The Big Dirty - the first three releases

The Big Dirty- this not what one would expect when one uses the term, “British rock”. Raw Aus-pub feel with hints of US-stadium rock in a self-proclaimed hat-tip to the “classic legends of 70s and 80s rock and metal”.

These guys ramp it up in their Bandcamp contributions to the world of straight-ahead-rock music and promise more in an album-release later this year. 

What a fine introduction following a random tweet that answered the question “What are you looking forward to in 2020?”

Under The Crimson Moon (August 2016):
A veritable rhapsody until the vocals kick in from around 90sec. This is my and the world’s introduction to the band with a hybrid of Axl Rose/Guns’n Roses and Bernard Fanning/Powderfinger weaving throughout a big, dirty, hard rocking sound that promises much for this Northampton four piece

Rhythm of my Drum (March 2017):

More G’nFn’R in this assault on the aural senses. Straight out of the blocks, I am sure I’ve heard this hook on either of the J-stations I happen across from time to time. 

As with Crimson Moon there is a surprise to keep listeners on their toes.

It’s music like this that make me wish Australia wasn’t as far away from the rest of the world; that just popping out to see them in full flight was possible. We’ll just have to wait for the ground swell to make an Antipodean tour worthwhile for them.

Sex Rock City (December 2018): 
An extended EP? A mini-album? iTunes calls any music release an album but the usual definition is 10+ tracks. Whatever you call it, here is The Big Dirty in full flight with seven songs to keep you keen: 

• Sex Rock City: Detroit Rock City but dirtier? Hell No! This eats KISS for breakfast and shits them out at bedtime! Keen on tempo changes, surprise dips and multiple stops throughout a song, these guys keep it rockin’ like it’s 1979!

• Safeword: for when it gets too much to handle. Maintain the rage! Maintain the volume! Maintain the self-proclaimed hat-tips to 70s and 80s rockers with 30-40 years’ input to keep it as fresh as anything else being created today. James Shaw’s vocals rival the vocal exercises Freddie used to do during his live performances. 

• The Day The Devil Came To Town: was he carrying a fiddle? No, but he was reaching back to the early-70s dirty Les Paul sound that made bands like Kansas, Mountain, and Blue Öyster Cult the legends they are today, sans cowbell. Add in some Chris Cornell throat-killers to make this track keep kick it along

• Punch Drunk Crazy: Brings guitarist Chris Datson’s influences out onto his sleeve!!  

• Pheromones: My favourite track so far. Had me reaching for superlatives which wouldn’t ever be able to capture the pace and emotion of this song.

• Paradise on Fire: With an opening akin to Angus Young’s Black or Salute days, a quiet intro lures one into expecting a chill out. But no, the pace is maintained. Dedicated, perhaps, to the Australian summer experience of 2019/2020?

• Queen of Hearts: The Big Dirty want to give it to us, and they have done that in spades!! But where you might walk away from your device sated by all this hard rock, you wouldn't be finished just yet
  

• Wicked Game: If you're not a collector of hard-copy music any more, make an exception for this record, even if it's only for this last track. We all know Chris Isaak's version of this song, but don't expect anything from this one- just let it smack you like the rest of this record. In true Big Dirty style, this one keeps driving over the cliff like Thelma and Louise, but unlike those passed heroines, it keeps going after it bottoms out. What a way to finish!!
  

In Richard Ayoade-as-Moss’ paraphrased words, these guys kick bottom! All killer. No filler. And a new record in the offing as we speak. How they maintain this pace is described in their tweet of 16/01/2020: 

What's your poison this morning, guys? 

I'm on a triple-shot cappuccino with vanilla syrup, 2 cans of red bull, 50ml of rum, 2 ibuprofen, an extra large jam doughnut and I've got a Tony Robbins audio pep-talk on repeat! 😝☕️⚡️💪💪🍆💦

Today is my bitch!

Get onto The Big Dirty bandwagon now, before they explode. It will be so good to be able to say, “I knew them when...”!

Rock and fucking roll my friends. Rock. And. Fucking. Roll!!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson

17 January 2020 (edited to include Wicked Game from the CD version 31/01/2020)

Polaroids and Postcards Interview with Amanda Easton, Christmas Eve 2019

Amanda Easton talks about her new “Polaroids & Postcards” EP
-- Christmas Eve, 2019 --

Peter: First of all, thank you for bringing me out of retirement to review this release! Second of all, congratulations! I said it best when I said, this is an amazing record!

