RE: Swans

Funnily enough playing at Melbourne's ATP heritage/vintage rock festival alongside the reactivated Swans are a band made up some people who were paying very close attention to Swans in thier final days and copped most of their moves from them in this era, Godspeed You Black Emperor! Do they still exist? or are they a vintage act too? It might get a little awkward around Mr Gira .Godspeed's first couple of records were good until that Skinny Fists one and the one after that I couldn't dig either of those at all and then well I lost track of them. They're probably sepulchral as well.

Anyway the dude from Snog is one David Thrussel and is an interesting guy. His radio show had it all Country and Western, Spaghetti Westerns, Soundtracks, electronic music, conspiracy theory and much more. In recent times he's been running the fabulous reissue label The Omni Recording Corporation. They've put out some good gear including Jack & Misty compilations as well as a series of Moog masterpieces including Bruce Haack's classic The Electric Lucifer and Gil Trythall's Country Moog: Switched On Nashville and many other rippers. Well worth checkin out the catalogue, long lost gems everywhere.



Like Nancy & Lee with wah wah and Moog.
One of my favourite discoveries of the last 10 years.
Recorded between 1967 & 1973.



ATP

So i got a text today saying you gotta go to the Melbourne ATP, MBV and Einsturzende Neubauten are gonna be there. First thought was I saw both of these groups over 20 years ago when they were in their prime. EN being probably the best thing I've ever seen. It was at the Old Greek Theatre in Richmond Melbourne. The place felt like it was gonna fall apart. I remember seeing some of the lights falling from the ceiling, not being able to breathe due to fog of hardcore Camel/Marlboro smokers, two chicks having sex in the toilet, hardly being able to walk due to empty beer cans piling up to my shins, blood in my eardrums and then there was the music. Which was the most astonishing thing I'd ever seen/heard. It was so physical, intense, noisy (in a controlled manner), loud, mental, expressive and sexy. That was unforgettable. It wasn't rock. It was totally rock'n'roll though.

I saw MBV twice at The Prince Of Wales, St Kilda on the Loveless tour. It's all a bit of a blur really. First show not so good and the other one was tops. I recall having Belinda's set list from one of the shows on my wall for a couple of years. Should I have kept that?

Anyway I guess what I'm getting at it is, it would be like seein The Stones in the 70's compared to like the Stones in the late 90s. Do I want that mind image? I don't know what else is on ie. there could be a bunch of modern stuff that I like like Gary War, Human Teenager, Rangers, Future, ekoplekz, Sun Araw or whoever on the bill but it was the heritage/vintage acts that were pitched toward me as ticketbait. This also happened several weeks ago when I was told Shellac and Moore/Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) are playing at the Melbourne Festival soon. I saw Shellac around the time of their first LP.  After Sonic Youth's Don't Look Back Daydream Nation show I thought that's the ultimate in this kind of thing, probably need to pull back a bit from the nostalgia now. Actually it was in an ad in a British magazine I had a little chuckle. I thought that Thurston Moore had gone a little too far by touring one of his 90s solo records Don't Look Back Stylee. Psychic Hearts is an ok record but were there people dreaming of that gig for years, say like I was for a Pixies  (they never toured Australia in their original lifetime) or a Smiths reuion. I bet there are some great things on at the Melbourne Festival for all I know Gang Gang Dance are playing. Note to self see who's playing at these things. This whole Vintage/Nostalgia/Heritage Rock thing is startin to you know get a bit whiffy. As I said in my text though if they get Alan Vega & Martin Rev aka. Suicide out of the old peoples home I might come and see some Heritage Rock.