One of my favourite bands are returning for their 3rd Australian Tour in October 09. Dropping into Auckland too. Only one show in Melbourne, they have always played multiples in Rock City!
Elizabeth Pistol Club are playing next Wednesday 8th Of July at the Old Bar in Fitzroy. Playing with them on this occasion is Aktion Unit and Bunyip Moon.
Check out their myspace page for some live tracks.
This news is 6 months old, but I just discovered it! Late last year a tape has surfaced of often name checked Perth punk band The Cheap Nasties. The Cheap Nasties had Kim Salmon before he formed the Scientists with James Baker as well as two other members who formed the Manikins. The Cheap Nasties existed for about 18 months in 1976 and 1977. Until now any recordings were though to be lost. Typical 77 punk sounding and at least it's not Radio Birdman!
The tracks are Cheap And Nasty, You Rip Me Up & Vegetation.
Further information on The Cheap Nasties and the Perth scene at the time can be found in the blog part of Kim's Myspace blog and also www.perthpunk.com
Kim mentions on his blog that they may try and officially release the tape soon.
Much like the Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr. have returned with their 2nd comeback album. The first comeback album 2007's Beyond album, which was met with very positive reviews and I am certain that trend will continue with release of Farm on the Jagjaguwar label. With Murph and Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Folk Implosion etc) back in the fold you would think that the album might follow on from the 80s output of Dinosaur Jr. That is not exactly the case, it actually sounds more like the Dinosaur Jr. of the 90s, when J. Mascis had done most of those records himself. That said Mascis' wah wah guitar sound is unmistakable! "Over It", almost sounds like "Freak Scene" and "Little Fury Things" bastard child! All the tracks are strong, J sings most of the tracks but Lou chips in with a couple of contributions as well. I especially like "Your Weather". Other highlights are the album opener "Pieces" and "I Don't Wanna Go There"
The cover artwork makes you want to dig the bong out and start puffin' away again! Designed by Marq Spusta, is easily the best artwork I have seen on an album this year.
There is a limited edition available with a bonus disc but these tracks are in no way throwaway tracks. Well worth picking up as well.
Here is the video for "Over It"
All in all another great Dinosaur Jr. album, well worth your hard earned cash.
Who'da thought out of all the bands outta the Seattle scene that the Supersuckers would be still going 20 years later. This is one of the latest in a long line of Supersuckers albums/eps of Live or Demos that they put out there to fund their "real" albums and tours. You would of thought that they would be scraping the bottom of the barrell by now, but they ain't! You have gotta respect this band because many years ago they quit the bullshit that goes with the music industry and decided to go it alone and do it all themselves. They set up Mid Fi records, beefed up the website, have set up a fan club called the P.I.T. (People of Impeccable Taste).
This here album is a testament to their hell bound trail, 20 years in the making. This was recorded at the Showbox in Seattle 29th of November 2008, the supports included Zeke and Green River! This album traces their career from the start in an almost chronological order through to today. 38 tracks over 2 CDs! All the hits are here and some interesting anecdotes on what the band was doing at the time or how the song came about. Tracks on the first CD include Mudhead, Coattail Rider, 17 Poles, Creepy Jackalope Eye then slow down to the time when they went country and the Must've Been High album. The 2nd CD continues the country part of the show with addictive Killer Weed. But soon they they crank the volume again with more recent hits such as the Evil Powers Of Rock N Roll. Dead Meat, Rock Your Ass, the patent pending Fake Encore then a few from the new album Get It Together and finish it up Born With A Tail.
The album is raw, but honest. You can bet your ass there are no overdubs, fake crowd noises, neither was it recorded over a year on the road and put together to sound like one concert. You could do a lot worse than to login to www.supersuckers.com and buy this album for $US10 bucks, as you won't find these in stores (well not near me anyway) and by doing that you cut the middleman and directly support "the greatest rock n roll band in the world" who can continue record great rock n roll albums and tour the globe.
This is an older review I have done that was never published so I thought I'd add it.
Although Ball Power was the Coloured Balls debut album in 1973 after signing to EMI it was actually their 2nd recorded album. First Supper Last was released posthumously in 1976. In some-ways as Australian band Bored! (who covered the Coloured Balls, Human Being) so eloquently put on the inner groove of their debut self titled 12-inch EP “Raw Power….Ball Power” They were just as influential as the Stooges album of the same year to many Australian bands at the time.
Ball Power has been unavailable for many years and Aztec Music has painstakingly reissued this cornerstone of Australian rock with 7 extra tracks, a 24 page booklet and in beautiful 6 panel digipak.
The album kicks of with the melodic and catchy “Flash”, then a rock n’ stomp “Mama Don’t You Get Me Wrong” which goes into “Won’t You Make Up Your Mind” which is quite clearly punk before it existed. The next track “Something New” is a slow song that shows off Lobby Loyde’s guitar prowess as does the Bluesy “B.P.R.” “Human Being” is nothing short of Aussie rock classic with biting, menacing riffs. After that is a raucous cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis “Whole Lotta Shakin’”, “Hey, What’s Your Name” then continues the hard rock blueprint and the original album closes with “That’s What Mama Said”, just shy of 11 minutes is heavy prog rock. Of the extra tracks we have three 7-inch singles that were released between 1972 and 1973 on the Havoc label and EMI. “Liberate Rock” is stand out, but they all have their charm and seem to get heavier with each single. The CD closes with a 16 minute live version of “G.O.D.” from the 1973 Sunbury festival. “G.O.D.” could be best described as freeform guitar exploration, recorded at the awful hour of about 4am on Monday 29th January and demonstrates one of the greatest guitar performances ever to inspire the legion of Aussie Rock bands to soon follow, like AC/DC, The Angels or Rose Tattoo.
Sadly Lobby Loyde passed away in April 2007 after a long battle with cancer, but we are left with a legacy of great guitar rock albums.
Sorry I just missed the Ooga Boogas. I got in about 15 minutes B4 Jay Reatard played. While I was waiting there was DJ playing Soul Classics, now don't get me wrong that would be appropriate for the Dirtbombs, but before Jay Reatard? When Jay and the boys were ready Jay said "turn that shit off, this is Blood Visions" They seemed to play most of the songs off the album at double pace, plus a few off the 7-inches including the fantastic Hammer, I Miss You (which my 4 year old sings along to!) They were alotted an hour to play but I guess they might of played for 40 minutes, but I was totally satisfied, very little talk between songs except for songs titles and white noise. But they absolutely slaughtered that night. I was a Reatards fan from the debut "Teenage Hate" but when they sort of disappeared I didn't know what Jay was up to till Blood Visions came out last year. Now I have all these other bands to check out like Angry Angles, Bad Times etc from 2000-2006.
The Dirtbombs however I was very disappointed. I have been a fan of the Dirtbombs and Mick Collins for years (never thought much of the Gories though, but Blacktop, King Sound Quartet wow!) I had a listen to their new album a few times before the gig and I just can't get into it, there are some great songs on it but some filler too, such as the covers Sherlock Holmes and the Dead moon cover. The show had some old stuff but I felt they played too much from the new LP, I didn't get into it, and if I didn't run into my mate Ollie I probably would have went home early. I'm not saying they shouldn't play new songs but ditch the filler. Maybe they should of went on before Jay Reatard as how can anyone follow on from him? But look I'm not going to ditch the the Dirtbombs altogether, but maybe they were just off that night.
