LULU'S AUGUST 2023 NEWSLETTER

Here is the AUGUST 2023 Newsletter and Calendar, emailed at the start of the month to our mailing list and physically available free in store.

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FEATURED THIS MONTH:

MOM GALLERY NEWS

Lulu's x MOM Presents: Spacemen 5 w/ Program & Romansy

LULUS SCARF - “LUCY DODD” GOLD ON BLACK

SWEEPING PROMISES - “GOOD LIVING IS COMING FOR YOU” LP 

BUSTED HEAD RACKET - "JUNK FOOD" 10"

THE EXPLODING HEARTS - “GUITAR ROMANTIC” LP 

CRO-MAGS - "AGE OF QUARREL" LP

DISTORT XXIII PROJECT  

Lu Crüe

Big month behind, big month ahead! 

A brief intro - this newsletter is stacked:

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the opening night of the secret behind Lulu's back door: Mom Gallery. For those who missed out, please check out an update below from Mom's Oscar.

If you're in Melbourne, set aside your Friday night with us, flier above and details below.

Some quick updates: we have the new Mort Garson archival release, a handful of quality Dead Moon reissues, very limited copies of the Dollar Country mixtapes and the brand new Poison Ruin LP.

And if you missed out on last months news, be sure to check out the new release on our in-house label LSD CLUB: the rocky LP, a new recording project featuring Xanthe Waite (Terry, Primo) and Raven Mahon (Grass Widow, Green Child)

LOVE FROM LULU'S XXOO

 

 

MOM GALLERY NEWS

Oscar from MOM here.

For those of you that have wandered through Lulu’s in the past month you may have heard some banging and shouting behind the door at the back, not to mention a consistent stench of fresh paint.  As disruptive and odorous as it’s been, it was all worth it. Because I’m proud to bring you the MOM Gallery, the newest edition to the already joyous Lulu’s store.

The Gallery will be open 12-5pm, Wednesday through Sunday, so if you want to have a peek at some great art, feel free to wander through as you please. I may even be sitting in my little nook out the back so feel free to ask any questions or just have a yarn. 

Currently we are showing the work of Jim McCullough, one of Melbourne's most promising painters and the front man for Civic. The show is titled ‘In Your Dreams’ and plays with imagined unconscious narratives derived from Jim’s time as an undertaker in his early 20’s. The show dances between thematic darkness, splattered with colour that seeps into linen and canvas. It’s not to be missed. A massive thanks to anyone that made it down to Jim’s opening last Saturday, we were overjoyed with the response and can’t wait to keep bringing you a new show each month. The exhibit is up until August 27th and all the works are available for purchase; well the ones that are left, they’re going quick! 

If you did miss the opening and won’t be in town this month, don’t fret! Next up we have another great painter/musician, lead singer of Clamm and brush expert; Jack Summers. That show opens on Friday, September 1st and is set to be a really great show. Following that in October, we have a group show by some amazing up and coming painters, Lily Ward and Liana Prosia, who are sure to blow you away. November’s exhibition will be by Melbourne’s most sought after tattooist and visual extraordinaire; Cosmo Feltham, it’s going to be an odd one, so keep an eye out. Then to finish off the year with a bang, I'm very excited to announce my favourite woman behind the lens, the one, the only, Robyn Daly! It’s her first show in a while and I know it’s going to be worth the wait, despite the fact that I can’t. 

More details on all these shows to come!

Anyways, see you in the Gallery and Spacemen 5 this weekend! 

MOM LOVES YOU

Lulu's x MOM Presents: Spacemen 5 w/ Program & Romansy

Although Spacemen 3 wrote and recorded simple music it doesn’t mean that it isn’t truly invigorating to hear these songs performed by a group who capture the essence of what made it so special; loose adherence to a basic idea achieving highly concentrated rock’n’roll with psychedelic, transcendental qualities. Featuring minds behind Exek and Lou, this is once again sure to be a sublime trip to the other side.

For those who have seen this hymnal tribute to Spacemen before you’ll know how life affirming it is, anybody else is in for a most sublime experience. Program bring the bubbly with their tender twin jangles while Romansy line up shots of ether to make your soul burn slow. Let Lulus X MOM tint your glasses.

Show Friday August 4th. Tickets available on the door and presale via Humanitix 

LULUS SCARF - “LUCY DODD” GOLD ON BLACK

Manifesting thermoregulation through the photocopier / the bedroom media conglomerate / feeding the carpet biome / the bowls club renaissance/ And the pit. / In 100% Acrylic Knit at Lulu's Melb."

Lulu's scarves by Lucy Dodd in new gold on black knit. Manufactured in Australia by Sound Merch.

SWEEPING PROMISES - “GOOD LIVING IS COMING FOR YOU” LP 

(Sub Pop)

You might think that following up Sweeping Promises’ first album would be a task understandably insurmountable for most; lightning in a bottle rarely strikes twice. Lucky for us, then, that Sweeping Promises know precisely how to butter their bread and prove their captivating sound was no mere fluke. I don’t think any singular song reaches the highs of Hunger For A Way Out’s title track, but one song does not an album make.

While Good Living... may be the stronger top-to-bottom album in Sweeping Promises’ promising catalogue, those of you who are DJ minded will find more than a few highlight cuts that you could slap on the decks and guaranteed have curious revellers come up and beg to know what you’re spinning (Shadow Me and You Shatter would be my picks if I were fishing for such compliments).

