Killer Clowns From Brisbane! Laughing Clowns Cruel But Fair!

You never know when Coulrophilia will strike. I think I just developed a case of it.

Meat and Drink to Me to hear the Clowns....

I'm listening to Ed Kuepper's post-Saints group right now, the Laughing Clowns. Cruel, But Fair, released in 2005 on Hot Records. It's taking me a while to navigate all three discs, basically the band's entire 5 year output. What a superb, one-of-a-kind band! The collection is a three disc circus of jazzy post-punk splendor.

Imagine a musician who as a member of the Saints, put out 3 of the best albums of the "punk era", and then put together a wildly innovative jazz-influenced post punk group dominated by horns and percussion! I mean, two amazing acts within a decade. Of course Kuepper has had a great run as a solo artist, and as the Aint's, his massively loud response to Chris Bailey's continued use of the Saints monicker. Listen to S.L.S.Q. (strictly limited sound quality!) and you'll see what I mean.

If you aren't familiar with the Saints, I would strongly recommend picking up the All Times Through Paradise box, or if you can find it the Raven Records release, Wild About You. Pretty essential music for music fans who like high-energy rock and roll. One of the greatest rock bands ever. Still have my fingers crossed, hoping they reunite again and do a few gigs in the American Northeast. They played some gigs in Australia fairly recently, but apparently they were one-offs.

But the Laughing Clowns, are quite a different animal altogether. The lineup must have raised the eyebrows of a few punters expecting music more in line with the old band. But this music is really just as brilliant and even more compromising than what he was doing before. The musicianship is first rate--and while Kuepper sings and writes the music, it is clearly a group creation, a great confluence of sonic ability.


I wouldn't call this Jazz-Rock, because there is a certain connotation to the term that would mislead you as to the nature of this music. If you view jazz music as a loose constructivist like me, yeah, you could call it that. If you view the genre narrowly, you can count it out. There are just too many sharp edges here. There are those fans that would inadvertently put jazz in mothballs, fill it with formaldehyde or stuff and mount it like a exercise in taxidermy. But everything evolves as long as people keep being creative. Probably the best way to look at it is, who cares? Maybe you could call it Jazziness, as defined like the new word coined by Steven Colbert, "truthiness.".

Certainly I think the songs are structured as rock/pop songs. There is not lot of lengthy improvisation; the instrumentation is different, dominated by drums and brass, the guitar downplayed a bit. Jeffery Wegener, the Laughing Clowns drummer is simply great, making everybody around him better. When all is said and done, these are Ed Kuepper songs. They could have been done with pedal steel and fiddles (well, sure there actually is banjo and violin in spots) in a a country western style and been good; instead the songs were infused with jazz rhythms, breaks and riffs, complex and evolving. Actually the Laughing Clowns remind me a little of the fake soundtrack work of John Zorn like Spillane and The Big Gundown, or his group Naked City, but with vocals. Or maybe John Lurie's Lounge Lizards.



The music is consistently exciting and challenging on all three discs in this collection. I was waiting for a bit of a let down or a drop in quality on this, but it never actually happened. And making music like this can't be easy at all. I can see how somebody could create a horrendous imitation of this. I've seen this selling for a lot of money used, but I just saw that the label Hot Records is still kicking, and they are selling it for 17 quid on their website. Well worth the expense. For a cheaper taste there is the History of Rock compilation that is also out there too.

Sclerotic Narcotic!! Continuum Turns 200!! Viva Brisvegas!!! The Saints--Wild About You!!!

Yes, my friends, this venerable blog has reached another milestone. 200 posts!!

Thank you friends. Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you...

Post 100 took us to the streets of Memphis and Big Star's mighty Third/Sister Lovers, and now we head across several ponds to the Antipodean other end of the musical world, Brisbane, Australia, to scale the top of the punk rock mountain for enlightenment from one of the very greatest bands ever, The Saints.

If you don't know what I am talking about, call a close friend and have them come over and smack you in the head.

The Saints are simply the best; as good as any punk band out there. If you love great rock and roll, this music needs to be a part of your musical world. The snottiest, hard rockingest, youthfully energetic, guitar thrashing, in your face punk rock there is. The easiest description is to say they are like an Australian Ramones, but that is far a too easy and not too apt statement. For one thing, before there were Ramones, before Sex Pistols and the only band that mattered, there was Edmund Kuepper, Chris Bailey, Ivor Hay, and
Kym Bradshaw, in the garage, doing what they wound up doing so well for three tremendous albums. Their music reminds me as much of super frenetic versions of 50's and 60's music. Their musical legacy has now influenced several generations of Australian bands.

