“yes, I was that naïve”
I left home after high school to study Television and Sound Production, in country New South Wales. In my mind I was living a retake of the life of George Lucas, and it was just a matter of time before I stepped up to stake my claim as a film director of note.
I left home after high school to study Television and Sound Production, in country New South Wales. In my mind I was living a retake of the life of George Lucas, and it was just a matter of time before I stepped up to stake my claim as a film director of note.
1991, shooting my Super 8 short, “syntax”
I was living the dream I’d had since I was a boy, watching movies in the Zimbabwe cinemas. Here I was, with an entrée to the Australian film industry. I selectively chose to ignore the fact that in my first year of tertiary study, the “Film” component of the course – which mainly consisted of a three minute edit-in-camera silent Super 8 short – was dropped, as the course focussed more on training operators for multi-camera television production.
How might my life have turned out, had I chosen the Sound strand, rather than Television? True, I was never selected for choir in school, because my singing voice is apparently not good enough, and although I bought an electric guitar when I was sixteen, I never learned to strum more than three chords, and never had a clue how to tune the damn thing.
But music is one of the essentials in my life. Musical appreciation, I possess in abundance. Even if I lack musical ability, the music recording process interests me greatly. So, while I was driving around New South Wales’ largest inland city, listening to eclectic mix tapes, first in my white 1974 Honda Civic, and later, in a blue Holden Commodore, and watching music videos seduced by the glamour of bands like Skid Row, White Lion, and soon Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and II, some of my classmates – musicians in the Sound Production stream – were into a whole different scene.
sex and drugs and indie rock
I first heard about Steve Albini, Pixies and Nirvana in 1991 – the year punk broke and the year my life changed forever. Also the year I liked to think of myself as a feminist, after reading Naomi Wolf’s book, The Beauty Myth. I should say, after first seeing and becoming obsessed with Naomi Wolf, then reading her book. There’s an important distinction.
Anyway, I was opposed to Albini from the time I heard he was in bands called Rapeman and Big Black. Bah! How offensive, how misogynistic I deemed them to be. Wasn’t misogyny everywhere, now that I knew how to spot it? And as for Nirvana, well they were just too popular to be worth listening to, in my opinion.
Years later, a friend from this time loaned me his copy of The Wedding Present’s 1991 Seamonsters CD, recorded by Steve Albini. It soon became one of my all-time favourite albums.
Allmusic writes, “Steve Albini’s production [sic] gives Seamonsters a noisy, discordant feel in some spots, but David Gedge’s suberb songwriting lies just under the surface. He manipulates his limited vocal range into a rich, wistful voice just about to crack. The Wedding Present work best on this album when Gedge’s plaintive love songs explode into a distorted fury, as on Dalliance.” Just look at the enthusiasm here. OK, it’s only fifteen people’s thoughts, but there’s something of a consensus there.
One reviewer writes, “It’s quite obvious that pairing the Wedding Present with Steve Albini was a masterstroke that produced one of the greatest (and most underrated) albums in all of rock music. Those who have previously complained about the drums being too loud may not be familiar with this sound, which is part and parcel of a typical Albini mix, finding the true impact of rock music in the rhythm section and the sound of a good too-loud guitar, and not the emoting of the vocalist.”
And while I dispute this author’s claim that it’s “still a difficult album to love”, he otherwise has some good points to make. For its sonic and lyrical intensity, barely contained rage and explosive energy, the first four tracks of this CD will forever be some of my favourite songs.
I first heard about Steve Albini, Pixies and Nirvana in 1991 – the year punk broke and the year my life changed forever. Also the year I liked to think of myself as a feminist, after reading Naomi Wolf’s book, The Beauty Myth. I should say, after first seeing and becoming obsessed with Naomi Wolf, then reading her book. There’s an important distinction.
Anyway, I was opposed to Albini from the time I heard he was in bands called Rapeman and Big Black. Bah! How offensive, how misogynistic I deemed them to be. Wasn’t misogyny everywhere, now that I knew how to spot it? And as for Nirvana, well they were just too popular to be worth listening to, in my opinion.
Years later, a friend from this time loaned me his copy of The Wedding Present’s 1991 Seamonsters CD, recorded by Steve Albini. It soon became one of my all-time favourite albums.
Allmusic writes, “Steve Albini’s production [sic] gives Seamonsters a noisy, discordant feel in some spots, but David Gedge’s suberb songwriting lies just under the surface. He manipulates his limited vocal range into a rich, wistful voice just about to crack. The Wedding Present work best on this album when Gedge’s plaintive love songs explode into a distorted fury, as on Dalliance.” Just look at the enthusiasm here. OK, it’s only fifteen people’s thoughts, but there’s something of a consensus there.
One reviewer writes, “It’s quite obvious that pairing the Wedding Present with Steve Albini was a masterstroke that produced one of the greatest (and most underrated) albums in all of rock music. Those who have previously complained about the drums being too loud may not be familiar with this sound, which is part and parcel of a typical Albini mix, finding the true impact of rock music in the rhythm section and the sound of a good too-loud guitar, and not the emoting of the vocalist.”
And while I dispute this author’s claim that it’s “still a difficult album to love”, he otherwise has some good points to make. For its sonic and lyrical intensity, barely contained rage and explosive energy, the first four tracks of this CD will forever be some of my favourite songs.
Track listing:
Dalliance
Dare
Suck
Blonde
Rotterdam
Lovenest
Corduroy
Carolyn
Heather
Octopussy
Dalliance
Dare
Suck
Blonde
Rotterdam
Lovenest
Corduroy
Carolyn
Heather
Octopussy
