Wall Of Voodoo - Dark Continent

Bent. Off-kilter. Twisted. But no words can nail Voodoo's odd, dissonance--or its catchy tunes and sinister, cynical view of the world in which every person is a time-clock punching, end of the road loser about to be hammered. This album captures the sick conventionality of modern life--as apropos now as in 1981--and the odd, empty shells that masquerade as living, thinking beings. Every song is great, but I especially like Back In Flesh, Call Box, and Good Times.
I still can't understand why this isn't reedited in CD. The file is off my beloved Vinyl.
Here it is.

Don't forget to pay good ol' Stan a visit here
I noticed the Mosquito Lp isn't up for sale at his site… More ideas for a future post.

The Eastern Dark - Long Live the New Flesh

Our friend DorfDiscoBraunsFeld has closed his blog a while ago. This means the brilliant first EP from the Eastern Dark is now offline. This is a must-hear for all Aussie Rroch fans.
Off AMO "… The group achieved early notoriety for their habit of opening their sets with a Ramones song; in fact playing each Ramones song once only in chronological/album listing order. A growing audience followed them as much for heir on stage goofiness and strong harmonies as their no nonsense rock. By early '85 the group was ready to record a single. Released in July and produced by Rob Younger, 'Julie Is A Junkie/Johnny And Dee Dee' was hailed as a power pop classic in underground press the world over. An inspired homage to the Ramones, it even got the group some mail from da Brudders.

With Rob Younger again at the helm, the band put to tape the EP Long Live The New Flesh, with which their scope was widened without losing any power or immediacy. With a cassette of the freshly mixed record with them, the band routinely set off for the 900 km drive to Melbourne for some shows when tragedy struck. The EP was released soon after to a mixture of wonder at its contents and renewed grief for such potential cut short…"

Long Live The New Flesh!

Wall Of Voodoo - The Index Masters

Somebody requested the first album of one of my favourite bands (and singer/composer, Stan Ridgway). This is the Cd release with Live tracks added. Wall of Voodoo's music is in it's own category; it is fun music; it is thinking man's music; all at the same time. This super extended version of their first album is worth it for just the first three songs: Longarm, Passenger, and "Can't Make Love". These are their "cleanest" fast-percussion, fast-lyrics and are in perfect form, stripped down to just the life of the music. The Index Masters really shows the raw side of an early Wall Of Voodoo. "Longarm" starts with a simple drum machine beat and a crunchy guitar. It is followed by wonderful synths and Stan's voice with a laid back "Let's go"... The song is catchy and filled with dark tones and eerie synth soundscapes. "The Passenger" is a very potent song about a hijacked plane, which rings true in these times of terrorist threats and violence. "Can't Make Love" with its tongue-in-cheek, brutally honest lyrics and its fun new wave atmosphere is a real treat to listen to, especially for an average day player. The album continues with an eerie instrumental "Struggle", as well as the popular cover "Ring Of Fire", which is one of the most unique and ingenious covers ever heard. The pic is the cover of the 7incher, not the CD cover.

I'll follow up with the rare and now deleted "Dark Continent"…Mopman, do you receive?

I'm a nice guy/But I don't love you/ I just wanna sleep with you

Band Of Outsiders - Longer than Always

Raining sunday as usual. In my search for everything about Band Of Outsiders, I had prepped one of their EPs for upload.
In between albums, the band put out 3 EPs (I think, the complete discography is still a bit cloudy)
In contrast with "Up the river" and "Far away in America", these EPs feature studio songs.
I have the I wish I was Your kid EP and the Longer Than Always EP. I still can't understand how "I wish…" didn't become a hit.
The "I wish" EP only has one extra song not on LPs: "Days pass by" featuring some beautiful violin parts. The "Longer Than Always" EP is all original except from "Remember", a John Lennon song.
All these are taken from the IAS/Sourmash French printing.
I am still on the lookout for more stuff, if you have Eps, 45 or tapes from them, I'd be grateful to hear from you.
Meanwhile, stare at the writing on the wall…

Band Of Outsiders - Up The River

Well, I'm back from fairly nasty period of too much work and bad health…
Surprise #1 is that Diamanda (from Greece) sent me about 2 months ago a Rip of "Up the River", a Band Of Outsiders EP I never heard about! While I still have to flatly excuse myself to the lady for not answering sooner, I've posted it here: Child of the Moon.

This being the only song on the Ep not found on the band's previous LP, I felt it was a bit pointless to post songs you could find in my other posts. Surprise #2 (for me at least) is that it's a live track! Remembers me that Thursday night when they played my hometown club, still one of my fave gigs. Sound quality is surprisingly low, considering it was surrounded by studio tracks.
Still well worth the listen, I wish we could unearth more material of a better quality.

Surprise #3, well… it is going to be the subject of another post soon.

