Australian Post-Punk (Updates)

That epic, yet picky, claustrophobia of the first couple records is a triumph. I'm sure it's the kind of thing where the band and critics went on to champion the later, better recorded work, but those early singles have a density that invites endless listening. hard to find the singles, of course, but the first of the double cd collections gets most of it (The Sound of the Sound, vol. 1). Not on iTunes, but it's around.

surprised that TSOTS isn't on itunes - it is on emusic (which is where i got it)

some of the remastering on it isn't terribly well done (ok mainly just the tracks from the fatman 45) but most of it is pretty good

Speaking of the availability of great Australian post-punk, I'm trying to gather Sunday Painters material for a possible collection, so I'm looking for any material that might be out there. Not the vinyl itself. I'm more interested in any photos, scans, or cassettes. Memories. T-shirts. Fanzines. Articles. Whatever any of you old timers have lying about. Scans and digitizations fine, of course. And any of the compilation tapes they appeared on would be especially nice: One Stop Shopping, Fast Forward #7, Public Eye #2. Also The Art Throbs' No Media is Good Media tape, or the tape comp on Terminal Records of Wollongong bands titled Big Little Bands. Any help appreciated.

one stop shopping is on mutant sounds, not sure if that helps you though?

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2007/02/va-one-stop-shopping-3-tapes-1981.html

Yeah, that's an mp3, and without a scan. Fantastic that it's there, of course. Wouldn't have heard it otherwise.

i figure i can use this thread as a catchall for aussie reissues

shortly arriving is a Chad's Tree retrospective, which is pretty nice since none of it has ever been on cd save for one or two tracks, the two LPs are relatively rare and v expensive, and it's great stuff.. pre-Blackeyed Susans fact fans

after that the delightful Egg records (who did the let's go naked comp) is doing a Rabbits Wedding retrospective, which i have been wanting for years and years and may even have given them the inspiration to do (as I emailed them with said request about five years ago). quite Go-Betweensy but their 'hit' Coming Like Summer is dripping with lloyd cole. really love this band so i am chuffed..

the RW reissue probably helped along by one of the band members rediscovering all the tapes and various other bits and pieces fairly recently

For those of you in Sydney:

A CloakRoom Assembly - Territory & Population - Album Launch

Saturday 19th June 2010

Megaphon Studios
Floor 2, Building 8
70 Edith Street
St Peters NSW

$10 at the door

8.00 – 8.30pm - Shane Fahey
8.45 – 9.15pm - A Slow Rip
9.30 – 10.00pm - Gail Priest
10.15 – 10.45pm - Pimmon
11.00 – 11.30pm - A CloakRoom Assembly

This should be a great night of interesting and vital music

ABC Radio National (Australia) presents a 2 part documentary on the Sydney and Melb scenes:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2010/2946088.htm

On today at 2PM AEST (3 hours from now) and next Sunday - streaming on the web or podcast as well.

Nice to see that Other Music here in New York finally got some copies of Terrace Industry. Had been on the fence since I probably had 2/3 of it in one form or another, but a physical copy within arms' reach was too much to pass up.

there is now also this, which is a subset of the VoD box:

http://www.ascensionrecords.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=95

So what's left in this barrel to scrape? Is there going to be another in the "Do The Pop" series?

some great new post-punk & underground rock bands out of australia include

UV RACE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pePULJR0UDE
BLANK REALM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxVu2WXCXQI
KITCHEN'S FLOOR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1hBHP5qr6A&feature=player_embedded

love kitchen's floor, don't have much if any time for the other two..

So what's left in this barrel to scrape? Is there going to be another in the "Do The Pop" series?

doesn't look like it, but the well is far from empty. for one example, the au go go label catalogue has been barely touched by compilers, amongst others. there's easily another 5 compilations worth of uncompiled stuff out there that wouldn't disappoint fans of the 'tales' or 'can't stop it' comps..

when someone finally gets around to anthologising the mid-late 80s aussie stuff some minds are going to be seriously blown

You should do an unofficial MP3 comp like our other illustrious poster in this thread!

Was looking forward to that Rabbits Wedding retrospective, but I guess Egg went out of business?

looks that way, though i don't think it's entirely down to them - i had some brief communication with a RW member (who is now in a quite good band called Dusken Lights) who indicated they'd put the project on hold themselves to concentrate on new stuff and would come back to it at a later stage..

You should do an unofficial MP3 comp like our other illustrious poster in this thread!

maybe one day soon... i am *finally* transferring all my vinyl, which i had been planning to do for ten years or more, so it's not unlikely..

Woohoo! I'd love to come over and help but, y'know, halfway around the world and all...

Let alone the full Waterfront retrospective....Vinyl on Demand—The Ratcat Box....

Isn't somebody doing something with Feedtime, or did that happen?

There was the first Fungus Brains not long ago that somebody put out. Legit?

A Venom P Stinger set would be nice

The Moodists are out of print, best I can tell

Lipstick Killers, if you're going garage rock

And, God willing, I'm hoping to get the band nearest my heart, Wollongong's Sunday Painters, back out into the world this year. Not sure what form it will take yet. But given that the singles have started ebaying for $300 apiece, the moment is here.

