white with one please , Ginno

This post is a continuation of our conversation re music and music videos of 70s and now 80s... it seemed reminiscent to me of our coffee table discussions, so it seems only fitting to continue it here at cyber 51 Albert St.. I'm boilling the kettle and inviting conversation

Fry: After scores of my letters of request, David Hasslehoff has FINALLY covered Ted Mulry's Jump in my Car... featuring The Hoffettes.. and KIT, of course

Cherry: Thanks for the Ted Mulry re-contextualisation. Very post-postmodern. Ruined one of my 70s memories permanently...

Fry: Well I started with the Ted Mulry version on youtube..I originally looked up Sherbert's Summer Love and this lead me to TMG's Jump un my CarThe TMG clip depressed me.. in fact all the video clips of songs I grew up as a youth depress me no end... Case in point, in an attempt to resurrect you loving memory, here's Ted's version:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsJAhUtDXRE

Cherry: c'mon Fry, you bunghole gobbler.

the 70s were a Golden Age in aussie music. the videos were a bit unsophisticated, but that just adds to the charm...

in what other era would you find a homegrown, down-tempo, orchestrally-arrranged song like Sherbet's 'You've Got the Gun' being a hit? You have to love Braithwaite's falsetto. Here it is on Countdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PTUDyGIqRc

What about the fuck-you inventiveness and youthful joie de vivre of Skyhook's 'Million Dollar Riff'? Not bad for Melbournians.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8sov4ujTMQ

You can't really go past AC/DC to cheer you up though - Australia's one-time primo practitioners of Hard Pop. You could check out the Convict Pyjamas (and catchy riff) in Jailbreak, or that nicely sycopated bass line in High Voltage, but for Christmas i'm recommending the Biblical unpretentiousness of Let There Be Rock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98I85ceICRM

Fry: That's exactly what I find depressing.. those Sherbert songs were awesome... really musical and they were the cream of the crop, top of the pile.. and now where are they? Daryl Braithwaite is struggling to buy a middy in his local.
Not bad for Melbournians? That's where all the music that made it in Australia was based.. probably still the case.. thanks to Michael Gudfuckingdinkski and Molly "100% poofter" Meldrum.. they did shit all to help Australian music, probably still don't.. and Skyhooks feature that guitarist who was part of that whole shithole "entertainment" industry mafia that bled into Australian tv's biggest hit, Hey fucking Hey!

That's why it depresses me

the music is great

Ginno: Aussie Music Industry in 70s, I don't know nearly as much about it as you fellas, so enlighten me: I always thought that Gudinski (though granted, a cunt) was all about championing aussie rock, he ran the mainstream industry for many years and helped define a genre. Aussie Rock is very different from stuff from overseas, and now i can hear it without hearing a hundred pissed Novacastrians shouting the lyrics, I can see its merits.

Only Melbourne? Is that true? I thought Sydney had a huge number of hitmakers, but anyway; I think the ones that have become legends have over time gravitated to that pile of shit s'appelle Hey Hey its Shataday just as fleks of shyte floating around in space gravitate to one another and eventually become planets. The ballad of Daryl Braithwaite should probably focus on his own bad choices throughout life, rather than the failure of the music industry, you don't diss the great British Music Industry because the Bay City Rollers are all poor cunts eating cat food.

I know what you mean about depressing though Cam. I think that Australia just doesn't have enough punters to adequately finance anyone but the biggest hitters, that is it's saddest and most fundamental truth and it goes to the heart of most of the problems that you mentioned. But what the fuck do I know.

You've got the Gun? Thanks Rich, I'd forgotten about that gem, Soulseek mission no.1 - I used to play that when I was DJing quite a bit. Everything else that you recommended was great as well, though the tag "hard pop" is a bit unfair!



Stu: For some reason, those generic type video clips from the 70's that everyone had really depress me. You know the ones that always had the band playing the song, not necessirily live, but there's bright lights shining out of stage light cans and the background is always black. Some examples; Blinded by the Light, January and anything by Dr Hook. They really depress me. That fucking moog playing in Blinded by the Light really shits me, especially when it winds up `in that bit just before the chorus.Fucking Dr Hook REALLY shit me. That fucking old eye patch wearing cunt looks like such a cunt and although I wasn't familiar with the word when I was 7 years old, I just new he looked like a total untrustworthy cunt.

Fry: Dr CUNT more like it

Cherry: You guys must've been stoked when the 80s rolled around and all those gay Duran Duran videos came out.(the guy who made those - Russel Mulcahy - turns out to be an Aussie, started on 'Sounds Unlimited' with Graham Webb on a Sat morning)

Stu: Russel Mulcuntahy also made the films Razorback which was sort of like an outback Jaws, but featuring a large pig and Highlander, with Christopher Lambert - an Austrian - playing a Scotsman and a Scotsman, Sean Connery playing a Spaniard.Was Graham Webb Before Donnie Sutherland?

