Friday Night- Happy Mondays

I don't recall this video?

Rowland S Howard - A Reprise

I watched that Documentary autoluminescent again last night and geez it's hard going towards the end. This is a doco about the life and times of Rowland S directed by Lynn-Maree Milburn & Richard Lowenstien. It contains some fantastic footage of the great man from the early days onwards. It's when it gets near the end and there are scenes of him in hospital and sad stories from his last days that really hit you with the sadness of his tragedy. He was starting to gain momentum with his career again. His Pop Crimes LP was critically acclaimed and a whole new younger audience was becoming aware of his magnificence. He had so much more to give and his regret was heartbreaking ie. not looking after himself at certain stages of his life.

He ended on a high note though and I hope he was proud. What a top record to go out on! Ha... just noticed 10 minutes ago that the FACT Webmagazine has his Teenage Snuff Film record in their best albums of the 90s, coming in at #20. So it takes an international website to recognise his excellence and the Aussie list maker wankers to overlook it. Typical. 

Teenage Snuff Film- Rowland S Howard

Glaring Omissions V

How could this LP be overlooked by both that 100 Australian Albums book and that Age list? It's unbelievable. Was there a better rock record from the '90's in Australia? I don't think so.

Rowland S came into my life somewhere around 1983/'84 when my older brother brought home Prayers On Fire by The Birthday Party from one of the commercial record shops in Mildura. Suffice to say this was no commercial record. My ears were definitely not attuned to such a cacophony. This was no INXS, Midnight Oil, The Models or even Hoodoo Gurus. That was where my head was at. I thought this LP was some kind of satanic music and it remained on the shelf for a year or two. Then someone borrowed it and in its absence I became fixated with it. Rage (an all night music show) probably got me into The Bad Seeds then The Birthday Party. I never got that record back despite many attempts. I had some z grade tape containing it and the self-titled Birthday Party LP though. Those Birthday Party records became legendary to me, well, up to and including Junkyard, anyway. I pretty much love all The Crime & City Solution records and the ones Rowland played on were fabulous, Just South Of Heaven & Room Of Lights (haven't dug those out for a while I must admit). Then there was the brilliant Marry Me film clip by These Immortal Souls on Rage followed by the underated minor classic Get Lost (Don't Lie) album. We used to think he was a bit funny because he never looked very well in any video he was in. He was fragile and looked like he would not be long for this world. Nobody ever looked so cool yet so ill at the same time. I love the way he stood when he played guitar. He was a unique and fascinating human specimen. Possibly the best white rock guitarist ever.

By the time I was living in Melbourne in 1991 I saw These Immortal Souls support Died Pretty. That was a bit arse about, I thought, but I guess Died Pretty had big major label support at the time. These Immortal Souls were good but not mind blowing, perhaps having a bad night. I don't really know what happened to him after that. There was an LP in '92 from These Immortal Souls which hardly got any airplay on Melbourne community radio. The times were a changin and he seemed to get left behind. I heard the only way he got to come back to Australia sometime in the mid '90's was because an Aussie metal band had a hit with a cover of Shivers an old Boys Next Door song he wrote and the royalties saved his life. It must have been around this time that I would often spot him, with much excitement, in the Acland St supermarket with potato salad in hand. I think it must have been around '96-'97 I saw him play a solo weeknight gig at The Public Bar in North Melbourne to about 7 people, 6 of whom didn't know who he was. It was looking like this legend was fading away and nobody cared.

Then there was this performance on ABCTV's Studio 22 which I managed to tape in 1999. He was back big time. Mick Harvey on drums and Brian Hooper on bass. Rowland was resplendent in pink shirt and the band was totally cookin. I would come home from work after being at the pub and watch this over and over again. I loved it, must have watched it at least 75 times, I reckon. Dead Radio, Exit Everything, She Cried (the old Shangri-La's tune He Cried with a switcheroo), White Wedding (yep the Billy Idol Tune) and if memory serves a version of Shivers. I never bought the record, Teenage Snuff Film, until someone, namely my cat, taped over it with golf. Anyway that made me get the album and, fuck me, there were even better tracks on there. Breakdown, I Burnt Your Clothes, Silver Chain, Sleep Alone, Undone, Autoluminescent etc. This was his most focused and consistent record ever and it was fucking brilliant. No duds here. This was a Lazarus like comeback and The record of his career. Well he said he was "bigger than Jesus Christ" and he was to me and he should have been to mainstream Australia and throughout the world. As he also said in Autoluminescent:

 "I'm White Heat! I'm White Hot Again!"

And he was vocally, lyrically and on the axe. There were pop songs, dirges, doomed loved songs and songs that were hatefully cathartic. Trash/Pop culture references like guns, Coca Cola, Cigarettes, dog nods, stolen cars, Black Holes and blood were scattered throughout. Not forgetting Hell, Jesus Christ, valium, murder, romance, self loathing, being wasted, crime, poor health, sadness, devices, hate/lust, suicide and misanthropy. On the lighter side there was hope, bragging, space travel, sarcasm and love/hate relationships. Discerning what was fiction and what wasn't was half the fun of listening to this record. A fairly sparse approach musically, some fabulous string arrangements, his best ever vocal performances and blistering guitar work all added up to the best Australian rock LP of the '90's. So for me that means he was present on the best Australian rock LP of the '80's, Prayers On Fire by the Birthday Party, and the '90's. Legend, no?

Then it was another 10 years we had to wait for his follow up LP Pop Crimes, which would be his last LP before his death and which time will show to be almost as great as this miraculous effort!

RIP

or should that be rest in guitar racket from hell?

Friday Night - Party like it's 1987/88

What a great timeless trio of tracks.

Love 'em more than ever.

Hawkwind/Rave...it's all connected right?



What can I say?

Stumbled upon this last night on the Youtubes  Hawkwind doco ! Dodgy old VHS tape made it even better I reckon. Heaps of stuff I didn't know, pretty bloody good. What a trip they had- Drugs, guns, grenades, naked dancers, roller skates, mental illness, links with terrorism, a million ex members, regular sackings, sabotaging their own career and everything else in between. Didn't one of the Chrome guys join them once?, there was no mention of that. Just to mention everyone who went through the band would have taken up half the film. Who knew Samantha Fox guested with them once?! Ofcourse it made me dig out some Ye Olde Hawkwind to put on my ipod. How has Lemmy, who was in good spirits in the film, not got lung cancer? He's chain smoking in every interview I've ever seen him do. I guess he's up there with Keef in that regard. They're so hard. Apart from my Roxy Music fest I've also been diggin' this mixtape Slave To The Rave from Woebot. Which is an old school Rave mix and it's awesome. I missed this one a while back so it was a good find. Good gear up there with his others Brick Door Mix, Ambient Jungle Mix and Dr Wo Mix. Check Woebot at Soundcloud for these. I guess I got to that from listening to some New Skool Rave or is that nu skool rave or is it new old skool? I'm confused! ie. Skrillex's Bangarang EP, which has got some great stuff on there, almost as good as that Rustie LP from last year (midlife crisis or just awesome bangin' tunes?). I couldn't care less if this is cool or whatever. I like it! I guess I got to that by listening to this other Old Skool Mix 91 from Dara-blog to the old skool, this could be the best old school mix I've ever heard, (er..google that one) which is a fuckn' mental mix of Rave Trax from well 1991. I think the times we are in now culturally are perhaps akin the the Australian Aborigine concept of time, which if memory serves translates to something like 'everything is happening now.' IE. past, present and future are all happening at once! (feel free to let me know if I have that wrong)



This sounds awesome
on my ipod



Slave To The Rave
Woebot Mix





Roxy Music

Any reason to mention Roxy Music is a good reason. Their debut LP is 40 years old. Here's a recent article over at The Guardian by Simon Reynolds. I don't think I can add anything really that I haven't already. I like that Eno supports what I said about that first record being insane. Phil Manzanera supports this view as well saying "The whole of that first album sounds so weird. It's such a mish-mash of stuff."

The Bob
from Roxy Music

err....how could I resist?!

Vic Reeves & Co doing Virginia Plain!

but they blew my mind

wow!

from For Your Pleasure

Later Greatness!

Same Old Scene

Friday Night - Cybotron

Party like it's 1981!

 The b-side

Probably more influential.

Puffy Jackets/Fashion Retromania

My fashion theory is definitely gaining cred. A month or two ago we would have said 'the worst fashion ever was the puffy coat ala the Michelin man look from the 90s'. Seinfeld even did an episode on how fucked that fashion was and did you see what Jerry wore every day?! So when you think something is so completely beyond the pale, bang! It's back! In a late wintery blast here in Melbourne the puffy jacket over the last couple of weeks has been increasing it's appearances on morning trains.

