Inner City Sound

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 05:14:35 GMT

Yesterday I went into rocking horse records and bought a copy of Inner City Sound, a great 2 CD compilation of the sound of the late-70s to early-80s Australian inner cities (of Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne); covering the punk and post-punk periods, with great tracks from bands like the Sunday Painters, Equal Local, Systematics, Wet Taxis, and the Machinations. Many of the bands that formed the fabric of legendary status by the time when the gangly young spotty teenager with a bad haircut, that I once was, started to going to gigs at places like Frenches Tavern on Oxford St in 1982 and 1983. And surprisingly, the CD is not just a nostalgic trip down memory lane - it's a bloody good CD full of rock and alternative rock, as good as any other you'll find and refreshing antidote to the 'usual suspects' of the field.

There was a time once, when Australian punk and post-punk was a huge influence on the sounds coming from overseas as much as we were influenced by those sounds; but subsequent history seems to have written out many of those bands influence on their international bretheren. Music by people as diverse as The Saints, The Birthday Party, Go Betweens, Triffids, Severed Heads, Laughing Clowns, and The Scientists (whom Kurt Cobain used to regularly name-drop) reached and affected the output of a wide range of European and American musical artists who now almost exclusively make the 'official' version of the 1980s alternative music scene. Well, good on Clinton Walker for putting this CD together. Now to get his recently re-released 1982 book of the same name...

The following track listing is stolen from the Inner City Sound website (actually unaffiliated to Clinton Walker).

DISC ONE:
1. tch-tch-tch - Pop Art (Brophy) 3.28 1979 Crystal Ballroom single
2. Sacred Cowboys - Hell Sucks (Gray/Ferrie/Doolan/Rischbieth) 3.38 Track on 1988 Citadel LP Trouble from Providence
3. Wet Taxis - Címon (Hood) 3.02 1984 Hot single.
4. Seems Twice - Look at It (Douglas/Molloy/Yatras) 0.33 Track on 1980 Doublethink EP Non-Plussed
5. Saints - Wild About You (Andy Anderson) 2.34 Track on 1977 EMI LP Stranded
6. Leftovers - I Only Panic When Thereís Nothing to Do (Leftovers) 1.47 1979 Punji Stick single
7. Last Words - Animal World (Baxter/Groome) 2.40 1978 Remand single.
8. Razar - Task Force (Burke) 2.20 1978 single.
9. Thought Criminals - More Suicides Please (Grierson) 2.28 Track on 1979 Doublethink EP Food for Thoughtcrimes
10. XL Capris - My City of Sydney (Leonetti/Troupe) 2.39 1980 Axle single.
11. Manikins - I Never Thought Iíd Find (Fernandes/Porritt) 3.03 1978 single
12. Boys Next Door - Sex Crimes (Cave) 3.03 1978 demo.
13. Seems Twice - Column One (Douglas/Molloy/Yatras) 0.16 Track on 1980 Doublethink EP Non-Plussed
14. Young Charlatans - Shivers (Howard) 3.51 Previously unreleased 1978 demo
15. Young Modern - Sheís Got the Money (Richards/Yates/Dowler) 2.58 1978 Top Gear single
16. Triffids - Family Name (D. McComb) 3.32 Track on 1983 cassette Dungeon Tapes
17. Sekret Sekret - Girl with a White Stick (Virgin/Devlin) 3.29 1984 Waterfront single
18. Surfside 6 - Cool in the Tube (Datson/Courtenay/McAloon) 3.05 1980 Phantom single
19. Voigt/465 - State (Voigt/465) 2.10 1979 U.W.E. single
20. Tactics - Long Story (Studdert) 4.01 Track on 1981 Green LP My Houdini
21. Whirlywirld - Red River (Olsen) 4.17 Track on 1980 Missing Link 12" EP Whirlywirld
22. Primitive Calculators - Do That Dance (Grant/Lavece) 2.43 1980 Slow Drama single
23. Systematics - Mmmm (Gibson) 1.56 Track on 1980 M Squared LP Rural
24. Super-K - Recurring Nightmare (Shepherd/Thirkell) 4.51 1982 Green single
25. New Christs - No Way on Earth (Younger) 4.13 Track on 1989 Blue Mosque LP, Distemper
26. *** *** - Study for Falling Apart (*** ***) 1.42 Track on Fast Forward cassette magazine # 4, 1981
27. Black Assassins - Death Take Me Now (Black Assassins) 2.08 1981 recording
28. Lonely Hearts - Last Kiss (Watson/Rooney) 2.04 1981 Half-an-Arc single

DISC TWO:
1. Equal Local - 12 Ways to Go (Jackson) 3.53 1982 Missing Link 12" single
2. Laughing Clowns - Ghost Beat (Kuepper) 3.20 Track on 1981 Prince Melon LP Laughing Clowns #3
3. Poles - Over & Beyond & Through (Tate/Bolland) 4.53 1981 single
4. Scientists - Happy Hour (Salmon/Thewlis) 3.33 1982 Au-Go-Go single
5/. Birthday Party - Release the Bats (Harvey/Cave) 2.30 1981 4AD (UK) single
6. GoBetweens - Darlinghurst Nights (Forster/McLennan) 5.47 Track on 2005 EMI album Oceans Apart
7. Sunday Painters - Something to Do (Erwin/McKinnon/Raengel) 3.54 Track on 1982 Terminal LP Something to Do
8. Essendon Airport - Talking to Cleopatra (Goodge/Chesworth/Sanger) 3.43 1980 Innocent single
9. Severed Heads - Dead Eyes Opened (Ellard/Bradbury/Knuckey) 3.22 1984 Gap single
10. Machinations - Average Inadequacy (Doyle/Loneragan/Swan/Starr) 4.21 1981 Phantom single
11. Sardine - Stuck On You (I. & S. Rilen) 4.12 Track on 1983 Phantom 12" EP I Hate You
12. X - TV Glue (Rilen/Lucas) 4.25 Track on 1985 Major LP At Home with You
13. Hunters & Collectors - The Slab (Hunters & Collectors) 3.56 1984 White Label single
14. End - My Confession (Myers) 2.53 1983 single
15. Plug Uglies - All Done In (Gorman/Lock/Norris/Stevens) 2.41 Track on 1989 mini-album Knock Me Your Lobes
16. Apartments - All You Wanted (Walsh) 3.50 1984 Hot single
17. Saints - Ghost Ships (Bailey) 3.41 1984 RCA single
18. Lighthouse Keepers - Springtime (Appel) 4.20 Track on 1983 Guthagga Piepline LP Exploding Lighthouse Keepers
19. Incredibly, this track is unlisted for some reason and mis-listed as the David Chesworth track below.
20. David Chesworth - Making Waves (Chesworth) 1.17 Track on 1979 Innocent LP 50 Synthesizer Greats

Xray Dubs - innercitysound tag

Inner City Sound