Archive for March, 2007

[gigs] Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry cancelled !!!

According to Rip it Up the show on Sunday has been cancelled. This is a hell of a disappointment at leaves me quite …. well, upset is the appropriate word I suppose. Nothing on the Venuetix website yet but they are often a bit slow in updating. According to RIU those of us with tickets can get a refund at the city office in the Da Costa arcade.

Oh, well it’s not all bad. Despite persistant rumours The Pixies still seem to be coming next week, though there has been a change of venue – it’s now at Thebby Theatre. The Thursday V-fest show with The Pet Shop Boys et al is now at the Entertainment Centre.

Also, I’ve just heard that we have another visitor from overseas next week, not quite a big name like Lee Perry or The Pixies, but someone I am rather keen on seeing again. UK guitarist Mike Cooper returns to Adelaide with two shows. The first clashes with the Pixies so I’d be keen on the Thursday one at Urtext, which is a live score for a film. I saw Cooper play at the Ex once before and it was fantastic, he uses a number of unconventional techniques to produce sounds that you wouldn’t expect from a guitar. Well worth seeing, and as a bonus Daniel Varricchio is supporting, he is usually excellent as well. More info here.
The giglisting:
Tonight- Bad Seed Conway Savage at the Garden of Unearthly Delights.
Tomorrow – GB3 at the Garden of Unearthly Delights. Glenn Bennie from the Underground Lovers. $25.

APRIL
3rd – The Pixies with Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix at Thebarton Theatre. About $100.
3rd – Mike Cooper at the Exeter with Lenin Simos.
5th – Mike Cooper at Urtext with Daniel Varricchio.
13th – Little Ice Age and Running With Horses at the Wheatsheaf.

This week the footy season starts again and on Saturday there is a grand final replay – Swans vs Eagles, so I’ll dig out my pre-game assessment from last year. What does this have to do with music? Read on ….

The Swans vs The Eagles
Key players:
The Swans – Michael Gira, Jarboe
The Eagles – Don Henley, Glenn Frey

Their records:
The Swans – Cop, The Great Annihilator, Soundtracks for the Blind
The Eagles – One of These Nights, Hotel California, The Long Run

Style of play (from All Music Guide):
The Swans – Crawling out of the same noisy, arty New York underground that sired Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, Swans created a dark, abrasive, murky, slowed-down noise rock that served as a starting point for their ruminations about alienation, depression, depravity, and the disturbing side of human nature.
The Eagles – Though most of its members came from outside California, the group was closely identified with a country- and folk-tinged sound that initially found favor in and around Los Angeles in the late ’60s, as played by such bands as the Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco, both of which contributed members to the Eagles. But the band also drew upon traditional rock & roll styles and, in their later work, helped define the broadly popular rock sound eventually referred to as classic rock.

Summing them up in the words to their “team songs”:

The Swans:
Nobody Beats Your Body Like A Cop In Jail
Nobody Burns Their Body Like A Cop
Nobody Burns Your Skin Off Like A Cop In Jail
The Heat Hurts
Humiliation’s A Disease

The Eagles:
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here

Prediction – A win for The Swans (Update: Damn! Wrong again)
On the Stereo

The Dead CHarsh 70′s Reality cd (Siltbreeze)
The PixiesBossanova LP (4AD)
The ResidentsThe Third Reich’n'Roll LP (Ralph)
Robert PollardNot in My Airforce LP (Matador)
Aesop RockBazooka Tooth cd (Def Jux)
Mr LifI Phantom 2LP (Def Jux)
Mr LifEmergency Rations cdep (Def Jux)
Cannibal OxThe Cold Vein cd (Def Jux)
Mira CalixPeel Sessions EP (Warp)
Mouse on MarsRadical Connector LP (Sonig)

Bruce Russell on The Fall & my general musings on The Dead C

From the Invisible Jukebox feature in the April edition of The Wire, the following quote from Bruce Russell of The Dead C:

They are one of the greatest things in rock music, ever, and I don’t think anyone can ever take that away from them. Who could not be profoundly influenced by The Fall? Only someone with cloth ears.

They also have a bit more to say about the excitement of The Fall’s NZ tour in ’82 and Russell also has some nice things to say about Sonic Youth.

It was interesting to find this feature in the magazine when I got home from work (it was delivered today), because just as I was leaving work, I had my computer playing random tracks on the hard drive and The Dead C’s “Power” from Clyma Est Mort came on, and I had to just stop and listen for its 7 minute duration because it’s so damn good. I really need to listen to them more. I first heard them many years ago at a friend’s place and they made a very good impression but I have no idea which album it was. I picked up the live album Clyma Est Mort on the basis of that prior encounter with their music, but have to admit that I didn’t immediately warm to the lo-fi sound (and also completely missed The Fall reference in the cover art, having not yet explored their massive back catalogue at the time), and the record sat amongst the rest of my vinyl half-forgotten. Yes, I know now that it is one of the holy grails of Dead C fandom and admit to an embarrassing lapse of taste.
More recently, having given up on it after an earlier search inspired by the wide held belief that it’s their best, I got the album Harsh 70′s Reality as it became easily available again, so I resumed my interest in the Dead C.