Good Living Is Coming For You wisely goes back to the well for that 4-track sound that did them so much justice on the debut - if anything they’ve probably moved in an even rawer production direction; some kind of Le Tigresque love child in a rotten mood. With such muscular melody and ripped rhythm in your band’s DNA you can afford a lean tone, even if it flies in the face of conventional thought (especially when labels like Sub Pop are sniffing around). It’s precisely that self confidence and gnashed attitude that earns Sweeping Promises the punk badge no matter how sweet their music tastes on the ear’s delicate tongue. And it passes the taste test. I’ve already mentioned Le Tigre, and with that comes a healthy dash of X-Ray Spex, but there are plenty of notes of New Order to be found and probably more than a dash of The Clash. But Lira’s voice is absolutely insane so even when she’s playing droll possum it’s more cathartic sad angel than I ever found the late, great Joe’s to be.

Sweeping Promises established themselves as an essential outfit in 2020 and in 2023 they’ve given us a timely reminder that they know exactly what’s up. Good living is coming for you, fam.

BUSTED HEAD RACKET - "JUNK FOOD" 10" (Self Released)

Newcastle scoundrels doin' that junk food channel surfing punk'd rock n roll - you know the one; quick hi-hat 16ths and speed-running bass, all washed over with saturated UFO'nic keys and full on "Take Me To Your Leader" vocals. Probably pairs well with beta blockers. Chicken babies rejoice. The song called Sad lil' <3 has a super pretty melody and will satisfy those with a sweet tooth. So does the song called Nicola, but it kinda feels like it was meant to be a Sade song until the phone rang and someone got distracted. 

 

THE EXPLODING HEARTS - “GUITAR ROMANTIC” LP (Third Man Records)

I can’t be the only one whose first real introduction to Power Pop was this album? Thanks you Portland punks. Where to start with this one… The title! Guitar Romantic is a perfect album name. The lyrics? Absolutely stellar; heartfelt, stupid word salad from young minds beginning to navigate their way through life and love – life and love tragically cut way too short. The music? Are you kidding me? Pentatonics and gin & tonics, baby! This new remaster is smooth as butter. Every single track is a hot’n’heavy love affair more memorable than your first kiss (hi Holly).

The Exploding Hearts have had me licking my wounds and bags for the better part of fifteen years, through the mad times and the bad times. Guitar Romantic wiped the floor with the majority of records that tried their strumming hand at this style around the same time (and since). It’s hard to muster anything new to say about this album after all these years that hasn’t already run through your mind a million times if you’ve heard it before. All I can say is that I still need to spin it at least twice in a row and any floor becomes a dance floor when Throwaway Style kicks in. Thanks again, you Portland punks. I’ll be pouring out gin & tonic. Three for you, three for me.

CRO-MAGS - "AGE OF QUARREL" LP (CHURCH. OF THE CRO-MAGS RECORDS)

A HUMBLE PETITIONS

We respresent a dedicated faction of the CRO-MAGS International Church, and humbly submit our request to John Joseph, aka Mr. Krinkle and Harley Flanagan, aka Wingspan.

We request Mr Krinkle and Wingspan immediately cease any attempt to use the CRO-MAGS name and image in their reunion tours and in any public interviews. We sincerely plead of them both to not write any more spiteful memoirs. The story that a group of skinhead criminals formed a hardcore band that espoused Krsna Consioune is best not developed past the distant past of New York’s mid 1980’s, and even then CRO-MAGS religious associations and homophobic imagery are a bitter disappointment.

We are all here because at some point in our lives CRO-MAGS made hard times a little more bearable. We are asking this – please don’t make it life harder for us.

Leave the CRO-MAGS out of your life so we can keep it in ours.

NAME            

CITY                           

COMMENT

Please pass this around your community of true believers and return it to:

CRO-MAGS INTERNATIONAL CHURCH MELBOURNE HQ

C/O DISTORT MAGAZINE

 

WORLD PEACE CAN BE DONE AND WE SHALL BE THE PROOF OF IT. SIGN TODAY.

 

DISTORT XXIII PROJECT 

Distort mag started in 2003 to document kvlt hardcore and World War III. Out of the 2000+ pages published over the past couple of decades I am skimming the C.R.E.A.M. into an archival book.

I'm raising funds to print this by making backissues available again via PDF here.

I'm also kicking off a project in mid-August '23 called the XXIII Project.

XXIII will publish one mag a week until the end of '23 (23 mags total). These will be available only in two editions of 23 copies each.

The first edition I will be selling for $10 each via Lulu's, Prop and the Distort mailorder (here). 

The second edition will be a unique subscription edition to this project. 23 subscribers only will receive a copy of every issue mailed to them every two weeks until it's wrapped up. You can buy a subscription to this project here.

I have been thinking about what kind of person plays in a band for most of their life, and what experiences contributed to this, how isolating the experience is – most bands have no longevity, so aside from my bandmates and a handful of other people across the world, there aren’t many people that have played in a band pushing two decades. And I mean a real band that doesn’t break up and do reunion shows, that doesn’t chop and change members. A band is a gang, a gang is volatile, most don’t last long. SJN at time of writing have been around for about 20 years.

And then, there's Total Control and UV Race, 15 years. The story of Distort is a story I'd like to tell alongside the stories of SJN, The UV Race and Total Control.

This is not a memoir – I write my memoir soon which will not deal with violence or music at all, but with my lifetime of dreams, reveries and ecstasy – I will point towards many arcane texts and contemporary conspiracies that I have researched for insights into sacred mysteries... I will discuss the possibilities of time travel and my experiences with this, alternate dimensions that I have seen, visited and experienced… the past, great ancient civilisations, long buried, long forgotten, glimpsed by me in various states of exploration and contemplation… and future alien worlds that have contacted me requesting permission to visit our pathetic world, requests I have denied because… you are not ready for this, all will be explained in my memoir that I will write under my own name and not the name of this… DX…

The XXIII Project will include some of these writings... these reveries... and the seeds for this Distort book project.