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Monday, April 27, 2020

Mudhoney: March To Fuzz 2000


Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1988, following the demise of Green River. Mudhoney's members are singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the band in 1999.


Mudhoney's early releases on the Sub Pop label, particularly their debut single "Touch Me I'm Sick" and the Superfuzz Bigmuff EP, were massively influential on the Seattle music scene. More than almost any other release of the era they inspired the dirty, high-distortion sound that would become grunge. Later on, Mudhoney also mixed heavy blues rock and punk rock into their sound at various stages. Although the band has found little commercial success during its long career, which has yielded ten studio albums, it has inspired countless grunge and alternative rock musicians.


SUB POP: 1988–1991

Turner wanted to start a band that rehearsed before playing to a live audience. He and Arm began songwriting with Bundle of Hiss drummer Dan Peters. The trio decided that Matt Lukin, who had recently left Melvins, should join the band as bassist. They named themselves after the Russ Meyer film Mudhoney.


In 1988, the band recorded and released their debut EP, Superfuzz Bigmuff, and their first single, "Touch Me I'm Sick", on the Sub Pop label. The single attracted attention and the band enjoyed moderate success in the United States. Mudhoney quickly became Sub Pop's flagship band. Sonic Youth, who were fans of the band, had invited Mudhoney to join them for a tour in the UK in 1989. After this tour Superfuzz Bigmuff entered the British indie charts and they received a respectable amount of press coverage. The band released their first album, Mudhoney, in 1989.


Kurt Cobain listed Superfuzz Bigmuff as one of his favourite albums in his journal in 1993.
They released their second album, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, in 1991. After the album's release they were offered a deal with Reprise Records, and they joined the label in 1992.
After a few years of touring, Reprise decided to release Mudhoney. Subsequently, Lukin left the band. They released March to Fuzz, a retrospective compilation album.


In 2011, Pearl Jam had Mudhoney open for them on their 20th Anniversary tour. They were chosen by Mogwai to perform in May 2012 at the All Tomorrow's Parties 'I'll Be Your Mirror' festival at Alexandra Palace, London. In April 2013 the band put out their ninth studio album Vanishing Point on the independent label Sub Pop.

MARCH TO FUZZ


March to Fuzz is a two-disc compilation album. It was released in January 2000 by Sub Pop Records. Disc 1 is a collection of the band's most popular songs, such as "Here Comes Sickness" and "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More." Disc 2 is a collection of rare tracks, b-sides such as "Butterfly Stroke," and covers such as "The Money Will Roll Right In."
The booklet that comes with the digipak album features an introduction by Bruce Pavitt, "Corporate Associate." The remainder of the booklet includes comments by Mark Arm and Steve Turner about each of the 52 songs.


[ AllMusic Review by Steve Huey  [-]

Mudhoney was most convincing when the 7" recording format limited their more indulgent tendencies. In general (especially early on), their albums were always peppered with great songs -- usually variations on the band's trademark scuzzy sound and sneering attitude -- but rarely sustained momentum all the way through, thanks in part to the band's weakness for ponderous jams.


The sorely needed, two-disc best-of March to Fuzz attempts to have it both ways: the first disc is a generous, 22-track overview of their recordings from 1988-1998, while the second compiles 30 rarities for the devotees. It's a tactic that's been used before, and it's usually maddening, giving both casual and die-hard fans an entire disc they don't want. But March to Fuzz actually works very well. For one, it's not priced as a double-disc set, and for another, both discs are actually very strong.


Mudhoney's sound didn't change very much over the course of their career, which means that even though disc one isn't arranged chronologically, everything is pretty much of a piece. It's also very well chosen, even if the surprisingly strong latter-day albums My Brother the Cow and Tomorrow Hit Today aren't heavily represented. But the disc makes a convincing case that Mudhoney never stopped making bruising, vital rock & roll, or writing great (albeit samey) songs.


The rarities disc is surprisingly entertaining, featuring plenty of cover versions, cranky goofs, and songs that were certainly better than some of their album tracks, but were relegated to B-sides or indie compilations. Their '60s garage and surf roots are actually summed up very effectively here, as well as their love of early-'80s hardcore. March to Fuzz might be a little hard to handle all in one sitting, but it's hard to imagine a better overview of Mudhoney's career.]


