I love music. It's my passion. Over the years, I've played it on my radio show, I've written about for various magazines and papers, and I've talked about endlessly, especially in my time working in record stores. So I guess it's a bit weird I haven't been listening to records lately. In an attempt to arrest that situation, I thought it was time to dust off the vinyl from the collection and start listening again.
Funnily enough it's taken a lot of mental effort to find the time to listen to records. In between working, living and kids, I found it all too much to simply pull a record from the shelf.
So the goal is to listen to one record a week, and listing them below. They're are some phenomenal records here, but I'm biased of course.
Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Label: Alternative Tentacles
Discovering music could come with a political voice was a big turning point for me.
This album is really aggressive but psychedelic. The guitars jumped out at me straight away. They had this weird surf rock tone that was out of this world. Songs like 'Holiday in Cambodia' and 'Police Truck' really captured the times.
I remember buying this on vinyl at the old Utopia records store on Clarence street, which was a trip in itself with it's basement vibes and poster plastered walls. It felt like I was entering a secret society.
The album cover is a classic (and the title is so apt for these times). Reading the band line-up on the back of the sleeve, names like Jello Biafra, East Bay Ray and Klaus Flouride... I thought how mysterious this band was. They sounded like they were from outer space; punk poets here to blow our minds and show us the way.
They were one of my favourite bands for a long time. I ended up writing 'DK' on everything!
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
What can I say? An incredible album that changed my life. I loved the energy and attitude and this dual thing they had going on where they were both hostile and aggressive but loose and funny. You can hear this in songs like 'EMI'. It's something that set them apart from a lot of punk bands of this era.
Musically the songs are just so full of power. The guitar playing by Steve Jones is simply OUTSTANDING. A big nod also goes to producer Chris Thomas, who doesn't get the credit he deserves. What a masterpiece!
Appetite For Destruction - Guns 'N' Roses
These street urchins from LA will always hold a special place in my heart. Guns N' Roses was the first band I became totally OBSESSED with. I think what I loved most was they were hard rock but with a punk spirit.
The memory of blasting the opening riff to 'Welcome to the Jungle' on my beloved Hitachi 3-in-one stereo is burned in my brain. It was like my first shot of rebellion. The attitude came through loud and clear. All the songs on the album were so much more raw and nasty than anything in the charts at the time.
They also turned me onto a lot of other bands too, like the Sex Pistols, Aerosmith, The Misfits, Ramones and more.
I still love this album dearly to this day.
Christiane F. - Soundtrack (1981)
When I was a teenager I was fascinated by the underground and all its sleaze and seediness. And this movie was all about that. It was called "Christiane F. It's German. And it was based on the true story of a 14-year-old girl's descent into drugs and prostitution. So yes, this movie scared the shit out of me. And a big part of that was the soundtrack - a collection of Bowie songs which soundtrack add tension drama, sadness and tragedy.
This movie was made in the late seventies and it was set in Berlin, and while this album was released in 1981, a lot of the songs are from Bowie's Berlin years (1977–1979) with Brian Eno. Both the guys I consider to be the masters of atmosphere.
And this album is a bit of an art rock classic. Songs like "V-2 Schneider", "Boys Keep Swinging", "Sense of Doubt", "Warszawa" and a killer live version of "Station To Station" capture the mood perfectly of Christiane and her gang strung out in squats and seedy underground train stations, headlong on a downward spiral.
It's bleak, frightening and eerie.
For Bowie collectors there is a rarity with "Heroes", titled "Helden", partly sung by Bowie in German.
Side One: 1. V-2 Schneider 2. TVC 15 3. Heroes/Helden 4. Boys Keep Swinging 5. Sense of Doubt
Side Two: 6. Station to Station 7. Look Back in Anger 8. Stay 9. Warszawa
Double Natural - Boomgates (2012)
Label: Bedroom Suck Records
This is a pure little gem of an album. A real diamond in the rough.
I can't quite recall where, when or how I found out about this album.
There may have been a description on the album sleeve, saying it featured the members of cult favourites Eddy Curret Suppression Ring and the Twerps. I'm a big fan of Eddy Current, so this was a must-have in my books, even though I don't think I had heard anything from it before.
The sound is kind of a mix those two bands - jangly guitar pop, with very lo-fi production but recorded well. For comparisons, they are reminiscent of Television, Wire and Flying Nun bands like The Clean and maybe even a garage version of the Go-Betweens - particularly the latter with the peculiar Australian-ness that's really at the core of this band.
Songs like "Flood Plains" (with its lyric "I went and built house on a flood plain" and "Layman's Terms" are funny little Aussie stories. The dual vocals of Brendan Huntley and Steph Martin do a brilliant job delivering it all.