Another great thing is their iconoclasm, their lack of tolerance for foolishness and clicquery. The same angry jaundiced worldview expressed in their songs was in turn directed at the insular and intolerance of punk rock. New club, different badges. A band unappreciated in their homeland until they made a splash in London. Getting criticized by punks in England for not fitting the mold, growing their hair long. It all seems pretty silly today, more popular delusions and the madness of crowds. A musical cultural movement that was under attack turning around and eating itself. I say listen to the music and let that be the final testament, if we need testaments at all. The Saints got shot by both sides, but sold out to noone. In the salad days of Green Day, Blink 182, etc. it seems kind of trite. But when I was in a band at College we couldn't get booked at the school pub because the student said "I hate the band and everything they stand for", whatever the hell that meant. So much for liberal arts.

Wild About You is a fantastic collection of all the studio recordings of the early Saints, when Ed Kuepper was still on guitar, released on Raven Records about 10 years ago. It contains their first three albums, (I'm Stranded, Eternally Yours, Prehistoric Sounds), cuts off of singles and eps, and a few unreleased numbers.
Outstanding from beginning to end. I know that many people draw a line in the sand between the second and third albums. I won't argue that on Prehistoric Sounds they took a different direction, slower, more like a traditional rock album, with great seamless use of a horn section. But only the most doctrinaire music fan can be dismissive of this album's merits. As I see it Prehistoric Sounds is still pretty terrific, but without the visceral thrill of the prior two albums. The same intelligence and attitude is there in an undiminished amount. It's a similar argument to Stiff Little Fingers Now Then... album. Very very good, but the fans don't go crazy when they hear "Big City Night" like they do "Suspect Device". It's difficult not to make such comparisons.

Of course, I haven't had the luxury of hearing the original Saints perform. I was hopeful that I would get a chance to see these guys. Despite all the enmity I had heard existed between Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey they got together for a few festivals in Australia. But as far as I know, the reunion was a temporary one, and there are no plans to take on a World Tour. I don't think they played the state ever so it wouldn't really be that nostalgic. I sort of hope that if they came to the US that they wouldn't be playing the Mercury Lounge or some such small venue. Of course in a selfish way, to see such an amazing band in a venue like Maxwell's in Hoboken which hold less than 200 people would be a pleasure I would feel very unguilty about. I guess I'm saying that I would hope that these guys would get the popular credit they deserve, beyond the critical accolades they've received.

The collection begins with a flat-out howling punk rock classic, the one that show up on compilations. I'm Stranded flings a defiant gauntlet to the world, taking on the tribulations of conservative life in Australia and defiantly standing up to the view of Australia being a stereotypical backwater. The Saints have a huge chip on their shoulders, and their attitude punctures all the popular prejudices they had to contend with. They were from someplace outside the rest of world and they were outside the society they lived in. Pure rock n roll rebellion.



The insane thing is, this entire collection is crammed full of classic songs, both originals and amazing interpretations of other people's tunes. Ed Kuepper's buzzsaw guitar work still knocks me out, its something that I could never get tired of. And Chris Bailey is the perfect snotty punky frontman. Listen and be amazed at Demolition Girl and Wild About You! One of my favorites is the blistering Nights in Venice--I still can't believe that its nearly 6 minutes of bone rattling glory. It's over before I realize it. This Perfect Day is another A-list tune, a perfect frenetic buzz kill of a song. And of course there is the classic punk screed against crass commercialism,Know Your Product,delivered pre-Sex Pistols.

Don't talk to me about what you done
Ain't nothing has changed it all goes on
And they'll keep laughing till the end

I've seen them drive around in cars
All look the same get drunk in bars
And don't talk back we got no social rights

Oh perfect day
What more to say?
Don't need no one to tell me what I don't already know

We got no high times always flat
If you go out you don't come back
It's all so funny I can't laugh

Oh perfect day
What more to say?
Don't need no one to tell me what I don't already know

The Saints also do some unusual covers, which they execute in typically brilliant fashion. They do a revved up version of Connie Francis' Lipstick On Your Collar!! And it's both hilarious and pure rock n roll. Elvis's Kissin' Cousins is also roughly sent through the Bailey/Kuepper meatgrinder with equally entertaining results. When you hear these songs, you begin to get an idea of where their musical roots originate. Of course, if I didn't mention the absolutely over-the-top version of Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep Mountain High I ought to be horsewhipped. This is definitely one my favorite covers ever, ranking with Husker Du's apocalyptic take on Eight Miles High. On River Deep, The Saints show themselves to be masters of tempo and dynamics. Bailey howls like a transplanted southern preacher here and the excitement slowly builds to pure destruction. In their covers, they both mock and show reverance for the past. They even do a bit of social commentating and satire in their mock dance-craze song Do The Robot.



