David Gerard

“Jolene” by Dolly Parton at 33rpm works transcendentally well.

14 June, 20165 September, 2016 Country 0

Click the little “play” button at the top of this. That’s “Jolene” by Dolly Parton, slowed down to what the 45rpm single would have sounded like being played at 33rpm. That’s it. That’s all.

What you need to know about Yasutaka Nakata and Capsule.

13 June, 201615 September, 2021 Pop 0

Yasutaka Nakata, of the band Capsule, is a Japanese pop producer. Connoiseurs of producer disco need to hit the Nakata. He’s all but unknown outside Japan, and that’s just wrong. See also Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Perfume.

Death to the traitors, death to the traitors, death to the tra-ai-tors.

12 June, 20166 May, 2017 Esoterica 0

Canadian Cultural Worker’s Committee: “Death to the Traitors” from The Party is the Most Precious Thing, 1979.

Mos Generator: Abyssinia (2016).

11 June, 201629 March, 2017 Metal, Record, Rock 0

“doom heavy stoner metal band”, the press release bluntly announces.

Scott Walker and the freedom to go seriously weird.

9 June, 201625 August, 2016 Esoterica, Pop 0

Listened to Scott Walker’s 1984 comeback Climate of Hunter again recently. It’s a strange record, but Scott went strange pretty much as soon as he could. After his early pop hits with the Walker Brothers, he took the chance to make his individual vision obvious by the time of Scott 3 and Scott 4 in the late 1960s. He tried consciously mainstream records in the early ’70s that nobody bought, followed by an abortive Walker Brothers reunion, so Climate of Hunter has that “fuck it” that so often signals something good.

Links.

8 June, 201625 August, 2016 Industry, Links, mp3, Musician 0

Music industry prays for rain, one of Mute’s sound engineers, NEVER run iTunes on your music production computer.

Polyphonic overtone singing explained and demonstrated.

7 June, 201625 August, 2016 Musician 0

I am frankly boggling that you can do this with a human voice. YOU MUST WATCH THIS.

No: Once We Were Scum, Now We Are God (1989).

6 June, 201625 August, 2016 Industrial, Post-Punk, Record 0

This is the finest album by the great Australian band No, featuring Ollie Olsen when he was still angry, before he discovered MDMA and made Third Eye. It’s a live album. I got the record when it came out in 1989 and played it every day for a few months. Invigorating and cheering music that will brighten your soul.

The original song for the worst hold music ever has been found.

5 June, 201610 September, 2016 Esoterica 0

The original song the ultimate hold music was built around has been found. It’s called, of course, “Picture Perfect”.

I was right at the time. Nineties indie rock sucked. Except Dave Graney, of course.

4 June, 201613 October, 2017 Indie, Opinion, Rock 0

Just rereading the Dave Graney interview I did in late 1992 for Party Fears. This was when no fucker cared about Dave Graney, after his indie hipness fronting the Moodists in the 1980s and his artier cowboy rock’n’roll in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

The Mark E. Smith Guide to Writing Guide.

3 June, 201620 May, 2017 Post-Punk, Radio, Writing 0

In 1983, Mark E. Smith of the Fall went on Greenwich Sound Radio and, between being interviewed and playing records, gave them his definitive guide on how to write.

False memories of feelings past.

2 June, 20169 May, 2018 Industrial, Opinion, Writing 1

Front Line Assembly “Mindphaser” just came up on Spotify. I first heard it in 1993 or 1994, in the front room of 20 Stuart Street in Perth. The “cyberpunk house” as it was known. I think I was hungover and possibly still drunk from the night before. Certainly everyone else was.

Pat & Mick: Use It Up And Wear It Out (1990).

1 June, 201616 August, 2017 Pop, Record 0

This record is … way better than it has any right to be.

So let’s give this Spotify thing a go.

31 May, 201628 April, 2017 mp3, Opinion 0

I tried Last.fm around 2009 when I was applying for a job with them. The computer-generated personal radio station thing is amusing in its way. I can’t see myself wandering around with my phone using up my data plan on streaming music; it’ll be strictly a desktop, or rather laptop, thing.

“Duncan” by Slim Dusty is now in Wikipedia.

30 May, 201625 August, 2016 Country, Writing 0

I was amazed to discover that Slim Dusty’s second-biggest hit wasn’t covered in Wikipedia. Well, now it is ‘cos I put it there.

