scientists

Once upon a time, a review of the first album from Lubricated Goat could have used the line: “There’s something here to offend everyone” and left it at that. In these days of live-streamed jihadi beheadings, jaded millennials and older people with permanent confected outrage, however, you have to do better than that.

Most people will recall The Goat from their appearance on the Australian national broadcaster, nude and lip-synching a song called “In The Raw”. Yes, they flashed their wedding tackle. A media meltdown followed.

Of course the raison d’etre was to outrage. To go to a Lubricated Goat show in Sydney in the late ‘80s at Max’s Petersham Inn or The Evil Star you had to be severely disconnected from the rest of society, chasing the band’s offer of free beer for turning up naked or on smack.

 _{Tom Verlaine turns on Television.}

The Palais & The Prince of Wales, St Kilda, Melbourne, October 26, 2013

I have a lot time for the All Tomorrows Parties as a festival, it is ultra-cool. Awesome vibe. In fact, my festival going was a dim memory since the late Nineties until the ATP Sydney Cockatoo Island of a few years ago. It a lineup of was The Saints, Rowland S. Howard and Bad Seeds. No brainer really, It was an awesome day. Nor, was it a no brainer to get down to Melbourne for another dose of ATP with a lineup that included Jesus Lizard, Television, Scientists, Breeders and the Roland S Howard tribute Pop Crimes.

The second episode of the I-94 Bar Internet TV show "Monday Evening Gunk" streams live this Monday at 7.30pm (AEST) from the Moshpit Bar in Sydney with swamp rock legend Kim Salmon the special guest.

This week's co-hosts Jay Katz and Tiffany Palmer will talk to Kim about his new album with the Surrealists, "Rantings From The Book of Swamp", as well as matters to do with the Scientists, the Beasts of Bourbon and his numerous other musical and art projects. 

"Monday Evening Gunk" is free and comes to you from Moshpit, Zenn Stream, City of Sydney Council and Coopers beer. You can watch it on the Moshpit Facebook page here and register for a reminder at the associated Facebook event here. 

_{Boris Sujdovic, Tony Pola, Kim Salmon, Tex Perkins and Charlie Owen are The Beasts.}

The Beasts of Bourbon formed, somewhat by accident, in 1984. If you were 12 today, would you really be inclined to take the trouble to listen to something recorded by a bunch of blokes who started back then?

Well, the hell with your boring old 12-year-old self. The new album by the Beasts of Bourbon's direct descendants, The Beasts, is called "Still Here" and it rates seven (if not eight) bottles (out of five) in my books. It's really simple: "Still Here" is essential if, as you claim, you're a Beasts of Bourbon fan, or if you think of yourself as someone who loves rock'n'roll. 

_{Photo by Greg Walsh of Grinda Pics}

If they paid musicians retrospectively for being ahead of their time, iconic Australian drummer James Baker would be a billionaire. Picture his teen years growing up in The World’s Most Isolated Capital City (that’d be Perth) at the far end of Australia (that’s Western Australia.)

As if an inaugural US tour with the Scientists wasn’t memorable enough, Kim Salmon is packing a lot more into the back-end of 2019 and the kick-off of 2020. 

He’s launching his Douglas Galbraith-penned biography, “Nine Parts Water One Part Sand. Kim Salmon And The Formula For Grunge” in Melbourne on November 9, heading a bill that includes King Congo (backed by Harry Howard and the NDE) and Dave Graney and the MistLY.

Salmon is being inducted with the Scientists in the WA Music Hall of Fame on October 31 – along with former teen idol and Young Talent Time TV host, Johnny Young (!)

Iconic bands recording new music years after their prime-time is fraught with peril. Recapturing old magic is nigh impossible when every member has inevitably moved on, musically speaking. Only a few succeed.

The Scientists - as in the Salmon-Thewlis-Cowie (Chock)-Sudjovic line-up - have been an off-and-on, reformed concern for years, coming together for occasional festivals or the odd juicy support tour as, and when, members are available. They put together this five-song 12" vinyl EP between Australian shows and released it to promote their first US tour in 2019.

These days, their laboratory is spread over two continents with guitarist Tony Thewlis living in the UK and the rest of the band in Australia, so parts of the recording have been worked up inisolation and stitched together. Knowing how the sausage was made, in this case, doesn't detract from the taste. The EP, and the single (an updated oldie) that goes with it, rocks in its own uniquely primeval way. Completists should note that it was was proceeded by a digital-only single in 2017.

The Scientists have announced an extensive European tour in May-June, covering seven countries and featuring the band's classic 1986 line-up of Kim Salmon, Tony Thewlis, Boris Sudjovic and Leanne Cowie.  

