Australian Post-Punk (Updates)

I found _Do The Pop! Redux Part One_ a bit underwhelming. Maybe I need more time with it but some of the lo-fi, Detroit-via-Melbourne sound gets a bit samey. Of course, I'll still be picking up the next two parts...

I wonder if there's going to be a third volume of _Tales From The Australian Underground_?

Phil - are you gonna do a new MP3 compilation this year?

i do think that redux vol one is quite a bit more narrow in the breadth of styles than some of these comps - the trashy punk stuff is fun in small doses but yeah i do think it gets a bit dull to take in one sitting. having said that, some of the additions over the previous volume are very welcome, like the manikins stuff for example

but one request: NO MORE SAINTS, NO MORE RADIO BIRDMAN, for god's sake please

Yeah, more Cold Chisel instead.

...what?

i haven't heard any news about a third "tales..", but a third volume would be welcome. the second one took some time to grow but there's still some fantastic stuff on it.

there's more than enough genuinely great stuff out there to fill ten more comps that i would love from start to finish..

one band i'd love to see properly reissued is the systematics.. i recently got hold of the rural LP and it's way better than i expected it to be

I know I've said it before, but we must have some feedtime reissues.

Xgau review:

"Shovel [Rough Trade, 1988]
One Melbourne fan says they're like standing too close to a moving freight train with a six-pack in you, and that's corny-to-classic enough to evoke their size and inexorability--a little slower and more old-fashioned than the IRT the Ramones/Dolls came in on, which definitely doesn't mean they're slow or old-fashioned. Just an art band cum power trio that's spent nine years perfecting its sonic wisdom. Jesus and Mary are wimps by comparison, Motorhead sellouts, yet in the end all three (all five) provide the same minimalist thrill--the one that's forever convincing us rock and roll will never die. You think maybe it won't? A-"

That's a pretty accurate review.

one band i'd love to see properly reissued is the systematics.. i recently got hold of the rural LP and it's way better than i expected it to be

a couple of guys in germany are going to release a 2 disk compilation of the systematics material this year. it's vinyl only. 1st LP is all of the tracks previously released on vinyl. 2nd is demos and rarities (all from the stuff i have on my site) and a 7" bonus ep with 4 live tracks. when it comes out i'll post to this thread with all the info - it's bound to be a small run so you'll have to get in while you can.

I recently ripped my vinyl of "Shovel". Lot's of pop and scratches, maybe the record I listened to the most in 1988. Not quite the start-to-finish freight train it sounded like at the time, it still holds up 'cause of the barely audible sentiments in the songs- there's bits of narrative and emotion under all the crud. The Lamps record is what made me pull it out. Also ripped the Saints "Emotionally Yours" which is a stronger record, but I it doesn't move me as much.

How good is Use No Hooks' "Do The Job" from Can't Stop It 2? Anyone have anything else of theirs?

Saw that Primitive Calculators & Friends comp at my local record store - gonna head back there on payday to grab it.

use no hooks were a predominantly live/jam band so their recorded output is slim and rather variable in quality (from the little i've heard).

The Systematics vinyl release - "What We Did In The Afternoons" - is mastered and the artwork is being prepared. However, there's a small spanner in the works as Vinyl on Demand (another german company) want to release a 5 LP box set of M Squared related material and to include some of the major Systematics things: they can fight about it amongst themselves. VOD have also have available a 5 LP box of Severed heads stuff and a box of SPK rarities.

o rly.. i might have to check this out

Among those SPK rarities would probably be the SoliPsiK single, "See-Saw', one of their best tracks, and interesting also insofar as it has the distinctive M Squared sound, especially with the thin, pale female vocals.

it's a really good single that one. nice mixture of noise and melody

...which can be found on the excellent _Can't Stop It II_.

I bought the reissue of SPK's Machine Age Voodoo. It's pleasant enough but she's not really the best vocalist in the world. I love the title track, though.

I am waiting (agonizingly) for my SPK box set in the mail. I know it has 3 singles, so I'm pretty sure one is the SoliPsiK one. But not positive. I'll post when I get it.

That's kind of a bummer about the conflict w/The Systematics, but I could think of worse things than having multiple labels clamoring to reissue your stuff.

I downloaded the top three tracks and they we're all brilliant but not complete. thats a bummer

Okay I decided I really don't care about Systematics, sorry.

SoliPsiK thing is alright, though. She should have stuck to that style of talking/monotone singing.

systematics are vastly better than a lot of the stuff you champion

hahahaha

Ya Ya Choral is worth checking out if you like the Systematics. They almost went kinda sorta metal towards the end of their career. Their best track, 'Two Lines', was earlier than that though - again the thin female fronted electropop thing. A few years later, that sound would resurface with Pel Mel, and then, in the early 90's, Single Gun Theory.