My problematic favourite: William S. Burroughs.

29 May, 20169 May, 2018 Opinion, Post-Punk, Writing 1

I admire old Bill for all sorts of things, none of which are his personality, murdering his wife, fucking up his son or misogyny so jawdropping he literally made it into an artform. I wonder what signifiers wearing a Burroughs shirt would have in 2016 as opposed to 1996 (“yeah yeah you’re hip go away”) or 1986 (“who?”).

The return of the Blobby nightmare.

28 May, 201612 May, 2017 Drugs, Pop 2

“It has been named as one of the worst songs ever recorded.”

Art of Noise play “Close To The Edit” live, 2004.

27 May, 201625 August, 2016 Musician, Pop 0

Nobody ever thinks of Trevor Horn as a shit-hot bass player.

Se Delan: Drifter (2016).

23 May, 201625 August, 2016 Goth, Metal, Record 0

The press release page (includes album stream) says “dark, alternative, new wave” and studiously avoids the word g*th, but OH COME ON.

Reviews: Airbag, Metroland, Suns of Thyme, Virus (2016).

21 May, 201629 March, 2017 Industrial, Metal, Prog, Record, Rock 2

When I was Official Shitworker on Lemon, we christened the review round “dogshit patrol,” after the regular Arlo cleanup. I promise I’ll stop before I start thinking of it that way here.

Elektroklänge: Mechanische Tänze Nos. 1-4 EP (2016).

20 May, 201625 August, 2016 Industrial, Record 0

The entire point of Elektroklänge is wanting to be Kraftwerk when they grow up. Not an uncommon aspiration, but not a bad one if you can pull it off, and they do okay.

The ultimate hold music.

3 May, 201610 September, 2016 Esoterica 0

I’ve spent thirty years listening out for the most obnoxious and intolerable sounds available. The music that will ruin your world in thirty seconds. I like to think I know a thing or two about this general field of endeavour, if you will. I’d mark this as a contender.

George Matzkov’s tracks from lost 1980s Perth alternative bands.

12 April, 201624 August, 2016 Indie 1

George Matzkov, Perth scenester, Stems roadie and founder of Zero Hour Records, is putting out a book, to be released soonish: Way Out West: The West Australian Alternative Music Scene 1976-1989. To accompany it, he’s got a Soundcloud of tracks from cassettes and records of the day. If you’re from those times you’ll delight in this.

I threw up on Lux Interior.

2 April, 201628 August, 2016 Drugs, Live, Rock, Writing 11

It was mid-1986, at the Red Parrot in Perth (name and logo blatantly nicked from the New York club of the same name) in Perth. I was nineteen and had been going out to see bands and drinking in earnest for six months. The Cramps had played (the Canterbury Court Friday 22 August 1986 show, I think) and went there for after-show drinks.

Godzilla Black: Press The Flesh (2016).

27 March, 201624 August, 2016 Record, Rock 0

“Formed by two frustrated drummers” tells you about sixty percent of what you need to know. The rest is descended (through similarly-influenced ’80s indie rock, then the stuff that was left after grunge imploded) from the heavier ’60s psychedelic rock, rather than prog.

Records that have not stood the test of time: Models: Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight (1985).

13 March, 201611 February, 2018 Pop, Record 0

This album, which I played a few days ago for the first time in thirty years, is what the kids these days describe as a “hot mess”. A pile of good ideas mashed in with a pile of terrible ones; the result desperately pretends to work.

“Air On A G-String” played on actual G-strings.

14 December, 201528 August, 2016 Classical 0

For science! Apparently, underwear has a four-octave range. (yes I thought this was hilarious when I was ten as well) (baby got bach)

Today’s links.

11 December, 201529 September, 2016 Esoterica, Industry, Links, mp3 0

“Happy Birthday” is finally acknowledged as being public domain. Probably. The history of the hidden track. Format-shifting music you’ve bought in the UK is

Doctor Who goes disco. Delia, we are so very sorry.

9 December, 201511 December, 2016 Dance, Esoterica 0

The Doctor Who theme has of course been done in every possible style. Today we have disco versions from Space Disco and Mankind. But

Reissues, past subcultures and the dead foot of the market.

8 December, 201512 September, 2017 Opinion, Record 0

Amanda Petrusich at the New Yorker writes a ramble on the reissue market. It’s not clear, but she seems upset these previously-unavailable classics are available again, because they’re available again for the wrong reasons.