It’s the middle of Winter and it’s cold. Buy two or more products online and get 10% off. Use code: JULY10. Save some money and buy herbal tea if that’s your bag. Suss the July calendar and newsletter for cool things to check out. Nu Lu Wear™️ Scarves coming soon to protect ya neck. Stay tuned & stay you. xoxo LULUS

Here is the July 2022 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 in this newsletter

MAN-EATERS - "TWELVE MORE OBSERVATIONS ON HEALTHY LIVING" LP
VINTAGE CROP - "KIBITZER" LP
FECKARSE - "SOUTHSIDE" + "4114" ZINES
INFLEUNZA PRODS - "MEMORIE" LP
TH BLISKS - "HOW SO?" LP
SEPSIS - "THE DIVIDE" 7"
WHY BOTHER? - "A YEAR OF MUTATIONS" LP
SCARRING - "NEW BLOOMS AND OLD THORNS" CS
PICTURE MUSIC - "PICTURE MUSIC" LP
THE STROPPIES - "LEVITY" LP

Hey babes,

Gonna keep it short this month; got some amazing local stuff through the racks! Lots of nice surprises <3

We’re very excited to have Eternal Dust down from Sydney this month! Keep an eye on the horizon and an ear to the ground regarding their debut LP...

Looking forward to seeing what you all come up with while hibernating from this brutal weather. As always, Lulu’s has tape duplication and photocopying services on-site, plus a staff with a wide knowledge of getting shit made in all sorts of forms.

Consider us at your disposal.

With love,
Lulu’s

NEW ARRIVALS

MAN-EATERS - "TWELVE MORE OBSERVATIONS ON HEALTHY LIVING" LP
Feel It Records

After over-sleeping on this one I've finally tuned into MAN-EATERS bad-times-are-good-times rock sleaze. This Chicago tattered outfit slay in a style akin to Annihilation Time or Power, maybe even CIVIC for another Melbourne reference, but with a singer who brings the slightly odd "gotta slam" crooning styles of infamous Ryan "Hoagie" Hogan - frontman for almighty Canadian outfit The Omegas. Heck of a combo. Hot licks + large drum sticks with extra sauce is the order of the day (every day) by the sounds of things. If Annihilation Time reminded us that punks can play hard out rock'n'roll or at least throw a ton of it into punk music, Maneaters heeded the call balls and all. It's hard not to imagine an especially boozy, especially denim-clad affair whenever this lot plug in and turn up. If that sounds like your jam then these twelve jams are all yours. Sixpack not included.

VINTAGE CROP - "KIBITZER" LP
Anti Fade Records

Furthering the development of Australian bands getting closer to the Eddy Current sound, Vintage Crop hang their hats on the boppy mid-paced garage tempo, a few cheeky licks (clean-ish combo amp tone is simply a must) and quirky vocals + quirky keys where needed. Mixing the everyman poetry of ECSR up with some more finger-pointing-protests of a group like Straw Man Army, there are more shades of a militant punk intent as opposed to frolicking in the seas of daydreams and everyday experience, and occasionally veering into some grander melodies is pretty unexpected but, really, why not hey? Kibitzer is Vintage Crop's most post-adolescence work yet and it feels like a significant step towards the sound they were always searching for deep down inside.

FECKARSE - "SOUTHSIDE" + "4114" ZINES
Feckarse

Self published B+W photography zines from a cat who spent time kicking it on the streets in QLD with some stylish and possibly unsavoury characters (that is if Australian news media outlets are to be believed). One zine was shot over the course of 24hrs, the other over the course of 365 days. A glossy-cum-gritty peek at the life of people who get up to whatever they want even in a notorious police state like QLD. There are tattoos of mushies shaped like the Nike Swoosh, criminal activity on motorbikes, police helicopters, face coverings that have nothing to do with Covid-19, and plenty of sportswear to boot. There’s a ton of charisma captures across these pages and the moments almost leap to life. Shit looks illegal as hell and I wish I was there. Not for squares.

INFLEUNZA PRODS - "MEMORIE" LP
Left Ear Records

Influenza Prods were an ultra-charming and ultra-DIY duo from Italy. They began recording onto cassettes in 1981 in their Rome apartment, making use of whatever they could get their hands on to create their musical memoires. The story goes that the two amateur musicians met and fell in love while in London with not much more than a guitar and a bass to their names. For a couple who apparently weren't that skilled at their instruments, they manage to get past that with their sheer style and ingenuity. Each track appears more like a pretty vignette than a typical song, eschewing the verse/chorus/verse format in favour of creating a little world for you to step into and stay for a while. When they do hit pop song territory, it's strange and wonderful and ultimately beautiful (see: Animal Lovers, Peace Soup.) Highly recommended for people who enjoy their outsider musical curiosities with a heaped teaspoon of honey and whimsy.

TH BLISKS - "HOW SO?" LP
Altered States Tapes

Remember Paris 1942; that time Mo Tucker did a record with Alan and Richard Bishop from Sun City Girls? And how like, you're at first immediately excited when you hear that it exists because how could that NOT rule? And then you get nervous because you remember all the collaborations that SHOULD have been amazing and actually suck, and you temper your expectations.

