Underrated Live Albums #4: Redgum - "Caught In The Act"

Where the hell are Redgum these days when we need them?

In an age where politicians in this country are either embarrassing, uninspiring or just batshit-boring, we need Redgum more than ever. We need a band not afraid to poke fun at the party political, satirise the policies and lampoon the people who stride the corridors of power and who are supposed to lead the nation through its struggles.

Some would argue that we can take our pollies to task quite nicely on our own, thanks to the Twittersphere (ever seen the #auspol thread lately?). But when Redgum started out there were very few Australian acts who dared to be so outspoken on sensitive issues, call the government out in direct terms and to write songs that sing of the plight of the downtrodden and the forgotten.

Redgum's one and only live album was released in 1983, recorded in front of a rambunctious crowd at the Rose, Shamrock and Thistle Hotel in Rozelle in Sydney. The band are alive, playing their hearts out and give the crowd everything they have. Their songs are pointed and forthright, the monologues are at turns sardonic and funny, and the live recording is superbly recorded.

The problem however, is that after many years after its release, it can be a little bit difficult to work out what they are talking about. You see, Redgum's problem was that not only did they sing about topics that are still a problem today, they spoke about issues affecting the people of the time. This instantly dates the album and it makes it somewhat harder to relate to years down the track. In fact, the first statement on the record ties it inextricably to 1983 before a note of music has even been played. John Schumann starts out by greeting the crowd and says

Ladies and Gentleman, we haven't seen you since the March the 5th result...

Now, when I purchased my own second hand vinyl copy of this album in 2005, I hadn't heard the record since the mid-1980s. I couldn't remember what the hell happened on March the 5th that year, let alone what was the major news story of the day. Upon further reflection, the "March the 5th result" was when the then current federal Liberal government led by Malcolm Fraser lost the election by a landslide to the Labor party, led by Mr Charisma himself, Bob Hawke. Mr Hawke himself would come in for his own piece of satire a few years after this one, so really the Liberal party are mostly the targets of the barbs on this one.

Two of the songs on this album stretch out over 9 minutes and are padded out with some humourous and amusing shaggy dog stories. Each song here is preceded with a short explanatory note from the band for listeners to get an idea what the song is about, as all good folk groups do. Topics include the horrors of war ("I Was Only 19"), the selling out of our country's natural resources out from underneath us ("Lear Jets Over Kulgera", "Nuclear Cop"), the upper class "born to rule" mentality certain sectors of the community have ("Beaumont Rag), apathy ("It Doesn't Matter To Me"), corporate greed ("Caught In The Act"), rampant consumerism ("Fabulon"), poverty ("Brown Rice and Kerosene", "Where Ya Gonna Run To") and even some optimism for a brighter future ("The Long Run").

There is plenty of great music here and plenty of topical songs that are still relevant to the political debate today, especially a song like "Nuclear Cop" or "It Doesn't Matter To Me". It is a lot of fun for a topical album. There's plenty of laughs and plenty of tears along the way too. If nothing else, the gentle listener will get a better understanding of Australian geography and it would be wise to keep a detailed map handy to work out where places like Beaumont, Nareen, Kingoonya, Puckapunyal, Cairns, Canungra, Kulgera, Pine Gap, Hawker, Pimba, Wyalla, The Diamantina River and many others.

It is also worth noting that the version of "I Was Only 19 (A Walk In The Light Green)" is NOT the #1 hit single studio version, but rather a live version from the same concert. The single version is available on a number of compilation albums, the best of which is "The Essential Redgum".

The CD version of the album contains all 15 tracks but the original vinyl version which is still common and fairly cheap, but it had a strange format. Using the CD track list as a reference point, the original LP had tracks 1-5 on side one, track 6 as the A-side of a "bonus" 7-inch single, tracks 7-8 on the b-side of the single and tracks 9-15 on the second side of the LP. For the sake of continuity, that is the sequence that the album should be played in. However, on the second-hand market, the LP is easy to come by but it is usually without the bonus single. The orphaned "Caught In The Act" single with "Stewie" and "Lear Jets Over Kulgera" on the b-side is also fairly common if your LP doesn't have a copy, but any and all prospective buyers should be aware that you really need to have both.