Fry: " You guys must've been stoked when the 80s rolled around and all those gay Duran Duran videos came out." you crack me up Chezzo. Video production values had skyrocketed by then but I was distraught at the synthetic sound of the music..
Remember I was but a boy of a very impressionable (especially when it came to music) 15 years old from a drumming based background, to go from horning on Black Betty and Radar Love to the one dimensional sounds of... I don't even remember.. Picture a bass drum on 1, piffy sounding snare on 2, bass drum on 3, p snare on 4.. And it goes over and over and over throughout the whole song like song (the snare sounds like a loose lipped airy fart). Suddenly ALL the songs on the radio sound like this..
fucking corporations just after money. Shows like Countdown and the music industry do nothing to help because they create the images or more usually, they follow the image like the fucking gutless money hungry dogs they are.
In retrospect there were some great songs, but I couldn't see past the plastic sound and my hatred was only inflammed by the look of the acts.. the need to be entertainers rather than musicians.. Adam fucking Ant! i couldn't get that for the life of me.. how people enjoyed it or the stupid image .. any of it.. I was younger and different strokes for different folks, but I felt like I'd seen the light and now it had been taken away and replaced by a double C battery torch.

There were four radio stations to listen to in Newcastle one for country music and horse racing, one was ABC. two were pop (though each weekend they'd spend valuable hours broadcasting seemingly endless church services at night and football all afternoon). When 80s music came along I thought real music was all over.. And to someone my age and my investment in music, it was heartbreaking.
oh yes the bands playing real music were suddenly shit.
The Church, The Sunnyboys, Nick Cave.. seriously I'm Alone With You Tonight is one of the most boring songs I have ever heard. The music is so very very boring and the lyrics are childish. and it was a huge hit.. I heard it a couple of times when I was there August 2009... I do not get it.. and if you guys do get it it means I'm trapped alone in this box where no one hears me.. just me and my sour grapes

Does taste in music boil down to what you grew up with at that special age or do some people relate to the image of music and the people that make it more than the sound of music?

NNN: Gold Class Edition

Anyone who's seen this website before this post will have noticed the layout change. I hope you like the new style, and are forthcoming with your constructive critisism. I changed it because I found that reading light text with a dark background for long periods of time hurt my eyes, so I took steps to make it a bit more easy on the eye. Also, a change is as good as a holiday and I had a dream about this kind of colour scheme. There are a few different variations of the title bar, but I went with this one initially, though I could change if anyone has any strong objections. I got rid of the little icon that comes up in the address bar as I couldn't work out how to have it without making the top of the page untidy.

Finally, no Rich, I do not think that just because I've put a bit of work into revamping this site that I expect a new wave of NNN posting to wash up anytime soon, though it would be nice. Just thought I'd make a change. ;-)

Hope all is well.

My response to boss man Ginno's memo 2

Picture one is the most recent.. last Sunday morning.. I laughed out loud as I saw that someone had sicked up down the side of this car.. the laugh all that much more hilarious as it was on a car that was new and a supposed hip car.. I would have enjoyed seeing the poor bugger leaning up on the roof and flowing their vomit out down the carefully suntinted windows of this brand new mini.

2nd snap.. outside notting Hill Gate KFC early in the morning some time ago.. this guy was out like a light.. looks almost dignified

3rd snap Outside a well to do property, a nice proper bicycle with girly basket on front.. some guy staggering home the night before shoves his polystyrene kebab tray in the basket, complete with uneaten kebab meat and fork.. gold

I've been trying to work out why I find these funny..

it hasn't escaped my notice that all three relate to alcohol.. though I think more important, no one was hurt/ and society's little barriers were ignored..anyway.. enjoy my three or I'll arrest you!

Ginno Challenge: Step Two - Tacky Artifacts

The last place I visited was Marseille, 2nd largest city in La France with a delicious southern European climate, and gateway to Europe for millions of French-speaking Africans, Corsicans, Italians and other Med-dwelling types. As such, it enjoys a cultural complexity unrivalled in many parts of the world, and is home to many varied things, including The Count Of Monte Cristo, the standard deck of Tarot cards, the French national anthem.

Here are some of the cultural gems I've found for your amusement. To your right is a fast food shop that I thought you'd appreciate the name of. The slogan says "Taste the difference", I'm not sure what they sell, but I hope it isn't glutenised pork balls.