Sir David Attenborough

Saw Sir David in the salubrious confines of The Regent Theatre Melbourne the other weekend. Yes he had pants of a non descript colour but only really mid Harry High and a light blue shirt as predicted. He was really funny and affable as you would expect. I felt that a lot people were there to just pay respect to the man and applaud his pioneering work. He was getting woo hoos from the crowd like a rock star. He was sharp as a tack, unbelievably lucid for a man of his age. He told a story pertaining to the above picture. The camera man missed a whole bunch of great footage, where the female ape put her finger in Sir David's mouth and another one was patting him on the head, because they were waiting for Sir David to say action. It took another 3 days to luckily get this footage but it wasn't quite the same. It's still awesome! (from episode 12 of Life On Earth) Standing ovation, Respect!

More Kosmische

Bataille Solaire-Baal Shamash et son char Celeste

This tape is a bewdy. It's somewhere along the the lines of atmospheric kosmische synth/organ/space/drone, occasionally slipping in and out wormholes. Sometimes heavenly at other times delving into the darkness. It's a true sonic journey not staying in the one place too long which is a bit different for this kind of thing. Sometimes hypnotic and then disorientating. This is a top shelf synth record from out of the blue and fast becoming one of my favourite records of the year. Cheers to Bataille Solaire and surprises. (thanks to you know who you are for recommending this). I know next to nothing about them which kind of adds to the mystique of it all.



Outer Space - Akashic Record (Events: 1986-1990)



Something must be in the air this week or is it amongst the stars and the planets? This is another LP that is loosely Kosmische in stylee. Finally tracked down this cracker from Outer Space. Beautifully recorded intergalactic electronics on Akachic Record (Events: 1986-1990). They are definitely getting out there into rarely travelled zones. John Elliot from Emeralds along with several other colleagues have probably created the most electric Kosmische LP since, well, the last Emeralds LP. The fidelity of this record has to be experienced through headphones to be believed, it so cool and crisp. This could be the best solo outing ever from an Emeralds member and believe me there have been some real good ones. Usually I think records are too long and could be trimmed a little but this left me wanting more. Spectrum Spools have done it again this year. This must be at least their 4th great release of the year.



Michael Hoenig & Manuel Gottsching

Should really be trying to finish off my Glaring Omissions series but I'm a bit under the weather to be researching/checking facts etc. It was my aim to have the series complete by the years end, we'll see. It has been the most popular thing on my Blog. My two most misspelled words would be Kosmische which is German for cosmic and the other would be Oneohtrix. It's a silly name and I don't care that I spell it wrong every time. What does it mean? I must be dyslexic, for the first couple of years I had the pronunciation as 'on eo thrix' until I noticed the correct spelling. The way to say it apparently is 'one oh trix' which to me now just seems absurd. Anyway speaking of Kosmische I've recently discovered a record I did not know existed within that genre by two of my favourite artists doing a collaboration. Michael Hoenig of Agitation Free, Tangerine Dream and Solo Artist got together with Manuel Gottsching of Ash Ra Temple, Ashra, Cosmic Jokers, Solo Artist and Collaborator Extraordinaire in 1976 to make this fabulous slab of Kosmische music called Early Water. It's an unheralded classic with Manuel/Hoenig in fine form on their respective instruments. It's up there with best Ash Ra records and Hoenig's brilliant Departure From The Northern Wasteland LP. I understand this project remained unreleased for many years, until sometime in the 90s. How could they sit on such gold for so long without unleashing it? 48 and a half minutes of intergalactic guitar and synthesiser bliss. Float free man.

Departure From The Northern
Wasteland - 1978



S/T debut classic-1971





*Ok it was in the Cosmic Egg but I somehow missed it you know how it is

Films??

Just watched the DVD last night of Martha Marcy May Marlene and they forgot to put the ending on it or ran out of money!

I suspect they didn't know how to end it and said 'Yeah it's a thinkpeice, make up your own ending'. Me I quite like a story with a beginning, middle and end. If this film had been dished up to me by a student I would have sent it back with a note 'Can you please have the guts to put an ending on this work otherwise it's an F'. It was quite a good movie up until its abrupt ending. I was quite looking forward to see what happened. Then when it just ended me and The Mrs were just left a little frustrated and slightly angry. We didn't want to think up our own ending. It's a story bloody end it!

