Gee muses

Okay, I take some of it back. Oasis are not washed up old Britpop has-beens. While 2005’s Don’t Believe The Truth had white-limbed little Pommy critics bouncing up and down in their bedsits proclaiming the return of the Gallaghers, some of us were less convinced. Okay, it wasn’t quite the tub of lard most of their recorded work since the brilliant (What’s The Story) Morning Glory had been - stodgy, gormless, piss-driven and unimaginative. It at least had legs and and some sort of fitness and life about the songs. Basically, it was b-grade rock. Pleasant but no nutcracker.

Enter stage right Dig Out Your Soul, the first Oasis album in three years and an absolute corker. Somewhere the Gallagher boys and their current compatriots have discovered what made them compelling a decade and a half ago. The songs are sometimes quasi-psychedelic, sometimes bluesy, occasionally Beatlesque, mostly rock hard and imaginative. There are moments when you seriously want to examine the album cover to check this really is an Oasis record. Noel has his writing mojo back, his six songs are standouts, no more so than on the utterly gorgeous, swirling, Falling Down, but the biggest surprise is saved for the album ending Soldier On, a mood piece that expands the Oasis world dramatically. Elsewhere, Liam’s Lennonesque, I’m Outta Time, is so convincing you could believe the ex-Beatle was reincarnated for the sessions and then there’s a beautiful piece of Gallagher driftwood called The Turning that is just a great song. But it’s the sprawling, brawling, slightly weary, punchy rock (check out Bag It Up and Waiting For The Rapture) that dominates the rest of Dig Out Your Soul that says here is a band that has done what the title suggests. What a surprise.

Guitarist Gem Archer is having a cuppa , elevenses as they say, and bemoaning the unplanned tour break forced on the band after a stage incident involving Noel.

“Basically, this guy got on stage and pushed Noel,” Gem says, “and because of that he has three broken ribs. Five gigs have been cancelled, Hopefully, there won’t be any more. Noel’s in a lot of pain and the ribs aren’t a great injury to deal with. They heal slowly. It’s like a broken nose - not much you can do for it. But it’s one of those freak little things you can’t predict. I actually thought he’d got the injury from falling on the monitor but it was the impact of the guy.”

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The Metro Theatre, Sydney
29/07/08

Famously, a reviewer once declared he’d touched God at a Radiohead concert. I didn’t at The Polyphonic Spree but I went so close it didn’t matter. This was the best concert of 2008. An extraordinary celebration of everything that is great about rock music; uplifting, deeply moving at times, thunderous symphonic rock, contrasted by great delicacy and shade, performed by a group of 23 musicians and singers. So good was this amazing performance – and I’m not prone to waxing lyrical and tossing out superlatives left, right and centre but I’m going to here - that I’d put it up there with greatest shows I’ve seen over the past 40 years: Led Zeppelin in 1972, AC/DC (1974 and ’76), Frank Zappa (1976), Radio Birdman (1977), Tom Waits (1978), The Cure (1981 and 2000), Bob Dylan (2001), Brian Wilson (2004), to name a few … revered company, indeed.

What made this concert special though was the pure inescapable joy that lies at the core of the Texans’ distinctly un-American’s music. They reach for the sky – physically and spiritually, and this audience was drawn in. The result was that incredible energy that surges back and forth between the two. Everywhere people smiled; for the whole two hours, they embraced, danced, sang, punched the air, moshed – nobody who was there will ever forget the cover of Nirvana’s Lithium that had the entire Metro moshing as one! Couples pashed, several people were heard telling their partner they loved them; the audience parted – like the proverbial Red Sea - when the band shucked off its black army fatigues for the original white smocks and returned to the stage via the back of the Metro and down the stairs through the crowd. People hustled just to high-five a member or get close. It all sounds religious, cultish, dangerously close to overkill but, you know what, it was simply glorious.

Led by founder and lead vocalist, Tim DeLaughter, who has an extraordinary amount of energy and a marvellous voice, the six back-up singers, two drummers, two violinists, one cellist, one harpist (yes, a harp), three brass players, a flautist, three guitarists, bass guitarist, and two keyboardists, simply soared. It was extravagant, poetic, humbling. People even cried with joy. It even blew The Arcade Fire away – and anybody who saw its January shows will know just how good they were. This was a massive triumph, a masterpiece, more reasons to believe than you dare to dream. I’m still smiling 24 hours later.

Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust

EMI

**** (4 stars)

It’s perhaps fitting that Sigur Ros appear naked on the album cover because this, the great Icelandic band’s fifth album, is largely its most stripped back and bare. That’s not to say those epic signature atmospheres are entirely absent. Festival builds magnificently over its 9 minutes-plus to a huge ending while Ara Batur, which is only marginally shorter, is one of the most moving pieces the band has ever recorded. Opening on gentle, intimate, solo piano, it gradually swells until the London Oratory Boy’s Choir and the London Sinfonietta break over the last few minutes. Elsewhere Gobblediggok and Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur are pure upbeat three-minute pop gems that open the album with unexpected simplicity and lightness. Acoustic guitars and solo piano fill much of the rest record as it moves from those jaunty beginnings to that afore-mentioned vast middleground before easing to a gentle finish over the final three tracks. The last, All Alright, is set around simple piano notes and has lyrics sung in English for the first time in Sigur Ros’ recorded history, not that you would necessarily know it. It is utterly haunting and heart-rending. In a way you are left wanting more, but at the same time know that more would be less. The evolution of Sigur Ros continues unaffected by anything but the band’s own imagination. This time it has examined and reacted to its own grandiose beauty, sought to bare a little more soul and discover what would happen if it was to destructure and restructure. It is still Sigur Ros, it is still breathtakingly beautiful but it is another shade on a palette that seems to have unlimited colours.

Australian rock’n'roll is 50 - and I am proud to have been part of it for well on 35 years now as a writer, broadcaster (on public radio and online), TV identity (minimal exposure, thankfully), occasional promoter, scriptwriter for the ARIA Awards, and more. And if sounds like I’m pushing my own barrow - there’s a reason. It’s not sour grapes - I’m simply justifying why I can make the following comments. The Age has decided to put together a panel of judges and get them to deliver their 50 Top Australian albums of all time - you can find it at http://www.theage.com.au/multimedia/top50/list.html and sadly it’s rather blinkered. There’s a big difference between ‘favourite’ records and ‘best’ records. There have been a lot of lists of best albums over the years but this one falls far short of the mark. Many of my favourite Australian albums are on The Age’s list but I wouldn’t consider some of them amongst the best Australian albums of all time.

The judges seem largely to be in their 30s-early 40s and, frankly, reliving their own frantic youth - inner Sydney and Melbourne 1980-1995 … extraordinarily more than 30 of their nominations come from 1980 or later … even more extraordinary is only six of the albums come from the period from 1958-1973 - arguably the richest period in Australian music history and certainly the period identified worldwide by collectors as containing the many of Australia’s most significant and collectible records.

Incredibly not one woman gets a guernsey and even more incredibly only two women - Lindy Morrison and Amanda Brown, both of The Go-Betweens - are actually band members.

This is a list driven by what appears to be blatant ignorance - how else could you possibly explain Skyhooks’ Living In The ’70s at #2 - I love the band, the record, the whole ‘Hooks thing and I was in Melbourne when they were huge - but the second best Australian album ever - no way! And what about the inclusion of Victorian cult band Even’s Less Is More - honestly, only a diehard Melburnian could possibly even consider Even - good they may be but Top 50 material! In your dreams. The same can be said of Flowers’ Icehouse, Stephen Cummings’ Lovetown, regurgitator’s Tu-Plang, Jet’s Get Born (give us a break - token 2000s record, no more, wouldn’t make the top 200 of all-time), even The Church’s Starfish - and I’m a massive Church fan who believes Steve Kilbey is some kind of lesser God - is off the beam. And The Gurus at #4 - again, love ‘em, but Stoneage Romeos is a top 30 to 50 at best album.

Hell this list even includes The Easybeats’ Absolute Anthology - a compilation album … you have to be kidding.

So, you’re thinking, ‘okay big mouth, your making a lot of noise but what have they missed - put out or shut up’. In no particular order other than that in which they appear in my head, the following records should all have a place in the Top 50 Australian Records Of All-Time.

