TV retromania

I grew up thinking I would have my own Jeanie.

What you mean we don't all get one.

I would have been a good master.
This is the saddest thing i've ever written on my blog. 

Peaking Lights New LP

Peaking Lights-Lucifer

Into my 8th listen already and yeah man I am diggin' this vibe. Some of the hypnogogic fog has burnt off  but they still have a hazy psych dub vibe like no other. Break out the painkillers.

Motion Sickness of Time Travel-s/t

Also been diggin this a lot. Dripping cosmic ambience for the new warbling age.....er that was meant as a compliment but I dunno if I'd wanna listen to a record that was described like that.

* These are not reissues!
** These are not archival releases!
*** Both of these are releases from 2012!
**** I do like new stuff. See!

Retromania

Dad where's Barbara Anne?
Dad surf's not up on this one is it?

I didn't really envisage this blog being so retro when I began it. The first posts, which were about the previous years new releases with only a mention of 4 archival releases, were more along the lines of what I thought it would be. Anyway I'm not gonna get hung up on it. You could write a whole book on the subject, which Simon Reynolds did last year. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in un/popular culture and where it's going, or should I say where it's been? In fact I think he could turn it into a trilogy at least.

Anyway retro has been with us for a long time and hey it ain't goin anywhere. Apart from my Dad's records: Elvis, Little Richard, Everly Bros, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, The Animals, Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, The Beatles & The Rolling Stones, I first remember it with '50's revival stuff in the '80's which I didn't care much for. Then I guess it was the increased presence of bands like Creedence, The Beach Boys and The Doors on '80's radio and TV promoted hits packages. I never heard a proper LP from those bands until much later.

Then there was the scene with new wave neo-psych bands like The Church and The Sunnyboys. Those groups had some modernism though. It was the next batch of Australian groups who really were fully retro: The Hoodoo Gurus, The Stems et al. They were bloody good though. Once the '80's had passed, the then current '60's revivalists like Even, The Badloves, You Am I etc. didn't seem so great. In fact they seemed shit..... er.....which is what they were.  I remember writing an email asking whether you could have a revival of an '80's '60's revival in the '00's? This was actually starting to happen in Australia at the time. This is where it started to get weird ie. a revival of a revival. Maybe it will go on forever ad nauseum ..................................aaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!



THE STEMS
The best Australian 60s band of the 80s

The '60's was always with us on the TV. Get Smart, I Dream Of Jeanie, Bewitched, Gilligan's Island and Batman were on constant repeat forever. Then there was The Munsters and the Aadams Family; probably not as repeated as much. The Flinstones and The Jetsons were always on too. I don't even know when they were made, '60's I guess. The British TV of the '70's never seemed to go away either. Fawlty Towers, Are You Bing Served?, On the Buses, Benny Hill, Dad's Army, George & Mildred, The Good Life, The Goodies etc. So I guess Australians have always experienced this time warp. Is this what they mean by atemporality or do I need to read Retromania again?



My Favourite book of 2011

Cupcake anyone?

What about a frog in a pond?
You could wash it all down with a Blue Lagoon!

My Bloody Valentine

There isn't anything to add to the discourse about this legendary band is there? I doubt it. Their new reissue ep's 1988-1991 has arrived and it contains 2 tracks I've never been able to find. The Isn't Anything LP was originally issued with a bonus 7" containing 2 instrumentals which have become legendary(in my mind a least). I had the CD so never had these 2 tracks and have been waiting for them to turn up. I'd heard they were more of a precursor to the Glider EP than anything off Isn't Anything. Indeed instrumental no 2 is v ahead of its time, it makes you wonder what MBV could have become. It's kinda spooky psychedelic looped dubby hip hop. Instrumental no 2 is Seefeel's template 5 years early. Actually you know what? it could be a Boards of Canada track. This track is that sublime. Then Instrumental no 1 is what you would expect from MBV circa 1988 ie it fuckin rocks and does so inna fine stlylee.

 

There are 3 previously unreleased tracks as well. No info on these, no session dates etc. They could be rough demos from anytime during this period really. They're welcome raids on the archive if not brain meltingly revolutionary. The long version of Glider is here too along with Sugar the b-side to Only Shallow but no Soon remix (Which I find odd).

*Should I just rename my blog Retromania?

Breaking Bad 5th & Final Season

V excited for this.

How cool is the poster?!!

The Wire magazine. What happened?

1993 was the year. Melody Maker and NME had been slowly starting to shit me from like 91 onwards. There was still good stuff happening over at Melody Maker at this time but it was starting to diminish. Maybe my tastes were changing too.......anyway The Wire was good because it was covering interesting (ie not this weeks fashionable pop group) stuff the weeklies were starting to ignore and they didn't have that kneejerk criticism/create a new scene every other week/backlash the next week blah blah... of the weeklies which was incredibly liberating at the time. The Boredoms, West African Tapes, Edgar Froese, Miles Davis, King Tubby, Mouse On Mars, Gamelan, High Rise, Method Man, Casper Brotzmann, AMM, Jungle, Tricky, Eddie Palmieri, Ambient, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Gunter Muller, Omni Trio, Prog Rock, Nirvana all rubbing shoulders together. This seemed quite rad at the time and perhaps it was. We might be a bit used to it all now in this post everything world. So for many years it was an essential read. All through the 90s it was great, but somewhere in the 00s it became less essential. I guess it didn't matter that much as music criticism on the blogosphere was peaking at this stage. Who needed to buy a magazine made of paper? How archaic!