The run follows an Australian tour of mostly sold-out shows.  

MAY
UNITED KINGDOM
31 - London @ The Borderline
JUNE
01 - Glasgow @ Nice & Sleazy
2 - Newcastle @ The Cluny 
3 - Brighton @ The Albert
FR
6 - Rennes @ Mondo Bizarro
7- Paris @ Petit Bain
8 - Périgueux @ Le Sans Réserve 
GERMANY
13 - Freiburg @ Café Atlantik 
14 - Berlin @ The Roadrunner’s Paradise Club 
DENMARK
15 - Copenhagen @ Loppen
NORWAY 
16 - Oslo @ Krøsset
ITALY
29 - Salsomaggiore Terme @ Festival BEAT #26

Expectations are one thing. Outcomes are another. The Scientists reformation (as in 35th anniversary of the original line-up) show at Sydney’s Factory Theatre failed to deliver for any number of reasons.

Pro Tools were bloody good. Drums bass guitar. Bassist I've seen before. Guitar is now Pete 'the Stud', who is a ridiculously talented, good natured show off. And damn good value. See them if they come to town, track them down and invite them if that society wedding promises to be a bit dreary.

_{Tony Thewlis and Kim Salmon fronting the Scientists at Sydney's Southern Cross Hotel in 1982.}

The Scientists at their peak were unmatchable. A glorious collision of droning, caustic, fuzz guitars, minimalist bass, anguished lyrics about alienation and ominous, funereal rhythms, they created something unique after landing in Sydney in 1981. 

Originally ragged New York Dolls-inspired popsters back in Perth, the re-constituted Scientists stripped their music back to its darkest roots, concoting their own brand of psychedelia and incorporating influences like Suicide, the Stooges and Captain Beefheart.

Too big for their own Surry Hills backyard, the band moved to the UK in 1982 and, in typical expatriate Australian underground band fashion, starved before going on to influence countless other acts into the ‘90s and beyond.

This year I’m going to go with an all Australian bands top 5 of reissues / older stuff and a top 10 of new stuff.

Old Stuff (in no particular order):

1. SHUTDOWN 66 – Come On Girl Give Me Half A Chance.
Reissue of their 4^th and final long play release, the original was very limited and is super hard to find, so I was stoked to hear that Soundflat Records from Germany was reissuing this awesome garage punk LP.

2. ASTEROID B-612 – S/T
The CD only debut long-player got a long overdue vinyl reissue this year from Spain’s Bang! Records. 

3. THE LIPSTICK KILLERS – “Strange Flash”
One of the most highly anticipated releases from earlier in the year. A great collection of awesome studio and live recordings.

4. THE PROTON ENERGY PILLS – S/T
A collection of their studio releases. A fantastically packaged deluxe gatefold album.

5. BORED! – "Back For More" and BORED! – "Feed The Dog"
A couple of great releases came out this year from Bored! “Back For More” (Bang!) is an awesome compilation with songs spanning the bands career, and “Feed The Dog” (Fantastic Mess) got the reissue treatment with a couple of bonus songs thrown in.

10. JAMES DOMESTIC – “FAZE OUT”
This just scrapes in as a debut single but by the time The Domestics’ frontman’s album emerges this Spring, it’ll be a shoo-in for end of year lists. A brilliant first effort, “Faze Out” keeps some of the East Anglian hardcore pioneers’ energy but cloaks his Dury-ish man-in-the-pub spiel in junskshop electronica.

9. VIEWS – “MOTHER TAPES ANTHOLOGY 1986-1990”
Not sure how this lot passed me by in my student days, but this double from Area Pirata is an excellent introduction to (or reminder of) Brescia band Views. One for paisley underground fans, they borrow the Dü’s knack for belligerence and melody with occasional wigouts into Yo La Tengo lightheadedness.

8. SONNY VINCENT – “SNAKE PIT THERAPY”
STILL one of punk’n’roll’s best-kept secrets, Sonnycame within a Rizla’s breadth of going overground and not a moment too soon. The Limit album that came out earlier in the year, fronted by Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling, brought him a whole new audience, but this is really what he does best. A confident resurgence considering the trials of recent years.

Kim Salmon’s creative productivity knows no bounds. While he occasionally looks backwards, re-visiting his Scientists and Beasts of Bourbon history in the live sense, for example, the overwhelming sense with Salmon is one of overwhelming momentum.

That’s the case with “True West”, his latest project which pairs him with late period Scientists drummer Leanne Cowie (nee Chock) to be his most vital sounding record since “Sin Factory”.