Or, you could just listen to it here on Spotify below. Enjoy!

New Music: Beans on Toast - "The Grand Scheme of Things"

What we have here is the sixth annual release from Beans on Toast, released yesterday. He seems to be as regular as clockwork, releasing an album every year in late November or early December. Yet again, the British anti-folk singer has delivered another set of tunes in his own inimitable style.

For those who are unfamiliar with Jay (aka Beans on Toast)'s work, imagine a scruffier (if that's at all possible) early-era Billy Bragg-styled singer songwriter who is no less passionate but far more pointed and acerbic. If folk music is designed to be left-leaning, Jay profoundly rattles the cages of conservatism such as to completely offend and turn away anybody who can't see past the end of their own opinions. He's a folk singer who is passionate about what he does, stands up for what he believes in - and if he finds himself to be wrong he stands up and admits his failings. He simply calls it as he sees it.

He makes no bones about his own perceived lack of talent, and I admire that. But that's precisely the charm of this, and what folk music is all about. It is music of the people. A simple music that doesn't require huge amounts of technical skill, but gets the message out to those who want to (and probably a lot more who should and need to) hear it.

I've been following Jay's music for a while now, starting with the mammoth 50-track debut album "Standing on a Chair". Jay and I don't see eye-to-eye on certain issues, particularly around tobacco and other drug use (although I'm very glad he's given up all the substances now). However there is a noticeable conviction in what he sings about, as well as a wicked sense of humour.

The latest album "The Grand Scheme of Things" gives us more of what Jay does best: one man, a guitar, and delivering equal amounts of vitriol and sentimentality with plenty of fire in the belly. Certain tracks on the album deviate from the folk base and incorporate country elements similar to those on the second album "Writing On The Wall". He even dabbles in a type of off-the-wall, New Orleans Trad Jazz on "Nola Honeymoon".

The targets of Jay's anger this time around are as deserving as ever: Inhumane chicken farming, the UK Independent Party (UKIP), Young people's inability to connect with nature, the vacuousness of war, inner city gentrification. However, probably his most disturbing tendency of late is to take a shot at those who won't give him a chance. Like the Glastonbury festival on his last LP "Giving Everything", this time he takes aim at the insular mainstream Country Music fraternity in Nashville on the elegantly named song "F*** You Nashville". It goes without saying that, while one can understand his frustrations, writing a song like that isn't going to make anybody change their minds about him.

Mixed in with that is some beautifully written and passionate songs dedicated to mateship across generations ("Flying Clothes Line"), the joys of home cooking ("Lizzy's Cooking"), being a DIY performer ("Folk Singer"), and the excited anticipation of the new year ahead ("NYE").

Speaking of "NYE", in the songs dying seconds Jay sings "Welcome to the last verse of the album, I'd be amazed if anybody got this far...".

For the record, I did. And it was fun, too. It was no more or less than what I'd expected.

This is not a record laden with studio polish. It is rough round the edges, like I imagine Jay Toast himself to be. Through the murk you get a raw earnestness and passion all too rare in modern music.

Be warned that Jay's sharp tongue means that this isn't a family listening album, although there are noticeably fewer choice words on this album than on the previous ones. And as mentioned earlier, anyone on the right wing of the political debate should be prepared to be shocked and offended too. But bring an open mind to the issues discussed within and there is plenty to be gained from a few listens.

Recommended. Be challenged and inspired.

August 2014 Mixtape

We've hit Spring on the east coast! But it's still bloody cold and wet. Time to heat things up with another great mix tape.

200+ songs including great tunes from:

• Bellowhead
• Richard Clapton
• Gaslight Anthem
• Weird Al Yankovic
• Free
• Sensitive New Age Cowpersons
• The Hummingbirds
• Phil Ochs
• The Sundays

and heaps heaps more.

Set it to shuffle, crank it up and ENJOY!!!

Lake Street Dive and Mavis Staples

We love a bit of Lake Street Dive here at TSATF Central. It turns out that the band's performance were regarded as one of the highlights of the Newport Folk Festival a couple of weekends ago. From a number of accounts it was a quality set, and it makes we wish I could have been there to see it.

