The Lucksmiths - how to tour on a budget

The Lucksmiths did their first European tour supporting Belle and Sebastian in 1998. They wrote to them asking to play, then flew from Melbourne to Amsterdam just in case they got the gig. They did.

They then toured the UK on their own, signing ('signing') to Fortuna POP! the following year. The Lucksmiths became experts at touring on the cheap. This involved scavenging bagels from dumpsters, getting a brewery to sponsor them and asking audience members if they could sleep on their floor after the gig.

"We'll have to go on forever, as we can't do anything else. We might have to be like ESG and get our children to be The Lucksmiths 20 years down the track."

This was 2002. The Lucksmiths are now all parents. The family band prediction is on.

Sodastream interview

Sodastream explain how they turned down a Blanco y Negro record deal for Tugboat so they could be on same label as Low.

This interview was published in TNT magazine in 2003 when they'd signed ('signed') with Fortuna POP! and released A Minor Revival.

I spoke to Pete Cohen last night. The excess baggage for the double bass was only $500 this time. There may be a kickstarter or a bucket handed round at tonight's gig.




"I grew my hair and discovered Smoke On The Water"

Wurld Series - Air Goofy

Things I suspect Wurld Series have:

• a collection of obscure psychedelic albums
• some old effects pedals held together by packing tape
• Mr Big The Medicine Man’s phone number

Thing I know they have:

• a confrontational tape of tuneful noise

That tape is Air Goofy on the consistently excellent Melted Ice Cream label. It’s dispatched in a shrugging ‘take it or leave it way’. I’m taking it. It’s really quite brilliant. I bet they know that. How could they not?

I know - believe me, I know - a lot of bands are compared to Guided By Voices, but with Wurld Series it’s right on the button. They take Robert Pollard’s  “four Ps”, pop, punk, psych, and prog, and make hook-laden songs that have more ideas in them than some bands manage in a whole album.

And some of these songs are under a minute long. Oh, in case you’re worried about the prog thing, the longest song bows out in under 3 minutes.

Wurld Series even manage acid folk on Regional Perspectives and temper The Fall’s raging lunacy on AH’s 56th Dream. I’m still finding things in these songs. They’ll last.

I Love Your Lifestyle - Fire

Punk's fire and fury with pop's instant bite and hardcore's melodic mayhem. It's a win-win-win situation. They boast guitar proficiency even if this is DIY, like The Only Ones did in punk's amateur hour, and it sounds great.

I can see them fitting in with British acts like Shit Present or Playlounge, all shredding guitars and chaotic tunes.

I Love Your Lifestyle (it's either an emo band name or sardonic, either way I'll pass on the t-shirt option) have a great way with song titles and waspish lyrics. Try their debut ep I Was a Loser in School or Nice Jacket. Not. and No Time For Major Fuck Ups from last year's album.

Dag - Benefits of Solitude

Another year, another great album from the Australian underground. Benefits of Solitude is a country record - despondency and alienation in equal measures - and an indie album looking to Microdisney's terminal doom and the wan light of early Smiths singles.

It's in the current Australian tradition of The Twerps - see also Lower Plenty, Ciggie Witch, Grandstands - and their kindred spirits Real Estate. Benefits of Solitude was in the same record bag this week as the new Real Estate album - even if the latter's In Mind is a welcome return to their best form, I know which one I prefer.

There are so many great songs on this album. Like a boxer I'm not knocked out but dizzy from the blows. I can't yet pick a favourite. Some of these songs will stay with me for years. Try this one for starters:

Foxy Morons

The sound of the suburbs intensified. The frustrated teenage dreams of living in a commuter town amplified by living in Tasmania, an island 150 miles away from the Australian mainland.

This is spare music, simple and brittle like the Marine Girls with a wayward punk spikiness like The Slits and broken-down strumming like The Cannanes. Each song only uses about 3 chords because that’s all they need to. It works.

Under The Sea might have a little too much in common with Girl Ray's Trouble - quite possibly coincidentally, so I won't hold that against them. These are early days and it sounds good whatever way you hold it up.

Home suggests where they might go next. It takes the Modern Lovers-style two-note twin engine guitar and keyboard drone of Mainland and turns out a woozy keyboard recalling Quasi’s Featuring “Birds”.