1. Extradition - Hush, 1971 - revered by collectors of folk and folk psych as one of the most extraordinary records ever released in that genre. Copies change hands for up to $1200. The lead singer, Shayna Karlin, has an astonishing voice.
2. Kahvas Jute - Wide Open, 1971 - extraordinary blues/prog rock album that also fetches massive prices and is revered by a worldwide audience as up there with anything in this genre ever released.
3. Tamam Shud - Goolutionites And The Real People, 1970 - masterful concept suite based on a song cycle bedded in acid rock. Good copies sell for $700+ - regularly makes world top 100s!
4. Jackie Orszaczky - Morning in Beramiada, 1975 - jazz rock/fusion album made with John Robinson of Blackfeather (At The Mountains Of Madness - yet another contender here). Absolutely superb.
5. Dave Miller/Leith Corbett - Reflections Of A Pioneer, 1970 - cross-genre, psych to country, album that regularly makes world top 100s. Again, a real collector’s item.
6. Madden & Harris - Fool’s Paradise, 1974 - one of the most collectible folk, acid folk records in the world. Issued on a private label, it brings to mind Nick Drake, the UK’s Mellow Candle and the like. In the $800-$1000 region.
7. Company Caine - A Product Of A Broken Reality, 1971 - many good judges believe this is Australia’s finest progressive record and arguably its best ever record. It is certainly mind-blowingly good.
8. Wendy Saddington - Looking Through A Window, 1972 - Australia’s greatest female blues soul singer on her only album which is actually a reissue of Wendy Saddington And The Copperwine Live (1971) with the title track, produced for her by Billy Thorpe and written by Aztec Warren ‘the Pig’ Morgan, added on.
9. Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - Aztecs Live! At Sunbury, 1972 - Arguably, the greatest homegrown heavy rock album of all-time. A legendary set at the legendary rock festival. For studio Thorpie look no further than More Arse Than Class (1974) - which could easily be included here.
10. Coloured Balls - Ball Power, 1973 - A classic Oz Rock guitar album that recognises the late, great Lobby Loyde, formerly of two other seminal acts the Purple Hearts and Wild Cherries (with Dave Miller). Also check out Lobby’s remarkable solo set, Plays With George Guitar (1971), another classic.
11. Missing Links - Missing Links, 1966 - The definitive Australian garage/r’n'b album. As wild as it gets, this masterpiece of aggression sells for well over $1000 in good condition. Again, recognised worldwide as a true gem of its kind.
12. Pirana - Pirana and Pirana II, 1971/1972 - take your pick which is better. This was Australia’s Santana (think Soul Sacrifice era), capable of mixing jazz, blues, Latin and prog and blowing free. Very collectible and critically adored.
13. Bakery - Momento, 1972 - Perth-based heavy progressive rock outfit who even gained Frank Zappa’s attention. Has been rated one of the best records of its kind in the world.
14. Baby Animals - Self-Titled, 1991 - their debut was, for a time, the biggest selling Australian debut record ever and indeed one of the biggest sellers ever. A definitive hard rock record that has rarely been bettered. Lead singer Suze DeMarchi had a voice to die for.
15. Thought Criminals - Speed., Madness.. Flying Saucers …, 1980 - Primitive, raw, brilliant Australian punk album that’s up there with The Saints’ definitive (I’m) Stranded.
16. TISM - Great Truckin Songs of the Rennaissance, 1988 - It’s doubtful if there ever has been a greater electro funk/rock/pop Australian album. The most savagely satirical band in Australian history.

And that is just the beginning, ladies and gentlemen. Now, before you chuck up the old elitism and ‘most-people-never-heard-these-records’ (with a few exceptions) argument, let me say they have all - except for the Thought Criminals (the excellent compilation Chrono Logical is available though) - been issued on CD in the past few years and are easily available from any good record shop or online. And I’ve deliberately picked a bunch from the early 1970s to show what’s been missed from one period alone. There are many other records that have claim to making this list. Just think … Spectrum, Jeff St John, Levi Smith’s Clefs, McPhee, Not Drowning, Waving, Buffalo, The Cleves, The Scientists, Tully, Fraternity, Mike Furber, Galadriel, SPK, Makers Of The Dead Travel Fast, Severed Heads, Scattered Order, Sun, Madder Lake, X, La De Das, My Friend The Chocolate Cake, Yothu Yindi, and there is still more.

The Age list is a collection of favourite albums - not necessarily the best Australian albums ever. Check out the music above and see for yourself.

Also, and I won’t say anymore than this, question why Fairfax publishers of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald put this together in the first place. Now what was it you can win?

