Birthday Party - Classic or Dud

4AD needs to reissue Junk Yard on vinyl, that shit is gettin bootlegged.

The Mr. Clarinet/Happy Birthday single might be their finest moment.

My three year old is into cars and monsters, and so I showed him the Junkyard LP sleeve this weekend, and after a long, silent stare, he asked if he could keep it. Does the CD sound really crappy or something?

Great story! Dunno about the CD, but you should be able to find him an Ed Roth monster T-shirt on eBay.

"Anybody seen "Mutiny - the Last Birthday Party," an apparent document of the overdubbing sessions for the final EP? (!) Info's here: http://www.fromthearchives.com/bp/videography.html

couldn't find a working torrent, I kinda gotta see this."

i've seen it, and it's available in megaupload.
pretty boring, 25 minutes, mainly of the recording of "jennifer's veil" (one of the weakest BP songs imo), but the last 5 minutes, about the recording of "swampland" is amazing:
Cave's give his best vocal performance, and when it's over, and Cave, all sweating from the effort, lits a cigarette to relax, you feel the empathy

I've got a really vivid memory of getting and listening to Mutiny EP shortly after it came out, poring over and discussing every detail of the cover and the scrawled liners with friends. Those late EPs were fascinating, scary objects.

the swastika image was kinda scanalous

Hard to remember now that St. Nick has been canonised, but they were pretty scandalous at the time. Didn't fit in with UK indieland at all.

From one of those seetickets email updates:

BIRTHDAY PARTY

A favourite of the late, great John Peel the Australian pop-punk band will be in the UK for two special dates in February. Book now!

Feb 12, 02 Academy Islington, Feb 21 Ruby Lounge Manchester

What? What is this? Cave/Howard/Harvey? Does anyone have any more info?

http://www.mickharvey.com -> is in The Triffids now

Pop punk 4 evah!

Current working theory is that seetickets have misunderstood a banner gig title for some smallish bands. And Harvey seems to be gigging in Australia with The Triffid people on at least one of those dates.

Absolutely classic. I'll bet if I put on Mutiny, and Nick came on with "Hand's up, who wants to die!" I would drop 20 years and be stagediving off my desk, much to the concern of everyone in my office.

The gig I saw in '83 right after that one dropped is one of my all-time faves.

I vote right now for Mick Harvey as best not-really-the-drummer-but-beating-the-skins-right-now-anyway in a significant band, so much so that I can never remember what's-his-name's name usually. Of course he could be a prick, but in my experience all good drummers are that way sometimes (present company included).

Birthday Party reunion? STRENUOUSLY unlikely, but y'know ..... I said that about Bauhaus.

I don't see Cave doing it -- seems like something he'd find abhorent. And, really..... at the end of the day, without Tracey Pew, it won't be the Birthday Party.

i don't see Harvey doing it, esp. after he just left The Bad Seeds.

Very good point.

Alex OTM Re: Pew. But it's also a crying shame that nobody's playing these songs live anymore...

"The Friend Catcher" is an undeniable song

Tracks that needed to be added to "Hits": Guilt Parade / The Hair Shirt / Blundertown / Several Sins / Kiss Me Black / Six Strings That Drew Blood.

Fixed.

Absolute classic. all of it.

with so many brilliant tracks, 90% of their catalogue should be added to "hits"
xpost

classic

yes!

odd how the imagery & style of the birthday party hang over so much subsequent "goth" culture, but how few goth bands seem to take any real musical inspiration from them. thinking this while listening to junkyard, you know: "dead joe", "big jesus trash can", etc.

are you familiar with the Phantom Limbs?

goth = mosrly boring,pretentious , one dimensional, uninspired music.
birthday party - the opposite, and more:a salad of musical genres.

maybe the only thing in common is the inolvement with "dark" issues. but thats about it.

goth is like one of the few genres that people feel 100% comfortable describing (and dismissing) monolithically, ascribing outliers some not-of-the-genre-because-they're-good status

which I think is kinda bullshit tbqf

otm

well, it's imo. and i said "mostly".

never liked goth tbh.

huh-uh. reading up on them (assuming you mean the oakland band that broke up not too long back) and they sound pretty cool. these guys"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUw7qwQG-QY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL9r3iOHsA4&feature=related

like

yep that would be them.

yeah i was about to askk: there are 3 bands named like that in myspace

is this goth? cause it's good, if somewhat repetetive.

dismissal of goth is lame. lots of excellent shit that partakes of the dark nectar. as shakey mentioned yesterday, it's hard to separate early black metal from goth. and i love early cure, siouxie, bauhaus, j&mc, etc. sonic youth started off w a big goth influence, swans carried one all the way through their career.

good goth bands:

the sisters of mercy
christian death
the birthday party
the march violets
siouxsie & the banshees (yes, they are)
tex & the horseheads
the gun club (outlying, but really pretty damn goth)
probably a dozen more I'm forgetting

xp - Phantom Limbs were a key band in the SF Bay Area goth scene in the late 90s

"sonic youth started off w a big goth influence"

theres a difference between "inluence" and being strictly "goth".

"dismissal of goth is lame"

why? a man desrve to have his own opinion.

they were definitely goth-punk crossover

Sonic Youth was influenced more by no-wave tbh

but Suicide were kinda gothy

very kinda

what would you classify as goth, Z?

if Gun Club and BP are goth - i like me some goth.

i thought of this genre more of like Bauhaus (which i hate) and Joy Division (which i like)

do you think Bauhaus are "one-dimensional"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gothic_rock_bands

i don't know half of this list.
from the other half: i like some, hate some more and indifferent to most.

why? a man desrve to have his own opinion.

yah no doubt

it is the opinion of many that blanket dismissals of whole genres is lame

the gun club (outlying, but really pretty damn goth)

good call. and fire of love = all time classic hereabouts.

thing about sonic youth & no wave vs. goth is that both were in there and not separated from one another. i mean, by the time they got around to recording "death valley '69" w lydia lunch, she'd become at least as much an icon to goths as she'd ever been a no wave poster girl. and that was relatively early in their (SY's career). it's hard for me to listen to their output from the bad moon rising through evol and not hear it as alternate-universe gothmusik. i mean, i remember playing sister for these two diehard christian death fanatics back when it came out, and they were blown away, saw it as totally goth, totally of their scene, right or wrong.

i need to re-listen to them more seriously (it's been at least 10 years) but my initial inuiation and memory says "yes"

xxpost

no wave was pretty much a musical blip

i always thought as Evol os THE sy goth-influenced record. and it'a a great record.

i guess the thing that bother me the most about Goth is the lack of humour