LULU'S AUGUST 2024 NEWSLETTER

Here is the AUGUST 2024 Newsletter and Calendar, emailed at the start of the month to our mailing list and physically available free in store.

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MOM GALLERY NEWS

 KAIMAN JIMENZ & KOBRA 3000 -  “THE WILD ONES” LP
‘The Wild Ones’ pays tribute to the uniquely decorative ‘PICÓ’ soundsystems synonymous with the Carribean coastlines of Columbia. A fascinatingly competitive culture of stacked & hand painted speaker units blasting a unique brand of Afro-Columbian dance music mirroring the coastlines shared occupation & fondness for one another’s cultural & musical heritage. The ‘PICÓ’ soundsystems act as a celebration of life, culture & going the fuck off in the name & spirit of the carnival. The resulting sound of all of this is pure humidity & an outrageously wild time.

BEN WOODS - "PUT" LP & "DISPILLER" LP (SHRIMPER)
If descriptions such as ‘Christchurch based & ‘Antipodean Gothic’ don’t immediately make your mind believe that these two LP’s pertain to something relative to those that came before Ben Woods (e.g Tall Dwarfs, Roy Montgomery, Alistair Galbraith) then maybe you’re thinking of Dunedin. There’s definitely a lot of those kinds of energies found on both of these LP’s but with a more modernised approach following the glow-up of the Numero Group’s Duster/Canaan Amber re-issue packages. Nevertheless the alluring sparsity & mysteriousness in the atmosphere of this brand of alternative-indie slow-jams should keep fans of all of the above very satisfied with the efforts of Ben Woods.

HOG – “TRUE ROMANCE” 7” (Shipping Steel Records) 
HÖG in 500 words: True romance with rock and roll. Sleazy carpeted rooms perfumed with tobacco and wizard’s smoke. Hands calloused and lightly discoloured like an age cracked oil painting from frequent friction with fret boards, drum sticks, bottle caps, dirty denim. Kaleidoscope thoughts about Hawkwind and the Blues and distortion and living with regrets and amplifiers and motorcycles and how you’re gonna spend the next little bit of cash you’ll see and The Stooges and love.
Side A kicks out the jams with the opening Ashton-esque riff & lick combo of ‘True Romance’, a proper hard hitting romp in touch with its own sleazy-but-bluesy heart. Fiery, boozy vibes race down the disaster paved highway until crashing into final moments which culminates with the sort of climactic section you instantly know will have you coming back to the start to have another look once both sides are spun. ‘Confessions Part III’ is a more mournful number, a semi-dirge recalibrating their pace in which you can hear their joint soul singing the aches and praises of rock and roll taking your life in the palm of its hand. They have given themselves over to it and you wonder; should I, too?
The killer noises make you shake, hairs stand on end and the cosmic spider-like visions grow louder and more vivid and then – then you’re just existing. You’re back at the source. The cool one. The dark and light divine one. You can’t fight the parasite. This parasite is rock and roll. You feed together. You breathe together. You live together. You have other things growing inside but this one is your favourite. It’s just who you are.
‘Line Haul’ grinds up against itself in the classic manner of obscure and gritty garage messes from the 60’s all the way up to NYC’s Hank Wood & The Hammerheads - a jittery frenzy around a crooked attempt at being laidback. The sort of song where you can easily picture the band dangerously dancing in shadows around the suddenly-set-on-fire keyboard before the whole thing collapses. Side B closes with a staunch stomping piece which brings to mind the most wretched moments of Cleveland’s Brown Sugar. It’s a declaration that sounds sinister but for those in the know it’s a reverie; a kind of broken toothed celebration. It’s short and sweet and they know you’re gonna flip back to Side A and do it all again.
Hazy concoctions of freedom riding and throbbing aches of dead-end avenues you’re trying to look away from; they make your tonight sweet and your tomorrow bitter. And you know it, but, whatever, you ain’t gonna stop now are you? This song will not play itself and you will not remember who you are until you play it. So play it! Louder! And then the next song and the next song and then take it from the top, baby.
HÖG confess their romance with their rock and roll parasites. These are hymns to the denim clad saints. Praise them.

NO FUTURE – “MIRROR” LP (Televised Suicide/Iron Lung Records)
Perth punk impolitely making big impact once again. Noisy, huge and brittle sound, shards in your speaker cones, brutal visions behind the cornea, raw mineral devastation. MIRROR is a bleak exercise, bloodsport music with Claire taking swings at the throat of grand wampyric foes and sniped gut shots to the pathetic mortals complicit in their agendas over destructive thrash-pounding percuss, gonged bass blisters, pure scrunched fuzz guitar assault. If you’ve been a fan of the violently emerging forces of ozHCpunk – GELD, VAMPIRE, ENZYME – NO FUTURE sure have something for you as a mean mongrel cross between the three.

HEAVEN – “4 TRACK EP” 7” (Iron Lung Records)
HEAVEN impressed with their STARLESS MIDNIGHT 7” a few years back and their latest EP is a switch up – totally bleak crust drudgery. Vocals remind me of BLASPHEMY, who always maintained that DISCHARGE were a big influence on them, so I suppose the circle fills. Big fan of repetitive punk with a bad attitude and this 4 TRACK EP is exactly that. Morose protest music. God is in HEAVEN and is anything right in the world?

SILICONE VALUES – “HOW TO SURVIVE WHEN…” LP (SDZ Records)
Solo bedroom jank but in the Bri’ish way not the Jay Reatard way – SILICONE VALUES is not as intensely cynical as The Rebel but still a pretty lousy attitude - kinda like Baxter Dury throwing everything away except for his 4-track and Ramones records innit. It’s catchy lo-fi ultra simplicity and sometimes that’s all you need; a couple instruments and an idea. One you can listen to over and over for that hit of single-minded sounds and yer new fav hooks.

POPOLICE – “LP” LP (Self-released)
Homemade jangle cult POPOLICE have graced us with the vinyl version of their clamoured-for “LP”. Recorded in a storage facility in Moorabbin, bringing to life their visions of pop DIY craft POPOLICE invite you into a personal world. Ranging from the very unmistakably local dolewave to interpretations of New Order single-sounds this is a tender affair despite the occasional noisier tendencies. This is the sound of someone dreaming overtime to make creative ends meet.