Tag Archives: Endless Melt

New Music

Listen: Goodgrief Commune – Bottles and Awful News

goodgriefcommune

Rough-as-guts but mysteriously tranquil free-noise outliers Goodgrief Commune have just reissued their 2011 triple cassette album An Eventual History of Longue Duress. The group, which features members of The Cross Brothers, Mum Smokes and Snawklor, were actually based in Melbourne from what I understand, but all of the core members hail from the heavily mythologised shores of Tasmania. I somehow missed this upon its initial release in 2011, but Endless Melt has reissued it in the form of a double CD package.

It’s a surprisingly varied collection, ranging from the lazily wiped out mess of ‘Bottles and Awful News’ (embedded below), through to inadvertently pretty moments such as ‘Arrival at the River’s Edge’. Poised between free jazz and freer noise, the group isn’t afraid to lock into something almost resembling rock ‘n roll at times, lending a sense of event and levity to the otherwise staunchly loose affair. Check it out.

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New Music

Listen: Cross Brothers – Live At Rat Palace

crossbrothersThe Cross Brothers are Tasmanians Daniel and Patrick Cross. They grew up in the Hobart suburb of Lutana, which is home to the largest zinc smelter in the state. If you’re a student of strange Tasmanian underground music from the ’90s, you’ll probably be familiar with the Cross’s: Daniel played in 50 Million Clowns (with Sean Bailey of Lakes) and The Gentlemen (with Dave Elk aka Drunk Elk), among others, while Patrick played in Drunk Hands,  Prosthetic Gland and Rentboy (also among others!).

So needless to say, these brothers have a long history, and this isn’t the first time they’ve released music together – they’ve apparently released material on Tasmanian tape label Consumer Productions. Live At Rat Palace is out on Endless Melt, a label operated by Duncan Blachford (Psychic Baggage). I asked Blachford for some background on the brothers and he very kindly delivered:

“The first time I saw Dan, in 1996, he was covered in yellow PVC, hunchbacked and loping around stage with his bass, playing support to Fugazi in an underground club (literally, it was a large concrete ballroom built in a basement) with his band 50 Million Clowns (1992-99). To give some context to this, it was the mid ’90s, there was no internet, and Hobart was a very long way for a band to come. The Clowns were ferocious/atonal/hardcore influenced noise-rock. It left an impression on my fifteen-year old mind.”

For those interested in the Tasmanian network of bands, this old map – now quite out date – charts it until the early 2000s. Live At Rat Palace consists of one, thirty-minute track comprising very noisy, Dead C-esque electric guitar improvisation. The Rat Palace is an artist run space in Hobart with the erroneous address of 71a Brisbane Street – apparently addressed because the church that used to own it didn’t want to use the 69a address (dunno why). Have a listen. It’s available now through Endless Melt.

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