LULU'S OCTOBER 2023 NEWSLETTER
LULU'S OCTOBER 2023 NEWSLETTER
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Here is the OCTOBER 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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Lu Crue
October is here and we are two weeks shy of most tantalising piece of news - expect an imminent update on LSD Club, too red hot to announce today - we must beg the attention of much legal advice and align with astral / planetary position for maximum effect, but if you've ever felt special, like there might be something more to life but you've been waiting for a sign, if you've ever had the suspicion you might have a profound destiny...
Meantime, tantalising stuff is: new show at Mom Gallery, new EXEK record, a Tom Bradford penned love letter to the power of live hardcore / the Power Trip LP, another Chapter Records hit, the first release from Melbourne's Drain Bugs and one we have been waiting for, one we have all been dreaming about, the new record from Chrome Cell Torture, members played in Oily Boys and Sex Drive (we wanted the best rock n roll band in the world, we got the best rock n roll band in the world...)
Not mentioned here due to brevity and a keen interest in preserving the life of the whales, we have also been excited to land the new issue of Tattoo Punk, a magazine with most apt title and contents devoted to desecration of the sanctity of human skin, plus the GRUUEL 7" (Beau Wanzer and Total Control's Jamed Vinciguerra aka Trevor), landed some more copies of the ever elusive and beautiful Lou Reed w/ The Feelies tape, the Wintergarden L.O.T.I.O.N. EP and must take time to underline the value of Rory McPike's latest Rings of Saturn adventure.
We are OPEN late Friday 29th September to accomodate the Mom Gallery opening, but due to Victoria's State Religion we are CLOSED Saturday and Sunday to observe our faith. One of the primary tenets of this faith is to give discounts on sale days during the grand final, so if you order for delivery or pickup from Lulu's Saturday morning to Sunday night, enjoy a discount of 15% off your order with the code SPORTSRULESOK (tnter at checkout or click on that link and it will automatically calculate your discount and tuck you into bed / kiss you goodnight).
This newsletter was written and recorded by DX, Brad Bradford and A Coco, mixed by Geezer Butler and mastered by Mikey Young.
FEATURED THIS MONTH:
MOM GALLERY NEWS
EXEK - "THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY" LP
THE PARTICLES - "1980S BUBBLEGUM" LP
CHROME CELL TORTURE - "LAUGH THEN LIE" 7"
POWER TRIP - LIVE IN SEATTLE - LP
DRAIN BRUGS - "ELEVATOR" 7"
MOM GALLERY NEWS
Hey, Oscar from MOM here.
In a press release for the album it's stated that The Map And The Territory is "perhaps less ambitious than some previous EXEK releases" but I'm not certain I can agree. If Metallica were to whittle their sound down to a broomstick and an acoustic guitar would that be unambitious? I leave it for you to answer. And while I cannot hear any broomsticks, the new album from EXEK is certainly a stripping back of the elements. Their trademark meticulously interwoven layers are still there to sink into but some of the bombast has been replaced with humility, or at the very least a humblebrag, because no matter how stripped back and quaint it sounds at times it's dripping with some astonishing feats of songwriting prowess.
To completely oversimplify for a moment; if you dig EXEK then you'll love these songs. To quickly recomplicate matters I'll take you on a brief philosophical wandering: a map is a depiction of a terrain or territory. It places the terrain into an easily digestible piece of visual information and it serves its purpose. But the map is not the territory. How can it be? It's a representation but it isn't the real thing. Does it contain some essential trace of the real thing? Probably, yes. This essence is the thing that continues to fascinate thinkers and artists since the dawn of thought and expression. EXEK continues to unpack, reconfigure and redraw the map in their own image. The Map And The Territory brings the band back to exploring their own essence. They undoubtedly realise that at the end of the day, it's just another map. And though it must not be mistaken for the terrain, at least it's their map. And it may just lead you to very real territory.
Formed in the late 70s in the muck of Sydney's punk sharehouse scene, The Particles took the slacked drive of that sound, stripped away the aggression, and instead used it to inform their incredibly infectious take on guitar pop.
Over the course of three years the band produced three singles, each pushing their sound in a slightly different, more refined direction. Listening to them back to back beautifully illustrates this - they get tighter and more experiential as the LP goes on, letting go of their scrappy roots and leaving more room in their songs for layered melodies and playful harmonies.
Given their cult status, Chapter have given the band an appropriately thorough reissue treatment, including not only their three singles but also alternate takes, unreleased songs, a full Live At The Wireless session, and extensive liner notes.
God's work.
CCT have dropped some truly drizzling grit from the sunnier parts of the Australia's East Coast. The lazy picture to stroke is Oily Boys vocals over tuff Low Life tracks (and it's even better than that implies). The truth is it's explosive, maniacal rock music. If you cast your ears back to early days of post punk/death rock you'll find examples where these bands were as hard as nails (Christian Death demos, live Joy Div cuts, Club Of Rome etc.) and this energy is what's being channelled here; confusion, anger, solitude, noise, thumps, soul, grit, drizery... Pure f u c k i n g drizery. Pure hurt. Pure outburst.
CCT is proper ugly and it's proper beautiful and I can't tell if they know or care. Take note, this is how you do it.
POWER TRIP - LIVE IN SEATTLE - LP (Tomford Records)
No Sleep Til Hammersmith, Live and Dangerous, Unleashed In The East and now…Power Trip’s Live in Seattle. I’m getting carried away but damn, it’s nice to hear a band captured at the peak of their powers just simply bringing it. This was captured a few months before they toured Australia in 2018. Their set at The Bendigo was like nothing I’d ever seen before and still gives me shivers when reminded of it. Power Trip crunchhhh this set - just like they did that night. Usually live recordings lack a little this or that, but there’s no shortcomings here. I actually enjoy listening to this recording more than their studio records. Power Trip are a true titan of crossover music and this is the perfect footnote on a genre laid to waste. Rest In Power Riley.
DRAIN BRUGS - "ELEVATOR" 7" (Cease And Desist)
The debut vinyl output from Cease And Desist is here: a mysterious Drain Brugs 7" for your ears to chew on.
Side A: The opening seconds of Elevator immediately transport me to the Velvet Underground’s jam room with repetitive Mother Tucker drums and a more repetitititive and warbled keyboard 2-note-drone. Don’t use any more ideas than you need to if it sounds good, right? Drain Brugs allow themselves to settle into the motif before introducing any changes, lest the mood get too energetic too quickly! A second melody welcomes itself into the fray; tasteful and under the radar, not wanting to draw too much attention to its presence accompaniment, but still never serene. The largest shift takes place when the drone removes itself almost entirely, brushing the dirt off its knees from all that time spent crawling through your mind before making a fresh appearance anew with a sleek melody, quite proud of itself and showing off a more flamboyant side. Beautiful. Bravo. Encore.
Side B: Cleaners From Venus inspired instrumental with a Spiritualized bent, perhaps a hint of 1990's NYC boombox culture for good measure. Mikey’s Nightshift is oddly triumphant – an announcement, a heralding, a celebration. Simple music done well is good music. This is good music.
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