Their set was elevated from the great to the transcendent when gospel soul legend Mavis Staples came onstage to duet with the band on their track "Bad Self Portraits". Lead singer Rachael Price looks to be in absolute heaven with a smile so wide it almost meets her ears!

Take a look at the clip below, courtesy of Chris from the Boston Through My Eyes blog. This is truly goose-bump material. It's a true shame that American National Public Radio (NPR) didn't record the band's set; instead preferring to go with the Jeff Tweedy/Jack White/Ryan Adams-type big name artists to showcase.

Take a listen to this inspiring performance. Sing along with Mavis, and smile along with Rachael!

New Music: Bellowhead - "Revival"

Bellowhead are an 11-piece British folk band that are relatively unknown in these here parts. That said, they are about to celebrate the tenth year of their existence. "Revival" is their fifth album, and the first I've heard. It was suggested from some friends of mine from ol' Blighty. And that's a good thing - otherwise I'd have never listened to this at all.


To give some perspective on their sound, Bellowhead are a band that play traditional English folk tunes, such as sea shanties and work songs, with rollicking arrangements for folk ensemble and an expansive brass section. They play the sometimes ancient tunes with a fire-and-brimstone gusto that leaves one with no doubt about the conviction they have in themselves and their material.

The band mines a similar volume of traditional folk material that classic artists such as Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span used to inhabit. That's where the comparisons with these bands ends, however. Musically, they chart their own course. Imagine a minstrel performance at a quaint little English country Fayre gatecrashed by Tom Waits' drunken "Rain Dogs"-era band. They'll make one hell of a sound and a splendid time will be had by all, really.

From all reports, Bellowhead totally own the stage in a live setting. With an 11 piece band, the sound would be immense. But here's the rub - something about the live vibe is missing on record. The arrangements here are tight, lyrics are sung with confidence and the whole band play their parts with earnestness. However, my initial thoughts were that there is a lot about the Bellowhead experience that is lost on me. Maybe it's because my personal cultural influences are far removed from those of the British, I don't know. I am, however, finding "Revival" more appealing with each subsequent listen. The more you listen, the more things you hear that you didn't hear the first time.  But there's something about being in a pub with 500 sweaty punters listening to this music that somehow won't make it onto vinyl...

Look out for the rowdy tunes "Let Union Be", "Let Her Run", "Roll Alabama", the moody "Moon Kittens", and their sublime take on [Fairport Convention guitarist] Richard Thompson's song "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight".

I did manage to find the track-by-track commentary that Spotify have to accompany the album. I have sequenced it in amongst the album proper in the playlist below, and it helped me get an idea as to what the band is all about and where the songs came from.

Little Quirks - "Neverland"

A family fun day on a Sunday in a local pub is not necessarily the place to discover new musical talent. But, in amongst the petting zoo and the jumping castle, a handful of young performers played. One group was a group calling themselves Little Quirks, an all female group with 13 year old lead singer/guitarist Abbey, a 16-year old mandolinist/vocalist Jaymi, and a 10 year old drummer Mia.

Hailing from the New South Wales Central Coast region, they are currently doing busking sets at market days around the place. The vocal harmonies these ladies produce are astonishing. The talent within is pretty obvious. Currently their set consists of covers of recent indie folk tunes by the likes of Angus and Julia Stone and Of Monsters and Men, as well as classics by Fleetwood Mac (their cover of "Dreams" is particularly cool) in a style that compliments the song choices well.

At their appearances they are selling their debut EP, home recorded and printed, entitled "Neverland". A professional sounding recording, containing the core of their main set. Containing six songs, it's a great sampler of what the girls are about, with some bass overdubs from Dad to fill out the sound. The package is nicely presented with each copy having the side seams machine stitched together. It's a nice touch. All told, it's certainly worth laying down the asking price of a fiver next time you happen to bump into them around the place.

With this much talent, I hope they go far. It'd be great to hear them work up their own material as they experience life a bit more, if they haven't already. Certainly a band to watch.

