Sick and still Kicking
Hi again,
Spring is here and I have just had my first head cold in 2 years. I’m still sniffling and coughing but I think I’m over the worst of it. You know it really cramps your lifestyle! Still, there’s so much to tell, I can tell it’s going be a great summer.
Firstly, my condolences to the people who have lost loved ones in America due to the terrorist attacks. I was watching it all happen, ‘live’ on TV, in horror and disbelief. I cannot even begin to understand that such hatred can exist. Love and Peace to the World.
Saw a great gig at The Pony; The Devil Dolls, Shutdown 66 and The Breadmakers. Moler’s new drummer, Geoff, was playing in every band and what a great job he did! Shutdown 66 and The Breadmakers play 60’s garage rock which was good but I especially enjoyed the Devil Dolls. It was their debut gig. They played some great original punk rock tunes and some covers, one of which was ‘Stay’ by The Dictators (I think). The American band, the Devil Dogs also do a cover of this song. In fact, the Devil Dolls remind me a lot of the Devil Dogs but with two female singers instead of one male. The two grrrls on double lead vocals, shimmied around in leather jackets, hair pieces, hot pants and boots! They are playing again at the 9th Ward for a new 60’s and 70’ night called ‘Diabolik’ on the 5th of October. If you like your garage, punk rock, do not miss this show. There’s going to be go-go grrrls in cages (how about go-go boys???), a fabbo 60’s light show, also playing is Mach Pelican (The Ramones meets Tokyo) and Tri-State Lovers followed by 2 DJ’s spinning soul, R&B and punk. See you there!
Moler played a couple of gigs recently. YEAH AT LAST!! The first one was at the 9th Ward, gotta love this venue. I was really nervous about it because we had lots of new songs and we hadn’t played live in ages. Unfortunately, the night was double booked with bands, 6 bands in all, so Moler was pushed back to 2.00am (apologies to Moler punters who came early). One band sounded like they should’ve been booked at a wedding or something, how they got a gig in the prime time of one of Melbourne’s top venues, I just don’t know! The audience from where I was standing were screaming “You Suck, Get Off”. Another band that played totally ripped off the songs of The Beatles, Oasis and T-Rex, sounded like they just changed the lyrics a bit. By the time we got to play my nerves were ragged and I was probably a little too drunk, totally over it. My bass was slightly out of tune (no, I mean the rest of the band was out of tune) and the bass amp I borrowed sounded tragic….so it wasn’t the greatest ‘sounding’ set, we were pretty disappointed, we sounded so much better at rehearsal, oh well. The next week, The Moles hit the Hume highway and played a gig in Sydney at Bleach/Club 77. The opening act was, I love this band name, Team Satan, who had the most amazing drum kit and bass amp I’ve ever seen in such a small, dingy venue. Get this, the bassist had a beautiful old ampeg with not 1 but 2 fridge speaker cabinets and the drummer had the biggest cymbols around, I swear, plus some kind of automatic high hi-hat playing device! They were soooo loud. I don’t know how the singer could hear herself with the volume of her band but she did a fine job indeed. I have to say thanks a million to ‘Sway’ from Team Satan for lending me his awesome bass amp too. As you can imagine Team Satan were pretty hardcore. The singer announces, “D’ya wanna hear a slow song?…well we don’t know any”. I was quaking in my boots…Moler’s new set is very different to our ol’ punk rock songs, with a few experimental slowies and even ‘A WALTZ’. AAAHHHH!!! We thought the crowd would hate us. During the set, I was having mental blanks, we had just driven to Sydney that day and I think my head was still vibrating. After we played, we were a bit worried about going back out into the audience but when we did, some people came up to us and said they liked it! Phew! That made us feel a whole lot better. If people like it now, wait til we get a few more shows under our belts and really play tight! Orange County headlined the show. The bass player, Hoody, used to play in The Johnnys with Spencer P Jones. Funny thing is that he actually looks a lot like Spencer. Spooky! They played a rockin’ set including a cover of the classic ‘Chinese Rocks’.
Hey Moler’s new single is supposed to be out this week! As far as I know the CD’s have been pressed and should be in the shops very soon, there’s only 1000 copies so you better order up now! Next on the agenda is a new Moler album.