Amanda: Thanks so much! It’s great hearing a review from someone who has known me from the beginning – there’s more context in what you’re saying and hopefully you’ve seen improvement along the way!

P: I wouldn’t say improvement; I would call it change. And for the better! But I just have a few questions to put to you about the new record. I know you had a site on the “Dark Web” where subscribers to your email list could download each of the tracks over a five day period, or elect to buy the record instead. What gave you that idea?

A: I think the world has become more about immersive experiences. People want more than just ‘things’ nowadays and the internet has given us the tools to create multimedia experiences out of our music. There is a movement I’ve been noticing, particularly among US-based indie artists, where they are doing this type of thing and so I’ve been watching and learning and decided to try a version of my own for this new launch. I think the traditional way of releasing music: trying to get on the radio, in the press and in the record stores; is less relevant nowadays, particularly to indies where the millions of dollars needed to make that happen effectively is not available to us! But we have the tools now to bypass many of these gatekeepers and reach potential fans directly. But I think to interest new people in music they’ve never heard of, you need to stand out and offer more than just the songs. Giving people more access to what the artist is thinking and how they are creating the art – in this case music – is one way to do that. People can go press a button on a music streaming service and hear anything they want, but the danger is they will click away 3 and half minutes later and never revisit. If you’ve managed to create a meaningful connection with the person, because they now know the story behind the song, you’ve potentially made a long term fan. I would rather have 2000 real fans than a million streams.

P: Personal connection is very important, but so is what those more established artists have. And I can only hope to have this sort of connection with an artist whose work I have been following for so long. And I’m glad of the opportunity to ask you a few questions that this amazing record brought to my mind in the hope that the viewers at home can strengthen their connection with you as an artist. First of all, I’ve noticed, after reviewing your last three releases now, that there is a distinctive Eastern flavour to your music.

A: I lived in Japan for 2 years, singing 6 nights a week with a cover band. I'm obsessed with the place and its culture and revisit every couple of years.

P: You revisit musically, and artistically. Have you been able to physically revisit?

A: Yes I actually revisit physically every 2 years or so.  I have family in Europe and so often stop over in Asia on the way – so any excuse to go back to Japan! I still have lots of friends there too so I feel like the Japanese connection is an ongoing one even if I’m not there.

P: In the cover-art for “Polaroids and Postcards”, I picked up some other kitsch that could also be related to this obsession. The imagery for your Bowie tribute, for example, for all the world looked like you were holding a radio mic. But through your subscriber-only pages, we see that it was actually a ray-gun which I would date back to perhaps Flash Gordon, Captain Proton, or even some Japanese science fiction from the 60s or 70s.

A: I’ve always been into scifi – the more schlocky the better! I loved Doctor Who and Star Trek as a kid and prefer them both when the special effects were less fancy than today’s. When I lived in Japan, I discovered how big a role scifi played in their pop culture so, of course, that made me love Japan even more. All the kitchiness of their pop culture is attractive to me – the colour, vibrancy, cuteness and theatre of it all. Japan is such a mix of its traditional heritage and its cutting-edge modernness and so you still see vintage scifi imagery – like Godzilla – in current artforms. I just love that!

P: And the science-fiction feel to the record extends to the sounds you’ve created. Do you listen to much vintage synth music or is it just something that you found in your Nord and wanted to share with us?

A: Goldfrapp is one of my favourite music groups ever and they use a lot of vintage synths, so that would be my main influence. That’s actually why I bought the Nord in the first place – it’s what they use! I’m not an expert in ‘sounds’. I play around on my Nord and get something that I Iike for my demos but I need to give credit to my producers (Mavoi for track 5; and for tracks 1,2 3 and 6 a guy who enigmatically wants to be known as ‘Wow and Warmth’) for coming up with the end results. Of course I am executive producer so they get a lot of guidance from me but they are the master at translating the ideas from my demos (and my head!) into what you end up hearing. ‘Wow and Warmth’ always says to me: “It’s good you know exactly what you want” – which I think might be his polite way of saying I’m a bit bossy, but I do have a very fixed idea of the sounds I want but not always the skill at creating them.

