#brisbane rock

[theditchlillies]

𝙱𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚊 𝙱𝚞𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚛 // 𝙼𝚢 𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚢 𝚅𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚎 // 16 𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 1991 // 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚎

[miamaimania]

꩜ Sonic Bloom: My Bloody Valentine Live in Brisbane, 1991 ➤

[w6ir0q4f]

transmissions from the water tower - Greaser Bar 16/8/24

[dustedmagazine]

The Unknowns — East Coast Low (Drunken Sailor)

“Supersonic Love” vamps a bass riff to get off the blocks, the roar like a car engine revving at the red light, full of testosterone-fueled aggression. It picks up double-speed drums a little later, then a squalling guitar, and finally an agitated rant which is basically the title with some “oohs” thrown in. The point is that it could hardly be simpler or louder or faster. It’s garage punk boiled to essence, like the Ramones, like the Dead Boys, like the Saints.

The Unknowns, from Brisbane, include two members of the Chats (Josh Hardy and Eamon Sandwidth, both on guitar) but this hard-blaring, punk band isn’t an offshoot. Hardy formed the band with his brother Caleb around ten years ago. It’s gotten a bit bigger since then with the addition of Sandwidth and bassist Nathan Montgomery, but it still maintains the elemental glee of two guys making a racket in their basement. Sophisticated? No. Fun, oh yes, very much so.

The Unknowns aren’t as funny as the Chats, who make songs about getting arrested (“Drink and Disorderly”), suffering STDs (“The Clap”) and eating cheap food (“Pub Feed”) to staccato pogo beats. The Unknowns play it more or less straight, in contrast. Their songs are mostly about the ugly side of romance (“Shot Down,” “Diane” “Rid of You”).

They’re also a bit more rock, a bit less punk strictly speaking, with big riffs and brief, fiery guitar solos.  “Deleted” punctuates its break-up narrative with crashing power chords and pinch squalls. There’s a lot of drama in it. You can hear the ghost of Birdman. “Rid of You,” on the other hand, stutters and judders like old school punk – Sham 69 or G.B.H. come to mind.

It's all pretty high octane, not complicated but deeply satisfying. Thank god for Australia. They know how to rock.

Jennifer Kelly

[sweetdreamsjeff]

A fan shared this on the official jeff buckley Facebook page.

Thanks to them we have a more complete story about the doodles Jeff scribbled on the record sleeve.

[bellaswan2003]

contents of brisbane purse scan, pictures my brisbane purse with house keys, st philomena necklace, hanging rock keyring and in event of an emergency call a priest card spilling out. its surrounded by babys breath with a bunch in one corner and a single daisy in the other

[livejournallegacy]

Jimmy Eat World - 555 (Behind the Scenes)

[apathy-indisguise]

Start of the wall

[ozkar-krapo]

The SAINTS

"Saints alive!"

(7". Punk Vault. 1988 / rec. 1977) [AU]

[elton-john-live-concerts]

Elton John Live in Festival Hall Brisbane, Australia December 8th, 1980

[mywifeleftme]

325: The Go-Betweens // 16 Lovers Lane

16 Lovers Lane The Go-Betweens 1988, Mushroom

You don’t need to put a gun to my head: I’m a Robert Forster guy. Everyone agrees that Australian jangle pop legends the Go-Betweens had two first-class brilliant songwriters under their tent, but Grant McLennan tends to get the edge in most people’s books, even if they don’t exactly come out and say it. He had the sweeter voice and the more direct way with melody; wrote most of their best-known songs (“Cattle and Cane”; “Bachelor Kisses”; “Streets of Your Town”) and might have the higher overall batting average when it comes to quality; enjoyed the more consistent solo career; even died first. I love Grant! But I’ve always been more drawn to Robert’s wordy complications, his slightly dour, guarded stripes of shadow to Grant’s sunlight. Both very bright men gifted with an ear for melody, both serially doubtful in their lyrics, with McLennan I have the sense that he trusts himself to be guided by feel whereas Forster leads with his intelligence. Normally, the latter would be a minor indictment of an artist, but at Forster’s best the results are neither cold nor stiff. His songs have a complex character in the literary sense, made lively by their contradictions and keenly observed behaviours. When a pristine, jangling hook breaks through his typical reserve, it’s like he’s been moved to sincerity despite himself, and I’m moved in turn.

