Monday, June 30, 2008

Top Ten Time

It’s been a while… did I get busy or lazy? I’ll leave that to you

WWE Smackdown came to town and thanks to the goodwife’s work connections we had a corporate box to watch it from. Free beer, free food, great view, beezlebubby and I had made up some signs, CM Punk was there (beezlebubby’s unrequited love – a tattooed love boy, doh!), Kane, Edge, Batista and we finally saw The Undertaker in the flesh… hell, it doesn’t get much better. In fact we worked out after that the only boofheaded steroid abuser we haven’t seen yet that we want to see is probably Triple H. We’ve seen the others including the late great Eddie Guerrero on previous trips so only the son in law remains. He somehow always avoids Adelaide though. Must be the water.

Fenech Vs Nelson III – yeah I was one of those old farts on a nostalgia trip who went to see the fight. Begged and borrowed money to get to Melbourne to see the blue but it was worth it just to be there. Sure I constantly bag on bands getting back together and refuse to go see them – call me a hypocrite I don’t care. Difference is when a boxer makes a comeback you can be sure you’re going to see him in the ring – he can’t really put the makeup on someone else can he? Imagine the scene – Fenech V Nelson only Nelson didn’t want to do it so we found a young kid who can copy his moves to take his place! Not gonna happen. Of course, it was a one off and they were doing it for charity and pride so what the fuck… I cut them some slack.

Record Fair June Long Weekend where I bagged three, count em, three BILLY ECKSTINE records! (actually four but I already had one, being unsure had to grab it just in case) including some great early 40s material when Billy had his famous band of beboppers and pre stardom horn blowers. Quite a find. And then to make the day even better, three more volumes of The History Of Country Music – a cheapy cd series with all the early hillbilly/folk country music you could damn near want… or at least a fine taster.

Solaris Earth Pipeline – 45 on 33 cdr/download. Yeah the laid back redneck rappin’ fuckers are back with their next step in world domination. This one is a more laid back attack with the obvious maturity that comes with the years showing thru. Psyop’s splicing and dicing has never been better, a lot of the time I forgot it even was sampling and Raven of a thousand feathers has come a long way. Seemingly more accepting in his role and his fate but then, hell he’s just a likely to open the next album with some vitriol so I better not make him think he’s getting’ old. I am so maybe that’s why I dig this so much. And its winter here, when the summer hits I’ll be bumbling around in the back yard pretending to be gardening with this cranked up so loud the neighbours certainly wont feel it’s a laid back effort!

Getting some words published here and there, mostly courtesy of this devil called myspace. But hell I’m rapt to be included with my peers, these are people who’s words inspire me so to be alongside the likes of Jack Henry and Misti Rainwater Lites – Damn but that makes my day. Here’s the links (if the damn thing works, if not do the old cut and paste)

http://www.heroinlovesongsjournal.blogspot.com/

http://evisceratorheaven.blogspot.com/

http://www.lulu.com/content/2706939 JukeBox

http://www.lulu.com/content/2715662 Instant Pussy Dos

And speaking of downloads – I’ve been finding so much great old music and shit on the net that I barely leave the room to piss. Fear, Bad Brains, Emmett Miller, Daddy Cool, Nig-Heist, Vertical Slit, Billy Joe Shavers, old blues and 78s and I spend more time just looking at the sites going “which one to download first?” but to find Daddy Cool – sex, dope, rock’n’roll – teenage heaven that was the baby I wanted. Daddy Cool were one of Australia’s first huge acts of the 70s – Eagle Rock was massive and they were the pop band of the day but they were actually a bit smarter than what they were given credit for. Sex Dope was recorded after a tour of the US and though it had the obligatory single Hi Honey Ho (edited down to fit the format) it also had the great drive in suite – where we follow the young lovers to the drive in and they fumble through teenage lust and there’s even a great pisstake on the fifties ballad with “Donna” where he bombs out by touching her knee! Finishing the album with a sub zappa riff jam called Make Your Stash – about hiding yr drugs from the sniffer dogs and you can see this isn’t quite what the kids were expecting. My first copy of this was in a cheapy two record set called The Daddy Cool Story – one of the first albums I ever owned. One of the labels wasn’t glued down right and when I peeled it off, lo and behold, underneath was the original Sex Dope label! The cheap buggers had just taken this album, slapped some new labels on top, put it with a best of type lp and voila – The Daddy Cool story. Ah the good old days of Aussie rock.

FX Toole – Pound For Pound. Toole for those who don’t know wrote the short story that begat Million Dollar Baby. Unfortunately death had already claimed him before the movie hit and I had assumed that book of short stories, Rope Burn, was all he’d penned. Thankfully it wasn’t. Pound For Pound was the book he was working on when he died. Toole was a former trainer, cutman, insider - he knew the boxing game and it shows. Its been a long time since I sat down and read a work of fiction just for the sake of enjoyment (Easter maybe with JT Elroy’s book) but I sat down and consumed over 300 pages of bravery, tragedy and boxing in just a couple of days. It was a book that I’d pick up, read, put down in frustration, pick up again, put down and pick up again. He had a bad habit of giving too much info at times, especially about boxing but you soon realized it was all part of the story, all part of what he was trying to share. It sucked you in and pretty soon I forgot these fuckers weren’t real, that this was a work of fiction. It’s just a damn pity that there aint going to be anymore from him. He knew how to create a character, how to suck you in to the story, his background obviously gave him insights we ain’t gonna get and how he can’t pass them on to us anymore. But I can tell you, I’ll be using his work to help me with mine. I’ll never write a book this big, my style demands brevity, but much like Hemingway and Hank, Toole is a writer I’ll use for inspiration.

Glenn W Cooper – Rimbaud in the city & Outrun Your Fate. Damn this son of a bitch can write! I’ve got three of his chapbooks and he’s covered Muhammad Ali, Rimbaud and Neddy Smith! What a cast of characters! What a talent! What a son of a bitch! Strange that he’s a fellow Aussie but he’s more well known over seas… then again maybe not, poetry isn’t really given its dues in the land down under. Maybe he’ll have to write one about Cazaly or Jezza… damn it I shoulda kept that idea to myself. He’s on myspace, he’s in my friends list – check him out. He’s a good bloke. (even if he steals my ideas before I’ve even thought of them)

DVD Holocaust. I’ve been doing a few reviews for these buggers lately including the Aussie Classic Stone which has been re-released as a two dvd set and damn but that movie never grows stale. I still love it. Also watched London To Brighton a gritty English flick about pimps and street walkers and let me tell you it’s a fucking corker. See it. Check out the website, log on, get into the forums, spread the word… www.dvdholocaust.com

Z Gun – a yankee newsprint old school zine in a new world that had a great word up with Mike Doskocil about Drunks With Guns, has heaps of reviews for bands I’ll probably never hear cos I’m flat broke but has plenty of spirit, guts and leaves black ink on yr fingers. What more could you need in this new world of blogs and glossy personal zines and shite. I got mine from Big Star here in Adelaide which surprised the fuck out of me but then the world is getting’ smaller. www.zgun.org

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

JAZZ FROM HELL GOES AURAL


DIENSBOTE - VARIATIONS ON A THEME is a joint collaboration between shitmagnet and the bearded hausfrau. Four tracks of electronic noise/jim jones jabbering/pissing in the river sent back and forth to be chopped/cropped and culled before being released on parole.

Available at Big Star Adelaide for $8 or direct from the sauce/source... Jazz From Hell po box 278 edwardstown sa 5039...

Big Star also has other choice Jazz From Hell products including A Beard Of Stars, ShitMagnet and Hausfrau... you could do worse and trust me, some of you have.

Friday, June 20, 2008

HARD BOILED SPOKEN WORD

Hard boiled
Thurs June 26th
At La Boheme, 36 grote st adelaide
730 for an 8 start
Free, Open mic
Raffle with raffle prizes
the best reader gets the raffle money, so bring your friends to vote!

Come now dont be shy, cos the best readers of the year will go on a live cd!

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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The Grass ain't always greener

You wake up

and look at her asleep

notice the lines under her eyes

the extra weight around the face

and you wonder if maybe

the grass is greener

somewhere else

but can you really imagine

that girl at the checkout

ever talking to you

in a bar

And anyway does she see the grey

in your hair

notice the slouch of yr shoulders

as you get up

trying not to breathe on her

because you know yr breath

smells of beer and cigarettes

and those mints you suck on

to try and hide the smell

of yr late night tipple

of green ginger wine

before bed

maybe she’s been wondering too

just how green that grass is

So you suck yr gut in

and offer her breakfast in bed

thinking as you walk to the kitchen

that maybe

you should spend some more time

at home

and cut down on the mints

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