Beerwah’s Cannibal hyper Fear/A.F. *punk, taking cue spin & heel from the last note of Seizure’s Tribal Theatre darkened, blistered performance I can’t believe I stayed away for so long. Drum kit falls apart every song.
Meat Thump tonight is Brendon (guitar. Negative Guestlist, White Cop) with Matt (bass. Kitchen’s Floor) and Bobby (drums. Sounds from the Ward). Cassette ‘Neck Tattoo’ out on NGL records (NGL005).
Dead Boomers (Melbourne) is Mark Groves (Dick Threats, Von Einem) and Leith Thomas also both of True Radical Miracle (who performed the previous night at the Step Inn) and co-founders of the Sabbatical label. Try to find the ‘Michael Douglas/Sharon Stone’ 2xCS from Sabbatical – well worth the effort (I’m not giving up mine).
The Perfect Lovers is Jamie Hume (The Year of the Sex Olympics +) and tonight with Kaspar, Marek (Impromptulons), Donat (The Sixteenth Century), and Sarah (Sky Needle, Stag) with a mic-grab by Andrew (Cured Pink) half-way through.
This Imperial Can is Ian McIntyre (6Majik9, Ffehro, Greg Boring, Soarwhole, Gerald Keaney & the Gerald Keaneys) solo guitar, pedals & mics floorshow tonight a lot more pensive than the other show I bootlegged at Shit Life last year keeping to a tight delayed drone & static skipping over the surrounding audience too concerned with the state of hair care products or something. I couldn’t focus much more than they could have at the time but listening back to it as I try to find my way back home I seem to enjoy it four even fold. Good cycling music.
The Perfect Lovers is led by Jamie Hume (percussion – also of The Year of the Sex Olympics, Auchenflower Red Light District, The White Petunias) and tonight it’s the Perfect Lover Jamie, Rin & Cheryl (vocals), Donat (drums), Marek (guitar), Adam (guitar, power tools), Kaspar (bass); Though originally formed as a duo in 1998 with Michael Baker (synth) with their first live show in ’99 (4zzz on-air) it soon expanded & with a semi-fluid line up and became notorious for their chaotic and often confronting live shows with cues taken from early Whitehouse, SPK, dada free noise etc whatever w/ tributes & reimaginings through power tools, TVs, metal percussion perhaps ‘cross-legged’ other times a frenzied ritual a la Crash Worship. TPL split with conflicting ideas resulting in Michael departing. A short hiatus between ’06-’10, reunion show back on Halloween ’10 so this’ll be their second show since the break. There’s a long, incestuous family tree involved here but a branch could be nabbed for sake of argument: Half-sister act Impromptulons (Marek, Rin, Adam+), The Freek Ensemble (Jamie, Michael), No Guru (Rin+), The Sixteenth Century (Donat+), White Petunias (Hume+), Unique Oil Free Air, Pen Noise Trio (Adam+), Cherry Cherry and the Export Data (Cheryl+) and oh god I can’t keep up with it and apologies to Jamie Hume for any inaccuracies here (Or There). A lot of the information regarding TPL has succumbed to the Fiction Department. One thing to note and to stand out that there has never been any forethought or practice before their live shows – “this is the date and time, be there” – and as a result can be considered, perhaps, yes one of the very few (still) lasting, honest improvised shows.
Special collaborative bootleg here of Heart Flew Like An Arrow performing live at the X&Y Bar, 14th May 2011: Members this night included Adam (guitar), Glen (guitar – Per Purpose), Robert (vocals – Sounds from the Ward), Aiden (drums – Knee Chin), and Nicholas (Percussion, effects – Knee Chin). At about the 7th minute mark X&Y management tells the sound guy to shut down the performance and then the sound guy walks on stage & physically pulls the plug on them.
The following was shot by Reuben mixed with the audio I produced (note: I had no involvement in mixing the audio):
I didn’t stick around for The Scrapes as I was incredibly incensed by the manager’s knee-jerk reaction to Heart Flew Like An Arrow – even during Sky Needle’s performance I had trouble focusing and enjoying the show hence the lack of information for their bootleg here: The volume was low, the atmosphere seemed tense & awkward perhaps due to the fact the manager could once-again pull the plug if Sky Needle were going to go even a little west, and the ‘banned list’ chalkboard behind the mixing desk was always in my peripheral view.
The Year of the Sex Olympics is Jamie Hume (Auchenflower Red Light District, White Petunias, The Perfect Lovers) floored solo acoustic guitar (replacing his knife with a metal rod this time) revisiting JD after spinning around the star gate blindfolded or in fact, I’ll go with this instead, we’re witnessing a shamanic ritual focussed on soul retrieval; this is a hard listen if you’re not accustomed to the Experience already. Pensive cross-legged solo floor show circled by a small contingent of friends & followers.
