Antipodean Space Debris - A CardrossManiac2 Tangent

Hardly Baked has a few clips here of The Church & The Go-Betweens. Steve Kilbey is not only a brilliant songwriter/musician but he's a massive music fan. He loved The Go-Betweens so much he coerced Grant McLennan into collaborating with him on the Jack Frost project. This was recorded, after The Go-Betweens had broken up, in 89 or 90. Number 11 is the tune that stuck with me most from their debut LP. Anyway see below to see how much of a fanboy SK was and still is of Australian rock.

Of course as pointed out in this speech by a heckling ex manager Kilbey wasn't always a card. He was quite renowned for being a sullen bastard in the 80s. So much so that after Kilbey did a poetry reading in Melbourne one night I refused to get my book of his poetry signed in case he was not particularly nice. I think his drug change up from pot & heroin to uppers has made his true personality come to the fore. He's become an all round entertainer. This is a guy who wouldn't appear on Australia's most popular 80s variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday. Now I reckon he'd love to be part of that show's dodgy repartee. As Julia Zemiro points out, at the end of this crazy off the cuff speech, he really could host his own show. This is the best speech I've ever heard without a doubt and I fucking hate awards shows and speeches in general. It's true gold like many Church albums. He's a national treasure and we are blessed by his continuing fabulousness.

I mean here's some evidence right here. The Church released one of their best songs ever Space Saviour in 2009 like 30 after they started.

Kilbey loved The Triffids too. I once saw The Triffids 5 or 6 years back in Melbourne obviously sans one Dave McComb but they had a bunch of guests taking over vocal duties. The highlight of the show was when Steve Kilbey came out with no guitar, just a mike, in a sleeveless truckers shirt and made four Triffids classics his own. By that I mean 10 times better than the originals. The peak was when he did an incredibly intense version of Field Of Glass, one of the most memorable live rock moments in my life. So incredible this was that my wife wife can't listen to The Triffids anymore because Steve changed those songs forever. Of course he's the coolest guy on the planet so that's totally understandable.

This is the original which was recorded at the BBC in November 84 for a Peel Session.... I think. Overwrought to the max. Weirdly this could almost be a Bad Seeds tune from 1994. The late Dave McComb was a Nick Cave fan and at the same time Mick Harvey was a Triffids fan. Then of course in the 90s The Bad Seeds gained ex-Triffids bass player Martyn P Casey who remains an integral part of that band to this day.

To complete the circle here we've got the late Grant McLennan introducing The Triffids Raining Pleasure on Rage circa 1999. Which was kinda weird as we were led to believe that The Triffids and The Go-Betweens were arch enemies in the 80s. That was probably a media beat up but a good story none the less Now this tune is evocative of Antipodean space.

So many classic Forster lines in this one - " it's not my cup of thrills"

Spring Hill Fair is definitely The Go-Betweens LP I've played the most and is my favourite, I don't get why it isn't everybody else's. I mean the first four Go-Betweens LPs (Send Me A Lullaby, Before Hollywood, Spring Hill Fair and Liberty Belle And The Black diamond Express) are pure fucking gold aren't they? While the last 2 (in their original 80s stint) Tallulah & 16 Lover Lane are quite patchy and in 16 Lovers Lane's case way overrated. I mean it got it's own episode on *Australian Classic Albums??

*Perhaps more on that absurd and problematic show another time.

I remember hearing an interview with drummer Lindy Morrison who was Robert Forster's romantic partner up to this point in time. Anyway when she first heard this tune she knew it was his way of saying goodbye to their relationship. Only Forster could be hilarious, scathing and so fucking poignant at the same time. What a bittersweet song if there ever was one. 

All of this is reminiscent of my brother and I sitting around listening this record and the joy it brought us. Of course Forster was a funny bastard with great comic delivery. He was just as funny when he was serious as well. Forster was also a sterling songwriter. Then there was Grant who we thought was funny too but for different reasons. He seemed a little too earnest, over confident, serious and very uncool. There was no denying Grant's gift for songwriting though. The juxtaposition between these two personalities was strange and sort of comic as well. I guess they complimented each other though. Later on in my life I met them both and they were absolute gentlemen as you would imagine.

New Wave Australiana Intros For The FM Airwaves

Here we go with atmosphere! I love a bit of Fairlight to get me goin. Then those synthy drums at 0.18 followed by that new wave bass just before Iva Davies goes into his Aussie Bowie/Numan shtick.

Now a bit of evocative didgeridoo before those cavernous drums kick in and that bendy bass. At 0.20 the best guitar lick Lindsay Buckingham never wrote enters before Shane Howard comes in with his right on lyrics at 0.32. Another song from my preteens that's a bit haunting. If I'd been older maybe I'd have found it cheesy but these songs stick with you.

Another one from 1982. Beautiful synth (I assume a Fairlight) soundz here that sets up the excitement for the rest of the song. Then that classic riff kicks in at 0.25 followed by some double snare hits and Hutch is at the mic at 0.48.

This ones a coupla years later and in a totally different class. Jill Burt on the oh so beautiful keys. Bass drums and high-hats from MacDonald. That "2, 3 ,4......" whisper from Dave McComb at 0.15 sends a a chill down my spine every time as does the accompanying  bass ever from the great Martyn P Casey. Then at 0.26 the drum rolls start and the song swells up with Dave's guitar, Jill's keyboards and Evil's pedal steel all chiming in just before the first verse at 0.39. Classic production from Gil Norton pre-Doolittle. The rest is awesome too.