Antibody has FINALLY done it too, you know my other band I’ve been talking about for ages. We played our debut gig at The Tote in Collingwood with The Homewreckers, Myagi and Porcelain. I have to thank Porcelain for organizing the show and to all our buddies for coming down so early to see us. Sorry to those I had to cut off the door list. I felt pretty calm about the show cos we’ve rehearsed for sooo long but when it came to play, I’m looking at the guitar and my hands were shaking…how would I hold them steady enough to pluck those tiny little strings!! Once I got going though, it was fine. I think it went pretty well considering…except I didn’t get to make my debut on the drums, ran out of time for that song… next time. The only thing that went wrong was that Celeste’s guitar amp was mysteriously a lot quieter during the set than it was at soundcheck and was only rectified for the last song of the set. Doh!! Now we can’t wait for the next gig.
The night was pretty much a night of young women in rock, except our band had two guys, StevieT and DaveP and I felt a bit like a veteran woman of rock! It was The Homewreckers first gig as well. They were like 70’s british punk, lots of fast beats and “oi, oi, oi’s” (as in Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi). They had all the right punk fashion accessories to boot, lots of tartan, pins and mohawk do’s. Then there was Myagi, I only saw a couple of songs but they sounded fantastic. Their guitarist is a HOT player. Then Porcelain hit the stage, not to be confused with the Tasmanian Porcelain, who have fantastic pop songs. They did covers of ‘Bored’ Iggy Pop and ‘When You were Mine’ by Cyndi Lauper. What a blast from the past that was, as I was looking around the audience wondering if they were old enough to even remember Cyndi! I like Porcelain’s version much better. I think Porcelain have a great future ahead of them. Record companies, pay attention!! So many talented grrrls in one night!! Go grrrls Go!!
The guys from Cow Penalty are back in Australia with many an exciting story to tell. Mind you, I like who got to fill the rhythm sections shoes in New York- Violent Femmes bassist and the original drummer from Television!!!! They even recorded some songs while they were over there, very spontaneously written but sounds awesome. Cow Penalty did a return gig at the Empress Hotel on Saturday night. Drover Jones supported, it was their CD launch but I only heard them from the band room, that is the footpath outside the pub! Lots of people, hot and sweaty, just the way I like it. It was a fairly chaotic sounding gig really. My ears are still ringing. My bass sound was almost non-existent cos of a DI (direct input box) that didn’t work and an amp that wasn’t powerful enough to cope. It kind of sounded like a dying blowfly. That’s it, I have got to get a new bass amp, preferably like the one from Team Satan!!! There won’t be any other Cow Penalty gigs for a while because Spencer is currently on tour, playing guitar for the legendary, Paul Kelly.
Hey, I was invited to see a play. Yes, a theatrical production, upstairs at The Duke of Windsor Hotel. ‘3XY or I Die’. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a play was…hmmmmm The play was “an oral portrait of cabaret punk-artist, Ron Rude (1979-81)” written by Kiernan Carroll and performed by Mark E Lawrence. It was pretty much a one man play, although there was a backing band dressed in half gothic, half punk gear that would break out into song every so often. Ron Rude is a musician who first came on the scene in the mid 70’s. They call him Melbourne’s first punk stuntman! I’ve actually met him a few times, it was at his house in Belgrave where I first read the Satanic Bible! I guess he was famous for his publicity stunts which got him onto prime time TV and ‘air play’ on 3XY- a very conservative radio station. He was one of the first people in Australia to record his and other bands music on his 4-track at home and finance releases on Bankcard ie. borrowed money. Previously, this was unheard of, only bands from record companies got to record and release their music. Ron actually helped kick start the movement of DIY music releases in Melbourne. He was also famous for his ‘hunger strike’ in the Missing Link Record store, refusing to eat until 3XY played one of his songs. They played exerts. He also threatened to drown himself in a bucket of water outside 3XY, they played exerts. He chained himself to the fence outside of, music guru, Molly Meldrum’s house cos he wanted to go on CountDown, Australia’s Top of The Pops. Ron was a man that demanded that his voice be heard and heard it was. He didn’t sell a lot of records but there were plenty of amusing stories to be written into a play! I was very impressed with the actor’s version of Ron, spot on with the accent. It was in the play that I first got to hear Ron’s infamous songs. The lyrics are a little weird but I really enjoyed the songs. “It will be The Best Orgasm you Can!
Have On A Saturday Night”, “Piano, piano” and “I love you, (you, you)” were my favourites. I think the songs could do better now than they did back then! Unfortunately, the play has finished now but there is a documentary in production at the moment by music producer, Lindsay Gravina. You can check out the artistry of Ron Rude at ronrude.tripod.com/pages/the_play.htm, well worth a visit. Watch out for Ron’s new music project, Ron Rude and The Ressurection.
Well that’s about it for now.
Keep Rockin’ and be cool.
helcat
xxxxx
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