P: And how good is it that you have found someone who can do that for you! Definitely a keeper! Now, the credits on the sleeve liner for the record show only three musicians; that you did everythingexcept the bass guitar and cello. Yet you’ve managed to capture the sound of a whole band line-up on the title track!

A: Thank you – again I have to give credit to the producers. There are no additional live musicians or live musical instruments being played on that track. Sounds have been created/layered and built up from synths and samples. It’s weird that I perform live with amazing musicians all the time but in my recording world there is something I really love about synthesized sounds! Yes, track 5 ‘Polaroids & Postcards’ does sound more live than the others but really that is just some of the samples that were chosen – and of course that is a different producer than most of the tracks, so that may have been his influence at play there. I did film some of the live recording sessions so you will see that pop up in some music video but they probably won’t be recreated in a live context – more a unique coming together that happened just for a particular song recording.

P:  Speaking of videos, can we expect any more?

A: Yes, there are two released at this point. There is ‘I Saw the Message’ and also ‘Polaroids & Postcards’. ‘I Saw the Message’ is based around a retro computer screen – the old black screen with green writing, which spells out some of the lyrics. I showed the first rough cut to my email list but the finished version is here: https://youtu.be/e8KKK4upOOc. I’ve also released an anime video for ‘Polaroids & Postcards’ here: https://youtu.be/sMjr0B9V3oY. I have shot the green screen component of ‘Man Who Fell to Earth’ (I am an alien) and that is going to be edited in to an existing (public domain of course) vintage Japanese sci-fi movie to create a music video – so that one will probably be next. I also have some footage from the recording sessions of ‘Letter to a Small Boy’ and being a more organic song, that will have a more natural music video too. There will probably be a video for every song eventually – I love working with video but it’s very time consuming since I like to do most of the editing myself, so I tend to release them quite a bit after the actual songs!

P: And, from the eye of a music collector since the mid 1970s that notices small and probably insignificant things like catalog number and liner notes, this is EP3 of 3(1. Blue; 2. Disco; 3. Postcards). Is this a hint at perhaps there is a full album coming? A best-of? A box-set? Yes, we can access them online as they were released, but is there enough interest to be able to provide those who want one with a hard-copy of everything in the same place?

A: Love that you noticed that! No, no best-of planned, but a full length album planned for end of next year. We’re half done already!

P: Can you tell us what we can expect? New stuff, previous releases?

A: All brand new but direction-wise in the same ball park as ‘Polaroids & Postcards’, at least in part. P&Pis a very emotional and nostalgic collection of songs and so are some from the album, but I will also have a bit more attitude and fun on some of the new stuff.

P: Amanda, you must be so proud of this new record! I have never had a reaction to a release as I did with this! I should expect that you’re going to be taking it to the people as much as possible?

A: Thank you! I find it so hard to judge my own work – I’ve always been proud of everything I’ve done at the timebut the world doesn’t always like it! And of course looking back sometimes I agree with the world too! I do love this record and the signs are that there are quite a few others that agree so if that’s the case I will continue to promote it!

P: Thank you for your time, today. I really hope to be able to see you live very, very soon! I haven’t seen you since the release of Skinat Fox Studios back in the 90s.

A: Wowee I was such a babe in the woods then! I feel more at home with everything now – I feel like I have found my place more musically. Yes I hope to see you at a gig soon! Thanks so much for staying interested in what I’m doing!

…

Review of Amanda Easton's "Polaroids & Postcards" - an Independent release

Amanda Easton - Polaroids & Postcards – Independent release

Every three years we are treated with a new release from Sydney’s Pop Princess Amanda Easton. This year’s release was timed for Christmas and, like all of the previous releases featured on this blogspot, this one will not disappoint.

“Polaroids & Postcards” is an inspiration. It inspired me to seek her out for a full-on interview about the songs, the packaging, what’s been happening in her life between records, etc. But without the tech, the platform on which to post it or, at the stupid end of the year, the time, my curtailed written reaction to this new collection will have to suffice.

If you have an expectation when you hear the name Amanda Easton, forget it at once. Polaroids & Postcards retains some of these sounds / feelings but extends the lady more than ever before. Think Steve Strange in 1980 or Gary Wright in 1972. Think Peter Osborne’s 1998 soundtrack to Fritz Lang’s 1926 masterpiece “Metropolis”. Think Kraut Rock exponents Tangerine Dream’s “Ultima Thule Part 2”, also from 1972. There are some vintage synth sounds emanating from Amanda’s fingers which make this record as current and vibrant as anything else available today.

Man Who Fell to Earth had me thinking of Bowie even before putting the disc on. This is an outpouring of love for a man who affected so many of us “even though we never met”. The instrumentation harkened me back to the soundtracks of Eastern European movies of the 70s and 80s; perhaps even Japanese cinema from a decade or two prior? It’s a feature of the record which carried through Eye to Eye and Rockabilly Blue: the portable record player on which Amanda is standing on the cover suggests so .. or is it, like all art, all open to the beholder?

The other tracks include the dealbreaker I Saw The Message, which is also the first video from this record: love gone wrong, from (someone else’s) experience; the missive from mother to son Letter to a Small Boy: He may get it now, he may get it when she can no longer put her arms around him, but it is something anyone with a son would want him to know; and the title Postcards & Polaroids: the other tilt to Blue and Disco- a full-band sound with a hint of twixt-disco-and-chill beat. Fell could also be released or remixed in this vein.

This is an amazing record. Each song had me stopping what I was doing: taking heed .. taking it all in .. absorbing the emotion that went into it, came out of it; I was even welling up at some points! There are no adequate words to describe what this record did to me on the first hearing .. I should have been recording my facial expressions as the best way to express what I was feeling was each track unwound. The second, the third hearings: my words cannot convey what this collection did.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Decade from Amanda! «««««

Which came first, the audience or the content?

Which came first, the audience or the content? Did broadcasters (Zemanek,[1] Mitchell,[2] Price,[3] Jones,[4] Sandilands,[5] Stern,[6] etc) have an audience in mind when they first started their diatribe? Or did they cowtow to management, grow their audience with “nice” commentary, then become controversial? Who fed them the information about which they were broadcasting?

As a former broadcaster, we had a segment on late-night community radio, “Stuie’s Spiel” wherein my co-host, Stuart “Mr Radio” Minchin[7], would comment about a topic that got him riled. He pre-wrote then read live-to-air, followed by an appropriate track, rhyming couplets which tended toward his view on the subject. Ours was only a small audience: we wouldn't have had 1000 listeners; and we never really got feed back. We were out there, enjoying our time in the moonlight.

I made my own controversy when my Friday-night Australian new-music programme was shifted to a Saturday afternoon.[8] I only had an hour but they insisted I play the Macquarie News and weather at the top of the hour. I called for a protest: ring or fax in with a slogan, which gained more support than Stuie’s Spiel ever did, but I got cancelled for it. Here, the audience existed, and responded to my call to action (see also Gail Phillips (2007)[9]). 

So, your so-called shock jocks. What spurred them into action? Hayes & Zechowski suggest that shock-jocks like Howard Stern drew on a “tradition” of intimate and aggressive talk over radio, broadcasting about taboo subjects like sex, bodily functions, and politics. So here, catering to an audience thought to already exist. [10]

Podcasts also cater to an audience that already exists as well as to the audience that has grown with the programme. Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O were breakfast announcers on 2DayFM in Sydney between 1999-2013, moving to KIIS 106.5FM for incredible amounts of money.[11] Sandilands is known for his commentary,[12] and is now fronting a TV show[13] based on the American CBS TV-format Judge Judy,[14] without the same qualifications as Judge Judith Scheindlin. This is a broadcaster seeking to recoup its investment and giving its audience another means to access its star performer. But Kyle and Jackie’s radio show, like many other popular broadcasters around the world, is also recorded and made available as a podcast so the audience can keep the show, or replay it.[15]

So have I answered the question? Which came first, the audience or the broadcaster? It really depends on the era in which they started. Old-style radio broadcasters like John Laws[16] grew with their audience. New style podcasters grow their audience.