Next are a couple of snaps from a small stall run by one of the many arabic families in this city in a popular shopping centre. Picture the stall holder's grandma coming to visit them one day and seeing the first exhibit. Remember of course, that Fanny means Arse in America. Baisez is the plural or formal YOU form of the verb Baiser, to fuck. I'm not sure who the market for this item is, or whether it sells well, or even what kind of 'paint' they used to create that old fashioned look, but imagine the wholesale salesman trying to sneak in 500 of these with the stallholder's regular order. "Oh, yeah, they'll sell. The westerners get right into this shit. What? No, that was just an expression, it's brown paint, I promise you."

The second exhibit from this stall is as offensive in a different way. It's not obscene, but it is an obscene waste of resources, talent (?) and space. The stall had loads of different variations of these, from Jesus, Mary, Sphinx, etc. For those of you who haven't seen these things by now, the idea is that by using a light shining from the bottom instead of a more natural overhead light, you can make an engraved image seem like it potrudes from the surface - at least it's supposed to: witness these pathetic attempts and again ask yourself who the market for these is? Elvis died 32 years ago, does any fan think that this representation complete with child-like relief sculpture of an electric guitar honours their dead king sufficiently? As for the cat, well people usually buy effigies of dogs and cats because they remind them of how cute or funny their pets are, so putting those whiskers and pupils in with a classroom compass just reduced your profits to ZERO eruos

Albert St Soundtrack Challenge - Schoo

Here are my 5 tracks in response to Ginno's challenge. These reflect my residency at 51 Albert St from late 1993 (November I think) to April 1995:

1. The exercise record This one involves a bit of explaining but I cannot think of a more appropriate recording for entry No 1 to my own personal Albert St soundtrack. For starters, this was the first record (??) I recall listening to on the first day I moved into Albert St. Having just shifted all my belongings up into the 'log cabin' and feeling a bit tired, Ginno and Jimmy Jam Galloway kindly offered me a couch in the living room, perhaps even a cup of hot bevvy, and insisted I view thier creative efforts to a sort of film clip they devised to an old 70's or 80's exercise instructional record. The film clip was a collection of 70's porn: "Shafted by Four", "Bills Big Banana" and "Satin Cunts". It was simple: insert video into machine, turn the sound right down on the tv, play the exercice record and giggle incessantly at the timing of the voiceover on the record with what was taking place on the tv screen. Eventually, the record player was turned off and the tv sound turned up. This segued into a typical 70's porn soundtrack of wha guitar funk and some lines from the video's which became classic 51 Albert St catch phrases such as "Down with your panties then" and "I wish I didn't have such a huge prick, I only ever get to use 'alf of it".

2. Float On by The Floaters

Basically, this one is representative of Ginno's bad taste music collection and at least one entry under this category cannot be avoided. Of all the bad taste recordings Ginno ever subjected me too, this seems to be the one that stood out, but there are a couple of other serious contenders here including "Who Was It" by Gilbert O'Sullivan and "Age of Acquirius" on Moog . It was also the only song I ever Karaoke'd at the Knights Tavern, in duet with Ginno. We must have called in on the way home one night. I was drunk, Ginno wasn't.

3. Watcha Want by The Beastie Boys

I got into the Beastie Boys after a trip to Melbourne in 94 where Bruce was always listening to Ill Communication which had just been released. This is from an earlier album but I remember the first time I heard this was in Albert St. I dug that heavy drum sequence going through it and also the guitar sample, which I think was an old Hendrix guitar line looped over and over. I recall Chezzo had taped Rage one night and this was on it, along with some old rap piece by one of those lessor known early 90's hip hop groups but I can't recall who did it. But I remember Chezzo liked repeating one of the lines in it allot: "Got to get the money, the m-o-n-eeaa".

4. Nameless recording we made one night on James Galloway's Sampler keyboard

James had hold of a keyboard with a disc sampler in it, I can't recall if it was actually his. It seemed very advanced at the time. Jame's mate was around, he was a bit of a regular for a while but I can't recall his name right now, he was a tall thin sort of hip bloke that rode around on a skaty and liked to rap, nice bloke. Anyway we did some recording in James' room, James got a groove going, I layed down a little guitar solo on it, and his mate did a rap over it. I recall one of the rap lines went something like "skateboard is my transportation, makin pussy wet like precipitation". I remember Ginno telling me that someone at Uni got hold of it and used it as a backing track to a video they had made as their final year visual arts work. I wish I still had that recording somewhere.

5. The Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin
I have always dug this track but I recall not getting hold of Led Zeppelin 3 until I had moved into Albert St when I got it on vinyl at Rice's book shop one day. Also, it was a one of my favourite Small Change covers.