Amateur Childbirth is Ivan Matthews (Wet Nurse Directory label, Pedophile Flowchart), this is his second performance under the moniker follows on the well-received Disembraining Machine #16 back in February (video) with transgressive word-play (salad?) & rhetoric . His album, ‘Brighter Futures Dialysis‘ was released last year but it was finally launched at DM, I wrote a short review here for reference. Tonight he’s got the last slot, unfortunately, as he follows [the] Wonderfuls who with Negative Guestlist are selling their 7″, first show in many years and it packs the lounge-room here at the ‘Deadshits Hotel’. Down to about ten or so in the lounge-room with all the lights on, no mics, drunk people walking in & out & talking throughout Ivan ignores it all and keeps the rest of us flat-footed & myself trying not to look like an ABC news reporter with the recorder.
Greg Boring features members from Sky Needle, 6Majik9, and Cured Pink and notably much more loose & free-form than previous outings (the third?) with the fog-like smoke lingering around both of which makes this an infinitely greater listen than my bootleg of the first. VT Ed described: “…the feel is somewhere between the naive motorik guitar stylings of Department Store Santas with distant echoing female vocals that come straight out of your favourite Cannanes side ridden all the way over the horizon like a brokedown Magic Band...” I’m all about to say they’re Magic but then I read that! Reword! Ian (6majik9) replaced his guitar with a keyboard+effects right here and there’s a lot of re-wiring going on mid-during-after the songs – sounds awesome.
Greg Boring – Live at City & the City 5, Brisbane – 21 April 2011 (27:35mins, .mp3 .256kbps, 50.5 MB)
Matt Earle & Alrey Batol duo, was billed as Matt & Adam I know but! Alrey (Teen Sex) with modded guitar & handheld radios in the foreground squealing feedback leaning against & abusing a tiny amp and Matt (xNoBBQx, Breakdance the Dawn label) behind & toward the bridge wall with drums, amps & electronics (couldn’t see/no lights) – a heavy-handed jam and loads-blown between the vets, the first minute’s cut due to distracting conversations near my mics.
Real Bad Music is a venue/squat/store/’eternal jam’ down on the Magic Mile, Moorooka. There’s been events happening there since, oh I’d say since 2009(?) but it’s got a lot more attention now and some people think it’s just popped out of nowhere. Undone Zine is a local… zine focused on good punk and rock’n'roll. There’s a massive line from what you’d believe. They’ve been putting a few parties/shows down at Real Bad; this is the third as such, now out in the car-park as opposed to the tiny shop. Free food, cheap beer, tapes/records/cd-rs and VHS/DVDs.
Foreign Stiffs is improvised, a loose & damaged mess and tonight featuring members from Cured Pink, Old Growth Cola, X-Wave, Unique Oil Free Air, xNoBBQx – sounding not unlike the more celebratory blown-out chaos that a few members are capable of when wandering with SSS & played with such staggering volume/pitch this here recording of mine is raw-as-fuck as I continually reached for the volume dial; speaker cones bend, contort, crack as feedback mounts, shouted vocals become incoherent noise and the horn clips out but the drums & 2x bass push the ‘two’ movements along steadily to a drawn-out closure with vox & sax dancing out front.
Full set download (24.40mins, 45.19mb – 256kbps, .mp3):
Unique Beautiful Flowers is a label headed by Adam (Heart Flew) and this was an ill-fated fundraiser for the recently-born idea. The Boundary Hotel management shut down the show half-way through what would have been a massive festival of great local acts. I missed a few bands that had played because the batteries were dying but here’s what I could get anyway:
Teen Sex
Teen Sex (Rohan (Kitten Party), Alrey Batol) was on second or third at around 4PM. Sadistically loud, Rohan’s amps were facing the other way and unfortunately I didn’t get much of it as I wanted but shit, the circuit bent gear came through fine fiiiine.
Now called Psy Ants and a three-piece; this was back when they were a duo. The amp was trouble from the start and the set’s riddled entertaining frustration.
Kitchen’s Floor, on this day, was Matt (guitar, vocals) & Julia (drums, vocals). I had to record under my bag as there was a massive fan right next to me and it’d be nothing but wind otherwise. The sound is a bit dodgy as a result but it really was a great set, first time I heard that number live. Supporting Sleepwalks as part of their ‘Clicks’ EP launch. I won’t re-post the other bootlegs here because they didn’t turn out well at all.
Rohan solo delay-drenched keyboard, also of Teen Sex. See also: Wardenburger. This was a fairly erratic project a while ago occasionally involving some harsh samples, screamy vocals but from what I’ve been witness to since then it’s been like this. I like that. KP played his first show in ages (months?) last week.
Very special set this night: I’d never seen somebody throw their guitar into the roof before, particularly at a super-strict (tight?) shit hole like Rosie’s. This was great! Reel-to-reel loop backdrop with feedback’d guitar and incomprehensible vocals, wandering into the audience later to throw himself & guitar around. These days CP is adding more to this, includes chains, a reanimated bass guitar, steel beams, sheets, and hell, lighting fires. We need this.