In between the noise they also manage to deliver some memorable ballads like the AllTheYoungDude-ish Messin' With The Kid and the darkly grandiose Memories Are Made of This. The band critiques the "no worries" Australian attitude in Orstralia, where you can sit back, bake in the sun, watch telly and leave your brain at home. Bailey pointedly compares day to day life as "living in a chain gang" in Memories. In Messin' With The Kid, "all your kid dreams have melted under the sun". A favorite is the ode to a dissolving relationship This Time, where a couple go through the motions and stick together for no compelling reason. And its a very well constructed classic pop song with a great horn arrangement.

I'm talking to you but you're in a trance...
You're talking to me but I ain't got a chance
Cause you'd rather sit with your radio

You're lying in the sun and you read magazines
You think that you know everything on the scene
But you're hanging around, only fooling yourself.

I listen to the tunes from Prehistoric Sounds and I can't help but think of The Commitments, with the soulful singing and the horn lines taking the place of the stinging guitar, at least on some of the songs. They do a nice uptempo version of Otis Redding's Security and also Aretha Franklin's Save Me. Bailey's Take This Heart of Mind is not out of place in this company, as is Everything's Fine.  But there are a variety of songs here, including the cowpunk of Swing for The Crime, which Prehistoric Sounds leads with. The ballad All Times Through Paradise sounds like a dark proto-Bad Seeds number. Crazy Googenheimer Blues is a strange blend of Motown bounce and rockabilly.



The original band held together for three records, except for the replacement of bassist Bradshaw with Algy Ward after (I'm) Stranded. But Kuepper and Bailey had creative differences over the band musical style. Bailey continued The Saints and had success on MTV in the 80's with stellar albums like A Little Madness To Be Free, All Fool's Day, and Prodigal Son. Some of his recent albums are a bit of a return to his punk roots. Kuepper formed the jazz punk group Laughing Clowns, the mockup hard rocking group The Aint's, and has had a distinguished solo career with numerous great albums. Wild About You ends with an interesting unreleased song Looking For The Sun, which does not sound like any song in their canon. It's sort of a jangle guitar Byrds meets Eric Burdon garage ballad. You wonder if this is where they were headed before the split. I think these guys were probably capable of anything, really.

But Wild About You is a perfect anthology of one the top punk bands ever, on the level of The Clash, Ramones, Buzzcocks, Pistols, etc. If they were from America or England they would be lionized. For the completist, there is the box set All Times Through Paradise, which includes a bunch of demos and great live tracks, which was recently reissued. But if you like what you hear you will probably want to hear the later Saints, Chris Bailey's solo work. The Laughing Clowns are pretty much a unique band that I think someday will get their due. I don't think there is anything out there quite like it, and Kuepper deserves high praise. His solo works like Electrical Storm and Honey Steel's Gold are also worthwhile. Or check out the compilation Butterfly Net. The Aint's are also worth a listen, especially the hard rocking live album SLSQ. Or there are the jillion recordings on Kuepper's Prince Melon Label.



So enough blah, blah, from me. Do yourself a favor and get acquainted with this exemplary band. You need this, believe me. I wish I knew about these guys when the music originally came out, but I was busy listening to Boston and "Green Grass and High Tides". You can avoid this fate. So wish CT a Happy 200th. Maybe we'll get in another 200 before I finally succumb to carpal tunnel. Or tinnitis.

If Words Were Wine, You'd Be Intoxicated--54 Days At Sea with Chris Bailey



Unable To Drink The Water

 54 Days At Sea is a great album that I suspect might be difficult to get a hold of today, at least in physical form. I saw it on Amazon.com in mp3 form. Chris Bailey was lead singer of Australia's Saints, whose first two albums contain some of the best punk rock ever made. And they started out before The Ramones, Clash or Sex Pistols. Bailey still leads The Saints, but they became a different entity after the departure of guitarist Ed Kuepper after the third album, Prehistoric Sounds. After this they became more of a conventional rock band, which included some rotation on MTV. Good music, but not quite equal to its predecessors.

