Horrahedd

(the real Horrahedd)
Halloween approaches! Closer to the date, I will be doing the same as thousands of other bloggers and putting up my own Halloween mixtape.

But for now, what better way to get in the mood for my favourite time of year than settling down with my favourite Adelaide schlockmeisters, Horrahedd?

Mr Glenn has been so kind as to make the entirety of Horrahedd's latest album available as a free download and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

As for what it sounds like, let me put it to you as Halloweeny as I can:

Imagine biting into an apple. Mmm, delicious! Wait... What's that? Oh dear lord! It's a shard of razor blade!! Oh god it hurts!!! Wait... this razor blade is made of caramel!! Delicious!! But my mouth is still full of blood... And my blood tastes like pepperoni. And pepperoni, caramel and apples is a remarkably tasty combination... so we take another bite of the apple. It's then we find the worm...

Okay, equating 'taste' with 'sound' is a little awkward, but it's the whole 'running the gamut of a myriad of emotions' thing that I was going for... Shut up.

Here are a few teaser tracks from the album:

Horrahedd - Knife Stinks of Art

Horrahedd - Transparent Man


Click the pic for the megaupload link for the full album.

Click here for the Horrahedd site, which also has a lot of great mp3s available to download.

- Ringo Stalin

SA Great - The Long-Awaited Second Part

You know the great thing about this blog? I have absolutely no responsibility to update on a regular basis and no deadlines. That's so cool.

So here's the second part of my SA Great series.

In an earlier draft of this post, I went on a bit of rant about the current state of music, not just in Adelaide, but on a global scale. Rather than posting that and adding one more voice to the spleen-vent that is Teh Internets, I thought it best to add to the small percentage of what's good on said tubes.

So here are some past and present bands that have made South Australia great:

(click pics for pages, where possible)

MEGAFAUNA

Mostly slow, stoner rock, with simple melodies. Contains members of Hit The Jackpot, Lindsey Low Hand, Sweet Raxxx, Trip Up From Mission Viejo, Hardy Coxon... The list goes on.

Megafauna - Starling

MATT'S LITTLE BROTHER

That's Steve on the right, shaking hands with Australian children's music icon, Peter Combe. I haven't seen much of Matt's Little Brother, aka Stevie B, in a while, as he's been focusing on a film project entitled, aptly enough, "Adelaide". I really hope he gets back into music soon, as he's damn talented. The following is an old track from 2001.

Matt's Little Brother - Away

SWEET RAXXX

Many things can and have been said about Sweet Raxxx. Some of those things were complimentary. Some weren't. But there is one thing that could be said that cannot be denied: they always put on an amazing show. This is their Toto Coelo cover:

Sweet Raxxx - I Eat Cannibals

AVANT GARDENERS

Avant Gardeners are a gigantic collective of musicians, ruled by the gentle iron fist of Sandy, a former member of The Moonies. Past and present members include people from: Roo Shooter, Hit The Jackpot (again!!!), The Moonies, Les Goolies, No Through Road and many more. AG perform every year, at an event called 'Really Good In Theory', which is a celebration of all things local, with stalls set up during the day, selling homemade food, zines, 2nd hand goods, and basically hawking their wares. In the evening, a long list of bands play until the wee hours and a good time is had by all.

Avant Gardeners - Really Good In Theory

BATERZ

Baterz passed away in 2002, aged 33. I don't really feel I have the chops to discuss Baterz' life, as I only met him once and it was a very brief encounter, but his music and legacy definitely deserves to be recognised. Baterz had caustic wit, absurdist humour and heartwrenching balladeering down pat, sometimes even in the one song.

Baterz - Goth
Baters - Fifteen (Live)

FIVE! NOW YOU'RE TALKING

(I couldn't find a picture of them online, but this came up when I image-searched 5nytk)
Five! Now You're Talking, aka 5!NYTK, made a name for themselves as being the most irritating band in Adelaide for the short duration of their existence. Personally, I think we're all better for it. And if you recognise the vocals in this track, it's because one of the singers in 5!NYTK was a pre-No Through Road Matt Banham.

