Bieber Fever: I've finally got it.

How can you not like this? I love that bassline like a sample from some second rate Joy Division clones from the UK in the early 80s. I know there is no need for me to promote The Bieb as this has had over a 100 million hits. Add one more! I also love that little brostep break at about 1 minute 50 seconds that rocks.

Down Under Nuggets

Speaking of Ugly Things compilations put out by Raven Records in recent posts, I just realised this has been released by Festival Records. I e-mailed Raven several years ago to ask if they'll ever be re-releasing any of the Ugly Things volumes, as I had one missing,  and they said probably not ever. I thought oh well. Then later I thought its been so long since they were put out a whole generation or two have missed out. I also thought with the Internet this stuff would only be gaining in popularity. Then there was a resurgence of garage rock (mainstream crossover) in the early 21st century, so the market would be quite large for a reissue. So in the end I thought they were being stupid. In 2010 Ian D Marks and Iain McIntyre then published the fabulous book Wild About You: The 60s Beat Explosion in Australia & New Zealand. So not just the people in the know but a whole younger crowd were presented with all this (a lot of it quite enlightening) info on a bunch of the 60s bands. Some of which were quite obscure and some who were massive pop stars.

An incredible resource for lovers of Antipodean Raw Garage
Rock, Fuzz, R&B and Beat Soundz from the 60s. Contains
interviews with over 35 groops and features The Beat &
Garage top 100. One of the great books on rock.

 If you've read my blog before you will know of my admiration for such groops as Peter & The Silhouettes, The Sunsets, Black Diamonds, The Elois, The Tol-Puddle Martyrs, The Masters Apprentices, The Loved Ones, The D-Coys, Sunday, The Atlantics, The Wild Colonials, The Missing Links, The Throb, The Templars and so on. So those of you new to the game this will be a great intro to the cool, snarly, fuzzy, hormone fuelled and sometimes frightening sounds of the Australian R&B and Beat Soundz. Me well I really don't think I need to buy it. I'm pretty sure I could make this comp as a mixtape tonight. I guess Volume 1 of Ugly Things for me is the comp! Don't get me wrong this Downunder Nuggets is a bloody great compilation. I highly recommend to the kids and the uninitiated. By that I mean everyone on the planet not into this golden era of Australian pop culture yet.

Ugly Things the original compilation of this type of gear.
Released in 1980!

But there are other bewdies too. It's A Kave In: Kingsize Kollection-Wild Oz 60s Punk From The Caverns Of Time and Devil's Children: Hellacious Sixties Punk Rarities are two other classics. Let us not forget The Hot Generation and Of Hopes & Dreams & Tombstones released by Big Beat, which I think is a British label, and maybe still in print. It's all great music! Get into it. Get your shindig started. Push your coffee table back. Put on your dancing shoes on. Time to kut the rug.

Many Mary

Sunday

From It's A Kave In.

Come On Baby
The Templars
Melbourne band of youngsters from 1965.
Half sung in Greek & half in English.
This is great wild stuff!

 Krome Plated Yabby
The Wild Cherries
Lobby Loyde on guitar. This one's a bit more psych
than the others. It's like there's a pop song trying to
escape the weirdness but doesn't quite get out.
What a mental psych classic!

The Pretty Things

Don't Bring Me Down

The Pretty Things

A bit different to ELOs version.

We'll Be Together

The Pretty Things

I think this was the B-Side to the above track or

was that a double A-Side. Both the biz!

Get The Picture

The Pretty Things

Then of course there's this version which has great

drumming and over the top fuzz by Melbourne band

The Wild Colonials

Get The Picture

Which is even better than the original I reckon.

It was on the 1st volume of Ugly Things The

Raven Records compilation series which was

my introduction to the song. The Wild Colonials

only lasted 3 7"s and that was that.  Apparently all

their A-sides were crap but the B-Sides were

where it was at. I think a lot of Antipodean 60s

groups were just as influenced by The Pretty Things

as much as The Stones, Yardbirds etc..

Speaking of which here's a NZ version of Get The Picture by

The Selected Few from Wellington.

Who Listens To The Radio?