So it was a story where a girl ran away from a cult. Was she going to go back?, get killed?or just go the mental hospital like a good girl? Miffed at the abrupt ending I made up my own ending like they wanted. Aliens came down and captured everyone in the film and used them for experiments, the end. The Mrs had a slightly different ending  - a band of squirrels kidnaps them and they have a squirrel tea party, the end.



Chief squirrel plans his ambush before the tea party for
the finale of Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick and Titch.

*Please leave your own alternative ending in the comments box.

Controversy

Created a little controversy on Twitter and over at The Quietus all about Ariel Pink. I just think he's had all these theories thrust upon him and in one interview was quite frustrated by it all saying he just wrote songs whether they were retro, now or future he couldn't care less. Finally got the vinyl of Ariel's Mature Themes today and there is a lyric sheet but I have not read it yet. Geneva Jacuzzi co wrote Kinski Assassin with Ariel which I didn't know. I may check out out what he says about North Korea in Farewell American Primitive but that's about it.

*Listening to Lucifer by Peaking Lights I was thinking they sound like no one else really which is incredible  in this day and age, but there was one tune on the last record that had a little keyboard interlude (of like 25 seconds) that had me flashing on Laika's Sound Of Satellites record. Then there is another one on Lucifer which had me thinkn very vaguely of Moonshake/Laika, all very tenuous links. Like saying someones similar because they use the same guitar. They are very allusive group! You kind of think surely there's been 10 groups like this before but there haven't.

**Been listening to both the Gary War LP and The Human Teenager one and they are both fantastic. The way they try to be Chrome but just end up sounding like a kids version which is even better because we've already had one Chrome. I think it's pop music. Gary's Pleading For Annihalation could be from a prime era Chrome LP. This Ilitch 10 Suicides record that I only discovered this year seems to have been a secret influence on a lot of this American underground stuff. I think I said at the time Oneohtrix Point Never must be a fan and you can add Gary War and Oneohtrix and War collaborator Taylor Richardson as fans. Then I put on Lamborghini Crystal's Roach Motel and well they got a little closer to Chrome's dementia and Human Teenager were probably listening. Fuck me Roach Motel is one of Ferraro's best efforts, really grimy (not in the D.Rascal sense) and mental.

Chrome-A couple of funny guys.



2008 Classic
Roach Motel - Lamborghini Crystal



Ariel Pink/The Quietus

Fuckin young journo wannabees, how annoying are they? This Joe Kenedy over at The Quietus who reviewed the Ariel Pink Mature Themes LP  was so off  the mark I nearly fell off my chair. I couldn't give a fuck about cultural theorising. I like Ariel Pink because of his music which is mostly fuckin' great. It sounds good to my eardrums! My eardrums like it a lot. Joe do you like sounds in your eardrums or just theorising about stuff to try and get a name for yourself ? My brain says to my eardrums or vice versa, 'Mature Themes again please!' and so I put it on again. That's how listening works for me. I imagine this is how it works for others as well. In on a joke? Are you being paranoid about missing the point? What joke? Snore! Wow you slagged off Ariel Pink, feel better now. Why did I even read this review? Because usually I check The Quietus to see if the great David Stubbs has done anything lately. Joe I can't foresee you joining the ranks of such greats but you are a knob just not a great knob.

*'a knob' is a David Stubbs tongue

Friday Night - The Reels

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.



Swans

Mick & Jarboe back in 94 waitin to be hip again, only
15 years to wait.

 Seeing Swans without Jarboe to me would be like seeing The Mac without either Buckingham or Nicks (well Nicks really) Wasn't she integral? She was to me & I loved Swans right up to Soundtracks for the Blind, you know when no one else was listening to them anymore except that dude from Snog who used to have a fuckin great show on PBS. So their resurgence has been quite baffling to me. People my age who'd never heard of 'em/couldn't have cared less about them back in the 80/90s all of a sudden knowing about Swans in the 2010s is a bit weird....... the younger ones I can understand...... anyway whatever the internet makes everyone an instant expert these days and eventually we'll all have the knowledge of the world inserted into our brains and we'll probably have a choice of whose opinions we'd like as well. Soundtracks For The Blind is probs my equal fave LP of theirs along with Children of God. Apparently Jarboe did some backing vocals on a couple of tracks on the new record but she's hardly rejoined the band.

