Recently picked up the CRUEL BUT FAIR 3CD set of the whole LAUGHING CLOWNS catalogue. For those that don't know the LAUGHING CLOWNS one of Australia's pioneering 'post=punk' bands, formed by the pioneer ED KUEPPER of one of the worlds pioneering punk band the mighty SAINTS (they're kinda like PiL were to the PISTOLS).
For me personally ED KUEPPER ranks as one of my all-time rock heroes. As a teenager I loved their GHOSTS OF AN IDEAL WIFE album and while not seeing the CLOWNS live, saw KUEPPER solo in his more blues-rock outfits he has soon after. STILL I have a bit of a paradox with Keupper. For all his moments of true undeniable brilliance, he releases volumes and volumes of droney shit, and poor production hasn't been kind.
This 3CD set forces you to become something of a rock archaeolgist, you really have to sit through some pretty abrasive, skronky, droney shit to unearth some real fucken gems. Sure the free-jazz skronk post-punk thing is the obvious sonic pallette going on, but Keupper somehow manages to bury some quite convential and cool rock riffs and licks underneath the whole blare, and something that seems to always be overlooked in Kuepper's work - a wry groove. Some of the killer tracks here are of course ETERNALLY YOURS (3 versions), the stomping NEW BULLY IN THE TOWN, NEW WORDS OF HONOUR, GHOST OF AN IDEAL WIFE and THEME FROM 'MAD FLIES, MAD FLIES' amongst others in the 48 track collection.
But the Clowns influence on left-field world-rock cannot be denied, the Mondays 'Wrote for Luck', most of Pavement's material and the recent DFA 'bands' to name a notable few, a band that sounded like them today, with all the advances in music production and whatnot, would sound truly glorious.
For me personally ED KUEPPER ranks as one of my all-time rock heroes. As a teenager I loved their GHOSTS OF AN IDEAL WIFE album and while not seeing the CLOWNS live, saw KUEPPER solo in his more blues-rock outfits he has soon after. STILL I have a bit of a paradox with Keupper. For all his moments of true undeniable brilliance, he releases volumes and volumes of droney shit, and poor production hasn't been kind.
This 3CD set forces you to become something of a rock archaeolgist, you really have to sit through some pretty abrasive, skronky, droney shit to unearth some real fucken gems. Sure the free-jazz skronk post-punk thing is the obvious sonic pallette going on, but Keupper somehow manages to bury some quite convential and cool rock riffs and licks underneath the whole blare, and something that seems to always be overlooked in Kuepper's work - a wry groove. Some of the killer tracks here are of course ETERNALLY YOURS (3 versions), the stomping NEW BULLY IN THE TOWN, NEW WORDS OF HONOUR, GHOST OF AN IDEAL WIFE and THEME FROM 'MAD FLIES, MAD FLIES' amongst others in the 48 track collection.
But the Clowns influence on left-field world-rock cannot be denied, the Mondays 'Wrote for Luck', most of Pavement's material and the recent DFA 'bands' to name a notable few, a band that sounded like them today, with all the advances in music production and whatnot, would sound truly glorious.