That's what I'd like know. Well today it was me. Dave Graney & Elizabeth McCarthy's show Banana Lounge Broadcasting. It was great to listen to a radio show again. Many years ago in a job I could listen all day and I loved it. I knew when all different shows were on different stations every day. I miss it. First of all I learnt a lot from the adds er..sorry sponsorship announcements. Mick Taylor, Elvis Costello, The Sunnyboys, Nick Cave, Jo Jo Zep all doing the heritage touring circuit. That might be a little unfair to Nick but the rest you know what I mean. The most exciting touring news though was that Leon from Curb Your Enthusiasm is doing a stand up gig. I'm gonna have to get ticket. Then there was a terrific interview with The Pretty Things. They talked about the early days of art school with members of the Stones. New to me was their porn alias group Electric Banana recording for a library records company. I'd love to hear those. When talking about the old days of not having drums miked up reminded me of a time with my short lived  group. After the mixer spent half an hour on setting them up, she was then told by the proprietor to unmike them. Needless to say there was animosity in the room which eventually turned it into an enraged gig possibly our best. Side note: Why do the mixers get all the money?  Anyway back to the radio show. The guys from Pretty Things were a great couple of geezers and well they finally made it to Australia. This interview may end up on a podcast check the 3RRR FM website as it's well worth a listen for any 60s music fan. It was good to hear a new track from Paul Kelly, a tune by The Meters I'd not heard and even some MJ! I should listen to more radio and be less dependant on the Internet. Now I'm gonna get out some old blues.

 

 

 

 

What's On The Hi-Fi Lately.

Having had a lot of time off I've had a chance to listen to heaps of music and even do some reading too. Some of which I've already mentioned Swans, Scott Walker, Pye Corner Audio and that great mix by Ix Tab. Ix Tabs mix had me going back to old Coil records. Coil always seem to turn up on these mixes which is indicitive of their continuing influence on the underground of the 21st century.   I've also gotten around to some less new things like a Dolphins Into the Future tape from 2008 Plays Themes From Voyage which is from the golden era of that kinda gear so I'm loving it along with their 2 fine releases from this year.

Just had a couple of listens to Lee Gamble's Diversions 94-96. which is hitting all the right notes apparently he has another one just out too. Minimal, spacious electronics that are kind of empty but evocative of the mentioned era without being retro. I also caught up with Kemper Norton's Collision/Detection v6 from earlier this year and that's a rip snorter of an ep that put me in mind vocally of the recently discussed Disco Inferno. Hard to describe Norton, kinda folky, pastoral post industrial. A rustic farmer kind of vibe but quite creepy and wintry. Sounds like a bloody press release. Right enough cliches.















I finally got a copy of Moon Wiring Club's Somewhere A Fox Is Getting Married only on digital though (thanks bookmat). I think it was like a royal wedding commemorative album. I don't think it got in any best of 2011 lists, an overlooked classic perhaps. I reckon it might be the best one since their debut An Audience Of Art Deco Eyes. I like it more than the other record they did last year Clutch It Like A Gonk. That Bleep43 mix is also killer! Possibly my favourite of their mixtapes but as I've said before they're all gold. I totally recommend both of those way over 12 months since everybody else probably raved about them. Whatever. Still looking forward to the new CD & LP.

Was it really only last year that Will & Kate got married?
That can't be right can it?
I feel like Pippa's arse has been with us longer than that!

Bagpuss

Just discovered this tune. This one goes out to Emma, Holly & Belle. An old VHS found it's way into my life many years before the H-word. Is this Proto-Hauntological. What a weird kids show. Did Taid (is that how you spell it? I'm not up with my Welsh.) think Australian grandkids in the 90s would dig this? It's a classic and all but at the time of Teletubbies there was no contest. Bagpuss the show is what the Mrs would call brown. One day I'll get her to contribute to my blog to explain this theory. Actually when I first heard about the H word it made me think of her theory. Not necessarily a theory more of a feeling.

DJ Burnz

Bagpuss

199?

Friday On My Mind

Todd Terry Remix in 89 for Michael Hutchence and his motley cru.

Zero 2.0 

Max Q

Concrete

Max Q

My fave along with the Todd Terry remix of Ghost of the year but thats not

up on the youtube.

