Bass Bits Winds Up But...

God I could on forever. Don't get me started Peter Hook, Tina Weymouth, The Contortions, Gang of Four, The Fall, The Moodists, ESG, The Slits, Ian Rilen, The Pop Group, 70s reggae, PIL, liquid Liquid, Joseph K, Can, every band from the 60s, Michael Henderson, Bootsy fuckin Collins, every soul/funk band from USA in the 70s, Paul McCartney, Fire Engines, Minutemen, Jon Entwhistle, Died Pretty, Pete Wells, Gary Gary Beers, Mark Ferrie, James Freud, Steve Hanley, Andy Rourke, Bruce Lose/Will Shatter, Debbie Googe, Grant McLennan, Steve Kilbey, Kim Deal........somebody stop me.

I wrote this bit about bass players in July 2012. Now I wonder if they've all been covered. I've noticed some omissions though ie. Well I missed Carol Kaye but I guess she's included because I said every band from the 60s and hey she was on every second record made in that decade, the Meat Puppets and all of 80s New Zealand but did Kim Gordon, John Frenett (Moonshake/Laika), the dude in Les Rallizes Denudes, Paul Raven etc. get mentioned in the Bass Bits celebration?

 Honey and Heat is a mesmerising off kilter urban dub tune with see-sawing samples. The samples here are meticulously crafted and create an entirely unique peculiarity. 

Red River could be a Moonshake tune with it's squalling sax, tense noisy guitar shapes, claustrophobic minimal bass and tumbling out of control beats

* Words on Laika taken from me bit here.

Paul Raven plays the bass here with great vigour...a bit like a 60s/Noo Wave guitar style with that chopping of the strings thang. I like this song but I also think it's kinda funny....the seriousness of it all. No mistaking that 80s vibe though. Did Killing Joke make it to the stadiums? Probably only as a support act I'd say.

The sound of late 80s Australian indy psych pop bass. Beautifully melodic and swirling. There's even a break at the 3.08 mark, nice. What's not to like? Always thought it was the dude Mark Lock who was the bass player on all Died Pretty's recordings up to1988 but discogs tells me it's Steve Clarke who took over bass duties in 1989 from whence this tune came.

Classic Flying Nun bass from Robert Scott in 1981! Written by Peter Gutteridge (RIP), later of Snapper.

How could I forget this one? Not played by Kim Deal who'd moved onto guitar but by Joesephine Wiggs. Her name's rather apt here as she fully wigs out here.

                                         

GOOD(idea) TRIBUTE

David Barbe does an incredible impersonation of Kim Deal here. Sugar fully admitted this was their homage to The Pixies. Very bloody faithful. 

Aztec music

R.I.P. AZTEC MUSIC

What a great reissue label with fabulous packaging and liner notes on each release. I'd never heard a lot of those records. I'd heard tracks by Buffalo, Kahvas Jute, Spectrum, Tamam Shud, Madder Lake etc. from the fantastic Golden Miles Comp on Raven Records.

But it took Aztec to reissue the full LPs. It made it cheap to hear Coloured Balls (I wasn't gonna fork out $100s of dollars for these 2nd hand). Buffalo's 2nd and 3rd LPs are particular faves Volcanic Rock and Only Want You For Your Body. I couldn't believe that every 2nd suburban household didn't have copies of these.

Buffalo: The original hipsters.

The cultural cringe is still in full effect in Australia. Aztec helped redress the balance a little. The X and Died Pretty reissues were great. Great stuff from the 60s as well, The Masters Apprentices and The Twilights. The 70s was their thing though and I guess the biggest revelations for me were the reissues of Tamam Shud's Goolutionites and The Real People and Kahvas Jute's Wide Open. Clinton Walker in The Next Thing pretty much wrote off everything Australia produced including AC/DC until punk arrived, how wrong he was! (didn't he end up writing a book about Bon Scott?! Fuckin twat). I was amazed at these 2 incredibly unique rock statements from early 70s Sydney, Australia. So it's a shame that Aztec has died. I thought I still had much to learn from them.


Gold

apocalyptic gold

Ron Peno & Mick Medew

* I didn't realise the connection at the time of writing the previous post.  I knew both Screaming Tribesmen and Died Pretty had origins in Brisbane.  I did not know that Ron Peno co-wrote Igloo.  You learn something everyday.  So Igloo was recorded in 1982.  What a tune! Anyway it's all a little bit confusing but I'll try and explain the connections.  Ron Peno (lead singer of Died Pretty) was in a band called The Hellcats circa '77 whose drummer was Mark Kingsmall (later of Hoodoo Gurus fame).  The Hellcats would sometimes support Radio Birdman in their heyday in Sydney.  Ron then turned up in a band in Brisbane circa'79 called The 31st who included Mick Medew (later of Screaming Tribesmen) on guitar.  This is when the two wrote Igloo and A Stand Alone.  Before Peno left they played their last couple of gigs under the name The Died Pretty circa early '81.  Peno left they became The Screaming Tribesmen.

There was another band in Brisbane called The End who contained Brett Myers (future Died Pretty guitarist/songwriter).  apparently Ron loved em and used to say you need a frontman ie. Ron Peno. Myers and Peno became friends.  To cut a convoluted story short The End broke up in Sydney.  Myers started a collaboration with keyboardist/music journo Frank Brunetti (future Died Pretty keyboardist) doing Suicide-esqe tunes they eventually became a band called Final Solution with Peno out front.  Ron then revived the name Died Pretty and the rest is history.  Clear enough?

Anyway the early singles, eps and first 2 lps Free Dirt and Lost are quintessential 80s Sydney rock.  When Brunetti left they were never quite the same in my opinion.  The convoluted prehistory of the band is explained in more detail in the liner notes of the Aztec Music deluxe reissue of Free Dirt (which pretty much contains everything they did from 84-86 ie. pure fuckn' gold!).

Shoulda' been in the book part 1

This is beginning in my series of albums that should have been in the top 100 Australian albums book published a couple of years ago.  As stated above pure fuckn' gold.  Mars Needs Guitars by The Hoodoo Gurus was included over this ?  That record was so disappointing after Stoneage Romeos, one of the greatest debut albums of all time.  I remember thinking at the time 'a coupla great tunes doth not maketh a good follow up album!'  Don't get me wrong it's ok but...... 



Errr....couldn't resist

Everybody Moves

Died Pretty

Classic!

Invasion/Australia Day

Happy Invasion Day.

Igloo

Screaming Tribesmen

Legendary.
When I first heard leaked demos of nevermind on the radio I thought fuck this reminds of that old Australian band.  That being The Screaming Tribesmen.

Also Legendary.

Died Pretty

Next to nothing

Alert! This one is an actual performance and a cookin' one at that!

Both tracks from when Sydney used to rock!

Just one more 60s Aussie classic, you say.

The Elois

By My Side

That's it for the 60s Aussie classics, coz none of 'em have bloody clips!

Anyway this is a bewdy!
Rock on Maryborough!