5!NYTK - Digital Love

THE ANGELS

Oz rock legends The Angels started out as The Moonshine Jug and String Band in 1970 until they picked up electric instruments and became The Keystone Angels in 1974. In 1976, now using the name 'The Angels', they released the Oz rock FM radio classic 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?', to which every true Aussie knows the reply: "No way, get fucked, fuck off!". We're a classy bunch.

As an interesting sidenote, my late father used to be friends with singer Doc Neeson, back in the Moonshine Jug days. Unfortunately, I was never able to substantiate the claim, but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing Dad would've lied about. Additionally, Doc's mother was my mother's midwife, present at mine and my brother's birth (3 years apart, for those keeping count). Aaaaaand, Jimmy Barnes' mum was a nurse who used to work with Doc's mother. Adelaide is a small town.

The Angels - No Secrets

AC/DC

Yeah, Bon Scott was born in Western Australia, but we all know they came from the northern suburbs of Adelaide. The story goes that Angus & Malcolm Young, and Phil Rudd met Bon at the Old Lion after he left Fraternity. They then went on to have their first jam session at the Bridgeway Hotel in Pooraka. Hits you right there, doesn't it?

Rather than post an AC/DC track (let's face it, they're not hard to find), here's ECC's infamous 'Rocked By Rape', which samples US anchorman Dan Rather, and does interesting things to AC/DC's 'Back In Black'.

Evolution Control Committee - Rocked By Rape

SA Great - Special Edition

I'm a very lazy man. I was meant to post a second part to the first 'SA Great' entry ages ago. That's still coming... eventually... at some point...

In the meantime, I'm dedicating this post to one Adelaide band in particular, Hit The Jackpot, who I mentioned in the original 'SA Great' post.

Hit The Jackpot have just released "Soul Money Gang Vibe" and it's already at No 1. of my Top Ten albums of 2008 list. I don't actually compile annual lists because I rarely get to listen to albums in the year they get released, but rest assured, this is definitely at No 1.

The most obvious thing for me to write about would be the most obvious comparison I could make to HTJ's sound. Well, far be it from me to defy convention: Sonic Youth. But I'm not a big Sonic Youth fan, and all I really know is the "Dirty" album, which is, y'know, okay. I'm not going to go out of my way to listen to "Dirty", but I've ripped "Soul Money Gang Vibe" onto my hard drive, put on my portable music thingy, listened to it on the way to work, and then dumped it onto my hard drive at work, and made other people listen to it too. And to look at the awesome cover:

There's an evocation of The Go-Betweens, too, particularly in Kynan's vocals, which are sung in an unassuming Australian lilt.

It'd be foolish of me to try and remain objective when discussing this album. Hell, I'm on the front and back cover!

(that's me, the smiley chap in the gray shirt, holding up one corner of the pyramid)

The day those photos were taken was perfect: a gorgeous summer's day (and I usually loathe the summer), a few beers, interstate buddies visiting, a night-time BBQ and a fuckload of face-masks. Hell yeah, that's living!

Hit The Jackpot - Eye (my personal favourite from the album, and a great song to hear performed live)


Hit The Jackpot - Jig

Cheers, Jess, Kynan, Seb and Scott. You're a lovely bunch.

- Ringo Stalin

Find out more about Hit The Jackpot, via this link.

SA Great Pt 1

SA Great Pt. 1
(this post has not been endorsed in any way by the 'SA Great' people, but surely they would if they knew about it)

Chris, over here, recently asked me if there were any Adelaide bands that I could recommend, in anticipation of his impending move down here. The fact that bands form, dissolve, and intertwine with one another in the space of a day means that any list I write would by no means be exhaustive, or even scraping the surface of what goes on in our shadowy little town.

In addition to this, it's pretty difficult actually getting hold of recordings of some of the bands I want to include.