Hmm, actually, Google tells me 'Two Lines' came out three years later than the classic Pel Mel stuff, so the influence was probably the other way around. Nothing quite like that is being written any more, but if anything comes close it would probably be Miss Kitten in about 2002. I just think of it as the quintessential M Squared / Newtown sound.

yeah i remember coming across some of the metal YYC after only knowing the two lines 45 - kind of a shock really.

SoliPsiK - i'm fairly sure this isn't in the box set as it was NihiL + his then girlfriend + a guitarist doing stuff whilst SPK were in London. I think Revell and co don't see it as their work. So the female singer on this is a different person to the SPK female singer.

Systematics - all resolved: Rural will be in the box as the 2LP comp is a small run and it should sell out before the box is due - sometime in 2009.

YYC - i love their early stuff: it's 2 people from Systematics (Patrick and Fiona) + one of the M2 M's - Michael Tee. Definitely post Pel Mel, much more pop oriented. I was in their choir, once - you can just hear us on God's Buzzsaw.

another systematics update:

Rural will not be on the VOD M2 release as this (weirdly) is limited to material that was not previously released on vinyl. This is also the case with the Severed Heads box. So it's going to be up to some one out there to compile M2 correctly.

Markus Schmikler has been approached to do the mastering for the Systematics release and the responses have been very positive.

is Inner City Sound (the book) much cop/worth acquiring? managed about 30mins of Dogs In Space, but the complete lack of plot killed my interest. will re-attempt in an effort to see the Primitive Calculators footage.

it's kinda thin in parts but an enjoyable read. the cd is fantastic

well, there's not much plot in ICS - just a roll-call of bands and reviews, lots of pics of everyone and a post-punk outlook. still the best thing available regarding aus music of the time, though.

so this 2LP will have the tracks from that double 10" on Invitation au Suicide, yeah? really looking forward to this

Vinyl On Demand has always been cassette-only in terms of what they reissue, with a few small exceptions.

ICS is a really fascinating read - well written (in a serious style, and the hindsight aspect is also interesting. I'd like to see something like it for today's crop of underground bands.

i fear a book like that would be like a spiked hammer to my skull. unless it's an underground of awesome bands i haven't heard yet

Well yes, I see what you mean. Things have changed a bit haven't they? These days, underground means overground, wombling free.

<i>unless it's an underground of awesome bands i haven't heard yet</i>

I think that's the crux. If I had the time and was sufficiently masochistic I'd be able to write at least three chapters of that book myself. Those bands certainly exist, in my opinion, and I've had the good fortune to see a handful of them in Sydney and Melbourne - usually in the most unlikely locations, eg, house parties, warehouses, abandoned lots, etc. Most of them don't get too many gigs on the pub circuit - they don't bring enough punters. Most of them are, in some sense or other, heirs to the post-punk aesthetic, and not in a cute, fatuous way either. I'm sure there is plenty of 'deeply underground' music (shall we say) in the other states too.

Perhaps the problem is that truly underground music nowadays is really not that interesting to anyone in the music or publishing biz. Those bands will not sell records in sufficient quantities in these difficult times. These bands are lost amongst the huge heaving sea of no-hopers on MySpace.

Who is today's equivalent of Clinton Walker or, say Bob Blunt? Maybe he or she is writing that book right now. I can't help feeling, though, that the idea of people working intuitively and creatively in lanthanine noooks and crannies in the inner city is just not that appealing to publishers at the moment. Pitching a book like that would be difficult. It's a diabolical combination of an unsaleable book about unsaleable music.

Blogs were supposed to cover this territory, but all the blogs I see slavishly follow a cohort of this year's fashionable indie bands (please do link me to exceptions - I am talking about stuff no-one's ever heard of, not the latest me-too reviews of this year's next big indie things). Perhaps these blogs exist, but are themselves inpossible to find in the huge chattering blogmos.

So ICS just compiles back-in-the-day reviews/interviews from ... zines, papers, &c? Is it hefty enough to justify paying $35+shipping? I finally picked up Can't Stop It! I & II (I'd heard about a quarter of the tracks already) locally after dithering re: ordering them from Chapter for years, & am more blown away than I thought I'd be - real, real quality.
Still on a Severed Heads kick, too. Anyone wanna write a Severed Heads bio?

xpost: What bands, moley?

I think NZ's possibly more fucked re: coverage than Aus, w/people trapped between NZ On Air-baiting intnl blandishments & people aiming lathe cuts in limited editions of negative sixteen at the international market for NZ noize.

So ICS just compiles back-in-the-day reviews/interviews from ... zines, papers, &c?

