I heard a song on the radio today that I liked by a band called machinemachine. I went home to look them up, only to realize that it's a friend's friend's band, and that I saw them in September last year.
This particular song, called "Puberty Blue", sounds a bit like Sebadoh if Hey Mercedes-era Bob Nanna were singing.
Australia Day was on Tuesday. Unfortunately I was unable to participate in any barbeques or particularly "true blue" goings-on. I had especially hoped to catch the Dirty Three/Laughing Clowns show down the road, but had to pass due to circumstances beyond my control. I was, however, fortunate enough to see the Laughing Clowns at ATP last year, and if they sounded anywhere near as good on Tuesday as they did last January, I'm sure they were quite a worthwhile opening act for the Dirty Three.
The Laughing Clowns rose from the ashes of the Saints, though despite their creative excellence, they never gained anywhere near the acclaim the Saints did. Fortunately, the band has regrouped to show the world (or at least the continent) why they deserved more attention than what they received in their youth.
Mr Uddich-Schmuddich Goes to Town is the Laughing Clowns second full-length (sort of), released in 1982, in the heyday of post-punk. Unlike other post-punk bands from that era, the Laughing Clowns focused especially on expanding their songs while toying with melodic phrasing and interplay amongst different instruments. Their lineup continually expanded and contracted with trumpeters, pianists, bassists, and saxaphonists throughout their existence. Though the word "jazz" is often thrown around in regard to this band, the Laughing Clowns are hardly jazzy. The jazz aspect comes more from their experimental nature than the band's sound. They're art-rock, through and through, and a real testament to the calibur of bands coming out of ol' Gondwana back in the early 80's.
Laughing Clowns - Mr. Uddich-Smuddich Goes to Town
Tactics were a late 70's/early 80's Australian post-punk group, originally out of the Canberra (where, like Rodney Dangerfield, they got no respect).
As I mentioned in my post about the Go-Betweens, I wanted to start delving into Australian music that I don't think gets proper recognition. Tactics are definitely one of those bands. I hadn't actually heard of them until earlier this year when my friend Andrew, the invisible third party in the electro-pop "duo" Walter Meego, turned me on to them.
It appears that their albums are near impossible to locate, as they're not even listed on Amazon or Allmusic. Fortunately a compilation was released a few years back entitled "The Sound of the Sound", compiling their first two full lengths as well as some live stuff and demos. A second volume was released last year, and those are both readily available on Amazon.
Tactics were formed in 1978 in Canberra, but quickly moved a few hours north to the urban sprawl that is Sydney. Band members came and went. Tactics' only constant was guitarist/vocalist Dave Studdert, who up and left Australia altogether in 1989 for the greyer skies of the UK, where, from what I can tell, he still plays in bands today.
Here is a track that I especially like from their first album My Houdini, called "No More Talking".
Tactics - No More Talking
It's largely a video weekend here at the Regular Express, mostly due to me working a whole bunch the last couple of days. Time constraints, my friend.
Within this large coastal country, a band that gets very little recognition is the Go-Betweens. All the classic Australian bands get played on the radio constantly, and a lot of talentless contemporary bands are praised as a lot more permanent than the fleeting hot garbage that they are. But never do I hear Go-Betweens songs on the radio. I never hear other bands mention them as an influence, and they repeatedly go unmentioned on lists of important Aussie bands.
So I'm righting the wrongs of the world, one band at a time. This is the video for "Was There Anything I Could Do?" from the 1988 album 16 Lovers Lane, which is chalk full of goodies. This video is poking fun at other 80's videos, and is alternatively funny and horrifyingly gaudy.
And in case you can't handle Robert Forster's rouge, here's the track sans video:
The Go-Betweens - Was There Anything I Could Do?
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