Here's a couple of tracks for your perusal, via their soundcloud page. Enjoy.

Vale Pete Seeger

Image courtesy of the Washington Post

Peter Seeger has died at the age of 94. Not a bad innings for a guy who was once one of the most hated men in America.

Pete was a folk singer with a radical bent, who used his music as a platform for political debate and for raising awareness of injustice and other social ills in the world. He was enormously influential to people such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Peter Paul and Mary, Arlo Guthrie, Martin Carthy (of Fairport Convention) and countless other folk singers.

While he was beloved as a singer and a songwriter, contributing many a classic to the great American songbook ("If I Had A Hammer", "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?", "Turn! Turn! Turn!"), it was his activism that landed him afoul of the law. At the age of 17 he joined the Young Communism League and started writing anti-war/anti-draft songs. At age 22 he was a full member of the Communist party in America. He joined a group called the Almanac Singers in 1941 and they were notorious for their songs promoting Industrialized unionism and racial inclusion.

After serving in World War 2, he reconstituted the Almanacs into The Weavers, and they started having some major hits with records such as "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" and "Goodnight Irene". During the early 1950s, a house of Representatives committee called the "House Un-American Activities Committee" was created to flush out Communist sympathisers in Hollywood and the Music Industry. The Weavers were named on the House blacklist and they were banned from the media. Struggling for work, the band wrote a jingle for a Cigarette company, and Pete resigned in protest.

Being named on the blacklist, Pete found it difficult to get gigs or even to rent a place to live. Soon after moving in he told in no uncertain terms by neighbours he was unwelcome. He was indicted by the house in 1961 and sent to jail for a year before the conviction was appealed in 1962.

After his name was cleared, he started performing solo shows, which were picketed by far-right-wing groups like the John Birch Society who believed he was an insurgent! He renounced communism early on and until his death believed that following communism was the wrong way forward, once he discovered the horrors of Stalin's regime.

Here was a man who not afraid to stand up and speak out for his convictions. And he paid dearly for them. He supported and promoted the careers of many an aspiring folk singer and he has fans as varied as President Obama and Johnny Rotten.

He will be sorely missed. Rest In Peace.

We need somebody to blame

I've had a number of discussions with people online lately that seem to put the blame of certain areas of society on some easily identifiable societal group. It always makes me step back, wonder and shake my head at bone-headed statements like "The biggest cost to this country is having 'illegal immigrants'..." and other things like that.

Here is not the place to debate such a point. But whenever things like this come up, I always think back to this anti-folk classic originally by Lee Goland, and since remade by many people, called "Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers on Drugs".

"Who's to blame for the potholes and flooding and drought?
Who's to blame for unemployment and all the things I'm pissed off about?"

Do some people just need a focal point to vent their frustration at?

In this song, the protagonist finds a convenient, if also fictitious minority group to take issue with. It's quite funny. Check it out.

Sunday Sessions: Things of Stone and Wood

In keeping with Australian Music Month, this week we take a listen to Melbourne Hippie Folk-Rockers Things of Stone and Wood.

I was playing my Spotify Australian classic playlist yesterday and ToSaW's "Share This Wine" came on. It's such a great song, although the video is horribly dated, with the ghastly hippy-trippy day-glo clothing and dreadful dancing. (See Below).

The song the band is known for is "Happy Birthday Helen", which, while hugely catchy and popular, I'm not a big fan of. "Share This Wine" has a much more interesting and potent lyric, but the love songs always get the punters in.

Still, the Melbourne-centric, mandolin adorned strum-along tunes have held up remarkably well in my view since their first release in 1992. Their second LP "Junk Theatre" was moderately successful but it had no real hit singles, despite having a number of great songs on it. The band were dropped by their label Sony Music not long after. They released a few independent albums before calling it quits around 1997.

According to Wikipedia, lead singer Greg Arnold now produces records for Skipping Girl Vinegar (among others) and is a lecturer in music for the Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

For this week, kick back and chill out to the sounds of Things of Stone and Wood.

Enjoy!

Sunday Sessions: ISIS

Hey all,

I know I posted this one a while back as part of our Best female artists series, but for Sunday Sessions this is the perfect chill-out tune.

ISIS were a Brisbane all-girl feminist folk act from the 1990s. They released one self titled LP and it included this total gem: "Treat Yourself Gently".

Enjoy!

Vale Philip Chevron of The Pogues

Irish folk-punks the Pogues are a unique band, if ever there was one. They're not all that far removed from other Irish folk groups like The Furies, The Dubliners or the Chieftains, except that the Pogues are wilder, faster and more in-your-face than any of those acts. They play traditional Irish folk music with all the grit, spit, and aggressive swagger of the English punks of the class of '77 (The Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, et al).

Reknowned for their alcohol intake and the slurring, toothless vocal delivery of their frontman Shane McGowan, the Pogues are endearing in their own rambunctious, shambolic, ragged fashion. Where the Furies are beloved of my parents generation, The Pogues are truly a GenX band.

It comes with some sadness the news that Pogues guitarist Philip Chevron passes away from cancer this morning after a long battle with cancer. It's even more shocking when you consider that he was given a clean bill of health in April 2012, but another tumour appeared in August that year.

Equally shocking, as i reflect on the band, is the fact that Shane McGowan is still alive and standing. Shane is a bloke who, to look at him, makes Keith Richard look like an alter boy. His reputation for beer drinking, drug taking and hell raising makes Pete Dogherty look like the rank amateur he really is. Based on this, I thought he'd be the first Pogues member to shuffle off the mortal coil, but alas...

So Rest in Peace, Philip.

Here's a Pogues classic in tribute: "If I Should Fall From Grace with God"

Sandi Thom

Whatever happened to Sandi Thom?

In 2006 she was one of the most hyped and talked about artists, largely due to a clever marketing campaign of "live" webcasts performed in her basement bedsit in London. This was largely organised by friends of her manager. Anyway, the short web series had the desired effect, and she was signed to major label RCA/Sony/BMG. Her first single (and lone hit) "I Wish I was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)" was a reissue of her first (and only) independently issued single, and it went stratospheric. Her second album flopped due to her clashing with her label over her desire NOT to deliver more bubblegum pop music. After the record bombed, she was dropped.

The song itself came under fire at the time for a number of reasons - being mere "content" and not "art" (according to Charlie Brooker), and for being soulless; a product of marketing men with too much money. In the view of this writer, it has almost as many merits as it does problems.

For a start, what the hell do hippies and punks have in common? The punks hated the hippies and would have been more than happy to smash the crap out of the nearest spaced-out flower wearing moron. (fast forward the clip below to 6:03 to see what I mean...)



It's also a lyric of revisionist, backward looking melodrama, lamenting a period in time she did not live in. It's almost as if she was regurgitating the ideas of an older generation, where "things were better in my day", with the fervor as though she believes it.

It has a large failure to embrace the present and the future, for its bright possibilities. Conversely, that's probably why it resonated with a lot of people.

But I just can't get past the punk/hippy collision. The two don't mix.

However, the merits are amazing. How many songs can you think of in recent years that are made up just of plaintive vocals and percussion instruments? No synths, no guitars, no programmed beats, nothing. Just stomps, shaken percussion and human voices. The polyrhythms in the tune are simple but man, do they groove. It's appeal was instant and profound, and it still is.

However it is easy to get sick of it. If you could equivilate music in the same way as food, then this track has the nutritional value of a box of Smarties. Having said that, a little junk food now and then can be a good thing!

Sunday Sessions: Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega, the artist whose biggest hit "Luka" is a heartbreaking first person account of child-abuse (albeit fictional), hasn't been very public in terms of hit records and radio play of late. I thought it was time to look back at some of her great tunes.

She is a New-York-based folk singer who got her start in the Greenwich Village scene much like Bob Dylan did 20 years earlier. Her first LP was issued in 1985 and it introduced the world to a writer whose songs had depth and power, while being sung in a voice that showed maturity and vulnerability all the same.

How cool is it that she would write a song from the point of view of a photo on her bedroom wall?

"Marlene watches from the wall,
Her mocking smile says it all
She records the rise and fall
of every man who's been here..."