Boards Of Canada

This is comin out in June so maybe there will be two good records from 2013. Then again the big guns this year haven't really inspired ie. MBV, Broadcast, Jimmy Ferraro etc.

Loving that cover already. I could go on about BOC forever but so can most people and most people have and it is all on the interweb. A bit like the Triffids in the 80s people just love to bang on about them. So much so that it becomes cliche. Both groups are very evocative I guess. If I were Boards of Canada I'd almost be tempted to make the cover with the most digital and crass image I could find. Perhaps they're lulling us into a false sense of security with the art work and inside is the most angry hateful impenetrable shite you've ever heard. I'm tying to think, what is the opposite of Boards of Canada?

This could be their vaguest music to date.

Buying LPs In The Old Days

First of all you had news of a record coming out sometimes many months before. You'd usually pre-order it. You would probably go into the record shop to see if had arrived yet. Then once I had the vinyl I would take it home and play it full bore on dad's Marrantz Hi-Fi. The vinyl would then be put onto a tape so I could listen to it in my bedroom as I didn't have my own turntable, just a crappy mono tape recorder. Which is featured in this video at the 2.55 minute mark.

Anyway I had it for many years till I saved up for an upgrade. Which I believe was some kind of Panasonic ghetto blaster. None of this double tape deck shit so I couldn't even dub other tapes. But hey it had detachable speakers. Wow - the spaciality of stereo.

Then there was the records. You'd put so much time and thought into your purchase so the odds of it being the goods was in your favour. Through those teenage years LPs went, I think from around $10.99 to $17.99 so that was a lot of money and you didn't want to waste it. So if an album sounded rubbish on first listen, you would give it another go. Then you would give it another go, then another and another up till at least 20 times. Usually the biggest disappointments were bands with a previously great track records so you didn't give a second thought about laying out the dollars for their new record. An example of this was The Models follow up to Out of Mind, Out of Sight which was Models Media. I really really wanted it to be good and probably played it over 25 times before I had to concede it was rubbishola! $16.99 down the drain.

Hoodoo Gurus 3rd LP Blow your Cool did have some great tracks (that Models one had about none) on it but over half was shite. So the endurance of putting up with that other half got annoying in the end. Should have known as the previous record Mars Needs Guitars was only 50% classic. I guess now you would just uncheck the shite songs on i-tunes. This is what I did with that Salem album King Night a couple of years ago. I love about 50-60% of the tracks that I kept checked and couldn't give a fuck about the unchecked ones.

With some groups you knew when to get off the fan wagon instinctively or if the first single off the forthcoming LP was lame. Thus no more INXS post Kick or Midnight Oil post Blue Sky Mining. Hey I was young & impressionable. Probably could have got off earlier with those two groups.

Then there were times when the investment music policy paid off. Take The Triffids final LP The Black Swan which I thought was the worst piece of crap I'd ever laid my ears on. Especially after the over the top, over produced and over budget classic Calenture. These days I'd just delete the file after maybe one or two listens in but due to my investment I played it many times. It is now one of my favourite LPs of all time.

I don't hate Strangeways Here We come by The Smiths but that would have been in the recycle bin straight away. Giving it the investment time made me like it more. Still I find it inferior to the rest of the catalogue, the runt of the litter. Still a good record mind you.

Royal Trux Twin Infinitives is a later example (not really in the timeframe of ths article anyhow) which was on CD but I paid good money at import prices for it. At first maybe for a year and I'm no stranger to noise I found it perplexing and annoying. I would come back to it intermittently after months at a time. Then one day years later it made perfect sense. The perfect noise.

My investment listening music policy couldn't help records which were no good. Jesus & The Mary Chain's Automatic had 2 great singles Head On & the real beauty Blues From A Gun. The rest of the LP however...Gold Afternoon Fix The Church's follow up to the classic Starfish couldn't be helped by repeated listenings. That Petrol Emotion's Chemicrazy very bad indeed.

Maybe recent albums by Black Dice, Maria Minerva and Laurel Halo would perhaps have benefited from the investment policy. James Ferraro's Bodyguard project got a fair airing around here but me no likey so goodbye!

I have touched on this before in a previous post. These are different times and we may now miss out on some things but you know what it's inconsequential as there is so much other stuff out there. Why would I care? No use wasting your time! You don't have that much.

Martin P Casey Bassman

Shit I totally forgot about him. There's probably hundreds of tracks he's done and he's usually playing something beautiful, melodic and understated but he can also burst into the spotlight and be bass king. On early tracks like Native Bride, Dear Miss Lonely Hearts and Beautiful Waste he is doing the sweet and melodic thing as well as subtly driving those songs forward.

He's definitely the star of the show on that one. How evocative is it?! Also always reminded me of Blondie for some reason. That bass and keyboard combo is the sound of Australia's debilitating midsummer heat.

Hell Of A Summer

The Triffids

Here is Martin upfront again with a splendid jazzy almost fever like thing goin on.

My Baby Thinks She's a Train

The Triffids

Marty starting to get downright dirty and a little fonky. Totally fuckin suits him.

Property is condemned

The Triffids

Grinderman

I Don't Need You To Set Me Free

Not a dissimilar bassline to that Bad Seeds track Messiah Ward but this one is more to the fore.

Casey could come round and play that bassline for an hour and then I'd still want an encore. Kinda psychedelic, swirling and circular. His style is definitely unique and very versatile. You'd want him in  your group for sure. So cool.

* I could go on posting Triffids/Bad Seeds/Grinderman tracks all day. This is just a sampler of the great mans work that came off the top of my head. I didn't even get to Born Sandy Devotional or Let Love In.