Return To The 4th World

Been diggin on that new mixtape 91 from Pontone by K-Punk aka Mark Fisher Return To The 4th World. It's a trip, it's a journey, a voyage into the Fourth World.  It had me wantin to dig out electric Miles albums to add to my I-Pod and listen to Liquid Liquid - geez they were good and 23 Skidoo and John Hasell. Then wonder who were these others. I probably would have you know included Paul Shcutze, MBV etc.


Fuckn great LP and cover combo

Then I was diggin a different journey. Fabulous Diamonds vision is becoming more singular as they go on. Their vision has narrowed from an almost 4th world esque, (a bit of artistic licence here, give me a break) well open ended experimentalism on the first record to a quest for an almost singular but perfect drone by their third record. It's a pretty, pretty good trance like vibe on this. That drum sound is something else isn't it?  Listening to Liquid Liquid today had me flashing on some of those percussive sounds. I wonder if they're fans? Anyway good stuff/lovin Commercial Music.

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.

Friday Night-Rock n Roll

Life On Earth

Now I've got the hatrick: book, soundtrack and now the 12 hours and 5 minutes of the original groundbreaking BBC telly series of Life On Earth from 1979 for cheap on dvd. Alert!!!! Sir David has Jeans. Who knew? Also was he always old?  Three years in the making. It's got that awesome late 70s film stock look about it. A kind of faded but in all its clarity still blueish green colour. Like the sound of Boards of Canada if you know what I mean. I'm loving it. Alert!!!! Sir David says 'a females sexual opening'. Who knew spiders had so much sex. Alert!!!!Sir David blows shit up with like dynamite! He says sexual in a funny way and a lot! Hipster checked cowboy shirt alert!!!! Sir David still manages to make it look daggy thank god! The world is still in order. All I need is the badge, poster, sticker and t-shirt. I actually think this trio will do till I see the great man in a week and a half. Expecting very baggy harry highpants in non descript colour, don't mind so much about the shirt. I'm guessing light blue long sleeves. I'll keep you posted.

Pink References

Joe Jackson

This is quite good i'spose. I can't tell if it's offensive or not. Who cares?

Real Men

The Go-Betweens

Spring Rain

Ariel you're not the only one using that guitar sound as a reference point. Hello Dick Diver, Real Estate  et al.  At least AP's not basing a career on it.  I always liked it when they both sang on the same song. They should have done it more!  Err.......Rob & Grant that is.

Cheap Shots V

Welcome to Sunny Melbourne Australia. Just a few kms from here they were recording temps of -4 degrees this morning. Just like Home and Away huh?



Spectral Musical Notes




I always think that pool could have been put to
better use. 



All of these shot in a hurry as I was running late. Didn't have time to tinker with my phone to get maximum potential for these pictures. All shot around Flemington Bridge Station and the nearby Commission Flats.



Ariel Pink's Mature Themes part 37

What the fuck is he on about in Kinski Assassain?

'Australian made something or other'
'Suicide dumplings dropping testicle bombs'
'Bring on the bogan she-males hopped up on meth'

I know he spent some time in Australia this year but even I don't know about bogan she-males!

When i finally get a physical copy of this record I hope there is no lyric sheet. I like the mystery. Something on Before Today was ruined because I read the lyrics in the cover. Anyway then there is the title track Mature Themes which sounds to me like a Joe Jackson song if Joe was good, maybe he was, I only know that one radio song. What is it? Real Men which always seemed a bit wrong to me can't remember why. Does it say something about fags? Anyway Ariel's version I suspect is a bit dodgy too.

'I wanna talk about Mature Things/Taboo things.'

God knows what he wants to talk about and maybe I'd rather not know. Maybe he should have called The LP Taboo Things. On one of the tracks I think he says something about the bad breath of a cross eyed goat. Seriously I haven't dropped acid and well I didn't know it was back in fashion and seemingly readily available on the streets in LA. God knows what Pink Slime is about. What does he say about North Korea in Farewell American Primitive and what the fuck is it about? I like not knowing and just chuckin in my own theories. And fuck me if it's not Robert Forster guitaring on some tracks or whoever played guitar on The Go-Betweens Spring Rain. The ghost of Grant McLennan for all I know and it wouldn't surprise me. He could do entire albums of shit like Nostradamus & Me or slow Jamz like Baby and I would lap it up. I am starting to think it's better than Before Today just maybe.