Played with true conviction: Band of Outsiders ' Act Of Faith

Bright sunny day here… spent the afternoon tinkering with my bikes, listening to this album, when it dawned on me I had uploaded it but not written the post… I have no chance of getting blogger's exhaustion!
As much as i really love their first album (see post below), much more muscle and sinew, this Act Of Faith album never fails to remind me of days just like today… dazed and sweet.
This is psychedelia for the modern times, with not a hint of mannierism and contrived sounds. This is a band at the summit of their powers, not afraid to wander into textures of sounds,going where nobody would have imagined. You guessed it: the whole band's output on vinyl is still as important to me as it was a good 15 years ago. I could retire on a desert island with just these 2 LPs and a bunch of their EPs (Diamanda, where are you? I'd love the Ep you proposed.)
From the lenghty intro of "Conviction", onto the dreaminess of "I wish I was your Kid" to the pummeling of "Fire in the Wall", and the twilight zone of "Clean Saint" and the wailing harmonica of "No Reflection", I wish they had kept on.
No hint of passé lyrics or "period-correct" sound, no this is a band at the summit of their power,moving boldly ahead when most others were statisfied by merely replaying the past. This is Chocoreve 2026 blog-fodder, people. Get it while you can, and remember where you got it from.

Quoted from Piero Scaruffi's "History Of Rock", probably one of the web's best source on music:
The Limit were one of the Power pop bands that entertained the punk public of CBGBs at the end of the 70's. The Limit evolved into Band of Outsiders, and in 1984 joined up with Certain General to record Far Away In America (Sourmash). Then with three good EPs released in 1985 and the album Everything Takes Forever (L'IAS) the Band of Outsiders introduced in an ever-increasing manner psychedelic elements, favoring atmosphere over melody. I Wish I was Your Kid is the classic of this period.

The group burned out de facto after Act Of Faith (Barclay, 1986). The live album Armistice Day (Nocturnal, 1989) (Conviction, 1989) and No Reflection (Repulsion, 1992) collect the best material of the band.

The leader, singer and guitarist, Marc Jeffrey took some to organize himself but then returned (in 1990) on the scene in the clothes of a solitary minstrel . The album Playtime (Conviction) is one of the most humble of the new generation of songwriters.

Does anyone know more about these guys or Marc Jeffrey?? Get in touch & leave a comment (with an email address, I intecept all comments before they are published, so it won't necessarly appear here) Diamanda, this also applies to you! I can't get in touch with you! A valid email addy is all I need!

Needless to say I am interested in any material recorded by the band, not posted on this blog.

This is a 256kb/s rip of a mint IAS copy of the album, lovingly restored by myself, it is all iTunes-ready, just download and enjoy. Still has the original price on the cover… a full 19.50 Swiss Francs, about 65% of todays cheap CDs, without even mentioning "underground" and "import" in the same sentence!

It is no reflection of all intentions… it is just a little later.

More Gurus

Time for an update methink. Before continuing the Band Of Outsiders thread, here's some good and fairly rare tunes from The Hoodoo Gurus. These were in a 7 (?) singles pack reissuing all their early 45. No need to post the songs that made it on "Stoneage Romeos" or "Mars needs Guitars"…
Be my Guru could/should have be on "Romeos", this is no filler song, lack of space maybe? B-side of hit single"My Girl"
Leilani II is of course the B-side to the single, this should be inserted right after Leilani inside iTunes… it compliments it quite well.
Last Hoodoo you love showcases what the Gurus could be live: this is a scorcher! B-Side of "I Want You Back" Dig the covers!
These songs can be found on the CD-reissue of "Stoneage Romeos"

As always, covers included and songs ripped 256 high quality, otherwise why bother?
Have fun and remember: my love is a red rock

Band Of Outsiders - Far Away in America (Live)

Thanks to Diamanda who kindly sent me a rip of this.
Band of Outsiders had already been performing in NY for a couple years when they teamed up with another of my favourites, Certain General, to record this Mini-LP. Originally on Sourmash in the US, it was picked up for release by "L'invitation au Suicide", the french label who would put out most of these 2 bands interesting work. The MiniLP is split in a studio and a Live side. The studio side brings nothing new: the songs would be released on the following studio albums. The Live Side is much more interesting: a ultra slow version of "Conviction" and a song that never (to my knowledge) made to vinyl: "Done Away".
I would need the cover of this LP, as all I find is the Certain General side of the MiniLP. Since the Lp covers are awkward to scan, the best is to shoot a pic with a camera, I can always retouch it to make straight.
I will shortly get into Certain General's first releases and start ripping them.
Again Thank you Diamanda!
Sometimes a lonely night is love itself to me.