But then you actually gingerly drop the needle on Paris 1942 and you know what? It fucking rips. It's so good; it's exactly as good as that first burst of excitement, that pure unjaded optimistic potential rush. And it feels incredible, the world feels new again; maybe good things CAN exist.

Th Blisks is that but for freak Aus underground heads. Here we have Yuta Matsumura (of Oily Boys, Low Life, Orion) joining Amelia Besseny and Cooper Bowman of Troth (and like, line-em-up man, so many other things). On paper this should rule; it does.

You drop needle on Th Blisks and they're deep into ritual ambiance; vibes are immaculate obviously. This is already good. And then, slowly, the grooves emerge from the brush - so naturally it's almost imperceptible. And before you know it we're in bush shack trip-hop zone and the hooks are incredible.

The best thing about Th Blisks is it takes the pop that was always present in Troth and Yuta's work with Orion - that love of a good hook - and foregrounds it. Carves out a lil spot in the muck for an earworm and let's it lie in the sun, soaking up the attention.

Th Blisks feels like something people might sleep on - so far it seems to have coasted under the radar a little bit. Make no mistake - this is one of the most exciting records to come out of the Australian underground this year, and absolutely exceeds the sum of its parts.

SEPSIS - "THE DIVIDE" 7"
Hardcore Victim Records

Melbourne’s end-times-doom merchants Sepsis revel in the sounds of sludge and barren waste on their debut 7" in a vulgar display of crust destruction. For me it's the bare bones OG nature of the record that makes it effective. Rough around the edges, primitive and pure in its the gas-is-always-greener glimpse of the future. Acid rain, nuclear and or social fallout, mass distrust and fear of a wack planet, the EP is a distillation of the early years crust punk sounds. The record closer 'Ravaged' brings to mind the photo of Crucifix and Agnostic Front raising their hands together in unity, and how can you not love that? Let’s hope there’s more where this came from.

WHY BOTHER? - "A YEAR OF MUTATIONS" LP
Feel It Records

Sometimes you just gotta love some theatrical punk and this one is doing it on its own goddamn terms. Real ‘spiders and ghouls’ sort of lyrics bring that cool schlock goth energy but the music itself doesn’t bear that much resemblance to your garden of the dead variety death rock or post punk. It probably owes more to the punk weirdos from Cleveland who loved a bit of keyboard warble and Jay Reatard with his bedroom fuzz tones and wild-yung-beast sarcastic howling IV. Horror and punk has been a fitting coupling since the early days and it can still work to very cool effect. It dawns on me that everything I’ve described on paper should sound like The Misfits, and though it doesn’t, it’s fair to call this another carved pumpkin on the porch of the haunted house that’s been home to some of the most iconic and/or obscure takes on the genre through the decades. This one keeps me coming back with its weird tales of the strange and macabre, a new variety of sounds for your own personal spooky season. Definitely check it out. PS. Five star artwork.

SCARRING - "NEW BLOOMS AND OLD THORNS" CS
Self-Released

From the mind behind Cancelled Earth comes this new blackgaze tape by Scarring. Wild Turnip has coagulated their love of shoegazing heavy handed chord drones with harsh, bleak depressive BM frustration into these seven scars on the modern world. While this may not be for everyone, perhaps a bit flowery for your kult metallers and a bit harsh for your pedestrian gazers, if you like the marriage of these genres then you won't be disappointed with this one.

PICTURE MUSIC - "PICTURE MUSIC" LP
Left Ear Records

Left Ear once again dredging up gold from the past for new and enthusiastic ears - this time it’s a reissue of Picture Music’s gorgi 1987 self-titled cassette release.

Formed in a Brisbane share house, the group formed with the idea of creating music to be used for films, kind of like a independent lounge room library music production house. The music they recorded was assembled onto this cassette, and send to prospective producers and sold in limited numbers privately via local record stores.

The work sets itself apart from professionally produced library records by being infinitely more interesting and having a huge amount of character. The album itself works beautifully as a complete piece, holding a sense of narrative and form.

A must hear for anyone interested in the history of Australian ambient music.

THE STROPPIES - "LEVITY" LP
Tough Love

The Stroppies are a group that hold a place in the heart of Lulu's. A few years back they played an unbelievably crammed show at our old location and it was to be the first of many times [REDACTED] threw the term 'fire hazard' around at us. Worth it. Worth it for one of the most charming sets you possibly could envision, complete with families and kids and footy scarves all around. Worth it for the massive smiles on everybody's faces. Worth it for the easy access to hot chips left behind on tables when the band started.

Since then the Stroppies have proved themselves to be a prolific group, releasing a bunch of wax on labels around the globe and recently returning from a large tour of the UK with Paul Weller of The Jam.

Their latest outing is a tight affair; the ramshackle lo-fi production of their earlier releases has been traded in for their most crystal clear yet and it sounds like it's given them the scope they need to let everything go in the directions they intended.

Maybe it’s the production, maybe it’s the playfulness or maybe it’s that tight song-writing chops but ‘Levity’ stands out as a real highlight in an already very strong discography.

It's not that they switch identities but they certainly vary their styles all while retaining the humble pop group energy that they've become known for. Whimsy, jest, down to earth, off with the fairies, gut punches, angles and curves. The Stroppies do what they like and we like what they do.