Summer In The Southeast - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (2005)
This live album is a BLAST from the past; a valuable companion piece to my fond memories seeing this traveling troubadour live in concert, in his various incarnations (too many monikers to mention), across numerous occasions. (And the times I interviewed him).
This is Will Oldham's first ever live album. It was released in 2005 and the sound quality is pretty good. And captures the Kentucky singer-songwriter & his band of cohorts in familiar surrounds - a smattering of club gigs across the US's southeast like Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina.
It's everything Bonnie has built his live career on. It's raw. It's ramshackle. It's loose. It's intimate. And really visceral in parts ("Nomadic Revery", "Death to Everyone"). His raspy voice is affecting as ever, while the band he's assembled including guitarist Matt Sweeney give the sets a ragged, country rock-orientated feel. (Side note: this record came hot off the trails of two of his most "polished" albums).
It rocks the same way as Bob Dylan or how Neil Young did on his live album masterpiece, Tonight's the Night.
The set-list is a mix of his early hits and newer tracks. Tracks like "Master and Everyone", "Madeleine Mary" and "May It Always Be" are wonderful to hear again, the rousing guitars are killer and the latter's punkish energy is a reminder how he can rock it out with the best of them.
If you wanna get into Will Oldhan I'd start at the beginning with the Palace Brothers classic There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You or my personal favourite I See A Darkness.
But this album is definitely recommended for Will Oldham fans.
Geogaddi - Boards of Canada (2002)
Masterpiece from the pagan ambient duo of Scotland.
I have loved them ever since their chillout debut; but this album is deeper and darker than its predecessor.
Boards of Canada have and will always be a band that affects me - there's an ancient alchemy to this TRIPLE album that I can't quite put my figure on; a divine dreaminess shrouds the 23 songs; sometimes it's all angels, sandcastles and sunshine and other times it's downright creepy and terrifying.
I have fond memories of blowing smoke with friends in my tiny flat in Balmain, dreaming of ways to bring them to Oz. This never happened. And I believe no one else is yet to make it happen either. If one day it does. I'll be the frst one there.
Everything Went Black - Black Flag (1982)
Black Flag were the coolest punk band. And they were unlike any punk band of the time. I wrote their logo on everything and even contemplated getting it tattooed... they were such a cool band.
They emerged from the skate-scene in California, so I think their take on punk was heaps more bratty than their east coast compadres.
But they were outcasts as well. The band's (spiritual) leader, Greg Ginn (who went on to start SST) couldn't give a shit about surfing and skateboards. So it was always a volatile mix.
I've always thought their were two versions of Black Flag - the pre and post Henry Rollins era. I especially loved the pre-Rollins stuff... Rollins is an awesome singer, but vocalists like Keith Morris and Dez Cadena (both featured on this album, with Keith credited as "Johnny Bob Goldstein") were my favourites. Rollins was heavy, but the singers before were more reckless and garagey. And this amazing compilation highlights the latter. All early songs before Henry Rollins joined the band, it's a double album of previously unreleased recordings, captured between 1978-1981.
Superfast songs like "Depression" and "Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie" still floor me with it's emotional fury and fuzz-distorted guitars, drum and bass. It was harder and faster than any other punk I had heard before.
If there was a list of greatest punk rock songs of all time, "Depression" would be on there.
Everyday Skank (Best of Big Youth) - Big Youth (1980)
I went through a big reggae / dub phaze... maybe around the late 90s and early 2000s.
My favourites were 'dread' weights like King Tubby, Bob Marley, Augustus Pablo and this guy... Big Youth.
This Jamaican deejay was huge in the 70s and still does stuff today, although his output has been less freqient since the 80s.
He had a great vintage style about him, mixing singing and chanting over killer drum beats; a musical style that was audio as much as visual (check out the killer album cover).
This record is a great place to start for anyone getting into dub and reggae, including my ABSOLUTE favourite - "Cool Breeze" with it's deadly chant "stop this train / I wanna get off'.
I Blow Minds For A Living - Jello Biafra (1991)
Label: Alternative Tentacles
For me, the Dead Kennedys were the most exciting punk band. Their outrageous frontman Jello Biafra was a hero of mine when I just finished high school. He gave punk rock a political voice. It was cool music that really said something.
I admit I have 'grown up', becoming a bit more objective of this big wide world, but there will always be a part of me that agrees 100% in everything Jello says.
This double-album captures the sardonic punk poet in spoken word form as he blitzes his way across America.
It's 1991. George Bush (senior) is US President. And the US has invaded Iraq in Operation Desert Storm... or "Desert Scam" as he calls it. 'The Arab people are so damn mad we'll be lucky to walk out of there alive," he spits.
In his inimitable way - think sardonic, rapid-fire and deeply political - he takes aim at his home country; the US needing to keep the third world under control, the government getting so frightened that it uses nationalism to whip up fear, the economy and how it's rigged on making guns and war, a mercenary state to ensure there is no peace, media distorting what we see, the drug wars around growing pot and more.
He also dedicates a chunk on his one-time decision to run for office, getting mainstream coverage for a campaign that included things like legalizing squatting on unoccupied buildings, police officers required to run for election every four years and other policies designed to put a 'pitchfork up the butt' of the status quo. There's more here.
When I first heard the Dead Kennedys, I thought they were the most exciting band ever and bought everything they did. I wrote "DK" on everything I owned. When I bought this record I didn't realise it was a spoken word album until I put it on. But it's a great listen for anyone into punk and the times.
One Foot In The Grave - Beck (1994)
I'm a massive Beck fan, and have been there since the beginning.
This album was recorded before Mellow Gold but was released after it. So I was really surprised to hear the stripped-down, ramshackle nature of this record after the mega success of Mellow Gold, with its samplers, tape loops, feedback, drones and distortion, which I absolutely loved too. I've always thought of Mellow Gold as an underrated 90's classic. But any way... onto One Foot in the Grave
Lo-fi in the extreme, the songs on One Foot in the Grave are mostly folk, blues and acoustic inspired. But as the album title suggests there's a theme of trash and doom running through the songs, like Beck is just singing his songs while the world is burning down around him.
It was released on Calvin Johnson's indie K Records, and this is one of favourite Beck records.
If you're into bands like Pavement or Smog, then this is a worthy addition to your collection.
The Beatles (White Album) - The Beatles (1968)
I have a soft spot for this album from the fab four.
This self-titled record is a wild and nonsensical double-album. The band sticks its neck out while stripping it all down, starting with the plain white cover art.
What I love about this record is there are so many songs - you can hear everything from rock n' roll (Back in the USSR), acoustic folk ("Blackbird"), orchestral pop ("Martha My Dear"), avant garde (“Revolution 9”), and what I think could be the grunge prototype ("Revolution").
It was also the album where all the band members had a crack at putting their stamp on the songs. Yes, there were rumours of creative differences between the group, including Yoko Ono who appeared throughout the sessions for the first time around John's shoulder. But the fact we get to hear George Harrison's searing guitar on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" or Ringo's classic "Don't Pass Me By" - well I think it's worth it.
If you want to hear the Beatles at their experimental best, then get this album.
The Axeman's Jazz - The Beasts Of Bourbon (1983)
The hellish debut album from Aussie garage rockers Beasts of Bourbon.
It's what you get when a bunch of hoodlums make a record. Critics talk about the obvious Rolling Stones influence, but I can hear a lot of Iggy and the Stooges. It's also a pre-cursor to what The Gun Club would go on to do - merging blues into punk.
It's a pretty amazing collection of songs for a band that was really just a side-project for the members involved (Tex Perkins, James Baker, Spencer P. Jones, Kim Salmon and Boris Sudjovic were all in bigger bands at the time). And legend has it they recorded this album in just one supercharged afternoon!
Indeed, these 10 songs capture a time and place, bottling its pickled essence perfectly. It's sinister yet darkly humourous; a hard-drinking rock band trying their darndest to make sense of this mixed-up world.
Song-titles like "Evil Ruby", "Love and Death", "Psycho", and the sneering "Save Me A Place" with its line "Save me a place in the graveyard," sum up the mood and feeling of this record perfectly!
If you're into that kind of swamp garage / country punk blues made famous by The Cramps, Gun Club, Stones etc... then this a must-have.
Holland - Beach Boys (1972)
This album has one of my favourite Beach Boys songs, "Sail on Sailor".
This was their 19th album (can you believe that!) and was recorded in 1972. It was a troubled time for Brian Wilson and the band. Brian Wilson ws suffering from depression and the band weren't topping the charts. It was hoped that going to the Netherlands to do the album would get the creative juices flowing. And while the songs can be hit and miss, there are some awesome songs on this album that make it worth a buy.
It's not Pet Sounds, but it's still a lovely album. It's not as avant garde as Pet Sounds, but Holland has a beautiful, lush simplicity that calms your mood and makes you smile.
Lapsed - Bardo Pond (1997)
Trippy space rockers Bardo Pond deliver another masterclass in the hypnotic art of space rock.