On 16 Lovers Lane, their last album together before an 11-year hiatus, real-life circumstances conspired to cast each songwriter in their most representative mood. McLennan was in the midst of a relatively new relationship with violinist Amanda Brown, and there’s an impulsiveness to the way his songs document the highs and lows of romance, even as one senses all’s not entirely well under the hood. Meanwhile, Forster writes with the sobriety of hindsight as he grapples with the recent dissolution of his own partnership with drummer Lindy Morrison. (Bassist John Willsteed’s feelings about not having an on-stage date are unknown at this time.) This difference makes 16 Lovers Lane both a relationship record and a breakup record, each songwriter exploring love from his own side of the divide. Grant’s songs are all gems: “Love Goes On!,” “Quiet Heart,” and especially “Devil’s Eye” make the adult work of negotiating life with another person sound like something to dreamily twirl around the house to, while the saucy crazy chick sketch “Was There Anything I Could Do?” rivals the Smiths at their most revved up. His “Streets of Your Town,” the band’s closest thing to a hit, isn’t explicitly about love, but retains the bemused contrast between form and content that marks many of his 16 Lovers songs—the way it’s possible to experience happiness even as the future seems increasingly murky.

It’s Forster’s songs however that raise 16 Lovers Lane from another very good Go-Betweens record to the short list of my all-time favourite rock albums. What makes these songs so poignant is that, while Forster’s insights into his relationships are sensitive, empathetic, even wise, it’s also clear he’s in that daze of post-breakup delusion when you still love someone and aren’t yet ready to accept what “over” really means. I adore the surreal visual, from “Love is a Sign,” that marks his first words on the record: “I’m ten feet underwater / Standing in a sunken canoe / Looking up at the waterlilies / They’re green and violet-blue / Still the sun it finds / A place to light me.” Throughout the song he gently, charmingly acknowledges the real problems at hand, but all he has to offer is the fantasy that one day something will be different, that he’ll be different, and then things will be as they were. The chorus (“This is what I find / No matter what you say / No matter what you do / I want to be the one / And love is a sign”) can read as a declaration of unconditional love, but from another angle, it’s a blanket denial of the possibility that the other person might not be right for him.

Throughout the record, a lot of Forster’s most basic assertions can be immediately disproven. “You Can’t Say No Forever”: The public record shows she could!

“I’m Allright”: A cursory read of the song’s lyrics suggests otherwise!

On “Dive for Your Memory,” he closes the record by declaring:

“Now I dive black waters The waters of her dream Are black and forgetful I'd like to make them clean So when I hear you saying That we stood no chance I'll dive for your memory We stood that chance”

Not having been there, I can’t say whether he’s right or wrong. What happens in this life isn’t fated. But to me it smacks of a man standing at the last station before real acceptance, when you feel that before you can truly let go you must demand some dignity for what you had. It is too galling to endure thinking this relationship you poured your soul into was anything less than a vessel that deserved the commitment; that you squandered your best self on a fantasy. Therefore, it must’ve been a Great Romance, and you bend all of your creative powers to constructing it as such. After enough time has passed, this sort of emotional absolutism fades and you can live with how things really were. But in the moment, there is nothing more terrible to endure than the notion you are performing in a tragedy the other party perceives as a farce.

Despite all this baggage, the wonder is how Forster’s words nestle within absolutely pristine jangle pop songs, sparkly and spangly and crystalline and all the other words critics use to try to pull their sweetness from the air to the page. It was years before I really dug into what Forster was saying because of the way he says it, part Tom Verlaine, part Gene Clark. And, like McLennan with “Streets of Your Town,” he also takes one song off the Rumours beat to offer a more introspective number that both demonstrates his pure pop gifts and summarizes the outlook he brought to the sessions. “Clouds” feels like taking a much-needed walk to clear your head, to get back in touch with who you are at the root:

“Blue air I crave, blue air I breathe They once chopped my heart, The way you chop a tree Told to equate Achievement with pain I took their top prize And paid them back with rain Visions of blue, I’m angry, I’m wise, And you You’re under cloudy skies.”

325/365

[musicwebsiteblog]

RINSE "Does It Feel Like Heaven" ft. Hatchie released released March 29, 2023 via Music Website (@musicwebsiteblog)

Stream it here: https://musicwebsite.ffm.to/rinse-diflh.PNJ

Produced by Joe Agius Co-produced by Jeremy McLennan Additional production by Satin Sheets Written by Joe Agius, Harriette Pilbeam

[wiiildflowerrr]

5S0S IG, 2 December 2022

[w6ir0q4f]

transmissions from the water tower - The Bearded Lady 19/5/24

[pokopippitypop]

intro to I’m not okay

[cowboy-tendencies]

I Piss Alone - Regurgitator