Australian music is rich and diverse and has enjoyed 50 great years but it is far more, unfortunately, than The Age effort gives it credit for.

Image via WikipediaJoan Wasser, aka Joan As Police Woman, is at home in her Brooklyn apartment. She says it’s a mild 21C outside and pleasant in the borough that claims to be “Home to Everyone From Everywhere!”. It’s then that it hits me: Joan sounds like Fran Drescher in The Nanny. Fran comes from Queens - the borough down the road (sort of). That accent. It’s frightening. It’s distracting but it shouldn’t be. Joan has more claims-to-fame than most people have undies. Apart from releasing two stunning solo albums, the latter of which - To Survive - has just been released, this nearly 38-year-old has worked with Lou Reed, Sheryl Cow, Sparklehorse, Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), Elton John, the Scissor Sisters, Joseph Arthur and recorded an album with Tanya Donelly.

She also played in the Hot Trix with noted singer/songwriter Mary Timony (formerly of Helium), was a key member of the mid-1990s alt rock outfit, The Dam Builders, and at the same time played with the excellent Those Bastard Souls which featured Dave Shouse of The Grifters. “He’s a genius, absolutely incredible; I’m glad some people know how great he is,” she gushes. If you can find it, check out The Souls criminally overlooked Debt And Departure album. In 1999, she joined Antony And The Johnsons and contributed to his Mercury Award-winning album, I Am A Bird Now. She formed the trio, Joan As Police Woman (JAPW), in 2002, but its critically-acclaimed debut was still four years hence. In 2004 she got side-tracked again. In February, Rufus Wainwright asked her to join his band and open the shows with JAPW while in August, that year, she recorded with Donelly.

Finally, Joan Wasser was the girlfriend of the legendary late musical genius, Jeff Buckley, at the time of his death in May 1997. Hell, Jeff has been gone 11 years now. Time does fly.
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It’s a long way to the top if you want to … and Regurgitator have. Now they don’t as much. In their halcyon days The Gurge as we fondly dubbed ‘em, sucked a lot of you know what, danced around in videos with animal suits on - Which Warner’s heavyweight executive was in one of those costumes? My lips are sealed!, made cheap keyboards a comeback novelty, veered erratically from the end of the punk rope to the top candy-smeared pop schtick. The singles and albums flowed to the top end of the charts. The Gurge were mighty. Their moments came and went. And when the fizzle and razzle and dazzle faded, they accepted the movement and passing of time with grace and just got on with what it is they do. Now Regurgitator are on an indie label and are a well-inured-in-the-psyche cult band. They will never be less than good because they are that talented. Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely, Peter Kostic and new girl Seja Vogel, take a bow. You deserve it.

Ely, a splendidly friendly Queenslander who is as well known in that State’s underground scene (he’s played in any number of side projects) as he is for his exploits in The Gurge. At home in Glebe, yes, he’s moved out of Queensland, he talks happily about some 15 years or so in and out of the spotlight.

“It’s not so intense now,” he says. “We don’t take it all as seriously as we used to, we don’t tour as often. Quan now lives in Hong Kong while Pete and I live in Sydney and Seja in Brisbane so we’re quite spread out.

“I think we appreciate it more now though because we do it less; you tend to take it for granted when it’s all you do all the time. Now we do a show in, say, Manly or Dubbo and a crowd turns-up and we tend to put a lot more into the show. It’s more of a fantastic thing. less is more when it comes to the band and music.”

The band’s sixth and most recent album, Love And Paranoia, has been dubbed by the band as it’s first romance album. Think broad definition of romance. After all, Blood & Spunk and Drinking Beer Is Awesome, aren’t exactly Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, although at the same time the allegory and associated imagery does linger in a twice removed 21st century kind of way. Anyway, it’s not a balls and all Gurge record but it is - as usual - a lot of fun and perfectly entertaining.

In a way though, Regurgitator are now in a new world. The old kids on the block. Fans who were 16 when the band first appeared are now in their 30s; others in their late 20s are into their 40s.

