Laughing Clowns

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

Fugazi

Before I stray too much from that Fugazi post from last week, I also wanted to post this Peel Sessions recording from 1988. Two tracks from Fugazi, and two from the then yet-to-be-released Repeater.

Although the songs don't generally sound as clear as on record, they definitely highlight how fervent the band was live. Guy's songs are definitely the more intense ones- just check out the screeching guitar at the end of "Glue Man" to see what I mean.

There's not that much to say about this really, but assuming most Fugazi fans are pretty hardcore Fugazi fans, this is worth grabbing.

1) Waiting Room
2) Merchandise
3) Break-In
4) Glue Man

Fugazi - Peel Sessions 1988

Fugazi

I was hoping to post this yesterday, though work obligations prevented me from doing so. In the time between then and now, Pitchfork has gone ahead and stolen my thunder (which, I realize, I initially stole from Chunklet anyway).

This is 45 minutes of stage banter between Fugazi (really just Ian and Guy) and the crowd. Most of that banter is essentially crowd control and calling out excessively violent morons in the crowd. But they harp on these people better than stand-up comedians are sometimes able, and at the same time manage to exude such love and respect for their fans. It's entertaining, funny, affronting, and kind of life affirming at the same time.

Fugazi Talks Talk

Tactics

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

Obits

Wassup? I'm all settled in at the new place. I've been getting my education and gardening on, but now that we've got the internet up and running I have something to distract me.

Rick Froberg has been at it for a while now, first with Drive Like Jehu, then with Hot Snakes, and now back with Obits. John "Speedo" Reis and Froberg parted ways after an Australian Hot Snakes tour in 2005, and last year Reis' new outfit the Night Marchers released their debut album. Now it's Froberg's turn, as Obits released I Blame You in March on Sub Pop.

Prior to this release, Obits released a 7" with a song called "One Cross Apiece". The music is less aggressive than that of his former bands, but it's got a style all its own. Judging from this track, the band is more focused on melody (albeit still obsessed with Wipers-style guitar riffs) and less on charging through tracks with gritted teeth and bloody knuckles. But just like Hot Snakes, this band does their own ass-kicking. They just use swagger instead of fury to achieve it.

Obits - Once Cross Apiece

Joe Lally 7/3/09

A friend of mine alerted me to the fact that Joe Lally was playing at the Hopetoun this past Saturday night. I had heard his first solo album around the time of its release and wasn't all that impressed with it, but figured I'd tag along anyway. Hell, I was even pretty excited to go. First off, the dude was in one of the most influential bands ever. He's been touring for over 20 years, so it's probably safe to assume he knows his way around the stage. Thirdly, the show was only $12. Most local bands charge at least that much, and any international act coming out charges anywhere from $25-$100. Needless to say, I'm game.

I realized as I was sitting through the openers that I didn't really know what to expect. Is Joe Lally going to play bass by himself? Is there going to be any spoken word? Is he going to cover Fugazi songs? It ended up being a pretty straightforward (see: minimal) setup- drums, one guitar, one microphone, bass. To my knowledge he didn't play any Fugazi songs, or at least if he did I wasn't familiar with it/them. His set simply contained an even mix of songs from both his solo albums.

Like I said, I wasn't all that taken by his first solo album, 2006's "There to Here." But the music made a lot more sense in a live setting. There was no aggression, no punk raucousness. Without that "flair," all that was left were the DIY ethos, the alienation from society, discontentment with consumerism, imperialism, war, etc.

Lally's bass playing is pretty amazing. If you've ever listened to at least one Fugazi song, you know this. But what's more impressive is that he's actually capable of singing while playing. It's one thing to be able to sing while playing some guitar chords, but quite another to play poly-rhythmic riffs while singing an entirely separate melody line. Lally was backed by a couple of dudes in a band called Gallucci. Because Lally's bass was holding down the song, the guitarist was free to explore cacophonic noise, atonal shifts, and lulling squalls as he so desired. The drumming was purposeful if a little minimal, which I'm sure was exactly the point.

The encore was the only time they strayed from this arrangement. First Joe went into the audience to sing an a cappella anti-war song called "Sons and Daughters." It's a moving hymnal about the atrocities of war and the justification for killing people that are a little bit different from us for the sake of furthering our means. It's only more powerful without any music behind it. They also brought a saxaphonist on stage for a song called "Factory Warranty." When it could be heard it was good, but sound problems caused the sax to hardly be heard and the effort was underwhelmed.

Despite the minimal instrumentation, stoic vocals, and lack of stage antics and background vocals, my attention was still captured for well over an hour by an artist whose songs I hardly know. I can't even say that for bands that I really know and love! He's maybe not a guy I'd like to catch a ballgame with, but the show was a real testament to his music and way of life. All for $12.

Here's a performance of Joe doing "Scavenger's Garden" in Spain in late January 2009: