The THROB- The Fortune Teller/Believe In Me

The Throb! What a great name for a band, narrowly losing out to New Zealand's Hi-Revving Tongues as my favourite 60s Antipodean band name. The Throb were another legendary Australian mid-60s group with a great live reputation, leather clad image, and one further classic single ('Black' also released in 1966).

Again this is a 7" I have lusted after for a years, ever since hearing 'Believe In Me' on a compilation (I think, one of the Digging For Gold series). Apparently this record is generally sought after for the "better than the stones" cover of 'Fortune Teller', which is pretty good, though I prefer the Tony Jackson version which is in a similar vein.

More to my taste is the band original, 'Believe In Me' and it turns out the late great Dean Mittelhauser agreed with me. Here's an extract from his indispensable oz beat fanzine, The Livin' End: "...every time I reach for this single, I instinctively play the B side. "Believe In Me" is real moody - Denny Burgess' sings totally unlike any other of the Throb's fab tracks and you'd be hard pushed to pick this as the Throb. It's an atmospheric mover with this fantastic muted fuzz throughout. But, except for a wyld mini-explosion about three-quarters of the way thru, it's kept on a tight leash (like my fat cocker spaniel!)..." 'nuff said.

THE THROB- The Fortune Teller

THE THROB- Believe In Me

The MASTERS APPRENTICES- Buried and Dead/She's My Girl

Hopefully, now my technical problems are over (I've purchasing a new stylus and moved from yahoo media player to divshare), this blog can get going and I can share some of the really great records I've scored in the last couple of months.

First up is an absolute monster of a 7" that I've adored since first hearing at least 15 years ago on a glorious bootleg compilation named 'Twisted Psychotic Teenage Fuzz-Busters' which was also my first introduction to the likes of Q65, the Monks and The Masters Apprentices other drop dead, sixties punk masterpiece; 'Undecided'.

I'm not sure exactly how rare/expensive 'Buried and Dead' is, but it took me a lot of looking around to find a copy until I got this slightly battered (though great playing) copy from the last Camberwell Record Fair here in Melbourne. As you can see from the photo the middle is popped, obscuring the song title, which is possibly why I got it for less than the cost of my tram fare.

'Buried and Dead' was Adelaide band, the Masters Apprentices second single, and to my ears is pretty unique sounding thing: huge guitar riff, massive drums, snarling, grunting punk/r'n'b vocal, with a nice 1967 sound effect and kinda raga section which don't detract from the rawness and aggression of the recording and performance. I guess if it was an English record you might call it 'freakbeat' but perhaps it owes more to the slightly earlier proto metal of 'You Really Got Me' era Kinks or the Easybeats' 'Sorry' and parallels the sort of records The Unrelated Segments were blasting out of Detroit at the same time.

The B-side is a great song in it's own right, if not up to the dizzying coolness of the top side, 'She's My Girl' is a kind of mid paced early Stones/Pretty Things bluesy number with another brilliant vocal from Jim Keays who snarls and slobbers over the top, telling us how he's not worthy of his girls attentions.

The Masters Apprentices went on to become one of the biggest bands in Australia right up to the early 70s, and made lots of great records, but for me 'Buried and Dead' and 'Undecided' (anyone got a spare?) will always remain their finest waxings.

THE MASTERS APPRENTICES- Buried and Dead

THE MASTER'S APPRENTICES- She's My Girl

And here is an amazing, and appropriately Halloweeny, promo film the band made for 'Buried and Dead':

The LOVED ONES- More Than Love

I was completely unaware of The Loved Ones until I picked up this 7" (in Revolve, a great little Sydney shop), but they now stand as one of my favourite Oz groups. The Loved Ones have a quite distinct sound, apparently their unusual time signature and chord choices were influenced by their origins as a trad jazz band! Singer Gerry Humphries as a superb intense voice a little like Eric Burdon but with more of an American garage snarl. More Than Love is the flip side of the slightly more poppy (though still pretty weird) Ever Lovin' Man.

The LOVED ONES- More Than Love

The Loved Ones released a string of equally strong singles and one album, and are to this day legendary in the annals of Australian rock history (INXS covered The Loved One to great success). There is CD collection of these singles available here and below is some atmospheric footage of the The Loved Ones miming to The Loved One.