[Sid Smith 2007

Before it became the birthplace of grunge, the Pacific Northwest city of Seattle was probably best known as the birth place of Jimi Hendrix, and whilst Hendrix had to up sticks and go and seek out the wider world, true to type, the nascent grunge movement with its slacker slouch turned up the max shrugged its shoulders, skinned up and hung around for the world to come and find them.


That the world took any notice or even cared at all, was probably due to the sounds emanating from Sub Pop Records and a clutch of proto-grunge releases by the likes of Green River. Having pretty much knocked together the whole grunge template, when Green River washed up in 1988, guitarists Mark Arm and Steve Turner formed Mudhoney as a vehicle for their continuing and most excellent adventures in sound.


Whereas Nirvana tended toward solemnity and sonic belligerence, the overriding Mudhoney vibe is one of surprisingly good humour. There’s a lot of fun to be had. “Who You Driving Now?” detonates spiky parcels of distortion at such jaunty angles it’s impossible not to warm to it. “Generation Genocide” pokes fun at the dopey jam-band vernacular, whilst “Judgement, Rage, Retribution and Thyme” sticks the finger at self-reflecting obsession with a smattering of slide and marimba that suggests Zappa and Beefheart can’t have been too far away from the turntable that day.


As eclectic as they are electric, they have an unshakable belief in the rightness of the fuzz pedal: “A Thousand Forms Of Mind” giving vent to a Black Sabbath fixation and a more than credible Ozzie impersonation.
Disc 2 also has a smattering of cover versions including a previously unreleased wacky take on Roxy Music’s “Editions Of You.” Homage to Elvis Costello can also be found in a very faithful, though uneventful, “Pump It Up,” included here for no other reason than they like playing it and I suppose, that’s reason enough.


Released in 2000, March To Fuzz marshalled a bunch of rarities, b-sides and a career through-view into an indispensable package that actually lives up the 'best of' moniker.]

DISC 1. - BEST OF


01. In 'n' Out of Grace
02. Suck You Dry
03. I Have to Laugh
04. Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More
05. Who You Driving Now?
06. You Got It
07. Judgement, Rage, Retribution, and Thyme
08. Into The Drink
09. A Thousand Forms of Mind
10. Generation Genocide
11. If I Think
12. Here Comes Sickness
13. Let It Slide
14. Touch Me I’m Sick
15. This Gift
16. Good Enough
17. Blinding Sun
18. Into Your Shtik
19. Beneath the Valley of the Underdog
20. When Tomorrow Hits
21. Make It Now Again
22. Hate the Police

DISC 2. - RARITIES AND B - SIDES 


01. Hey Sailor
02. Twenty Four
03. Baby Help Me Forget (Mr. Epp and the Calculations)
04. Revolution (Spacemen 3)
05. You Stupid Asshole (Angry Samoans)
06. Who Is Who (The Adolescents)
07. Stab Your Back (The Damned)
08. Pump It Up (Elvis Costello)
09. The Money Will Roll Right In (Fang)
10. Fix Me (Black Flag)
11. Dehumanized (Void)
12. She's Just 15 (Billy Childish)
13. Baby O Baby (Suicide)
14. Over the Top (Motörhead)
15. You Give Me the Creeps (The Crucifucks)
16. March to Fuzz
17. Ounce of Deception
18. Paperback Life
19. Bushpusher Man
20. Fuzzbuster
21. Overblown
22. Run Shithead Run
23. King Sandbox
24. Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown (Jimmie Dale Gilmore)
25. Holden (Jimmie Dale Gilmore/Reed)
26. Not Going Down That Road Again
27. Brand New Face
28. Drinking for Two
29. Butterfly Stroke
30. Editions of You (Roxy Music)

HATE THE POLICE  LYRICS


Mommy, mommy, mommy
Look at your son
You might have loved me
But now I got a gun
You better stay out of my way
I think I've had a bad day
I've had a bad day
I've had a bad day

Daddy, daddy, daddy
Proud of your son
He got him a good job
Killing niggers and Mexicans
I'll tell you something, and it's true
You can't find justice, it'll find you
It'll find you
It'll find you