The journals suggest it is an area that hasn’t had much scholarly coverage. See what you think:

Further reading

-          Ehrlich, Matthew, & Contractor, Noshir (1998): “‘Shock’ meets community service: J.C. Corcoran at KMOX”, Journal of Radio Studies 5 (1), 5/06/1998, online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529809384527

-          Hayes, Joy Elizabeth, & Zechowski, Sharon (2014): “Shock Jocks and Their Legacy: Introduction”. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 21:2, 199-201; online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529.2014.950142

-          Phillips, Gail (2007): “The Interactive Audience: A Radio Experiment in Community-building”. Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy 122 (1), 174-185, 2007; online at https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X0712200120

-          Soley, Laurence (2007): “Sex and Shock Jocks: An Analysis of the Howard Stern and Bob & Tom Shows”. Journal Of Promotion Management, 13 (1-2), 21/10/2008, online at https://doi.org/10.1300/J057v13n01_06

-          Turner, Graeme (2009): “Politics, radio and journalism in Australia: The influence of 'talkback'”. Journalism, Volume 10, Issue 4, 15/7/2009, online at https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884909104948

PG (Jacky) Gleeson 
1 - 3 November 2019

---

[1] Google (undated): Stan Zemanek 1947-2007. https://g.co/kgs/vEsoHa

[2] Google (undated): Neil Mitchell. https://g.co/kgs/zqyZYm

[3] Google (undated): Steven WIlliam Price. https://g.co/kgs/Mr7wgF

[4] Google (undated): Alan Belford Jones. https://g.co/kgs/xumaAY

[5] Google (undated): Kyle Dalton Sandilands. https://g.co/kgs/V9WeMK

[6] Google (undated): Howard Allan Stern. https://g.co/kgs/8mgAXH

[7] Stuart and I hosted “The Odd Couple” and other music and current-affairs radio programmes on 2RRRfm during 1987 and 1988, and “The Fast Lane” on 2CCRfm in the 1990s. These were community radio stations. Stuart keeps a low profile now, not having updated his Facebook account since October 2014. “Mr Radio” is a term used on a Facebook post by a “Friend” after he’d left 2RRR. Recordings of some of these radio programmes are available from the author.

[8] I hosted a number of programmes on 2CCRfm in the 1990s. Recordings of some of these programmes are available from the author.  

[9] Phillips (2007): The Interactive Audience: A Radio Experiment in Community-building.

[10] Hayes & Zechowski (2014): Shock Jocks and Their Legacy: Introduction.

[11] On Kyle & Jackie O’s move from 2DayFM, see https://www.mamamia.com.au/kyle-and-jackie-o-news/; https://mumbrella.com.au/jackie-o-reveals-kyle-sandilands-orchestrated-kiis-rebrand-and-resignation-from-2day-fm-behind-her-back-599392; and http://www.arn.com.au/defining-audio/our-talent/kyle-sandilands/. On their contract renewals at KIIS FM see https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/kyle-sandilands-jackie-o-henderson-sign-40-million-contracts-with-kiis-fm-20160731-gqhjzs.html and https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/kiis-fm-locks-in-kyle-and-jackie-o-until-2022-20191017-p531iu.html

[12] Google (undated): Kyle Dalton Sandilands, op.cit.

[13] Network Ten (undated): Trial By Kyle, online at https://10play.com.au/trial-by-kyle, accessed 3/11/2019.

[14] Google (undated): Judge Judy, online at https://g.co/kgs/FTK8RL, accessed 3/11/2019.

[15] KIIS 106.5.com.au (undated): Kyle & Jackie O Podcasts, online at https://www.kiis1065.com.au/shows/kyle-jackie-o/, accessed 3/11/2019.

[16] Google (undated): Richard John Sinclair “Lawsie” Laws, online at https://g.co/kgs/HLbbNF, accessed 3/11/2019.

Little day out ruined - thanks #shityrail

We were invited to meet a friend in town and continue on to Watsons Bay for lunch and a walk around the Sydney Harbour National Park. We thought it would be nice to travel by public transport despite my experiences travelling to and from work recently (see #cityfail #cityrail #shityrail hashtags).

The TransportNSW website suggested that, after changing at Parramatta and Central, we would meet our friend at Circular Quay a little before 11.30am. We changed at Parramatta and waited the 20min for the next Hornsby service from Platform 3. With 7min until the train was due, we were told it would be departing from Platform 1. So over we went, and as we reached the top of the stairs, the same announcer told us that our train would be departing from Platform 3. So back we went, only to be told that the train would be leaving from Platform 1. My travel-mate refused to move, which I understood, just as the Hornsby service approached Platform 3.

