The Mummies return

No-fi San Francisco Bay Area Budget Rock legends The Mummies are reforming for one gig in Spain but recently did an unannounced warm-up gig closer to home. A review is here.

This should get you through your weekend

No wave rave looks the goods

New York No Wave, I can take or leave, but Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Brit music press veteran Byron Coley are terrific writers. Their forthcoming book on the downtown Manhattan noise scene is previewed here and might just be worth a read.

Bringing the bedroom musician into the daylight

Frustrated rock star? Relief is at hand. A Melbourne company has set up what it calls the Rockstar Exeprience and for just $1499 you, too, can become Keef or Mick. Didn't I see this shit on an episode of The Simpsons?

Hibernation

I have just spent a cold, quiet week pondering a few things.
The incredibly warming combination of roast pumpkin and tandoori spice, for instance, which is almost better than the traditional lamb and pearl barley.
And what would Mexico be like if it was run by communists instead of drug dealers?

I borrowed that pic from here, by the way.
Anyway, some shows on this weekend.
Tonight, Ninety Nine and friends are at the Old Bar:

No, it's nothing to do with that stupid new "Get Smart" movie.

And tomorrow night sees the first personal test of the new lockout legislation.
Can I make it from the Spencer P Jones & the Escape Committee/Johnny Casino & the Secrets show at Ding Dong, to Gimme Shelter at the Exford, before 2.00am?

I don't know, but I may give it a fucking good try. I mean, it's only a few hundred metres, and it's downhill. Wish me luck.

The science of Swampland

A juicy collection of old Scientists classics plus some unreleased live songs and demos is coming down the turnpike soon on Spain's best music label Bang! Records. Double disc vinyl.

eBay and the future of music

Online auction site eBay is the epitome of free market economics. A transparent public space where traders buy and sell and the market decides the price. Of course, anyone that “owns” a free market just can’t resist tampering with it and eBay has committed the all-too-obvious sin of imposing Paypal (which it owns) as the preferred payment system for Australian traders. Fuck them for their arrogance.

The market forces that drive eBay have also driven down the price of recorded music. That’s a good thing on the surface for buyers, but not so hot if you think rock and roll shouldn’t just be a commodity. Food for thought about that and a few other issues in the London Review here.

Shock rock invokes only mock shock

The Pistols are on the cover of Mojo magazine this month and that's the cue for this thoughtful Guardian article on why rock and roll no longer shocks.

Davis, Kramer & Thompson kick 'em out again

You'd never know from the website but DKT/MC5 is back on the road in the UK, with some US dates rumoured. If you can't wait, you can grab a 2004 show here.

The World's Most Hated Band calls it a day

Toto, of course.

I don't care and I'm sure you don't, but if you know someone who does make them cry by sending them here. It's all too fucking Spinal Tap for me.

Is that a Buzzock in your pocket or you just happy to see me?

Nice interview with The Buzzocks' Pete Shelley here that indicates they'll be back in Australia soonish. Just burn your Genesis records before they land.

The Stems meet The Clash (sort of)

Informed word at the Dom Mariani newsgroup is that the Stems guy is planning to re-start DM3 and take them to the USA. More immediately, however, he's playing with ex-Cortinas/last gasp Clash member Nick Sheppard in a band called DomNick. Sheppard re-located to Perth a few years ago and the project is heading to the studio.

Stooges Got a Right

Interesting news. The re-born Stooges have taken it upon themselves to play songs from their Raw Power era. Informed comment from reliable sources was that those songs were verboten, on account of the Asheton brothers (Ron, to be precise) having been excluded from the songwriting process in 1972 when James Williamson was sole guitarist.

So, peruse this set list from a recent gig (7 June) in Belgium:

01. Loose
02. 1969
03. I Wanna Be Your Dog
04. TV Eye
05. Dirt
06. Real Cool Time
07. No Fun
08. Band Intros
09. 1970
10. Funhouse
11. Skull Ring
12. My Idea Of Fun
13. Search And Destroy
14. I Got a Right
15. Little Electric Chair

And only one song from the missed opportunity that was the "comeback" album "The Weirdness". Now THAT is no surprise around these parts.

Bastard of a beer

Click to read the fine print.

Soggy

There's a ripple of retrospective excitement in various places like the Goner Records message board about this long-lost French band Soggy and their vinyl LP. They existed from 1978-82 and were Stooges-obsessed, for sure. Here's a clip on YouTube to show just how obsessed. Judge for yourself.

Buy it here.

Shindiggers- "Maximum Beat"

Well, this was bound to come along one day.

51 tracks from this frantic mid '80's Melbourne combo, includes complete studio recordings plus lotsa rarities with most tracks appearing on CD for the first time. Comes with 16 page full colour booklet and liner notes from mainstay singer Bill Leggett. All tracks remastered from original source tapes.

I knew the Shindiggers knew 51 songs, at least, but didn't realise they'd recorded quite so much.
These guys were a mainstay in the Melbourne live scene of the early/mid 80s, playing a potent and trashy R & B/R & R blend, usually at a breakneck pace. If I saw them once, then I musta seen them 40 times- here's a setlist from back in the day:


The "Australian Milkshakes" tag doesn't do them justice, and neither did being lumped into the "psychobilly" camp with a bunch of their contemporaries. Their live shenanigans- which for a while included Bill being carried on stage in a coffin in homage to Screaming Lord Sutch, and occasional bouts of inter-band fisticuffs, were always entertaining.
Ahh, they don't make them like that any more. All credit to the crew at Off The Hip for cutting through the (still ongoing) feuds to get this out there.

Gaffstock 08

Yes, it's on again this weekend, featuring too many bands to list, over three days and nights:

This place is one of my favorite bars, and it seems to go from strength to strength. At $10 a session you'd be a fool not to drop in for a while at least.

Click to enlarge the (excellent) poster for full details

Vale Bo Diddley

Look at the picture, save 1000 words

I’m Not There

Saw this much-lauded Dylan study on DVD at the weekend. It must be the first biopic of any note not to use the subject's name but still clearly identify him.

Director Todd Haynes (of "Velvet Goldmine" Bowie hearts Iggy infamy) explores a different facet of Dylan's character through different actors, at one stage casting the young Bob as a 10-year-old African-American freight train hobo. This one was probably a metaphor for some of the stories the songwriter used to tell about his background when he was starting out.

Haynes' interspersing of these vignettes throughout each other makes for a confusing ride. If I was blunt I'd say the movie's all over the place like a mad woman's shit but I'm not so I won't. And the Richard Gere one that pits "Dylan" into a "Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid" theme park where giraffes and ostriches run wild is a waste of celluloid or whatever they shoot this shit on.

Why Haynes has to project his own gay proclivities into Dylan and/or his fans (like, if you're a bloke have you ever checked out His Bobness' wedding tackle when you've seen him watering the horses?) is beyond me.

Australia's Own Cate B. played strong, done fine as Bobby D circa 1965 but Haynes left her fingernails and wedding ring in place (probably deliberately.) Strange to see Dylan Just Like a Woman but this was obviously playing up his female side.

I know it's arty so it was never meant to be a straight-up rendering of the story but I paid my $6.50 to hire it so I'm entitled to evaluate it as pretentious. Two stars out of five.