People tell policemen
They've met their match
Down in them desert sands
The Dicks were hatched
Dicks hates policemen, and it's true
You can't find justice, it'll find you
It'll find you
It'll find you

HERE COMES SICKNESS LYRICS


Heh

Here comes sickness
Walking down my street
Shaking her hips
Like she's some kinda treat
All the neighborhood dogs
Licking at her feet
Here comes sickness
Here comes sickness
Here comes sickness
Walking down my street
Yeah

Here comes sickness
Moving up my block
When she comes to my house
I hope she don't knock
All the neighborhood dogs
Sniffing at her crotch
Here comes sickness
Here comes sickness
Here comes sickness
Moving up my block
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah, yeah

There goes sickness
In my daddy's car
Good riddance to the both of you
I hope you go far
All the neighborhood dogs
Should be drunk in the bar
There goes sickness
There goes sickness
There goes sickness

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Matching Mole: Little Red Record 1972



Upon leaving SOFT MACHINE in 1971 after their "Fourth" album, Robert WYATT decided to form a new band which he named MATCHING MOLE (from the French translation of SOFT MACHINE). He recruited Dave Sinclair of CARAVAN to play keybaords along with guitarist Phil Miller (ex-DELIVERY) and QUIET SUN bassist Bill MacCormick. They made two albums both released in 1972, a self-titled and "Little Red Record", the latter featuring Dave MacRae on keys in place of Sinclair. 


Phil Miller soon left to join HATFIELD AND THE NORTH, and Wyatt was planning on recording a third album in 1973, but due to his unfortunate accident this never came to pass, leaving the band permanently disbanded. The two records, however, are outstanding examples of what was great about much of the Canterbury scene of the time - superb, challenging musicianship coupled with a quirky sense of humor - and in the case of MATCHING MOLE's second record, a bit of political commentary as well.


[The early 70s was a tumultuous time for Robert Wyatt who in just a few short years went from performing in the prime years of Soft Machine to undergoing the tragic accident which left him paralyzed from the waist down but in between these two extremes he generated some of his most ambitious works in a short 11 month timespan from October 1971 to September 1972 in his own whacky Canterbury creation MATCHING MOLE which is perhaps the most experimental and adventurous phase of his entire career.


While the eponymous debut album was essentially a solo album allowing Wyatt to exercise complete control over every single aspect of the project, he discovered that he needed a little guidance from his friends who were now his bandmates so the floodgates were opened and the creative juices flowed on overdrive.


This all-star cast which included Caravan keyboardist David Sinclair, Phil Miller of Carol Crimes and Delivery, Bill MacCormick of Quiet Sun and supplemental New Zealand born keyboardist Dave
MacRae were instrumental in keeping Wyatt focused and allowing the first album to come to fruition. After Wyatt realized his ideas were better with the contributions of other members, on the second installation of the MATCHING MOLE universe the democratic process was allowed to flourish with the entire band participating and in the process giving the album a much larger and more diverse overall span of ideas than the debut. Sinclair opted to skip a reprise and get back to Caravan but MacRae was more than willing to take over and jumped into the driver's seat with his distinctive Fender Rhodes sound and after many years Wyatt admitted that he was the first choice in the first place as he had been quite impressed with MacRae's adaptable stylistic approaches in the Buddy Rich Band as well as with Ian Carr's Nucleus.


LITTLE RED RECORD's title referred to Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book" published in 1964 with an album cover that mocked the posters that were created during the Chinese Cultural Revolution but the music is for the most part far from a political revolutionary take on the world's politics but rather an experimental mix of much of what had been gestating in the early years of the prog rock scene. In many ways MATCHING MOLE began the classic Canterbury jazz sounds that have become that indescribable jazz-rock sound that binds this nebulous sub-genre into its own category, however on LITTLE RED RECORD the jazz-rock elements are fortified with long experimental psychedelic sequences more reminiscent of the transcendental Krautrock bands from Germany such as the hypnotic bass grooves of Amon Duul II as well as the escape-the-gravitational-pull-of-the-planet trippiness of Can.