I heard about this album first from the pages of The Big Takeover Magazine. The 67th issue of this biannual magazine will published immanently. Anyone who has an interest in rock music should get a hold of a copy of this magazine. In my opinion, it is the best rock music magazine out there. I have a vested interest in this, as I've seen so many worthy music magazines bite the dust over the years and that distresses me. So I want publications like the Big T to continue to a ripe old age. Besides our current economic woes, magazines are also being driven out of business by free content on the Internet. So if you haven't heard of this magazine, check out their website and subscribe. The magazine is inexpensive and I guarantee that you will find out about a few great bands that will enrich your quality of life.

In terms of instrumentation, the sound of 54 Days At Sea is unique. It was recorded in Malmö Sweden with a group of Swedish musicians backing him. But that is not the twist. I'll put it this way. If there was a Grammy Award for Best Non-Traditional Pan Flute Performance in a Non New Age Idiom, this record would have run away with the prize. That's right. Pan Flutes. Oscar Salazar namely, with Victor Salazar on the charango, which apparently is a Bolivian stringed instrument similar to a lute. Chris met them while they were busking in the streets and obviously dug what they were doing. Ultimately he incorporated them into this album, and it worked out exceedingly well. Also represented here are Edward Nystrom on guitar, Magnus Borjeson on bass and keys, and Stellan Colt on drums/percussion.

Aside from the Bolivian musicians, this is a straightforward singer-songwriter sort of album. Chris Bailey waxes philosophical on life, and also comments as an observer about the big world he is wandering through.

The themes of wandering and questing, rebirth and redemption run throughout this album. He's trying to figure it all out, but it's simply baffling most of the time. It sounds like he is trying to purge the bitterness out of life and move forward. The album starts out with Fountain Of Life, where it seems like he is making an metaphor using Ponce De Leon and his quest for youth. It sounds like polite society and maybe his own baggage are the things he has to fight to live life. "Then faster than I can see, the waves are washing over me, and drowned me in my own confusion."



During the upbeat, passionate Unfamiliar Circles, he sings "whatever the reasons, I'm not the first to be crucified, and it's all right." On Everything I Need he makes an appeal to "Rise like a phoenix from the ashes, do not hide from the treasures." Lazarus has him asking to be saved from the mark of Cain and free me this mortal dust. In In The Desert he states "if I am alone in the desert, then why is the music so loud, screaming at me from across a crowded room"? He compares himself to a sacrificial lamb in the song Gone With The Wind. There's a lot of biblical references here yet it still doesn't seem like a religious album, probably more the converse.

Nothing seems clear to Bailey on 54 Days, and that certainly can strike a chord with most of us. On the aptly titled Nothing Is As It Seems, "I can't tell what is real and whats not-I can't tell anymore, just like a politician." In Drowned By The Sound, he is "walking on a tightrope and sinking in quicksand. I want too much." On a lot of the songs reality is unclear and his mental wheels are spinning, driving him crazy with doubt. Bailey was born in Kenya, spent part of his childhood in Belfast, and then wound up moving to Australia. From the tone of this album it seems like he feels that it is his fate to wander the earth without a true homeland.

I Should Be Happy In This Raincloud

But even in exile he battles on. In On The Avenue he "conquered enemies unseen, Don Quixote for an afternoon." In Vampyres he claims that "the Vamypres of my imagination have sucked my body dry, the Parasites in my life have left me high and dry." "I am an exile, no one to visit in my prison, oh well, that's the way it goes." Yet for all the bile and sadness, you will be tapping your feet and humming along to this album.
Every seems to indicate that this record may have come together in brief period of time for Bailey, but miraculously it all comes together in a sort of musical perfect storm. One of punk rock's all time greatest vocalists tearing his soul out and flogging himself along to catchy pop melodies and sweet sweet pan flute.
And as far as I can tell, this disc was never released in the US.

I think this is a terrific record that has a different kind of sound to it. Bailey is a soulful and very expressive singer. But it all boils down to personal taste in the final analysis. At the very least if you are a fan of punk rock, you need to hear the early Saints. The 2 disc Wild About You 1976-78 anthology contains their first three albums plus an Ep and some other miscellanea. This is essential snotty buzzsaw rock and roll, some of the most vital music ever to come from Down Under. The original Saints actually reunited briefly in 2009 and performed a few concerts in Australia. God, I wish I had been there to see it. There has been a lot of resentment over the years between  Kuepper and Bailey, so many people are surprised that it ever occurred. But who knows, maybe someday they could reunite again and come to America or Europe. Keep your fingers crossed. See below if you still aren't clear as to the importance of The Saints. Bask in the punk rock glory today. Learn to know and love this product. Don't wait until you hear their music used in an automobile ad.