forget the walking dead - here's Jesus!

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The Lounge is rockin' today

The Hedgehogs – Our Minds Dyed Yesterday

(Levitation Records /thehedgehogs.bandcamp.com)

Straight outta Aalborg, Denmark  The Hedgehogs offer up an LP of classy psych-pop late 60s styled garage that if you didn’t know better you would almost think was the real thing.   

No fancy updating, no jarring “modern” stylings, just a set of pure, brash and sweet pop music whose origins are only really obvious because of the clean quality of the digital recording/download.  On a beat up record player you would be double checking to make sure you hadn’t stumbled upon an unknown Ugly Things moment.   

It’s hard to pick a highlight since there really isn’t a bad song on this disc and from opener Stumblin’ Around with its sweet guitar pickin’ and cool vocals through to the Bo Diddley lite riff that holds down Servant Chant the boys don’t make a false move.  The Witch (all 1.49 of it) is the song you want to hear in any 60s b-grade juvenile delinquent movie as the kids rumble at the club, then there’s the gritty country twang of Dirty And Vile, the cool harp blowin’ on Elevator, the great jangle of guitar on songs like Peace In My Mind… 

hell it’s all good.  I hear Flamin’ Groovies, Sunnyboys, Lime Spiders, Troggs, every great Nugget moment, Byrds… but none of them overtly taking over, no one band you can say is the main influence, just moments of clarity, riffs that sound so familiar and yet aren’t.  A great job, not a revisionist album, not a revival album, just a band having a mighty fine time in their garage.  You will too. 

there's somethin' rockin in denmark 

The Jac - I'm a one man band and i take all the credit

The Jac – Faux Pas

There must be something about Western Australia, maybe it’s the isolation or maybe it’s just in the Swan Lager but over the years some great pop, power pop and punk pop has worked its way over the border –The Dugites, Loaded Dice, Hoodoo Gurus and The Stems just to name a few and Joe Algeri (Jack And The Beanstalks, The Britannicas, Green Beetles) and his one man band The Jac are definitely adding to that pedigree with his latest effort Faux Pas.   

Eleven tracks of impure pop that always drift a little left of centre, Faux Pas kicks off with I Play All The Instruments - “I can be a one man band / I can play everything with a single hand / There are no fights 'cause I always get it /And I can take all the credit” which should tell you straight away that Joe is having fun here and his mix of The Kinks, 70s British pop, new wave, Robyn Hitchcock and Todd Rundgren makes for one hell of a sweet album.  There’s backward masking, the odd tip of the hat to The Beatles, some great punk pop in Julie Got Angry and Persistent Man, the  pseudo silliness of I’m A Glass Of  Orange Juice  and then there’s Romano The Dog – “Romano the dog is humping Ginger the cat / What do I tell the kids / About life and the universe, it seems so perverse / I think I'll have a cup of tea” which, despite its strong English 70s pop feel,  reminded me of US band The Big Enjoyers who also coincidently owe more than a nod to the world of Rundgren and Utopia.  Title track Faux Pas finishes the album off in a swirl of keyboards while adding some crunch to the poptones, really digging in and maybe just hinting at a darker side to Joe.  For this album though The Jac is all snap, crackle and pop and a worthy addition to the Perth pantheon.  Whatever it is in the water there, it’s responsible for some great sounds. 

snap crackle and power pop 

She Freak - movie of the week

She Freak

Directed by: Byron Mabe 

Year: 1967

 “Filmed on actual locations where it COULD have happened!”   

But of course it didn’t.  This 1960s B-grade carny flick from the twisted mind of legendary producer David F Friedman is a poor attempt at remaking Todd Browning’s classic Freaks but it does have its own charm. The story follows the trials and tribulations of smalltown waitress Jade (Claire Brennen) who wants more out of life than working in a diner and fighting off her sleazy boss. When a carnival comes through town she decides to join up, seeing it as the only way out.  Of course she also has her eye on her future too with the moneyed up Steve St. John, owner of the Freakshow tent, right in her line of vision. Trouble is Jade don’t actually like the freaks themselves and she’s also partial to a bit of the rough stuff with carnie tough nut Blackie Fleming.   

Steve might be naïve to what is going on but his offsider Shorty (Felix Silla – Cousin Itt!) is keeping an eye on things and doesn’t like what he sees.  Not that it matters because Jade soon has her hooks in St. John and once those marriage papers are signed her ugly side comes out.  Blackie and St. John have a knife fight, St. John loses and Jade inherits the freakshow.  Of course if you’ve seen Browning’s film you know where it’s going from here.   In a hilarious scene the freaks come out to get Jade – the only problem being, there are very few “freaks” – ugly does not count!!  Anyway it all culminates in a ‘classick’ ending even if the cover slick does give it away.   

So the movie sounds great right?  Well there’s some stuff I forgot to tell you.  Padding for a start, lots and lots and lots of padding.  The whole romance ‘tween Jade and Steve St. John is just footage of them wandering the carnival with music over top, there’s tons of stock footage of carnival stalls setting up and then pulling down, there’s the actors mingling with real folk wandering the carnival, there’s more footage of Jade and Steve… all that’s lacking sometimes is a corny narrator or you would think you were watching a 60s doco on small town America.  Sure it’s great as a slice of history but hell, this is supposed to be a horror movie not a bloody documentary on what fat people were eating at travelling shows in the mid west! 

The film gets slow, reaaaaallll slow at times but finally picks up again in the second half.  Yes it’s a stinker at times, sure it’s slower than your cousin Tommy who was kept back in grade three and yes there are better things to do with your time but I can’t deny it, there is a certain charm about this film and the era it has preserved.  And anyway that’s what your thumb is for – the fast forward button.  Neither Friedman nor Cheezy Flicks ever promised you a classic film – you know what you’re getting here so just remember  - it could have happened! 

http://cheezyflicks.com/shop/