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

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

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

FLAC Size: 315 MB

MP3 @ 320 Size: 101 MB

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.