Add some avant-prog angularities and LITTLE RED RECORD stands out as one of the early 70s most creative slices of prog tucked away into the Canterbury corner. Also making this album a bit larger than life is the inclusion of King Crimson's Robert Fripp as producer as well as a cameo appearance by Brian Eno who adds some synthesizer wizardry on the album's mega-tripper, the anti- gravity generating "Gloria Gloom." Ruby Crystal, a pseudonym for the British actress Julie Christie also adds some vocals on "Nan True's Hole" which is obviously a nod to Gong's stellar space
whisperer Gilli Smyth. All of these players conspired to take MATCHING MOLE beyond the established limits of both rock and jazz and created a veritable smorgasbord of compositional mastery with the embellished improvisation in perfect psychedelic splendor. The album begins with all the whimsical no nonsense humor one could hope for with the opening "Starting in the Middle of the Day We Can Drink Our Politics Away" with a hypnotic vocal performance and repetitive keyboard arpeggios before breaking into the heavy jazz-rocking antics performed on "Marchides" which finds some groovy fuzzy psych guitar riffs, bombastic drumming fury and nice jazzy chord progressions that add a touch of Daevid Allen inspired vocal rants. The extended play finds a nice groovy bass line in looped action with the keys, guitars and drums adding heavenly variations. The tracks blend together seamlessly as it cedes to "Nan True's Hole" displays a nice bass groove, fuzz guitar and female conversations tucked beneath. "Righteous Rhumba" is the most Gong sounding track on the album that adopts the Daevid Allen vocal rants of Gong and superimposes them over the Phil Miller guitar riffs and Wyatt drumming wizardry. "Brandy As In Benj" follows suit.


One of the highlights of the album is the lengthy 8 minute "Gloria Gloom" which is the only track to actually critique Wyatt's reflections on socialism but also takes the world of Canterbury jazz into a more German sounding psychedelic haze of Krautrock. Unlike the majority of the album's tracks that
entertain that warm and fuzzy feel that Canterbury Scene elements evoke, this begins as a cold industrial suffocating cloud but after some conversational dialogue the track evolves into a variable jazz-fusion powerhouse that deftly finds the familiar Canterbury sounds trading off with the frigid progressive electronic and Krautrock soundscapes that punctuate the album's run. "God Song" is a tender prognosticator of Wyatt's future solo works beginning with his heart wrenching "Rock Bottom." Both the final two tracks "Flora Flight" and "Smoke Signal" tackle more technically infused Canterbury jazz-rock chops that showcase the band's excellent instrumental interplay.


This one seems to divide the prog world between those who prefer a more straight forward approach and those who love the wild and unrestrained experimental boldness. I fall into the latter as i find this album would sound a little sterile if it weren't for the explorative nature of Krautish escapist portals
and extended instrumental improvisations. This is a well balanced album in those regards as things are never allowed to steal the show for an over extended amount of time. Unfortunately MATCHING MOLE was never to record a third album. The band broke up in September 1972 after a tour with Soft Machine as Miller joined Sinclair in forming Hatfield and the North and although Wyatt reformed the band which consisted of MacCormick, ex-Curved Air keyboardist Francis Monkman and jazz saxophonist Gary Windo to record a third album, all of that was quashed when Wyatt fell from a window in June 1973 which changed his life forever as he was unable to continue as a drummer. For my money, LITTLE RED RECORD is one of Wyatt's crowning achievements. The dense complexities require multiple listens for the magic to present itself but i'm personally blown away by this album. One of the highlights in my personal Canterbury Scene.]

TRACKS


A. Total Time: 21:50

1. Starting In The Middle Of The Day We Can Drink Our Politics Away (Written-By – D. McRae)  2:31
2. Marchides (Written-By – D. McRae)  8:25
3. Nan True's Hole (Written-By – P. Miller)  3:37
4. Righteous Rhumba (Written-By – P. Miller)  2:50
5. Brandy As In Benj  (Written-By – D. McRae)  4:24

B.  Total Time: 11:06

6. Gloria Gloom  (Synthesizer – Super-Star-ENO-V.C.S.3) (Written-By – B. MacCormick) 8:05
7. God Song  (Written-By – P. Miller)  2:59

C.  Total Time: 10:12

8. Flora Fidgit (Synthesizer [Eno's Synthesizer Keyboard] – Dave McRae) (Written-By – B. MacCormick) 3:27
9. Smoke Signal (Written-By – D. McRae) 6:38