Honorable mentions
Hard work cutting it down to 5, but any of the following could equally apply:

• The one's already referred to: ie Who was It, Ginno's Moog albums, "Got to get the M-o-n-aa-ee"
• The 'Orn and anything by Derek and Clive
• Dread Zeppelin covers, particularly "Your Time is Gonna Come" and Whole Lotta Love"
• Watching James old band at SJ's, the one with BKB and Daniel Arvidson, doing a cover of "Dream Police" by Cheap Trick
• "Couldn't Do It" by Regurgitator, they were new and very different back then
  
• The soundtrack to the surf flick "Fantasea" which Ginno used to like watching with me while eating fish n chips.
• "Gangsters" by The Specials and heaps of other ska
  
• "Death on Two Legs" from A Night at the Opera during the Black Mambo Queen appreciation sessions
• Jazz at the Northern Star, The Human Beings, Marella Jube, etc
  

The Ginno Challenge - Stage One: Albert St Soundtrack

I couple of weeks ago, I challenged the co-founders of this oft-visited blog to a little bit of creation, so minor that it almost doesn't class as 'creating' as such. Create a soundtrack to an imaginary film about a time in your life where we were all together living in a little pocket of small town called Wickham - though they claimed it was Islington.

Such a predictable response from the rest of you, although I can't blame you; I'd forgotten about it myself until today.

Here is my late entry anyway:

1. Tijuana Taxi by Herb Alpert - for obvious reasons. It's in 90% of the films we made, it -along with A.U.S.T.R.A.L.I.A. by Max Bygraves - opened up a whole new world of what I now term Kook Music, thus contributing in a major way to my taste development and life trajectory. Like a lot of things @ 51 Albert St, it was so kitch that it was brilliant, like the wallpaper, the kitchen chairs, the airbrush portrait, Wet Virginia's one and only jam session, our haircuts... naturally, the vision that goes with this is Dave Power's dancing in "The Big Nil". As an instrumental with a bit of colour, it's tailor made for a soundtrack.
   
2. Slave to the Rhythm by Grace Jones - the whole album is one big song really, portioned up into sections for radio. The favourite way to appreciate this album was, for some reason, sitting upside-down on the vinyl living room furniture, to fully appreciate the stereo effect. To this day, I think Cam and Rich were winding me up about this for shits & giggles, but it worked, I swear it worked! Another lesson from wiser heads about really listening to music properly. Again, you'd probably use one of the more 'psychodelic' instrumental parts for the soundtrack.
   
3. If You Have To Ask by Red Hot Chili Peppers - or anything off this album or Nevermind by Nirvana. The first summer at Albert St was a beautiful time, especially if you liked hot steamy weather and midnight drives to the bogeyhole for a swim. Driving round with Bruce or Cam, one of these 2 albums always seemed to be on around this time, and we listened the shit out of those songs. The image that goes with this song is probably sitting shotgun in Brucey's Datsun, heading to the beach really early in the morning. This song could be used for a montage of quick cut-shots in a soundtrack
   
4. The Night Comes Down by Queen - around the Stu Clark Era of Albert St, we used to frequently have a little Queen Appreciation Session, and I used to constantly cream over the intro to this song with the aforementioned surf impresario. The visual memory would probably be sitting in my bedroom listening after smoking a cheeky cone from the black mambo. Again, you could sub a lot of different Queen songs there but this is the one that sticks out in the memory. Maybe you could use this for one of the many cone-smoking sections of the hypothetical film, or maybe even the intro.

This is suddenly difficult: Magic Man by Heart, War by Edwin Star, On the Run by Pink Floyd, Ordinary Angels by Frente, Come Together by The Beatles, anything by The Beatles actually, The Jezabel Spirit by David Byrne & Brian Eno, Sex Dwarf by Soft Cell, When The Levy Breaks by Led Zeppelin, Money by MSD, Sabotage by The Beastie Boys, Out On The Weekend by Neil Young, Budapest By Blimp by Thomas Dalby, Pomp And Circumstance March 1 by Elgar, Who Makes The Loot? by Brand New Heavies and Grand Puba, or any of the extensive Einstein's Wireless back catalogue all deserve a mention for different reasons. Although it's a little bit easy to cop out with the world's biggest band, I have to go with...


5. Eight Days A Week by The Beatles - I don't particularly like this song - it's ok, but the memory is what I really cherish. Frequently, there were jam sessions at Albert St, as you'd expect from 4 guys who were so into music. Unfortunately, our tastes didn't always align and especially when alcohol and cones had all been partaken of over the course of a long night, sometimes locking into the same tune was tough. Cam was The Man back then, he could play the guitar a lot better than any of us and so he called the tune. Whatever we did, whichever musical direction we headed off in, more often than not, we always came back to this song, primarily because of the energy I think. The vision that accompanies this track is 3 or 4 of us sitting in the living room, Cam and I with our guitars, Cam struggling to teach me the chords, Rich tapping away on the heater or something that made a noise and singing like Marc Almond and just going for it. An innocent song for a more innocent (at least in my case) time.

just like a rubber band

The truly funny part of this is hearing Fry sniggering childishly in the background.
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