Teenage Boatpeople was free improv sax meister Milo Fine's aberrant Residential post-punk unit from back in the day (though he's playing everything from drums to piano to casio here). Gone before anyone even knew this disc was around, this is a true blue monster mindfuck for those of the mindset that some of the best and most mind warping sounds ever made came as an upshot of the viral spread of the Ralph Records aesthetic throughout the world's musical undergrounds. It's specific impact in the U.S. resulted in a profusion of insular and unconnected surrealist outfits that nevertheless share many of the tell-tale DNA markers of Ralph's damaged gene pool (Steaming Coils, Bomis Prendin, The Blitzoids, To Nije Sala, Buxinrut, The Decayes...it's a list that could go on for quite a while). To this mental list of cheerful psychosis mongers you will now need to add Teenage Boatpeople. One purely Residents-qua-Residents moment aside though, it's really the aforementioned Decayes with whom Teenage Boatpeople share the most simpatico, as squashed but squirrelly sharp themes offset by much squonking situate themselves inside snarky structural non sequiturs. Astonishingly bent brilliance of a very high order here, folks!
***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************
Get it here
Eric, this Teenage Boatpeople is great as are all of your posts, but don't forget we're still waiting for the SECOND installment of unreleased Aussie underground gems... just in case you thought we weren't paying attention.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Anon-A-Mouse
Milo is a great guy who helped me out (and tons of others too) with my musical pursuits.
ReplyDeleteI think he is possibly involved with the Butt Fuckin' Trucker Buddies cassette out of Minneapolis in the early 90s. Now if you can get a hold of that cassette, you are a god. I've heard there were only something like 5 sold and the rest were destroyed when the basement of the guy duping them was flooded. I have a promo image somewhere, but just missed getting the cassette.
If anyone reading this has it, please upload it!.
Anon-A-Mouse-Glad you're paying attention and eager for more forgotten Aussie brilliance. Bide your time, my friend. Oodles are such goodies are forthcoming. They're being transferred from tape and sent from Australia circa a few weeks from now...
ReplyDeleteDid you know this one is no longer available?
ReplyDeleteFantastic blog.
Thanks.
Thanks for shining a bit of effusive light on the Boatpeople. However, a couple corrections. Except for a very brief interlude with the soprano sax in the early 80s, I don't play saxophone. More importantly, while the music is ultimately collaborative, Jeff Johnson writes all the tunes and is indeed the Boatpeople's helmsman. (FYI, 3 tracks from 1980-81 -- plus another previously unissued song from the same session ["Festering Sores"] -- can be found on the band's 2009 resurgence CD, NOW; which along with 5 new tunes, also reissues the initial Boatpeople EP. The group's latest CD, ADD HAVOC, was released last year.)
ReplyDeleteAnd lastly, in reference to John's comment above (and at the risk of falling for a stupid joke), I state, for the record, that I was not affiliated with the Butt Fuckin' Trucker Buddies cassette.