REMASTERED GO-BETWEENS

The love of The Go-Betweens by fans all over the world has possibly never been felt as passionately as it does right now. The passing of Grant McLennan sent shockwaves throughout the music community and reminded us of the brilliance McLennan and Forster delivered as The Go-Betweens.

At the time of his death, the reissuing of the original Go-Betweens albums had already begun and is at last complete. The remastered albums are instore now.

SEND ME A LULLABY
The Go-Betweens first album Send Me a Lullaby (1982) contains songs that explore a jerking, spare style of folk music that is both oddly unsettling and demanding of attention at the same time.

The most obvious example of this effect is Forster’s “Eight Pictures”, a musically-sparse tale of an unattainable girl stalked by the photography-obsessed narrator that has two incongruous elements--a bizarre, massive-sounding drum solo and an extremely out-of-place lyrical joke. Other standouts include the clear, distant guitar structure of McLennan’s “One Thing Can Hold Us”, the pulsing, bass-heavy “All About Strength”, and the faux-country elements filling out the rather odd tempo of “Ride”. Though the Go-Betweens may not have been too polished at the time, knew exactly the kind of music that they wanted the world to hear.

Disc One is the original album with Disc Two containing bonus tracks including the film clip for “Your Turn, My Turn” (enhanced component).

BEFORE HOLLYWOOD
Before Hollywood (1983) was the second Go-Betweens album where the band relocated to England from Australia. Possibly the result of both the addition of a producer (earlier material was self-produced) as well as the radical change of location, this album marks a change in the band’s material, introducing a more full, lush sound and less oblique, more personal lyrics. The booklet contains a brief history of this period in the band’s career, including quotes by the band.

This is the first of the Go-Betweens albums that features the sound fans of their later material will recognise: beautiful (and painful) songs, lush presentation, and clean, clear execution. This is the first masterpiece in a career full of highlights.

Disc One is the original album with Disc Two containing bonus tracks including the film clip for “Cattle And Cane” (enhanced component).

SPRING HILL FAIR
Spring Hill Fair (1984), The Go-Betweens third album, opens with the brilliant “Bachelor Kisses” and “Five Words” (the former by McLennan and the latter by McLennan and band co-founder Robert Forster), this record was as critically acclaimed as their previous work.

Three Forster songs, including the stunning “Part Company”, follow the one-two punch of the album’s opening. Forster, the primary songwriter on the band’s earliest recordings, shows that his deeply personal style of song writing is as vital to the band as McLennan’s looser style. By the time one gets to the sixth song, “Slow, Slow Music” - a song resembling the Talking Heads in its breathless vocals and heavy bass line but going places the Heads didn’t travel - it is clear that this is a rather special record. And there is still the Velvet Underground-styled talk-song “River of Money” and the beautiful jangle of “Unkind and Unwise” to come. A classic.

Disc One is the original album with Disc Two containing bonus tracks including the film clip for “Bachelor Kisses” (enhanced component).

LIBERTY BELLE AND THE BLACK DIAMOND EXPRESS
Breezy, jangly, and full of accessible twang, Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (1986) is one of the best efforts by The Go-Betweens. Without sacrificing the edge or emotional intensity of the band’s first three records, Liberty Belle... lightens the Go-Betweens’ sound to a summery beauty.

Whether on the countrified lope of opener “Spring Rain”, the chiming arpeggios of “To Reach Me”, or the immediately endearing Smiths-like “Head Full of Steam”, Forster is at his best here. But Grant McLennnan’s tunes are equally strong, as the haunting pulse of his “In the Core of a Flame” proves.

Alongside Before Hollywood and 16 Lovers Lane, Liberty Belle... is one of the finest efforts by these ’80s underground icons.

Disc One is the original album the film clips of “Spring Rain” and “Head Full Of Steam” with Disc Two containing bonus tracks.

TALLULAH
The fifth Go-Betweens album, Tallulah (1987) cemented the band’s move toward the inclusion of strings that had begun with their last album. With this addition, the interplay between instruments and vocals is even more lush and pretty than ever, even on vaguely unsettling tracks like “The Clarke Sisters”.

Standouts include “Right Here”, a pristine pop classic complete with soaring violins, a catchy chorus, and jangling guitars; “I Just Get Caught Out”, a rocker propelled along a popping bass line; the beautiful “Bye Bye Pride”, one of the band’s more spectacular songs that captures a moment so well you can see it (“A white moon appears/Like a hole in the sky/The mangroves go quiet”), and “Hope Then Strife”, with its spoken verses and sung choruses punctuated by Lindy Morrison’s spare drumming and some gorgeous flamenco guitar.

Disc One is the original album and the film clips of “Right Here” and “Bye Bye Pride” with Disc Two containing bonus tracks.

16 LOVERS LANE
The sixth Go-Betweens record (1988) (and their last before a 12-year hiatus), 16 Lovers Lane, is not only one of the band’s finest albums, it’s a remarkable collection of love songs. Focusing on the bittersweet side of romance, vocalist/guitarists Grant McLennan and Robert Forster write with a clear-eyed, unflinching intensity that draws listeners into their narratives of loss and redemption. Moving back to Australia, the group abandoned a short-lived experiment with programming and synthesizers begun on their previous album, and returned to a more organic sound that, accompanied by crisp production, gives this outing a bracing, undated immediacy.

Everything here is a gem (including the supremely catchy near-hit “Streets of Your Town”), but perhaps shining most brightly are “Love Is a Sign” and “Dive for Your Memory”.

One of pop music’s masterpieces, 16 Lovers Lane is a record that people with even a passing interest in the form owe it to themselves to own.

Disc One is the original album and the film clips of “Streets Of Your Town” (two versions) and “Was There Anything I Could Do?” with Disc Two containing bonus tracks.

JOAN TO LAY DOWN THE LAW

Joan Wasser, the enigmatic creative force behind New York buzz band, Joan As Policewoman, is coming to Sydney and Melbourne for solo shows sure to fire up Australian fans

Joan As Policewoman released a number of EPs and singles before putting out their debut album, Real Life, in Europe, America and Australia in June 2006. The album has been met with rave reviews, earning comparisons with the diverse likes of Dusty Springfield and Martha Wainwright.

Until now, Joan Wasser was best known as a member of indie rock bands, The Dambuilders, Black Beetle and Those Bastard Souls. As a violinist and vocalist, she has contributed to albums by everyone from Nirvana through to The Scissor Sisters, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Sheryl Crow, Sparklehorse and Depeche Mode’s David Gahan.

Most recently, she’s been a regular favourite member in Antony’s Johnsons and Rufus Wainwright’s band (Joan’s in fact currently recording on Rufus’ new album). Some of these influences pervade, but her music is all together different. It’s music that shimmers, torch-song-like, between categories. It feels adjacent to jazz while being deeply soulful.

The voice and delivery has raised comparisons to Dusty Springfield, Annette Peacock and Chrissie Hynde. Like Antony, Joan’s music seems to have come out of nowhere, and yet feels fully-formed, idiosyncratically individual, all on, and of, it’s own. Simply, Joan As Police Woman feels very Joan.

In her own words, Joan perhaps says it best: “I’ve called it Punk Rock R&B but American Soul Music is better, I feel like my music is the melding of the two styles I love most - Soul, that whole encompassing Al Green, Nina Simone and Isaac Hayes, and then all the stuff that came from Punk like The Smiths, The Grifters and Siouxsie Sioux...”

Dates:
Wednesday 27 September – @Newtown, Sydney
Friday 29 September – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Saturday 30 September – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne