The Idiot Box

LCD, LED, plasma & pixels, scan rate, HD and 16:9... chances are this jargon actually makes sense to you. Inside most peoples' homes lurks a glossy black attention-sucking monster, whose powers for good are usually subsumed by its propensity for evil. That stuff makes for some good musical fodder, so let's chow down and chew.

I've raved before about the Australian punk scene of the late '70s into the '80s, so I won't climb up on that soapbox again... BUT if you want ONE comp that sums up the scene nicely, Do the Pop! is the one to get. I love that it includes not only the era's big songs, but also obscure gems that fans of the scene will really enjoy. The very best find for me was learning of singer Dave Faulkner's pre-Hoodoo Gurus band the Victims... and their contribution is killer, maybe the best track on the entire comp. If you hear a snippet of a dj at the end, you can tell I originally got this from the mighty Swami!

Television Addict by the Victims, from Do the Pop!: The Australian Garage Rock Sound 1976-1987 (Do the Pop, 2002)

How do you pick a cover over an original by Iggy Pop? Not lightly, but if the cover band is Radio Birdman you're in good shape (I like Siouxsie's take on "The Passenger" too, I should add). Birdman is another example of Aussie first-wave punk, and probably the most influential of all. Here they take Mr. Osterberg's tender composition and speed up the sludge to a snarl.

T.V. Eye by Radio Birdman, from Under the Ashes (Trafalgar/WEA, 1988)

Repo Man was a weird-ass movie from the early '80s, and it spawned a kick-ass soundtrack. This is second-wave punk here, of the LA variety. While that scene wasn't quite up to the standard of the first wave, it still churned out some classics. Almost everything on Repo Man falls into the classic file. On "TV Party", a young Rollins rages about the box, shouting out era-specific TV hits like Hill Street Blues and Dynasty. And it's just my theory, but I think the Rollins burp that begins the song is a tribute to the croaked "Look!" that begins Iggy's (and Birdman's) "T.V. Eye".

TV Party by Black Flag, from Repo Man Original Soundtrack (MCA, 1984)

Bonus:

The bonus track manages to stick to this post's theme while at the same time departing from it entirely... gotta love when that happens. Marquee Moon is an album I got my hands on much too late, but I've been making up for it with constant airplay since. "Venus" has nothing at all to do with TV, but it IS by Television... BONUS!

Venus by Television, from Marquee Moon (Elektra, 1977)

Aussie Garage Part 2

Aussie Garage Part 2 moves on into the 1980s...

A storm in a teacup, that´s this song. From second one the shredding guitar riff carries you into the drums and absolutely sick bass that gets the stage 30 seconds in and returns for several more hostile takeovers. Sydney´s Celibate Rifles may have humorously named themselves after the Sex Pistols, but their music was no joke. Their ´80s output for Hot records is vital start to finish. Further listening - check out "This Week" and "Darlinghurst Confidential". Bill Bonney Regrets by Celibate Rifles, from The Turgid Miasma of Existence (Hot, 1986) The Hoodoo Gurus were a mighty band in the ´80s, and are a bit part of the soundtrack of my life. The twin stars of that band were singer Dave Faulkner and guitarist Brad Shepard. While still a pup, Brad caught the punk bug and headed into the studio with his second band, the Fun Things, to rip out a rough, fast self-titled EP that crackles with energy. "Lipstick" is the most celebrated song from that session, but for me it´s "Savage", by a nose. (Label info, anyone?) Savage by the Fun Things, from Fun Things (??, 1980) Gotta love an Australian band singing about, but ignorant regarding, US geography... as the Turnbuckles do when they wail about "seaside Albuquerque". They were part of the second wave, intent on recapturing the garage sounds of the past... You´d never guess that this album was released in ´86, so they succeeded. The EP´s only got 6 tracks but they all hit the sweet spot. Groove to the Eye by the Psychotic Turnbuckles, from Destroy Dull City (Rattlesnake, 1986)

organ... Organ... ORGAN! Damn, club me with that organ riff... please! From Perth, one of the most remote cities on earth, came the Stems.  Best description I´ve seen of them is "psychedelic Sixties power-pop punk" - say THAT ten times fast. Pointed shoes, stovepipe pants, mop tops, and Orbison sunglasses abounded. Tears Me in Two by the Stems [45 release] (Citadel, 1984)

Aussie Garage Part 1

Although there are rock groups that I love (like Weezer and Foo Fighters), I´m generally more a fan of the groove than the riff. But a huge exception is garage rock, that primordial, monstrous and primitive guitar sound steeped in ´60s-era studio effects.

When punk´s first wave was exploding across the globe in 1977, the Lucky Country would not prove immune. But the tyranny of distance would work in Australia´s favor in this case, as their particular strain of punk rock was more immersed in the garage rock scene of the preceding decade than the rest of the world. So many classics came out in such a short time, it was like the burning of a comet... short, fast, and intense, and doomed to burn out quickly. Part 1 is composed of the giants of the scene, led by the greatest of all bands of the era (and one of the greatest bands of all time), Brisbane´s the Saints. It was almost impossible to pick a song off their first album, as all are great, from the title track that started it all, to "Story of Love", an amazing Stones-y tune, to the cover "Kissin´Cousins", which the Saints make all their own. I can´t recommend these guys enough. Demolition Girl by the Saints, from (I´m) Stranded (Captain Oi!, 1977) When I finally got to see the Saints live (Melbourne Uni, 1988), they were a band in name only. Lead singer Chris Bailey had gotten fat and abusive, hurling epithets at the audience at every opportunity. Perhaps that kind of behavior explains why Ed Kuepper, ex-Saints guitarist and co-song writer, decided to strike out on his own. He set out to "take back" many of the Saints songs he´d written, and thus called his group the Aints. Their finest moment came on S.L.S.Q., perhaps the best live album ever, but those songs are too long for posting here (for example, an almost 11 minute version of "The Wanderer" and a 7+ minute version of Ike Turner´s "River Deep Mountain High"). Ed´s gone on to make many more records, but none with the snarl of his early work. Like an Oil Spill by the Aints, from Ascension (Hot, 2003) And then there´s Birdman, fronted by American Deniz Tek. An inspiration to countless bands, they rose from the sludge of the MC5 and vintage Stooges to bridge the gap to the punk era. Under the Ashes collects it all, from groove-y workouts like "Man with Golden Helmet", to the surf-punk of "Aloha Steve & Dano". This one made a fine manifesto for the emerging de-generation... New Race by Radio Birdman, from Under the Ashes (WEA, 1988)