Credits

Backing Vocals – Der Mütter Korus
Backing Vocals [Der Mütter Korus] – Little Honest Injun, Ruby Crystal
Backing Vocals [Der Mütter Korus], Liner Notes – Dave Gale
Bass – Bill MacCormick
Composed By [Extremely Silly Voice Parts], Performer [Extremely Silly Voice Parts] – Robert Wyatt
Drums, Vocals [Mouth] – Robert Wyatt
Engineer – Mike FitzHenry
Engineer [Assistant] – Don Parker (2)
Executive-Producer, Management – Sean Murphy
Grand Piano [Grahnd Piano], Electric Piano, Organ [Hammond] – Dave McRae
Guitar – Phil Miller
Management [Assistant] – Tony Wigens
Producer – Robert Fripp



Notes

Recorded at CBS Studios, London, this Summer '72.
Originally released in 1972.

Label: Columbia ‎– COL 471488-2, Columbia ‎– 471488 2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue
Country: Europe
Released: 1992
Genre: Jazz, Rock
Style: Jazz-Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock


Sunday, April 19, 2020

Ed Kuepper: Black Ticket Day 1992 - Heart Of New Wane (Best Of Ed Kuepper) 1995


Edmund "Ed" Kuepper was born on 20 December 1955 in Bremen, then part of West Germany. His family migrated to Australia in the 1960s and settled in Brisbane. is a German-born Australian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.


He co-founded the punk band The Saints (1973–78), the experimental post-punk group Laughing Clowns (1979–85) and the grunge-like The Aints! (1991–94, 2017–present). 


He has also recorded over a dozen albums as a solo artist using a variety of backing bands. His highest charting solo album, Honey Steel's Gold, appeared in November 1991 and reached No. 28 on the ARIA Albums Chart. His other top 50 albums are Black Ticket Day (August 1992), Serene Machine (March 1993) and Character Assassination (August 1994).


At the ARIA Music Awards of 1993 he won Best Independent Release for Black Ticket Day and won the same category in 1994 for Serene Machine. 

THE SAINTS: 1973 - 1978 


Ed Kuepper's music career began in 1973 when he formed The Saints in Brisbane initially as a garage band, Kid Galahad and the Eternals. The line-up was Kuepper on lead guitar, Chris Bailey on lead vocals and Ivor Hay on piano. Early in the next year Hay switched to bass guitar and Jeffrey Wegener joined on drums, and they were renamed as The Saints.


Their early sound was a hybrid of Howlin' Wolf, Pretty Things, and The Stooges, it "eventually coalesced into [their] own distinctive sound as defined by Kuepper's frenetic, whirlwind guitar style and Bailey's arrogant snarl" according to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane. By 1975 Hay switched to drums when Wegener left and Kym Bradshaw joined on bass guitar.


The group had difficulty finding performance venues: they converted Bailey and Hay's share-house into a music venue, 76 Club.

EARLY SOLO CAREER: 1985 - 1990


Early in 1985 Ed Kuepper started his solo career by recording his debut album, Electrical Storm (June 1985), which was co-produced with Bruce Callaway (New Christs) for Hot Records. For the album he provided vocals, guitars: electric, acoustic and bass, and mandolin; he also used Callaway on guitar, Nick Fisher on drums, and Louis Tillett on piano. McFarlane described the album as "stark and angular". While Bush felt it was "surprisingly pop-oriented".


At the ARIA Music Awards of 1992 he was nominated for Best Independent Release for the album. Kuepper won Best Independent Australian Release in 1993, for Black Ticket Day (August 1992), and in 1994 for Serene Machine (March 1993). Black Ticket Day and Serence Machine had each reached No. 45.

THE AINTS AND MORE SOLO WORK: 1990 - 1994 


In April 1991 Kuepper formed a grunge-like band, The Aints, with Kuepper on guitar and vocals; and initially the line-up had Tim Reeves on drums; and Kent Steedman (also in The Celibate Rifles) on bass guitar. McFarlane noted that they quickly released "three fiery, distortion-drenched albums": S.L.S.Q (May 1991), Ascension (December) and Auto-cannibalism (June 1992). McFarlane further elaborated that with "blistering, guitar-heavy tracks ... these albums were the antithesis of Ed's solo work".

