Having fallen for Melbourne "folk noir" outfit The Orbweavers' Graphite And Diamonds album back in 2009, it took another two years to get to see them live. Thanks to Melbourne Music Week, popping my Orbweavers cherry was a tasteful and gentle experience. And, in a church. Armed with new material from their recent Loom album, they nestled perfectly into a night curated by Mistletone. Later in the evening the church quivered in feedback from the always raucous Beaches and grew cathedral-of-sound size for Htrk's mesmerising headline slot. So to celebrate churches being the new nightclub, some Orbweavers.
Deep Street Soul are one of the leaders of the currently swelling ranks of the Melbourne groove scene, alongside the likes of The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, Cactus Channel and Black Jesus Experience. Signed to Freestyle Records in the UK, home to Lack Of Africa and Cookin On 3 Burners, the band have just dropped their latest album Look Out Watch Out - out in Australia through Fuse. Live, DSS brew up a straight-edge funk set that's not afraid to jam out on instrumentals. On Look Out they take it into a leaner soul space that at times recalls the mighty work of Betty Davis... yep, really.
Although never much of a fanatic for The Beatles, for some reason their 1966 song 'Eleanor Rigby' has always been a must-hear-at-least-every-few-weeks kinda song. Recorded for their pre-psychedelia album Revolver, it captured a mood of despair that was immaculately underplayed by an incidental movie music-type arrangement of a string quartet. Throw in the comedown Tuesday lyrics "waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door" and you've got what's known as 'haunting'.
And then there were the covers... give the song a unique singing voice and a spartan arrangement and it can't go that wrong. [But there are those who can make it ordinary, see B.o.B.'s 'Lonely People', The Fray's overwrought reading and Twisted Sister's Eddie Ojeda doing a metal take on it.]
Having first heard the song as recorded in 1970 by Adelaide mod-turned-heavy-rock band Zoot, it was a crap-your-pants moment to discover that 'Eleanor Rigby' was not originally intended as a metal anthem. Years later another moment was had to find out that between the original recording and Zoot's version, a dozen or so major artists had tackled the song. There were the mandatory psych-out covers (Vanilla Fudge), soul renderings (Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles), spoken word re-imaginings (Steve Allen, Tony Bennett) and, of course, folk takes (Bobby Gentry, The Free Design, Joan Baez).
But it's the version by PP Arnold that has lodged itself as the one-that-must-be-heard-above-all-others. Released in 1968, at a time when the young British singer was working with The Small Faces (that's her on 'Tin Soldiers'), starting out on a career that would lead to her having a house hit with Beatmasters, singing with KLF, forming a musical partnership with ex-Blockhead Chaz Jankel, becoming Roger Waters' back-up vocalist and using Primal Scream as her backing band. With a CV like that, her 'Eleanor' is as you'd expect: simple, soulful and depressing as all shit. Although Richie Havens had recorded it in a similar style in 1967, Arnold's voice possessed a purity and innocence that made the lyrics ever-so-much-more of a downer. [Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan was once scolded by knuckle-jockey judge Dicko for attempting a soul version of 'Eleanor Rigby', screeching that no one should ever mess with a Beatles song... would like to hear him say that to PP Arnold, Sarah Vaughan, Shirley Bassey and the others who have 'messed' with it.]
And, in recent years more and more versions have made themselves known: from a recent Soulwax 'Tour De Eleanor Rigby' cut-up of Kraftwerk and The Beatles' original, through to another 1968 version, this time by Booker T And The MGs, and. most surprisingly, an Italo disco-flavoured remake from the non-Italo Uranium. All these people befriending Eleanor, yet still so lonely...
[The sound quality of the below clips aren't spectacular... so kick your volume up.]
Long before The Mavis's became known for indie ballad 'Cry' (Triple J Hottest 100 in 1998), they were scaring the locals in the regional Victorian township of Ballarat. The band of outsiders were banging out post-goth, psych-punk ten years before they released their Venus Returning album in 1996. With glam siblings Matt and Beki Thomas leading the charge, early Mavis sounds were influenced by art punk grrrls X-Ray Spex (the cover of their Pink Pills album was a homage to Spex' Germ Free Adolescents album cover), The B-52's, The Raincoats and The Slits. But little of that early material made it to the recorded state. The track 'Stepping' surfaced on underground band comp Screaming At The Mirror in 1989 (alongside other fondly remembered, by a few, alt.acts like Clowns Smiling Backwards, Scarecrow Tiggy and Pray TV). The band broke up in 2000 and there has long since been talk of reformations and reissues (although Matt Thomas now has the projects Video Video and The Blow Waves on the go while sister Beki has her band Beki And The Bullets). But finally a compilation of early tracks has been pulled together and released through iTunes - Kids In The Basement Vol 1 features ten cuts of chaotic DIY noise but with the striking voices, and harmonies, of the Thomas kids already finding shape. Some tracks are from when the band were still school kids in their mid-teens. Listen to the wonky post-punk, Flying Nunesque 'Productivity None' (which the liner notes explains is about "the unexpected") and the wiry new wave 'Stepping' (about "walking the streets of Ballarat at night"). And, from 1998 (not on the Basement set), the later shinier Mavis's of 'Naughty Boy' where they still wore their Ballarat-pariah status proudly.
The Mavis's - Stepping by The Music
The Mavis's - Productivity None by The Music
The Apartments releasing new material is rare. The Apartments gigging is rarer still. Tonight the reclusive Milton Walsh came to Melbourne's Toff to launch 'Black Ribbons', released by Chapter Music. The former Brisbane gentleman came out to sing... and chat.
Originally part of the Qld music culture that gave us The Go-Betweens and Ed Kuepper, who formed Laughing Clowns, (Milton Walsh spent fleeting moments in both those bands too), the melancholy poet has been mostly ignored here while gathering a respectable following in France.
The Apartments set was sparse musically but opulent in content. Backed with just a few players supplying backing vocals, trumpet, guitar and drums (former Moodist and current Lurid Yellow Mist, Clare Moore), the band swept through decades of romantic bittnerness. Inbetween songs Milton Walsh spun entertaining, tangental yarns that make the stage banter of Jarvis Cocker and Dave Graney (who was in attendence) seem like brief public announcements in comparison.
There were stunning versions of 'Sunset Hotel' (from 1985's The Evening Visits... released on Rough Trade), 'The Goodbye Train' (from 1995's Drift) and the new single. A tender reading of 'Mister Somewhere' closed the night and Milton Walsh left the stage leaving all those troubadour-come-latelies in his immaculately-preserved dust.
Listen to 'Black Ribbons', a duet with French singer Natasha Penot (of Grisbi); the Autumn Mix is by ex-Go-Between John Willsteed. Also here, a cover of 'Mister Somewhere' by This Mortal Coil and 'Help' from The Apartments first EP in 1979 (released on Able Label, also home to The Go-Betweens' debut 'Lee Remick').
On Friday 28 October, Canyons' Keep Your Dreams album finally drops. It's been almost two years since the epic was first rumoured but it was worth the wait. The album not only features guest vocals from '80s new waver Paul Roberts of Sniff 'N' The Tears (the classic 'Driver's Seat') but also Tame Impala's Kevin Parker (one of the first bands released on Canyons' label Hole In The Sky). A teaser track has been kicking around, also featuring a guest vocalist - one of this blog's favourites - Nite Jewel's Ramona Gonzalez. Canyons - See Blind Through by modularpeople
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