Band of Outsiders: A true forgotten Gem

This band appeared in Europe thanks to the IAS Label, one of the many Indie French labels who did much to broaden our musical Horizon at the time, along with Closer and New Rose. In 1984, after playing in NY under the Limits moniker, Band Of Outsiders joined up with Certain General to record Far Away In America (Sourmash). If anybody has that EP, I would be grateful for a link to it, I never heard it or even saw a copy at the time. They followed with three good EPs released in 1985 and the album Everything Takes Forever (L'IAS). Their sound, while being close to the Paisley movement, has a twang all of its own. As time went on, The Band of Outsiders introduced in an ever-increasing manner psychedelic elements, favoring atmosphere over melody. "Nervous" and "Skylight" are good examples of their style, but the entire LP is one solid piece of work, their best in my opinion. The song "Dutch Girl Concern" is very high in my All-Time 100 list.


The group burned out after Act Of Faith (Barclay, 1986). There is also a live album (Armistice Day, on the Nocturnal and Conviction Labels, 1989) and a Best Of (No Reflection, Repulsion Label, 1992) that I've never heard. They also recorded a Live album with the late Nikki Sudden. The pic below is from that gig. Maybe DorfDiscoBraunFeld has it?


I will post next the "Act of Faith" LP as well as 2 of their EPs. This music is timeless for me. I am looking for all material on this band as i only have the "Everything Takes Forever", "Act of Faith" LPs and the "Longer Than Always" and "I Wish I Was Your Kid" EP. Please HELP!

He's real good with his fingers
As always ripped from the original vinyl, remastered and cleaned @ 256kb, the music's really worth the effort. Here I go again…

The Triffids: How it started in the West

This is probably one of the first Aussie EP I ever heard, if not the first. My sister brought it back on a cassette compilation (remember them?) after a visit home. At the time in Europe we weren't listening to this, but we got primed and ready when they finally moved to Londn and started touring. For me, it was a shock, as their music typified the vision I had of Oz, or Western Australia at least… a parched, dry land, laid wide open for you. At the same, it is a terribly forlorn place. The song "Raining Pleasure" is probably the perfect aural postcard of Perth at that time.
This is also to follow RYP post of Treeless Plain. If I remember well, that Ep cost me something like AU$ 5.95 at that time, I'm pretty sure i bought at Rythm & Records in Perth… in 1985.
Property is not yet condemned. 256k, with both covers.

End of the Go-Betweens: devastating news & its cure: Liberty Belle & The Black Diamond Express

Grant Mc Lennan died yesterday at the age of 48… words fail me. I had the pleasure of seeing them playing in my secret location's world wide known club during the Liberty Belle Tour. I still remember them as the nicest artist I've ever met backstage. Genuinely kind with, of course, the well-known Aussie dry wit!
This may be the best way to remember him, after all he left us his music. This is my desert island record.
Let that spring rain fall and wash your tears away…

On the fringe of the Paisley movement, there was True West

as posted by RYP here . but although they made a 2nd album ("Drifters"), a year later I think, their quirkyness and acid dazed sound petered out rapidly.
Their guitar player Russ Tolman pursued a solo carrer. This album, his first, is probably his finest moment.
If people really rave about, it I will rip the 2nd, although some of the magic is missing from it. Russ seems to have soldiered on untill the late 90's. Ripped from my vynil copy @ 256, with both back & front covers.
Cooking guitar work lies inside.

More Johnnies

This time it's the pony rider who drew his gun first. For the guys and gals who dig The Johnnies, here's 3 more songs pulled from their singles… You get "Cannonball", The Logan Girls" and "Don't put The Blame On Me". One single was the "Injun Joe, the other one I can't remember.

Yeaaaaaaaaah! Link has been REuped!

I've got a treat for you…

Chris the Twillight Rider had the good idea to branch into the Beasts Of Bourbon. Nice, I can enjoy them again.
When I first bought one of their LP on Red Eye (their German label), I got one of the first few hundred limited edition… with a bonus 45! You'll get only 0ne song sadly, as I forgot to record (or was it a disk crash?) the other side.
This is the aptly named "Fucked-Up Blues", puts Captain Beefheart to shame.

Blow that harmonica, boy!

A Must for all Aussie Music fans: The Eastern Dark 1st 45

I just couldn' resist… these were my fave (still are!).
The Eastern Dark first 2 singles… classic Ramones-enduced Wrack&Roll.
Ripped from their original Waterfront singles. I'v just omitted a song which you can find on dorfdisco post of their EP.
Can't remember the song's name though. Old Age?

Enjoy!

The Eastern Dark: Girls on the Beach (with Cars)

I used to call'em The Thin, The Fat and the Ugly One…
In response to Our friend the disco man Here's the post of The Eastern Dark's Live LP "Girls On the Beach With Cars", a testimonial to what they were able to conjure up on stage. Stay tuned.
This is for James.
Three guys and an audience. Enjoy!