In an effort to thwart the criticism that I've officially relegated myself to the dustbin of musical fandom (i.e. I don't care about new music anymore), here's a video by one of my favorite groups moderne, the Eddy Current Suppression Ring.
The ECSR have a pair of brilliant LPs to their name, both of which add welcome artillery to my opinion that Australians deal out below-the-belt sounds better than anyone else. My obsession with Oz-rock kickstarted more than twenty years ago with my random purchase of a Celibate Rifles LP at the Princeton Record Exchange. It may sound funny to traditional historian types, but that record remains a Rosetta Stone for me—or at least a yardstick which similar releases continue to be measured against. I spent many of the ensuing years immersed in the music of groups like the Scientists, Fun Things, Laughing Clowns, Curse (Ov) Dialect, Drones, Macromantics, and other Australian heavyweights, but the Radio Birdman tattoo on the back of my leg most likely communicates my "hopeless fanboy" status with the greatest clarity!
The Primary Colours LP was far and away the best thing I heard in all of 2008, so if your musical leanings are anything like mine, I expect that you'll be on board shortly after this video winds down.
Here's a weird thing - just today on the drive home I was thinking about whether or not I should get a Radio Birdman tattoo. I ended up going with 'no' on that, but if I do get a tattoo, that's what I'd get.
Which Celibate Rifles record did you get? They're still putting out pretty good records. I don't know if it's widely available over your way, but A Midstream of Consciousness from a couple of years ago is their best record in quite a while.
ECSR is probably my current fave from Oz too...
Posted by: Tim | May 05, 2009 at 04:33 AM
The Rifles record I bought was "Roman Beach Party", from 1987, and the song that hooked me (via WPRB) was "Jesus on TV". (STILL a terminal favorite, even 20+ years later!)
I've never seen "A Midstream of Consciousness" in a store, but I played WFMU's copy on the air a few times and liked it lots. The last LP I paid attention to in its entirety was "Spaceman in a Satin Suit", which came out in the mid-90s and was totally on-par with their old stuff. That I have never seen the Celibate Rifles perform live is one of my most severe regrets in life.
Posted by: r:m:b | May 05, 2009 at 08:34 AM
I've never seen them either, and I regret it too. They still play around Oz sporadically, and they do a traditional show every boxing day in Sydney where they'll play a selected album in its entirety. I may have to subject my severely battered eardrums to one more show though - I'd love to see them or Birdman. Or both.
Posted by: Tim | May 05, 2009 at 08:43 PM
In Baltimore, we just started this utterly nerdy but awesome mix trading club, and ECSR are my favorite discovery up to this point.
Posted by: jamie | June 11, 2009 at 03:47 PM