The train was all-to-Lidcombe, then Strathfield, Redfern, and Central, which meant we’d have to change at Central for Circular Quay. But as we left Lidcombe, the stopping pattern changed to include Flemington and Homebush.

Justin

In the meantime Justin and his mate were bored. They had been on the train since probably Penrith. They were playing rap music on an iPhone (without earphones), dropping all swear-bombs despite the family audience, lounging despite the need for seating on an already overcrowded train (and the signage asking passengers not to), and smoking. Yes- lighting up, dragging, exhaling; the mate even tried to light the window! I got their photos, and tried tweeting the details with the carriage number but, for whatever reason, the tweet didn’t go through. I hope this blog entry is sufficient.

Justin's mate

Anyway, the issues continued through Town Hall and Wynyard stations with signal failures at both stations affecting all services around the City Circle. We really could have alighted from Wynyard and walked the 300m to Circular Quay- it would have been quicker. But our 8yo would not have enjoyed it as much as a train trip under the city.

The rest of the day was beautiful- a gorgeous day in the sunshine by the most beautiful harbour in the world. But we returned to the wharf at 16.10, only to be turned away from the ferry for safety reasons. On such a beautiful day with the huge crowds travelling to that part of the world surely a half-hourly service could be revised?

We caught a private ferry to Rose Bay, a bus to Edgecliff, and a train to Central, where the mayhem from the morning continued. We arrived home after 19.00!

Central Platforms 18-19 on Sunday 15/7/2018 around 6pm

The Berejiklian-Liberal Government in New South Wales has much to answer to. The rail services are akin to a third-world country’s, and this was on a Sunday! It has taken me 2hr to travel home from work; and I have stood on Blacktown station platforms 1-2 while four Richmond and Schofields services were cancelled: my son was waiting at after-school care for a paid-for swimming lesson we eventually missed. Meanwhile they took delivery of new carriages during this week; carriages akin to those used in Brisbane and Melbourne which will limit the number of seated passengers on new rail lines. This on top of intercity trains on order that don’t fit platforms on the lines on which they’ll be used- so they are remodelling the stations!

To be continued, I’m sure.

Bam Bam Music Blacktown Rocks

Had the best time at Bam Bam music today. Originally wanted to go to Guitar Factory with a stop at Cashies to see what guitar-effects pedals they had and passed Bam Bam's on the way. 

While striking out at Cashies I looked at the Bam Bam's website and found both Behringer and Boss pedals in their range. Cha Ching!

Went in and set out my situation. He recommended a series of products and upsold me as I also needed other items. We struck a deal and settled up. 

Then, well, when in a music shop, I went in to drool. "Feel free to pick some up."  Mistake- how long are you open tonight? 

Played a couple of Ibanezes, some Gretches (fell in love with a 79 model sporting Alnicos), and Fenders. Also found out why I can't have an SG (neck is too thick). 

I'm still floating. All I wanted was pedals and accessories!! I will be back next birthday once I figure out the next pedal to add to my tone. Went to their other store a while ago to get a whammy and a backplate for my strat-copy  the guy went out of his way to help me but couldn't.  The other reason I went back today: I felt I owed them. 

Bam Bam Music - 76 Sunnyholt Rd Blacktown - between Harley Davidsons and Beaurepaires - www.bambammusic.com.au - do yourself a favour!

Salty - 100 Fallen Stars

SALTY– 100 Fallen Stars. Independent album through http://saltymusic.bandcamp.com/

Based in the southern NSW coastal town of Gerringong, Salty comprises multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriters Alan Moore, Sean (The Pun) Batman, Rob (The Comfortable Chair) Spence, and Glen (Honest John, Trophy Wives, 3 on the Tree, Phlegm Fatale) Colley.

As a live event, I managed to score an invitation to a special-guests-only show of theirs at Rose Valley in February engineered by Mark (3 on the Tree) Harris and featuring members of Honest John, Trophy Wives, the Jimmy Nicholls, and very special mystery guest Brendan “Karma County/Dead Marines” Gallagher. Salty were second-last on the show and did a brilliant job for a very laid-back and ultra-casual event. They are obviously very well-known south of Kiama, north of Berry, and east of Gerringong, and the crowd was dancing through originals and covers alike. I managed to almost-live tweet their penultimate number, a cover of They Might Be Giants’ 1990 cover of The Four Lads’ 1958 hit “Istanbul (not Constantinople)”.

