Monthly Archives: August 2005

Melbourne’s This Is Serious Mum took a highly cavalier attitude to their 1995 box set Complete Recordings 86-94. For one thing, the earliest recording on it was from 1981, and for another they left off about a third of the … Continue reading →

Quickie for the curious – here’s a live version of Battleflag from after The Wrekked Train quit, from one of who-knows-how-many US tours. And just because I couldn’t crowbar them in yesterday: by the second album, the band had sadly … Continue reading →

Lo-Fidelity Allstars got lumped in with two different scenes on their emergence in 1997 – the then-peaking “big beat”, and the never-got-off-the-sofa “skunk rock”. More than anything, though, they were the first group of kids who’d grown up on acid … Continue reading →

Okay, it’s been a few days because I’ve been ill, and I’m still too sick to type much – so here’s a big one to cover the next four days, when I’m bolting interstate. The Fiery Furnaces came to Australia … Continue reading →

Okay, so the Happy Mondays haven’t had any kind of comprehensive reissue program (yet). But their catalogue has been so badly handled that they deserve consideration. Apart from introducing E to Manchester, inventing indie-dance, being Martin Hannett’s last hurrah, giving … Continue reading →

We haven’t had anything by a cartoonist yet this week, have we? Not that I’ve got an endless supply, but might as well keep it a running theme for as long as I think of it… Walt Kelly, after early … Continue reading →

The Pet Shop Boys were characteristically more methodical about the process of their own reissue program, a couple of years ago. Not for them the grab-bag approach of demos, muddy live tapes, the occasional side-project: they wilfully make (now-venerable) b-side … Continue reading →

You know my favourite thing about the current trend for elaborate remaster programs for a band’s entire catalogue, coupling every album with a discful of b-sides, singles, remixes, demos and phone messages from the drummer’s mum? It’s that in so … Continue reading →