Bambino Melbourne Music Mafia

I was gonna go on an all Aussie trip with the bassists and there did seem to be a particular Australian style but the youtube's  annoying me. Maybe another time. Sorry Grant McLennen, Chris Walsh, Ian Rilen, Mark Lock, Mark Ferrie & Brian Hooper.  Geez how's that for a list. They will all eventually be members entered into my Aussie bassplayer phonebox of fame

A few years ago now I don't remember the exact year (2008?) but it seemed like Melbourne rock was really goin' great guns with top records by Beaches, Eddy Current, Ooga Boogas, Witch Hats, The Drones, Fabulous Diamonds all in the same year. Not forgetting the old garde Mr Cave & Mr Graney as well, who delivered the goods too. It seemed like it was gonna go through the roof in the following years but it didn't. Anyway no need to dwell on such ideas. Looking forward to new records from Ooga Boogas and Beaches if they still exist
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Anyway it seems like there is a bambino Melbourne music mafia now. Twerps, Toatal Conrol, Eddy Current, Dick Diver, UV Race etc. You know they're all playing on one anothers records or producing them. Like the old Melbourne Music Mafia. The bambini have their own scene/quasi sylee/monopoly of cool/uncool now. Anyway I'm also even enjoying a Lost Animal track at the moment. The UV Race have become my favourite post Eddy Current Suppression Ring Band and I mean that as a compliment. Maybe the Melbourne scene will eventually go bananas like the old days, I hope so there seems to be some great talent about. The Bambini Rock (well some of em do).

The UV Race of the Bambino Melbourne music mafia with country connections.

                                                           

Dull Smug Mum & Dad Mortgage/Renovation Rock

I'm on holidays at the moment so I decided for the first time in about a year and a half to put the radio on. The second song was by the Melbourne indie band (I think) The Twerps who I gave a go to once, couldn't see the point, kinda 80s Aussie/NZ indie vibe but I gotta say I quite liked it.

The Twerps: I don't hate them!

 Later on though I heard the worst fucking song ever. It was a boring schmindie tune. The lyrics were like some middle class turds explaining their 1st world problems to you. They were singing about paying the mortgage and not being able to go on a Bali holiday. Then I think there was a bit about ripping up the floorboards perhaps renovating. It was a bit like watching Getaway interspersed with a bank loan ad followed by one of those renovation shows. This was the pits. It wasn't funny. It wasn't angry. I couldn't detect any irony. They were just gonna write a song about their boring lives and sing and play it in a boring way. I don't think there was any art project pretention about it whatsoever. This is how rock has ended up right where it was supposed to take you away from ie.the domestic drudgery of ordinary daily life. Yeah I know MX80, Devo and Talking Heads sometimes sounded vocally bored but they were funny and the music was always fucking excellent, electrifying & exciting. Ordinary things have been subjects for rock many times before but never this badly and witless. I get the whole inverting of rock: Debbie Harry's awkward dancing, Elvis Costello lookin like a nerd, new wavers putting their knees together, cuties acting pure, virginal and innocent, the faux naivety of Beat Happening and Jonathan Richman. I still like glamour, weirdness, sex, gender issues, creatures from outer space, drugs, seedy stories, love, lust, creepiness, celebration, heartbreak, mentalness, the unthinkable, awkwardness, fantasy, the dodgy, being wrong, politics, cars, strange theories etc. This can all still be done in new and non-cliched ways. But fuck me if I ever wanna hear a song that sounds like a conversation at my friends house on a Saturday morning unless it's really bloody funny or is set to the the most incongruous music imaginable. I don't know what that band was called but I hate them and their dull smug mum and dad mortgage/renovation rock.

MX80 SOUND
At their funniest/most exciting when sounding bored.