

Writing some new lyrics for the comeback
Ned's Atomic Dustbin LP.

Auditioning as the new bass player for
Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

Uncle Junior Was My Surgeon

Now I know I've been watching a lot of The Sopranos (up to the final couple of episodes) but seriously the surgeon who operated on me on Saturday was this man. I swear! So I was quite happy to have him operate on me because I felt like I knew him and well I thought it was really  funny.

My doctor, the resemblance is uncanny, isn't it?

and this was my nurse.

RE: The Wu

Genius is GZA right?

I always thought the GZA was the RZA or The Genius was the RZA. Didn't some of The Wu-Tang Clan have more than one pseudonym? Anyway Genius/GZA's LP Liquid Swords possibly the best Hip Hop record of the 90s and probably the best in The Wu winning streak from Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) through to Ghostface Killah's Iron Man. And that is a tough call as there were 7 gems from 93-96. Anyway Liquid Swords did not even make it into The Wire's end of year lists at the end of 95. The Chef made it into the top 10 but Genius/GZA was conspicuous by his absence. In NME and Melody Maker it faired better but c'mon it should have been somewhere in the top 3!

I'll leave it at just 3 but I coulda' put the lot up here!

17 years later still sounds ahead of the game!

This is the shit!

Fo shizzle!

Do they still say that?

Hospital

Well I'm out of the hospital and recovering. This is the only overtly hospitally song I could come up with, bear in mind painkillers are in full effect. I know The Go-Betweens and Nick Cave have made references to hospitals before. There must be though a whole like mini sub-genre of hospital songs I just can't seem to think of any others at the moment. Oh hang on here's another one!

Then there must be hundreds of videos of people dressed up as nurses and doctors and I don't mean those kind of videos. But that must be one of porns greatest themes surely. Throbbing Gristle make me think of doctors and nurses.

Nurse Genesis

I was never sure if the guy on the right was like a psych nurse, a scientist or some kind of doctor. Is this the greatest LP cover ever? I could look at it forever. It brought me much amusement as a youngster and really made me think just do what you want! The music was good too. I must admit though this did just come into my life as a sleeve hanging on a wall in my first flat with the vinyl long gone. It was a few years later I heard the contents that were supposed to be contained within. I'm sure Throbbing Gristle would think that was great that I saw this cover as a piece of art for many years before hearing the tunes.

Zombie Nurse!

see you in a while

Here's some loveliness until next time!!

 

 

This is slightly different to the version

on Vol 2 I think?



Umberto - Night Has A Thousnad Screams

Just got this today and am V excited and cannot wait to listen to it despite having to go to hospital tomorrow and miss a once in a lifetime chance to see Goblin live in Melbourne. So this is the new Umberto LP Night Has A Thousand Screams. If it's anywhere near as good as the last one Prophecy Of The Black Widow and the one before that From The Grave we're in for a real treat. I was gonna do an extensive post about awesome spooky soundtracks and their fake soundtrack spawn. That'll have to wait though. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to write that when I'm convalescing and bored shitless. One flicker of happy in an otherwise dismal day. Hopefully it'll be Umberto's 3rd classic in a row.