In the last couple of years it seems to have picked up a bit though and there was always something to make you still at least check every month if there was something good in there. A Simon Reynolds article will get me in every time. Recently they covered Turkish Psych which maybe they usually would have done 10 years earlier when modern Turkish groups like Replikas and BaBa Zulu were making an impact on western audiences. Are they starting to repeat themselves? Scott Walker and Kraut/Kosmiche articles recently which were both covered extensively 15 years earlier. Old school NME narrow mindedness/bitchiness also seems to have kicked in as well as substandard journos who've got no fucking idea.

Nick Cave cops some knee jerk turds criticism for some of the greatest lyrics ever written.

An excerpt from Palaces of Montezuma by Grinderman

Psychedelic invocations of Mata Hari at the station 

A custard coloured dream of Ali McGraw and Steve McQueen

The spinal cord of JFK wrapped in Marilyn Monroe's negligee 

So Nina Power you look like a fool. In the same issue from September 2010 Nina's colleague Sam Davies calls electronic pioneer Bruce Haack dull. Guess what Sam you're fucking dull. Bruce Haack was a brilliant pioneer. Sam what did you pioneer? Being a dull music journalist pretending you've got something to say but really only being a try hard. Guess what Sammy that's been done before too. Tedious slagging was never part of The Wire thing so this is disappointing. Don't get me wrong I love a good slagging when it's smart, funny and justified. Mr Abusing/Agreeable anyone? Then they pulled the ultimate NME move in slagging a genre/movement they invented or at least identified and named ie Hypnogogic Pop. Time to move on I guess.....Simon Reynolds has an article in the bloody new one though.....

  

RIP DANCING MAN OF KEW!

This guy brought so much joy to me and my wife every weekend when we drove past him at Kew Junction.  We would toot the car horn and wave. He would always smile and wave back. I'm sure thousands of others appreciated his gift to the world too. It won't be the same to drive past and never see him again. Sad.

ROBIN MADDEN LEGEND!

*Watch this with the sound down (some fucking horrible song) and imagine you're driving past him on a Saturday with a hangover and there he is bringing the love of life into your day.

The sausage roll!

God Save The Queen

I was gonna go on a rant directed at the Poms about why they haven't had a revolution yet and got rid of you know who. But Australia can't even get rid of the fucking mole and the rest of the fucking inbreds!!!

Separations

I've never been a completist. The Pixies and early 90's Mercury Rev were probably my most complete collections. I collected all the singles and extra bits of Mercury Rev's first few years but then they released a rarities record Lego My Ego. So what was the point if they were just gonna show up neatly collected at a later date anyway. The Pixies LPs plus the B Sides collection (what was the point of collecting all those 12"s)  is all you need innit? You could maybe chuck in a live record but do you really need it? So I still don't have The Purple Tape but one day I'll see it and go great and get it and go I can't believe I never had this.......So what I'm saying is I don't mind having holes in my record collection, in fact I'm kinda proud of it. It's probably healthy too.......you know less obsessive. Has anyone ever listened to that triple CD set of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' b sides and rarities in its entirety? I actually pulled out of a purchase of that one, put it back on the shelf. The Smiths are probs my favourite British group ever but I don't have the complete discography. At the moment I don't own a copy of Meat Is Murder. I had it once but I never thought it was any good. Was it poorly produced? Bad songs?.......can't really remember. Anyway since it disappeared (several robberies, ex girlfriends, friends, sharefucking houses-take your pick) many years ago I haven't bothered to get it again. Maybe I should get it...........

Anyway the reason I'm bangin' on about this is because I bought Pulp's Separations this week and I'd never heard it in full ever before. Now Pulp were probably my favourite British pop band of the 90s and I'd had all their 90s records one way or another but never this one. Had the CD of His n Hers, had a taped off a friend copy of Different Class on tape, an ex had Intro, had a VHS of The Park Is Mine, I burnt a copy of We Love Life from the library blah blah blah.............Anyway Separations is fabulous, can't believe I never had it for all these years. This is the record where it all started to gel. You could still hear hints of Gainsbourg, Ferry, Walker and Cohen but with added disco and sexy monologues a la Hayes/White. This is where Pulp become Pulp. On their following records you wouldn't spot an influence-it was just Pulp. It's hearing the moment of a band coming together and hitting on something great. So thanks to Owen Hatherley who wrote the previously mentioned (on this blog) Uncommon. This fantastic book has sent me on this path. Uncommon is about the records of Pulp and the world contained therein. Not a tedious biography interviewing Jarvis' next door neighbour from when he was in Infants 3 (er.....that's grade 3. The Mrs is Welsh) or Russell Senior's mum's best friend before he was born etc.......

 

Blur V Oasis

The winner was always Pulp.

More Hard Ons

Sad news I just noticed. Blackie from The Hard Ons was assaulted by a couple of teens while doing his other job ie. driving a taxi. His skull was fractured but apparently he's on the mend.

*These 2 are classics not on the new reissue but there's 4 more reissues on the way.