BLACK TICKET DAY  1992

Black Ticket Day is the sixth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1992 and released on the Hot label.
The album spent 2 weeks in the Australian charts in 1992 peaking at number 45. Black Ticket Day was awarded an ARIA for the Best Independent Release and was a nominee for Best Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 1993.


The Allmusic review by Roch Parisien states "Even at his most gorgeously melodic, there's always a dark, mournful tinge to Kuepper's work. His ability to combine beauty with sadness and basic pop structures with extended improvisation can be mesmerizing".

In May 2010, Kuepper & Bailey reunited for a monthlong tri-residency series of shows in Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne. With Kuepper on electric guitar/vocals & Bailey on acoustic guitar/bass guitar/vocals they played a selection of songs from both solo careers and post-Kuepper Saints, as well as a few covers.
Ed Kuepper is credited with guitar (acoustic, electric, bass, slide), vocals, banjo, mandolin, keyboard, percussion, composer, producer, mixing, remastering


Label: Hot Records ‎– HOT 1040CD
Format: CD, Album
Country: Australia
Released: 1992
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Alternative rock
Recorded at Electric Avenue Studio, Rozelle, Sydney, Australia.

TRAXS

1. It's Lunacy     3:58
2. Blind Girl Stripper     9:03
3. Real Wild Life     3:53
4. All My Ideas Run To Crime     5:47
5. Black Ticket Day     4:43
6. Helps Me Understand     5:42
7. There's Nothing Natural     3:50
8. Walked Thin Wires     6:41

PERSONEL

Ed Kuepper - vocals, guitar
Mark Dawson - drums, percussion
Sir Alfonso - bass, string arrangements
Peter Bull - piano, organ
Tim Hopkins - saxophone
Cameron Lundy - string bass
Paula Punch - vocals
The Hub String Quartet (track 2)

IT'S LUNACY LYRICS


Now all through seasons that have passed
We played this game called "it's a farce"
We had our parts down to a tee
We made theatrical history
But I won't bow to play the game
I won't try hard to save the day

It's lunacy
It's lunacy

We spoke of love felt in our hearts
We spoke of things that never passed
It reminds me every now and then
I thought I was your only friend

Now I don't care if I spend my dough
I'll go to the baker's shop and get some more
But I never thought I'd see the day
That I could finish a song that way

It's lunacy
It's lunacy


HEART OF NEW WAVE  (BEST OF ED KUEPPER)  1995
This CD was given with the Greek music magazine POP & ROCK



LAUGHING CLOWNS: 1979 - 1985

Ed Kuepper returned to Sydney late in 1978 and considered retiring from the music industry. However, in April 1979 he had formed Laughing Clowns as a rock, soul and avant-jazz group. He
provided lead guitar, lead vocals and banjo; with former bandmate Wegener on drums; Bob Farrell on saxophone; and Ben Wallace-Crabbe on bass guitar.
Early in the next year, Ben's cousin Dan Wallace-Crabbe (ex-Crime & the City Solution guitarist) joined on piano. In May 1980 they issued their debut self-titled six-track EP on Missing Link Records, which was produced by Kuepper. AllMusic's John Bush described their sound as "jazzier and quite a bit more experimental than" The Saints.
 

Meanwhile, Kuepper and the group's manager, Ken West, started up their own label, Prince Melon Records, to release early work by Laughing Clowns. Laughing Clowns subsequently issued three studio albums, Mr Uddich Schmuddich Goes to Town (May 1982), Law of Nature (April 1984 on Hot Records), and Ghosts of an Ideal Wife (June 1985).


During July 1984 Kuepper rejoined The Saints on bass guitar as a touring musician alongside Bailey, Chris Burnham on lead guitar, and Iain Shedden on drums. However "old conflicts arose and he left" according to McFarlane. Laughing Clowns disbanded early in 1985 as Kuepper started his solo career.

THE AINTS (1991–1994)


Australian Alternative/ Punk rock band starting as a three-piece playing around Sydney in 1991. Their name is a witty pun on The Saints , the band lead singer and guitarist Ed Kuepper had formed with Chris Bailey in Brisbane in 1973.
In 2017, Kuepper decided it was time to revisit the music of his youth and assembled a new band to perform shows throughout Australia, playing material from The Saints  catalogue from 1973–1978. In September 2018, The Aints! released what is in essence the long lost fourth album by The (original) Saints. 