I’d already had them in mind just this week for another reason. I’d always imagined them to be outside the better known NZ indie scene of the 80′s, and certainly it sounds like they weren’t well accepted in that scene, but I hadn’t even realised that their first releases were on Flying Nun until recently. I just noticed the other day while listening to the Flying Nun 25th Anniversary comp that Michael Morley played in The Weeds together with Robert Scott of The Clean and The Bats, as well as Shayne Carter & John Collie before forming Straitjacket Fits. (More info here) Additionally, I only just foundout from The Wire article that Robbie Yeats was in The Verlaines.

Some of their recent activity is of interest. A couple of years ago they were featured in Fat Cat’s split singles series on a 12″ shared with Konono #1. The K#1 stuff is great, but not of too much interest if you already have “Congotronics”, but the Dead C tracks are well worthwhile. A nice feature is a number of locked-groove noise loops.
More recently they put out a 7″ called Relax Fallujah Hell Has Come which includes a version of “Power” mentioned above, which makes me interested, but I suspect I’d have trouble finding a copy. (Update: this isn’t hard to find at all actually)
This year they’ve put out a split 12″ with Australia’s Hi-God People which could well be worthwhile but is limited. I’ve got a H-G P cd somewhere I should dig out so I can remember what they sound like.

A new Dead C album will be out later this year.

You can read more about them at Wikipedia.

I want Phoenix & Janus on DVD

I’m not much of a DVD collector, but I like to get a few shows that I really like, especially if they are hard to come by on TV. I’m happy to see that series 2 of Twin Peaks is finally due for a (region 4) release in a couple of weeks but it reminds me of pretty much the only other shows that I could think of right now that I’d like to get (apart from Vol 3 of Harvey Birdman when it turns up) – those are two fantastic dramas which the ABC made in the early 90′s: Phoenix & Janus. Each consisted of two series of something like 13 episodes (rough guess, it was a long time ago). Phoenix series one followed an investigation by the Major Crimes Squad into a bombing that killed a police officer, and series 2 saw the same squad (with a few cast changes) investigate a violent armed robbery and sexual assault. One of the main characters was Sgt Peter Faithfull played by Simon Westaway. I remember it as being essential viewing. Each season had one long story arc and the whole thing was fantastically written and acted, and had a gritty realistic atmosphere that really made it stand out at the time and I have no doubt that it would still stand up today.
Sgt Faithfull returned in Janus which was centred on the court system rather than the police, with most of the action taking place in the courtroom as various members of the Hennessy family were put on trial. I recall not quite being into Janus as much as Phoenix but it was still really top class drama.

I was quite surprised when I did a bit of a search around the ABC & online DVD stores and found that these are not available (well, except for ABC program sales where you can get them for $1100 per season). Have you seen what is available? There are some pretty obscure things easily available these days – I find it amazing that the ABC can’t manage to release a couple of landmark shows in Australian drama. I also find it disappointing since I’d love to watch them again.

So does anyone remember these shows? Would you buy either or both of them?

UPDATE: Some good comments here and here on these series.

I’m still here and this is what I’m listening to

Things have been quiet around here for a bit, I’m still trying to work out how to balance various sorts of work (both paid & volunteer), plus various other things that make Adelaide a busy place at this time of year (WOMAD, film festival etc), with blogging.

Tonight I’ve been at a public meeting about the SA Government’s plan for Victoria Park, hopefully I’ll get a chance to post on that soon (maybe if I get enough work done tomorrow), but in the meantime I’ll throw in a quick “what’s on the stereo” post to let you know that I’m still here:

The FallReformation! Post TLC cd (Slogan)
Femi KutiAfrica Shrine cd (uwe/mk2)
Etran FinitawaIntroducing cd (World Music Network)
Huun Huur Tu feat. SamsonovAltai Sayan Tandy-Vula cd (Green Wave)
Zulya and the Children of the UndergroundThe Waltz of Emptiness (and other songs on Russian themes) cd (Unstable Ape)
Various - Flying Nun: 25 Years 4cd (Flying Nun)
MarsThe Complete Studio Recordings NYC 1977-78 cd (5rc)
Sonic YouthDaydream Nation cd (Geffen)
Sonny MurraySonny’s Time Now cd (DIW)
The NecksHanging Gardens cd (Fish of Milk)

[gigs] Brunatex tomorrow

Between work and the film festival I’ve been very busy this week (might manage to write some film reviews sometime), so I haven’t seen the street press, but I have heard of one new gig this weekend. Adelaide band Brunatex will be playing at the Jade Monkey supporting Leigh StarDust‘s cd launch.

Also a few reminders

- Little Ice Age play tonight at the Wheaty

- Pivot play tomorrow night at Rocket.

- Yo La Tengo play next week at Fowler’s

- WOMAD is next weekend.

the full listing is a couple of posts down.

On the Stereo:

Camera ObscuraLet’s Get Out of this Country cd (Popfrenzy / Elefant)
Ned ColletteJokes and Trials cd (dot dash)
Ned ColletteTest Patterns cdep (Holding Pattern)
The Red KrayolaIntroduction cd (Drag City)
VariousInner City Sound 2cd (Laughing Outlaw)
Cat PowerWhat Would the Community Think cd (Matador)
Silver JewsTanglewood Numbers cd (Drag City)
VariousStudio One DJs 2LP (Soul Jazz)
LeilaCourtesy of Choice cd (XL)
Bogdan Raczynskimyloveilove cd (Rephlex)