This album is really heavy and pychedelic. It's been described as "hot, thick, sticky and sweaty... like their hometown of Philadelphia," and I have to agree.
This five-piece do a wonderful job in massaging what seems like formless walls of distortion, feedback and vocals into a heavenly slab of noise.
It's definitely a listening experience, this album. Despite all the walls of white noise, if you can just sit there, focus on the music, notes and rhythms while letting all other thoughts go, it becomes a calming experience.
If you like bands like Spaceman 3 and My Bloody Valentine, then you'll love Bardo Pond.
Islands - The Band (1976)
This was the last album the original line-up ever did. It was their 7th album and was a collection of what you'd call 'odds and sods', all previously unreleased material.
I've always been into The Band. These roots rockers were Bob Dylan's backing band when he first went electric. They have a musical spirit that I really respect and admire, so I was always interested to hear what they'd done... even the lesser-known stuff like this album, which I bought from a second-hand record store in the Blue Mountains (Velvet Fog), having never heard of it or any of the songs.
It didn't get the greatest reviews, but it's still a worthy album for all fans of The Band. It's got a mellow groove that's classic Band and the songs still sound fresh with plenty of country soul.
If you're just getting into them, I'd avoid this album and start at the beginning with their classic debut Music from Big Pink and work your way up from there.
All The Nations Airports - Archers of Loaf (1996)
This is a lot like Vee Vee (see the record below), but a lot of critics say this was a more "accessible" album than their previous ones. I'm not sure about that, but it is more mellow and atmospheric, and I read how they took three weeks to record the album which was the longest time they had ever taken at that point to record an album!
Listening to it, songs like the opening "Strangled by the Stereo Wire" and "Scenic Pastures" still floor me.
If you were to pick an Archers Loaf album I'd still go for the debut Icky Mettle and Vee Vee first, making this one strictly for fans.
Vee Vee - Archers of Loaf (1995)
This is the killer second album from noisy 90s indie rockers Archers of Loaf. It's a band that I rarely listen to now, but when I do, I wonder why I don't listen to them more!
There are some really catchy melodies on this record, but the way they twist and meld it in a thousand different directions with their raw, angular guitars and rock-solid bass & pounding drums, gives it a big sound and unique energy. And let's not forget Eric's amazing lyrics and vocal delivery. In a way, they might be the perfect grunge band; or a post-punk take on grunge, if you want to look at it another way.
These guys seemed a million miles away from a lot of the grunge bands that were out at the time. Maybe it was because they were from the South (in the US) - they were from North Carolina - or maybe it was just the weird tunings and rhythms.
I always loved this band, and one of my favourite memories of the time, is sneaking backstage with a mate to interview the band after their sold-out show at the Annandale Hotel around the time of this release.
Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972 - Various Artists (1972)
I don't know what's better about this album - the music or the album cover!
Being a big Sun Ra fan, I was immediately drawn to the amazing photo that graced the cover - Sun Ra's image hovering behind Muddy Waters like some sort of ghostly cosmic figure.
Recorded in 1972, this double live album set sounds great and features some of the biggest musical heavyweights of the time, including Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Howlin' Wolf and the above-mentioned Sun Ra & His Solar-Myth Arkestra - and it captures them all doing what they do best.
It also features legendary Americal poet and political activist, John Sinclair - he helped put the concert together.
This album is a real gem - it captures a time and place, and is a good one for fans of blues, jazz and 70s music collectors.
Wolf City - Amon Duul II (1974)
Label: United Artists Records
What a great album! I am a krautrock disciple and with Faust, Germany's Amon Duul II are my favourite krautrock band and this album is a ripper.
This was their fifth record and more "songier" and "straightforward" than their early freakout albums, and more folkier too. But it was still otherwordly in the way they meshed and loaded the eight songs with e-guitar, synthesizers, organs and vocal. I love that despite the mellowness it has a real pre-punk attitude - definitely a product of those post-6os, hippy commune times. It's a pysch-folk masterpiece.
I bought this from my friend Ray Ahn, who had a stall with Utopia Records at a record fair in Glebe, Sydney. It's a must-have for lovers of pyschedelic music.
Strange Kicks - Alternative TV (1981)
Alternative TV are a UK post-punk band led by Mark Perry. He was one of the fathers of the 76' UK punk scene, starting the legendary punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue.
This album is a bit poppier, more new wave than their earlier suff and sees him reunite with original guitarist Alex Fergusson after a falling out.
I bought this album from an awesome second-hand record store in Wellington, NZ called Slow Boat Records.
Overall, I would say this album is for completists only, for those lovers of anything Mark Perry related or lovers of UK punk between 1976-1983.
