Q: Listening to your album, Bukka White’s Memphis Hot Shoes” comes to mind. Does he have any influence on you?
A: I like Bukka. He plays fast & jumpy. Bukka got teeth.

Q: How did you come up with the idea of wearing a helmet?
A: It just feels right. Try it. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently a scientist (a real one) asked me what the deal was with the Scientists early stuff. He liked everything post “Swampland” but wasn’t sure about the lyrics in all those early songs with titles like “That Girl”, “Girl” and “Pretty Girl”. My answer was that I didn’t write those lyrics. The songs were written thus: James Baker, the original Scientists drummer, would announce that he had a song and “sing” the lyrics for me to play back to him. From his atonal renderings I would invent a melody with an appropriate chord sequence and perform it, to which he would say, “Yeah, that’s how it goes” or, “No, not like that”, if he didn’t like it. In defence of James’ lyrics, the “girl songs” were part of his celebration of rock and roll of which dumb lyrics were, as far as we were concerned, “de rigueur” along with other things not normally revered, like playing too loud, posturing and “not giving a shit”. Read the rest of this entry »

To look at the career of the Scientists is, in essence, to look at the career of Kim Salmon, one of the most vibrant musical talents to emerge from Australia in the 1970s. Not that he was the only one. Nick Cave, for example, may have made more of a splash outside of the country, but Salmon is arguably just as important ? if not more influential. His first group, formed in 1976, was the Cheap Nasties ? which already gives some indication of his distinctive “trash” aesthetic (? la the Trashmen, the Ramones, etc.). The Nasties were the first punk band to emerge from the remote city of Perth in Western Australia. Salmon has claimed they really weren’t much good, but they did give birth to the Perth punk scene ? from which many of Australia’s finest musicians would emerge. When the Nasties came to an end the following year, Salmon went on to join the Invaders. The Scientists rose from the ashes of this (also unrecorded) band in 1978. The lineup included Salmon on guitar and vocals, Boris Sujdovic on bass, Rod Radalj on guitar, and James Baker, from the Victims, on drums and lyrics. Membership in the Scientists would mutate several times over the years (Dennis Byrne, for instance, would soon assume bass duties). Read the rest of this entry »

When Bob Log III was a child, he lost his left hand in a boating accident. It was soon replaced with a monkey paw, and a new guitar style was born.

It’s my own personal style, see,” Log says, “the paw moves much quicker than a normal hand, so my real hand has to flop around a lot to compensate.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Kortney Jmaeff (April 2003)

When uttering the words “Best Canadian Power Trio”, most plebian Canucks would primarily envisage Rush. For my money, however, the throaty bellows, funky distorted bass lines and battle-axe guitar choppings of Nomeansno slay Geddy’s cat-in-in-a-lawnmower vocals, cheesy magniloquent synthesizers, sci-fi dungeon and dragon ramblings any day of the week.
For over two decades, Victorian trio Nomeansno have journeyed the globe, recorded over 10 albums, and spawned a cult side group, the Slapshot and the Ramones inspired Hanson Brothers. A band that has the tenaciousness to cover both a Ramones and a Miles Davis song on the same release deserves a scrupulous perusal. Read the rest of this entry »

In the wake of the 1992 demise of the posthumously-fabled Gibson Bros., three bands that were to define the garage rock and blues music underground emerged ? Bassholes, ‘68 Comeback, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Of these outfits, Bassholes remained closest to the rural isolated vision of traditional American folk-blues while simultaneously taking the sound the furthest from traditional rock & roll. Read the rest of this entry »

Mesje D?efri Evans i Bassholes
18. 2. 2005.
Akademija
Autor: ?ikica Simi?

Ve?e pod nazivom The Real Rock’n'Roll Festival, koje je u no?i izme?u petka i subote ljubiteljima rudimentarnog roka priredio klub Akademija, bilo je vrlo uspe?no. Ameri?ki gosti Mesje D?efri Evans i sastav Bassholes su se za to pobrinuli.
Oni su dobro selekcionisanu i vrlo distingviranu publiku podsetili na ono ?to ona manje-vi?e zna, ali u ?ta je, pod naletom agresivnih i bezobraznih lokalnih medija, po?ela da sumnja: rokenrol je amalgam elektri?ne struje, ose?anja isku?enih u grani?nim ?ivotnim situacijama, ritma, gneva i odmetni?tva. Ni?ta vi?e i ni?ta manje. Read the rest of this entry »

Don Howland (Bassholes) i Jeffrey Evans su pioniri lo-fi zvuka i imena su od velikog ugleda na nezavisnoj rokenrol sceni amerike.
Zajedno su ‘85. osnovali Gibson Bros, sastav koji je zna?ajan iz vi?e razloga. Najpre, sama postava (3 gitare plus bubanj minus bas!!) bila je krajnje neuobi?ajena i na neki na?in prst u oku establi?mentu i pravilima koje je uspeo da nametne i indie sceni. Potom, muzika koju su pisali bila je uvek vi?e istra?ivanje unutar samih korena rokenrola nego poku?aj da se finalni proizvod skocka i proda. Dodu?e, od jednog obrazovanog rok novinara i profesora engleskog i istorije (Howland) i jednog talentovanog eksperta za blues/R’n'B/soul/r’billy to se i o?ekivalo. I, kona?no, Gibson Bros bili su prvi u nizu lo-fi garage rock bendova koji ?e se osmeliti i duboko zaroniti u pro?lost u potrazi za formulom dobre rokenrol zabave. Sledili su ih: Gories, Mummies, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Oblivians, Soledad Brothers, White Stripes i mnogi drugi.
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After 20 years, legendary Canadian band
borrows as much from Miles Davis as the Ramones

By Ron Anicich

When brothers Rob and John Wright formed Nomeansno in Victoria, B.C., 20 years ago they started a revolution in Canadian music.

?Unique? didn?t begin to describe their stripped-down, bass-and-drum-only approach to contemporary rock music. Over the years their music evolved and inspired many young artists to emulate both their style and instrumental arrangement.
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Osnovani jo? krajem sedamdesetih godina dvadesetog veka pod uticajem DOA i drugih kanadskih pank grupa, Nomeansno gotovo tri decenije uspevaju da ostanu jedna od najsve?ijih i najuticajnijih pojava na svetskoj underground sceni. Osniva?i benda, bra?a Wright (poznatiji kao Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong) i danas su centralna osa grupe oko kojih se smenjuju razli?iti stalni i povremeni saradnici. Vi?edecenijska karijera benda rezultirala je velikim brojem izdanja: trinaest albuma, plus nekoliko paralelnih projekata (plodna saradnja sa Jellom Biafrom, kao i bend Hanson Brothers u kome ?lanovi Nomeansno odaju po?tu Ramonesima), kao i turnejama po ?itavom svetu.
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