The Aints is a band name used by Ed Kuepper during his prolific early 1990s period for loud, feedback-drenched three-piece performance and recordings. In 2017, Kuepper convened a new iteration, this time known as The Aints!.
The name is a variation on The Saints, the band Kuepper had formed with Chris Bailey in Brisbane in the early 1970s. It apparently derived from an old Saints bass drum head on which the initial letter "S" had worn off.


Kuepper has stated his aim with The Aints was to recapture the energy of the Saints in the late 1970s. Although the band's set started with Saints material, the sound of the band was more a driving three-piece with Neil Young-style feedback. The later original material featured saxophone and a more free-form approach.


The band started playing around Sydney on 13 April 1991 with Kuepper (guitar, vocals), Kent Steedman (bass) and Tim Reeves (drums). They quickly released a recording of this first show, S.L.S.Q – Very Live!, recorded on cassette, sold at shows as well as in shops. (The name stands for "Strictly Limited Sound Quality" or "Slightly Limited Sound Quality".) This recording and the Australian tour shows of 1991 consisted of old Saints material.


In this period, Kuepper was releasing new albums at a rate of roughly three a year. The Aints were quickly added to this release cycle. With Artie Sledge (bass), Mark Dawson (drums) and Tim
Hopkins (sax), the Aints released two albums of original songs: Ascension in November 1991 and Autocannibalism in 1992, both on Hot Records.
Hot issued a five-track CD EP compilation, Cheap Erotica, in November 1993, and a compilation, Shelflife Unlimited!!! – Hotter Than Blazing Pistols!!!, in August 1995. A third Aints album called Afterlife was recorded but never issued.
The Aints! (2017–present)

In 2017, Kuepper enlisted bassist Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys), drummer Paul Larsen Loughhead (The Celibate Rifles/The New Christs), jazz pianist Alister Spence, and trumpeter and brass arranger Eamon Dilworth. The band performed shows throughout Australia in 2017–2018, primarily focusing on material from The Saints' catalogue (1973–1978).
The debut studio album from the group (now known as 'The Aints!') is The Church of Simultaneous Existence, and features songs written by Kuepper in and around his tenure in The Saints. The album was released on 21 September 2018, through ABC Music. It debuted at number 82 on the ARIA Albums Chart.


Ed Kuepper ‎– Heart Of New Wave - The Best Of Ed Kuepper
Label: Ποπ + Ροκ ‎– Ροκ 01, Penguin ‎– Ροκ 01, Hot Records ‎– Ροκ 01
Format: CD, Compilation, Promo, Not For Sale
Country: Only in Greece
Released: 1995
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie, Alternative Rock

Tracklist


01. Ed Kuepper: Pissed Off
[From the album; "A King In A Kindness Room" 1995]
02. Ed Kuepper: Little Eddie
[From the album: "Character Assasination"  1994]  
03. Ed Kuepper: Sleepyhead
[From the album: "Serena Machine"  1993] 
04. Ed Kuepper: It's Lunacy
[From the album: "Black Ticket Day"  1992]   
05. The Aints: Red Aces
[From the album: "Autocannibalism"  1992]   
06. Ed Kuepper: Friday Blue Cheer / Liberties Of Oxley
[From the album: "Honey Steel's Gold"  1991]   
07. The Aints:     It's Still Nowhere
[From the album: Ascension  1991]  
08. Ed Kuepper: Always The Woman Pays
[From the album: Today Wonder"  1990]    
09. Ed Kuepper: Not A Soul Around
[From the album: "Everybody's Got to"  1988]   
10. Ed Kuepper: Also Sprach Of The King Of Euro Disco
[From the album: " Butterfly Net" 1994  
11. Ed Kuepper: Electric Storm
[From the album: "Electrical Storm"  1985]    
12. Laughing Clowns: Ghost Of An Ideal Life
[From the album: " Ghosts Of An Ideal Life"  1985] 
13. Laughing Clowns: Possesions
[From the album: " Law Of nature"  1984]