From the same era: Humanoid - Humanoid stakker
But this time from the UK

There are so many versions of this track and some are

completely different but I think this might be the

original 7". Who knows?

2am Driving Music For The City's Lost Souls

Another Emeralds review with and I quote 'a little more cruising the lonely cityscape at 3am' over at Tiny Mix Tapes. This time I suspect that this is perhaps a little deliberate baiting from Mr Parker. Pre-review I told him to add Dire Straits to their list of influences. He didn't know if I was joking or not, I wasn't. Otherwise it's a very fucking weird coincidence or he nicked it from that Wire writer. I'm going for the original idea. Anyway James didn't add the Straits alongside Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream in the similar to category.

Mark McGuire's favourite band?

*Just a side note on a completely different topic but still with Tiny Mix Tapes. Hey Ed Comentale was I supposed to read that whole Scott Walker review? I mean it was actually longer than the record!

Scott Walker: Prevaricator.

Enigmatic? You think?

In a recent interview by Mike Barnes with Scott Walker I read today Scott admitted being prone to prevarication. I thought I've never heard that word ever in my entire life and I've read some lofty shit and communicated with many users of unnecessary words just because they can. What was once called a showoff, you know before building ones self-esteem was invented. Now it'd be oh aren't you a clever little thing using such big words.  Anyway I looked it up and it means 'One who walks crookedly.' & 'One who departs from duty.' Now this could be taken as an oblique way of saying he's still quite hedonistic (although somewhere else in the article he said he doesn't drink as much as he used to) or just lazy when it comes to work. Or Both. I know that he is quite a keen traveller. He doesn't give much away and nor should he. Who cares what he does in his private life. Or is it part of some sort of mystique building?  I doubt it as he comes across as an affable and private gentleman. He's quite funny too as you would imagine because some of his songs are hilarious.

The above video was mentioned in that article. Wow it's dated badly or has it? Listen to it a couple of times. This could have been a subversive hit. In another dimension this is being played on Classic Trax FM. I love it. How about that quintessential 80s lead break! Now that's funny. In career overviews they always leave out a track he sang on the soundtrack of the Film To Have & To Hold directed by John Hillcoat.  Ironically it was written by Bob Dylan.

The Arrangement was done by Barry Adamson and produced by Bargeld, Jones, Harvey & Cave. I remember it being better. It must have been a thrill for those guys to work with Scott as I'm sure they are huge fans. Strange that this was recorded around the same time as Tilt. He is a massive film buff so I'm sure that's why why he did it. Not that it's bad but his head was in a totally different space for Tilt. Maybe this was the aforementioned producers projecting their version of Scott onto Scott & somehow they convinced him/got away with it.

Couldn't resist this great picture of the original
existential hipster heartthrob.

Ghost Box

I noted somewhere Ghostbox was getting a bagging possibly because it's old news or is it because that guy from LCD System is now rocking an old skool Librarian/Geography teacher look. I only just let Jarvis get away with it or did I? It was a bit weird after many years of beard wearing and being sometimes bespectacled that people started saying 'oh you look a bit like Jarvis.'  Maybe that LCD guy is gonna do a Hauntological album, then you'll know it's time to move on. If those GhostBox Study Series of singles, Belbury Poly's The Belbury Tales and that new Pye Corner Audio record are anything to go by GhostBox are in fine shape! I can't wait for a new Focus Group record.

*Also in other things related there is this new mix over at Pontone by IX Tab who I only found out about today. Choice cuts in this mix. Pontone have done it again by getting these guys to do a mix. Best Pontone Mix in ages.

**Also while in the ball park I found an old  Moon Wiring Club mix I'd somehow missed along the way. I've talked about all the other 4 or 5, so this was a nice surprise. It's called Bleep 43 or something? Click on the link. There's loads of film, radio and telly dialogue amongst the op shop records, library music and like minded artist's trax.

This is another fantastic Moon Wiring Club track. I've not seen that record anywhere in Melbourne and It's not on i-tunes. Was it only a limited thing? Maybe I'm gonna have to start ordering things via the Internet. Have I reached that phase in human evolution? Perhaps. On a similar note I haven't seen a GhostBox record in Melbourne since Synathsesia shut up shop years ago.