Last ever show from Marl Carx! Also the launch of their Sits Obvious album. MC was a real fun band, consisting of Michaela – drums (Dregsy) and Glen – guitar (Per Purpose, ex-Kitchen’s Floor), they played anywhere and everywhere but the houseshow sets were the best: Everyone would get involved which often resulted in rolled ankles & being wrapped up in Glen’s guitar lead. There was a rarely-played off-shoot band too, Tribal Police, which included Kitten Party and some other dude (sorry) and that band sounded like music time in the special-Ed unit. They played with pots, pans, hoses, dishes, bottles. Marl Carx produced two other CDs, self-recorded and mostly just given out to friends, anyone interested. My favorite performance was their third-last, at a houseshow, they did a dual-drum-no-vocal-mic set with three drums between the two of them and building feedback from the amps behind. Just under 10 minutes, one song and walk out of the room. It was wildest show of the night, looking over the shoulder of Bong Village (a local, hydro-influenced Foot Village tribute from Trapdoor Tapes), and totally unexpected from that of the usual guitar/drums set-up (DNA etc), then came the second-last at the squat show with monotone dual vox. Something was happening but by then the energy diminished and then it was killed. A few months, maybe even just under a year from that squat show this Last Ever show was put on. This night saw them with Harry (Loomer) on bass duties and some audience members climbing up the P.A. stands, surfing, into the band’s space. I had to stand right back to record it, unfortunately, wouldn’t have minded to have lost some skin again.
Mani Neumeier is the drummer & frontman of Guru Guru and since the early 1960s he’s been collaborated with a long line of like-minded/free jazz, experimental musicians & artists – such as Peter Brötzmann, Dieter Möbius, Damo Suzuki (list goes on..). A living legend really, he still continues on performing all over the world with his band Guru Guru, various collaborations and solo shows. (His performance with Kris Wanders a while ago at the Step-Inn blew my brain out the back of my skull). A great, informative interview can be found here.
Tonight he performs three distinct passages, the first with his wife, Etsuko, both on the floor surrounded by bells, singing bowls. The second is Mani on manic percussion on the floor with steel plates & pans, and the third is him on the drum kit.
Real Bad is a space (venue, store, eternal jam) out in Moorooka run by the Breakdance the Dawn label, right next to the train station.
Teen Sex just finished their performance before I got there at around 8PM. They had TV’s set up with Encino Man and Mallrats playing.
This is Tony Irving‘s (of Ascension, Descension fame) first-ever Brisbane show and one anywhere for about 7 years(?). Set-up in the smaller room of the space (two rooms), it’s best to watch this video uploaded/edited by J.W. but produced by J.S.:
Buried within a bill I didn’t really care too much about, xNoBBQx performed to the converted and in front of a couple of wide-eyed, frowning new-comers too. Matt (Muura, Stasis Duo, Breakdance the Dawn label) & Nick (Antipan, Pulled Out label) unceremoniously walked on stage taking the sound dude by surprise as he obviously couldn’t figure out if they’re simply sound-checking or performing.
Matt violently shakes & beats his strapless guitar right next to the tiny mic’d amp (to the PA) and Nick destroys his kit by later on bringing out two baseball bats for drum sticks, everything falls down — both under two static, white spotlights & without acknowledging the audience.
Greg Boring is a brand new outfit featuring Andrew (Cured Pink), Ian (6Majik9), Joel (Abject Leader) & Sarah Byrne. Extended bleached-out pop songs with rhythmic kr meandering – I hate that word – & bouncing around the dual vocals and the strings especially battling out to the side with the incessant kick relix in check. I think I was one of perhaps six or seven people who saw this performance, their first actually.
E.A.T.R. is a six-piece featuring the Breakdance the Dawn contingent, Leif Gifford, Adam Park (Unique Oil Free Air). A lengthy, brooding loose piece today knitted together by that relentless drum machine & bass guitar and singled in on a wanderin’ blues print, guitars beaten & struck most notably the static buzz from Matt’s sounding like there’s a couple of wires missing there or rather the circuitry so demented from years of abuse. Unfortunately the mic’d autoharp and Sussman’s samples & acoustic guitar are low in this recording, both fed through relative tiny amps & facing the other way.
This Imperial Can is Ian, solo, of 6Majik9, Fferro, Gerald Keaneys fame. Looped, layered voice, feedback loops, oscillating, processed through a couple of pedals & all-sorts. First song is a tension building exercise with a huge payoff throwing out the screams & floop jackhammer, the granted second is more freeform tracking a frightening abduction experience.
Stag is Julia (Gutters), Drea (Brutal Hate Mosh), Sarah Byrne, and Katie (Brainbeau). Everybody came inside for this performance, heat rose up significantly my shirt’s a sponge. Real fun white-hot summer music minus the shitty connotations. I removed just under 10 minutes of between-song banter so that’s why you’ll hear sudden cuts etc.
Greg Boring features members from