But I'll certainly give it a good ol' college try!!! (click the pics for webpages)

HIT THE JACKPOT

These guys have been around forever. Starting as a two piece, Jess (left) and Kynan recruited Seb and they started trading instruments with alarming regularity, and with equally alarming proficiency. Seb recently moved to London (the subject of the farewell post below) and Scott has picked up the sticks...

Hit The Jackpot - Cats & Dogs

LINDSEY LOW HAND

... and that's Scott on the left, in one of the greatest album covers ever (for the full effect, see the insert and back cover too). Lindsey Low Hand are Scott, Craig and JC. Craig's from Melbourne, so I guess technically they're not an 'Adelaide band' per se, but I don't hold much credence in that whole 'Melb v Adelaide' thing anyway, so for all intents and purposes, here they are.

I guess their track 'The City' would've been more apt for Chris' arrival, but some people would argue that the track I chose instead would be too.

Lindsey Low Hand - Dull & Ordinary

Not me, though. I love this town.

BIRTH GLOW

What on earth do I say about Birth Glow?? They've been labelled all sorts of things, but nothing has really hit the nail on the head. Personally, I think the photo (taken at the tail end of a looong Halloween party) says it all.

Birth Glow - Too Slow

HOME FOR THE DEF

aka Nigel. This man is my hero. I tell this story to anyone who'll listen: I was DJing (in the sense that I put CDs in to the players and hit 'play') at an event and I played 'Harold & Joe', a Cure b-side. Nigel then played a set, one man, a guitar and a 4-track player. I was blown away by the pure creativity and sense of joy and the uniqueness (uniquity?) of it all. Then he dedicated his version of The Cure's 'Caterpillar' to me, for playing Harold & Joe. Well, I was chuffed. At the time, I was looking to form or join a band but no one was really doing what I wanted to do. So I approached Nigel after the show and asked him if he needed a Fruitbat to his Jim-Bob. Thankfully he knew what I was talking about and said yes. This was back in 1999 and we're still doing stuff together.

Here's his Elliot Smith cover, which, in my book, shits all over the original:

Home for the Def - Needle in the Hay

BABYDOLL

(no website, sorry)

Well, image searching for this one was interesting! I didn't have any luck, so I used a sketch I did for their track 'Wagon', which never got used (I was asked to do it, it wasn't an unsolicited crazy fan thing). BabyDoll went through a lot of line-up changes before they finally imploded a few years back. At their farewell show, all of the old members got up onstage and it was a bit of a rockabilly love-in, actually. Lots of fun. BabyDoll delivered some of the greatest shows I've ever seen. The crowd would usually go absolutely nuts and there were singalongs, stage-storming, the whole shemozzle. I don't think I've ever seen an Adelaide band stir up such a frenzy since.

The track I've chosen to use was actually banned from the radio, due to a possible contempt of court issue. Yeah, it's called Snowtown, and they mention barrels but I fail to see how a jury would be affected by it... apart from maybe going into a crazy trance of dancing...

BabyDoll - Snowtown

HORRAHEDD

The elusive Horrahedd! Actually a big beardy three piece, Horrahedd hail from the Barossa region and rarely play live shows, mostly due to the fact that the Wurlitzer is a pain in the bum to move.

'Take The Radio' is one of my all-time favourite songs ever and samples 'The Celluloid Closet' to brilliant effect.

Horrahedd - Take The Radio

FREQUENT SEAHORSE

I haven't actually heard much from the Frequent Seahorse in a while, which is a shame. I remember being at a show they'd organised, which showcased some of Adelaide's bedroom lo-fi electronic acts. I hadn't seen them before and didn't know what to expect. I recall I was conversing with someone in a corner, and I was a wee bit squiffy, and upon hearing Frequent Seahorse starting, I was dumbstruck and interrupted the person who was talking to me and said "Excuse me. I have to leave now. I think I need to see this." and walked away, mid-conversation to watch the band. It was a bit rude but I think it was worth it. I ended up with a copy of their CD in my jacket and listened to it repeatedly over the next few weeks. The above photo was taken at that very same show.

Frequent Seahorse - Moongear

End of Part 1...

- Ringo