I was quite surprised to find 100 Fallen Stars to be a full 10-track album. Neither of Glen’s or Mark’s former iterations managed that many titles on a single release so for $10 through the bandcamp site you’re getting value for money. And the pedigree keeps impressing with Syd Green in the line-up/list and the recorded/produced by-line. Syd is best known for his drumming prowess behind 1990s powerhouse Killing Time/Mantissa, but his post-90s work is just as remarkable. 

My interest was well and truly piqued when Glen made the announcement that this new collective was in the studio, and with whom. They certainly know how to mix it up, with some extended 4:00+ ballads alongside some short-and-sharp sub-2:00s pop and ska.

1.       Leaving It Behind (Colley) 4:40

Glen and the Gretsch through the twin-reverb, backed vocally by Alan and Sean then suddenly BANG- the whole band joins in. And with the chorus adding depth at the end, I am taken away from everything I expected from the band and delivered somewhere entirely, and happily different.

2.       Man Alive (Colley) 2:57

I remember this one from the February gig. Upbeat, rocky; reminiscent of No Van Gogh in its poppiness but rough, raw, distorted, and fun with its bee-bop-a-loo-bop chorus.

3.       Shire Ska (Batman) 3:04

Pork pie hats. The Specials. The 1980s. Listening to Jono & Dano on Triple J of a Sunday afternoon instead of doing my homework. And that thin and punchy bass. And that … is that a kazoo? Do I like? No, I love!

4.       Lonely & Blue (Batman) 1:59

The title may suggest something slow and sad. Expect nothing like it! Rockin’ blues, more like Continued the upbeat vibe established in the Shire, like those short-and-sharp tracks the Beatles put on their earlier albums, with a little electric-slide guitar to shake it up. This track genuinely made me happy!

5.       That’s what (Spence) 1:25

One that sticks with you, thanks to that catchy bass riff. I came home that night wanting to pick up my own bass and start playing it. Imagine Fred (B52s) Schneider “singing” a ska number and that’s what you get with That’s What.

6.       Recense (Batman) 4:53

A Wonderwallesque ballad that had me thinking of the sing-along part of the Almost Famous road-trip. Alan contributes some nicely placed harmonies and Glen slides a David Gates/Bread riff to round the track out.

7.       Saving All My Happiness (Spence) 3:02

This brings out the banjo, which they used at the February gig and utilises the same effect as Mumford and Son found with their success a few years back. Rob stands in a class with Broderick Smith, Sue Foley, and Chris Wolstenholme as singer songwriters with some truly inspiring ideas and Happiness and Fidelity stand among anything these artists have created and delivered.  

8.       Long Line (Colley) 2:07

The banjo/folky feel continued with Long Line (again, nothing like the Angels’ when they took theirs) which finishes almost as soon as it starts. This is classic Glen at his poppy best, taking me back to a Trophy Wives gig at Cronulla 16 years ago where I first heard No Van Gogh, described then as “bright and happy Rembrandts Closer To Free”.

9.       The Shakedown (Colley) 3:19

Glen’s ultimate contribution to this collection retains the banjo to emote some Spaghetti Western/Roland (The Stand) Walker folk-rock feeling, with vultures circling at one time while he waits for an outcome that is likely not to happen any time soon, as Roland found as he walked, and walked, and walked…

10.   My Fidelity (Spence) 4:26

A song of the sea by those who are lucky enough to live by it closes the effort with the jangly-twang we were promised in the opening bars of Leaving It Behind returning to intro this one. Rob delivers once again. 

I’m just ticked that my ISP wouldn’t let me stream it uninterrupted. Spoiled the vibe somewhat, taking a good three hours to stream through a couple of sittings. My favourites: Leaving It Behind, Shire Ska, and Recense, with an honourable mention to That’s What and Long Line.  

I could think of no better to spend a tenner: if ever you were looking for an unsigned act to support in an altruistic way, this is the one to seek out. Many bands expect you to pay this much for a single or EP. So you really know you want to!

My heartiest congratulations go to Alan, Glen, Rob, Sean, and Syd for a job very well done!

100 Fallen Stars from Salty: Four Rising Stars!

See also Jeff Apter’s recent review in the Sydney Morning Herald