Do it Jim!

sub pop is doing a feedtime thing in march iirc

a lot of the moodists 'two fisted art' comp was poorly done imo so i'm not that sorry to see it go out of print. a lot of vinyl 'remastering' is really lazily done and this is one that suffered. the tactics comp suffered a little from this too.

ratcat's 'informer' comp needs to be back in print, iirc it's basically all their waterfront stuff and it's so good.

a comp of the first 50 waterfront 45s would be a fucking joy to listen to

xpost it'll happen!

now that i've checked a couple of early ratcat things never made it to cd - 'radio one' from the first 12", 'tura satana' from the saying goodbye 45, and the acoustic 'it's over' from the official bootleg. oh and their hummingbirds cover.

Ah, that's right, Sub Pop. They deserve it.

There was that Grong Grong reissue last year, too. Not that originals are scarce and pricey artifacts.

And yes, the Moodists and Tactics cds sound noticeably worse than the vinyl. Having just helped out on two projects done in large part from vinyl (UK bands: Disco Zombies and Happy Refugees), I don't feel too picky saying that it's not all that hard to make things sound at least a touch better than the originals.

absolutely. it's kind of scary how good some of the restoration tools are these days too.

Of course, a pro did the final remastering. Especially as it got released on vinyl, which ain't for amateurs. But if you're going to digital, a good mastering package like Ozone can get you almost all the way if you've got some decent monitors to work with. The Can't Stop stuff that Greg Wadley did sounds right, as does the stuff that Chuck Warner does with Messthetics. Clean but not overly bright. Punchy but not overly loud. Not so scrubbed as to sound artificial, and so on.....According to Greg's Spill site, he did the Moodists thing, but who knows the sources involved. I feel like the Can't Stop It sounds better, but maybe I had lower expectations for that material since I don't have much of the vinyl. And I do only have a download of Two Fisted Tales, so that might not be the best reference.

the actual transfers on CSI (at least the first one) were done by Andrew from Hydroplane/Cat's Miaow i believe, don't know about the second one

I have had issues with GW's mastering, at least in the past, though i think the quality has improved over the years.

Of course, I cringe to listen to things even from only a year ago (and in a year I'll probably be cringing at what I'm doing now), so there is a bit of a learning curve. And without a neutral room you get uneven results--some things come out sounding fantastic, others not so much.

a Ratcat box qua box would be a bad idea, as nearly everything post-Tingles is pretty terrible. I could go for an Early Years comp. except I have everything bar one 7" in, er, a box in the cupboard, or a box in my old housemate's garage, or a box under my mum's house, so WHO NEEDS IT obv

ha. which 7" are you missing? surprised you don't have informer

For Flopson's information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td2Nc7Ho7lk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vanxOb5pVNE

Did any of the early Bloodloss stuff get reissued?

which 7" are you missing?

goodbye / tura satana

you can have mine when i sell it

after that the delightful Egg records (who did the let's go naked comp) is doing a Rabbits Wedding retrospective

I'm guessing this never appeared?

nope. i was briefly in contact with a RW dude and i gather the comp was put on hold.

oh buggery, i just re-read a post above and realised i sold all my ratcat without copying the non-cd tracks.

i hate when that happens! You think you'll put together your own Australian post-punk MP3 comp, Jim?

Meanwhile, I finally got a copy of the Blackeyed Susans box set. Such a great blend of influences - folk, country, blues - yet a sound very much imbued by their country.

You think you'll put together your own Australian post-punk MP3 comp, Jim?

one day i will, but everything takes so long and i am tremendously disorganised. i've learned not to make any promises about this sort of thing based on the amount of times i have flaked out due to circs

i was just going to ask about that Rabbits Wedding retrospective. damn.

in news from my end - there was supposed to be a 7" ep of maestros and dipsos AND an LP of The Limp both from some guy in adelaide (+ accompanying Limp cd via Guy at Chapter). but that all seems to have gone off the deep end.

another person was going to release a cassette of a Voigt live recording but that also has gone into limbo.

i also hear rumours that the Pel Mel stuff will finally get a re-issue but i'm not holding my breath. they played a one-off concert in Newcastle recently which sounded OK.

The Voigt/465 remasters will be made available this year via Tunecore to digital suppliers (if Rod can get his act together).

BTW - the ICS recordings were mostly supplied by the compilers but i supplied them masters from my collection fro a variety of things - some professional and others just me.

oh man i would have loved a limp retrospective. marked man is one of my fave AP-P singles.

probably only gerald will be interested but the new lets go naked album finally came out (and not on egg, which definitely appears to be history). the tracks i've heard from it so far are really lovely.

on the rabbits wedding tip, their new band dusken lights have a single and comp track out, all of which are in a similar vein. they sound older but not at all tired.

Definitely going to buy the new Lets Go Naked cd, just never heard of any of the Australian online stores they are using and the only copy on Amazon is a used copy. Any good online independent Australian stores? I looked at 78 Records and they don't have it.

off the hip might stock it but i wouldn't hold my breath. a lot of the better stores are extremely reluctant to stock cds. i ordered mine from jb hi fi

Yeah their web page scared me off as soon as it loaded.

Woohoo! Got a link order it? It's hard to google "Let's Go Naked" and get any meaningful results.

this is where i got mine