Cellophane Sunset: all mine / all mine / all mine

The Triffids

David McComb

come ride / come ride / this pleasure slide

In the first half of this I'll be throwing you in the deep end of the swimming pool that is Australian post-punk, indulging in a lot of Triffids, before trying to balance that metaphor with the circus-style, literal balancing act of Canadian husband-wife italo-disco. And if you think focussing on Australian music is bad, be thankful I'm not including any Essendon Airport...this time.

The Triffids' lead singer, David McComb, died in 1999. Even if the complications from a car-crash injury that eventually killed him, he had spent many years gradually tipping himself over the edge through alcohol and heroin abuse, to the point where he needed a heart transplant at the age of 34.

It's so easy to overlook this branch of Australian music and its influence across the world, even while bands like The Saints are far more acknowledged. It's a strange fate suffered by post-punk bands like the Triffids but overwhelmingly like Gang of Four, to be immensely influential, loved by today's most famous artists (U2 and Chilli Peppers for Gang of Four, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave for the Triffids) but now largely ignored, and also telling that the Triffids record label, Domino, is now host to artists like Franz Ferdinand. Incidentally, as a hypocritically responsible digital citizen I've started including links to places where you can buy albums that songs featured are taken from. But either way:

This first song was recorded by the legendary John Peel for the Field of Glass EP; its certainly longer than many of the band's other works but is easily one of their best. McComb shows here why he was held in the highest regard by artists like Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, and established himself alongside Cohen, Dylan, and Morrissey as one of the best lyricists of the 20th century.

The Triffids - Field of Glass

Domino Records - Beautiful Waste and Other Songs

The following don't do the same justice to the singer's voice or even to the band itself, but are of interest in terms of watching the band's development throughout their early years. The tracks are all ripped from cassette tapes released by the band and as such the quality leaves much to be desired, but they're still great even if you're unfamiliar with the Triffid's work. Instead of giving you a link to somewhere you can buy them all, because there isn't one (unless you count here), go and check out Vagabond Holes and Beautiful Waste, two books recently published, the first a collection of essays and other writings about McComb and the other a collection of his poetry.

And bless whoever was obsessively kind enough to put all the pictures of the tapes themselves alongside track listings on Wikipedia.

Tape #2

you're such an authority / and all

The Triffids - I'm Not Losing Sleep

Tape #4

she thinks she's a natural / but i think she needs tuition

The Triffids - Actress

Tape #5

there's a six-car pile up / on memory lane

The Triffids - Pile Up

Tape #6

now the orderlies / take your elbow

The Triffids - The Marrying Kind

The Triffids - No Desire

Lime

a moment / like forever

This should be what you need if you've been driven into a state of high maudlin by West Australian melancholy. I could really go for one of those lime spiders right now...

Lime - The Party's Over

Lime - Greatest Hits

Panda Bear