But Mainland tells us one of this 5-piece band has already gone. So this might be the last we hear from Foxy Morons (I know, the band name isn’t the greatest joke in rock history, but that seems to be a thing with Australian bands).

There's quite a Tasmanian scene at the moment. Unless Unity Floors’ Moving To Melbourne becomes the new Australian underground's anthem, it's a window to watch.

How to win Fortuna POP! gig tickets

Rough Trade are offering a pair of tickets to the Fortuna POP! farewell gig to the person who (best, I presume) answers the question "Who's the best Fortuna POP! band & why?"

Let me help you here. I have form. Some years ago, Rough Trade were offering a bag to the person who best explained what records mean the most to them. Sean was desperate for the bag. Times were tough before the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart royalties came in.

Among my suggestions were "I'm on My Way" by Dean Parrish, because it was the traditional closing song at the Wigan Casino. And Fortuna POP!'s tagline is "more soul than the Wigan Casino". Which is a line from Bob's Brian Wilson's Bed. So I suggested that as well.

Sean won the bag. Did he thank me? Did he fuck.

Anyway, out of the same altruistic (mine, not Sean's) spirit, I've separated the FPOP! discography into bands who might help you win, and those who won't.

Oh, before you write your competition entry, remember that Sean's a sensitive boy. He blushes easily:

As the bass player in Airport Girl I find it difficult to be overly ethusive about our records in these mailouts. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am virtually ego-less, possessing a sense of modesty similar to that of Mahatma Gandhi.

Bands you should write about for the competition
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Allo Darlin'
Mark 700
The Butterflies Of Love
The Lucksmiths
Sodastream
The Mountain Movers
Let's Wrestle
Withered Hand
Mammoth Penguins

Retirement homes
(bands Sean gave the kiss of life to, sorry that image pains me too)
Comet Gain
Tender Trap
The Primitives

Band too early for the Luscious Jackson revival
Cannonball Jane (or how that Le Tigre comeback could have sounded better)

One-offs
(file under whatever happened to)
Taking Pictures
Mogul
Discordia (there were releases on other labels, should've have been bigger than DJ Shadow)
Mick Travis (they couldn't have been bigger than Tompaulin, but it was worth a try)
John Sims
Cinema Red and Blue
Karl Smith

Bands named after songs 
(It worked for Biff Bang Pow! but this isn't Creation)
September Girls
Cocoanut Groove

Also worked for Creation but not Fortuna POP!
Airport Girl - the label's Oasis. Two brothers...actually, it was really Rob Price who let Sean play the same bassline for every song at gigs; in the studio, Rob played the actual basslines.

Not really Fortuna POP! bands, they were on other labels (at least that's how I think of them don't @ me)
The Aislers Set (nothing not to love)
Spraydog (it seemed like every label had to release a record by them in the late 90s - they were good, but it was a long time ago)
Bearsuit
Chain And The Gang
Crystal Stilts (that first album still sounds phenomenal)
Peter Astor
Would-Be-Goods
Club 8
The Pipettes
The Wave Pictures
Tullycraft
Milky Wimpshake
The Proper Ornaments
The Ballet

Bidding war losses
(before Fortuna POP! upped their promotional and recording budgets, some bands fucked off after making brilliant debuts)
Fanfarlo
My Sad Captains

Bands stolen from other labels
(after Fortuna POP! had a promotional and recording budget)
Shrag
Tigercats

Bands inherited from Track & Field
Homescience
The Loves
Herman Dune
Darren Hayman
The Ladybug Transistor
Steven James Adams (sort of)

Bands I can't remember very well
Finlay
Twinkie

Band with a drug dealer on speed dial* so all touring bands' favourite support act
The Chemistry Experiment (*allegedly - don't sue me, I know some of you are responsible parents with respectable jobs)

Darren Hayman bands
Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern
Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee
Darren Hayman And Emma Kupa
Darren Hayman And The Long Parliament
Darren Hayman

The DIY years
(actually, any of these might win, they're current and fahionable and very good)
Martha
Chorusgirl
Joanna Gruesome
The Spook School
Evans The Death
Flowers (alright, Bernard Butler produced them, but they're noisy and I've run out of categories)