On her latest LP, a 25th anniversary live recording of her second LP "Solitude Standing", she explains that the lyric may have been what Marlene would have said to her after watching all the happenings in that room. Suzanne then admits that, after recently reading her biography, Marlene would actually have said quite the opposite!



"Left of Center" was from the film "Pretty In Pink" and it is a great character of some of the marginalised street-urchins in the inner-city areas. Features Joe Jackson on piano.



"Blood Makes Noise" makes a marked change from her normal sound, but the idiosyncratic vocal and clever lyrics still shine through the sub-industrial arrangement.



ENJOY!!!

RIP Richie Havens

Image Source: Time Inc

While we're on the subject of "heritage" acts, the great Richie Havens passed away on Monday, aged 72.

I use the term "Heritage" because we should be remembering musicians who have made some valuable contribution to popular music in years gone by, and that we could be at risk of forgetting about. As it is, people of the Woodstock generation know who Richie was, but I'd suggest that very people of subsequent generations know of his work. Even in his passing, it's worth taking another look.

Richie was a folk singer who got his start in the same 60s folkie circuit as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, et al, in Greenwich Village, New York. He was an anomaly as he was 6 foot 6, African American, and attacked his acoustic guitar with a vigourous strumming technique that could make any modern-day metal guitarist embarrassed. His ability to energise an audience with nothing more than his deep, gutteral vocals and impassioned strumming was amazing (as can be seen in the clip below of him improvising a song that became known as "Freedom" live at Woodstock).

Richie was a songwriter, but found greater fame as an interpreter of songs, mainly by Bob Dylan and the Beatles. He had a great ear for a great song, irrespective of who wrote it. He is probably best known for his version of "Here Comes The Sun" which chugs along with a rhythmic fervour that is instantly danceable, despite the idea of it sounding implausable.

In recent years he hasn't had anywhere near the success he had in the 60s and 70s, but then he only ever had one top 20 hit back in the day anyway. He still continued to tour regardless until 2010 when it was announced he was quitting due to ill health.

Richie was a unique talent whose passion and enthusiasm for his music carried across into his performance, and that enthusiasm just explodes off his records. Take a listen to his performance of "Freedom" at Woodstock below, and then have a listen to his sublime (and slightly challenging at times) album "Alarm Clock" from 1971.

He will be sadly missed.

Thatcherism...

...from the point of view of the British working class.

God bless Billy Bragg. He really deserves a knighthood. I offer no judgement or view on the passing of former British prime minister, the late Baroness Margaret Thatcher. It is neither my place nor am I qualified by virtue of my age to comment. If nothing else however, she inspired some of contemporary music's best to write some poignant music, of which this is one example.



Enjoy!

Try this at home, will ya?

Recently I pondered songwriters who have such a great turn of phrase that they just make you sit up and take notice. They write lyrics that are forthright and that make you think. I heard a song recently that did just that, and I think it may have just crashed into my top 10 songs of all time, somewhere near the top. It went like this:

"We sing love songs in C,
And we do politics in G,
We do songs about our friends in E Minor,
So tear down the stars now,
And take up your guitars,
So come on folks and try this at home".

The song is by a British singer named Frank Turner. He has styled himself as the new Billy Bragg, which is no bad thing in my view. Moreover, he's the Billy Bragg for Generation-Y, and also for late GenX-ers like me who still have enough fire in the belly to still get pissed off at some of the world's stupidity. Frank himself would rather have himself regarded as a "skinny half-arsed English country singer", but I think that's selling himself short.

This song tells it like it is - forget the image, forget the labels, forget the style, just play the damn music and stop self-agrandising. Get off your butt, be your own rock star, be your own songwriter. Write the music you wanna hear.

"...'cos there's no such thing as rock stars
There's just people who play music,
Some of them are just like us,
And some of them are dicks..."

The song itself is fiery and passionate. It's a statement of intent. This is the roots of punk rock. If this doesn't get you fired up then nothing will.

"...The only thing that Punk Rock should every really mean,
Is now sitting 'round and waiting for the lights to go green..."

Brilliant stuff. Enjoy.