Yes, all written by Clinton Walker. It's one person's vision, which can be a good thing if you like to get into another person's worldview, and it's pretty well written.

What bands, moley?

Two bands I really like (I could name about five or six probably) are B@d Art (Sydney) and N0w...You Die (Melbourne). Millions would disagree, of course. Both bands are really quite in your face and obnoxious, and not in a fashionable way either - which to me is a typically punk stance, in the true sense of the word. I suppose the point is that these are two interesting, highly opinionated bands who you haven't heard of, and who would be, I suspect, interesting interview subjects, unlikely to talk in platitudes, and not overly focused on their promotional profile at the expense of musical and social ideas.

Not to over-intellectualise them or anything. I mean,they are more into musical and lyrical wallop than conceptual finesse. Nor are they incredibly original (nor were the Birthday Party or many other of the bands covered by Clinton Walker). Probably they are more about the punk stance of obnoxious energy applied to stories of inner city life, occasionally drawing out political implications, than about creating new sounds. You could not call them boffins or potential Wire Magazine cover stars by any means.

Actually, better ask - ICS isn't too heavy on all the post-Stooges/Nick Cave related stuff, is it? I've heard way more Primitive Calculators/Slugfuckers than Bad Seeds/Saints/Go-Betweens, heh. It's the little bands with the teasing blurbs in the Can't Stop It liner notes I'm mainly interested in.

I've heard B@d Art's "I W3d Mys3lf" before! Somewhere, somehow ... maybe via some of the Brisbane all-ages-shows-at-galleries bands (T0xic L1pstick) or something.
I wonder how much documentation's gonna survive from this era - how long is a review/interview gonna survive on a blog?

ICS - it's not all written by Clinton although over half is and the new section at the end is all his work. It's coverage is wide and almost complete but a fair bit of the text does link back to Birdman/Birthday Party/Saints, especially at the beginning. In a lot of cases for the smaller bands, there's a picture and a small bit of text to accompany that.

BTW, The best "Birdman" article is "You Cant Put Yor Arms Round a Memory" which is a scathing review of a 1979 Visitors/Hitmen gig - "egad, it's like Anzac day in here - the crowd of motley old diggers proudly adorned with antique red and black badges of courage on their expectant chests", etc. Written by Peter Nelson who was one of the 1st members of the Birdman fan club and with whom I spent many sweaty Friday nights at the Funhouse in Taylor Square. He was easily the best writer of the time (as Clinton says in the rundown of writers and photographers near the front) but stopped around the time he started playing guitar for Wild West.

so this 2LP will have the tracks from that double 10" on Invitation au Suicide, yeah?

i never owned that one nor saw it around but i'm certain it will have all of the material that was released plus a lot of good studio demos and dabblings.

Just wanted to say that the musical and lyrical wallop of the Birdman/Birthday Party/Saints school is incredibly important to me. Not to denigrate bedroom industrialists, but there was a special energy about Aussie garage/punk records, particularly if you were listening to them in the pinky-blue popist hell of 80's Britain.

I have just alienated 95% of ILM. I'll get my coat.

Just wanted to say that the musical and lyrical wallop of the Birdman/Birthday Party/Saints school is incredibly important to me

and it was of vital importance to me (and many other of the band members of the time) as well. we just couldn't keep thinking it was the ultimate.

M2 compilation news:

- Mitch and Drew (scattered order) were seemingly lost for a few years but they've reappeared
- it's definitely made up of previous cassette releases only
- the tentative list is "more songs that will never be released", the 2 pat gibson solo; prod; acra and another lp of various things.

:-) to all that.

Just wanted to say that the musical and lyrical wallop of the Birdman/Birthday Party/Saints school is incredibly important to me. Not to denigrate bedroom industrialists, but there was a special energy about Aussie garage/punk records, particularly if you were listening to them in the pinky-blue popist hell of 80's Britain.

I have just alienated 95% of ILM. I'll get my coat.

-- Soukesian, Monday, 5 May 2008 22:09 (4 weeks ago) Link

This seems quite reasonable to me! And I love bedroom DIY!

But where is Mr. Odd?

goes without saying i am v interested in this M2 comp

i finally ripped my copy of growing pains, maybe not as good as 'a selection' but up there, even if only for the girl from ipanema and paint it black covers

yeah, growing pains is still pretty good but lacks the breadth of a selection. it's a shame that b selection was never finalised.

systematics update:

- markus schmikler has done the remastering: excellent
- the cover designer is a mainstay of the Cologne techno scene: no draft as yet but it's underway
- Pat has written reams of notes to accompany the tracks and they are just fantastic; detailed, funny, self-deprecating - ie the epitome of the systematics all round