“Our audience has been amazing. Very dedicated. We genuinely appreciate the fact they are still coming out to see us,” Ben says. “I mean it’s like ‘Thanks for coming out and here’s a song you’ve heard 500,000 times before … ‘.” And while he jests, Ely does recognise that initially The Gurge’s timing couldn’t have been better.
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Fame is a strange beast; it isn’t the same monster for everybody. For Rodrigo Sanchez, one half of the successful cult classical guitar duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela, fame is a challenge, particularly on a personal level. It’s principal ally, success, confronts most of what he calls home; its friend, money, means he has to translate everything and clear it with his roots and himself. And if that sounds complicated it’s supposed to be.

Rodrigo and rhythm guitarist, Gabriela Quintero, met in Mexico City while playing in the thrash metal band, Tierra Acida. It didn’t work out. Nowhere land beckoned. So they upped roots headed for Europe and ended up in Ireland, busked the streets doing versions of classic rock songs such as Stairway To Heaven and Metallica’s Orion, were discovered by singer/songwriter Damien Rice and hit it big with their fourth album,a self-titled monster that topped the Irish charts in March 2006 and received rave reviews everywhere. And, people, this pair can play. And that’s pretty much all they’ve been doing since then - playing endlessly around the world, and it isn’t over quite yet, although you sense Rodrigo is close to ‘enough’ and the duo just want to take a breather and work out what they are going to next.

He’s stashed away in Mexico on the end of yet another string of calls. How busy are Rodrigo Y Gabriela - well, this is the third chat with one or the other of them in the past 22 months. The story goes like this.

“It is a challenge to deal with everything that has happened,” he says. “It’s a good word. It’s interesting. You know that’s life and we’re just trying to enjoy it. There are many things on a personal level that are challenged and you have to deal with all those personal challenges. And they are even even more of a challenge than dealing with the whole industry thing.

“The toughest thing to deal with is money. Money can just rot things. I don’t come from a musically successful background. We left Mexico went to Europe, didn’t go home for five years. And things have changed, the structure of things changes, family has changed, friends have changed. For us, it was a lonely journey for those five years. We were our only friends.
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Politics and music have long gone hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, political flagwavers have sometimes come and gone with the rapidity of their beliefs. Those who tried using politics as a rallying [read ‘selling’] point for an audience rather than offering a committed, solid belief, most rightly, didn’t last. But there are many more who have proved their belief and commitment is as strong as their word. The 1960s had a plethora of acts committed to change, and in the mid- to late 1970s there was a bundle of genuinely political punk acts, but in recent times that kind of solidarity is harder to find: Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Pennywise, Billy Bragg, Henry Rollins, the old boy Neil Young, leap immediately to mind. Age after all does engender wisdom. So when a young band burns bright with an apparent commitment to change, to being outspoken – but sensibly so, to put its actions where its mouth is and raising funds for actions, then it’s time to pay attention.

Pittsburgh’s Anti-Flag may be young punks but they have old heads and they’ve been through some horrendous personal circumstances. Bassist Chris 2#’s sister and her boyfriend were murdered. Vices, the third track on the band’s new album, Bright Lights Of America, deals with that.

Lead singer, Justin Sane, is in Austin, Texas, on the end of a mobile which fades in and out and breaks up with regularity.
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Air, Live at the Sydney Opera House.

Sara Storer, former Golden Guitar-winning country superstar, now all-round singer/songwriter, makes big decisions. On her latest record, Silver Skies, she eschewed the bush balladry for a more popular, at times folkie, sound. Now she’s moving in on the inner-city gig circuit. And obviously isn’t afraid of a challenge.

The Victorian-born, richly talented Storer, who now lives on the central NSW coast at Wyoming, is affable, easy to chat to, and down-to-earth. She may have won seven Golden Guitars at the 2004 Tamworth Country Music Festival, she may have been awarded APRA Song of the Year and heritage Song Of the Year for her poignant Land Cries Out at this year’s hoedown, but when she talks about a recent week off in the Northern Territory it’s the number of people who hadn’t turned their air-conditioners on — despite the muggy weather — that captures her attention. Sara, you see, is a natural born storyteller. It’s in the detail.

NT is, of course, where it mostly all began. In the mid-1990s she moved to Katherine, where she worked at small aboriginal settlement teaching kindergarten at Casurina Street Primary. She also began playing at parties all over the territory having already written her first songs, including Buffalo Bill, while living in Camooweal, Victoria.

She’s seen Australia from shore to shore and like all good songwriters prefers chronicling what she experiences first-hand, hence the changes on Silver Skies.
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