Down in the classier part of Australia, we find the Synth Punk stylings of the Primitive Calculators of Melbourne. Home of The Birthday Party, formerly The Boys Next Door, whom The Calculators supported the night this live LP was recorded in 1979.
Of course The Boys Next Door contained one gothic crooning bore, Nicholas Cave, and we will hold that against them.
As the years have slipped by, we now know that The Primitive Calculators were,and are, vastly superior to any of Cave's future combo's.One reason why being decended from convicts is not as bad as its made out to be,as long as one leaves that curse of the inferiority complex behind with the other rubbish.
No studio LP was preserved for use in evidence,so we are left with a single and this live magnum opus to argue the case that they were the worlds largest islands equivalent of The Screamers......who needs recording studios anyway?
Like memories are the best photographs,sometimes things should be just left in the moment to burn brightly and then die.....which, ironically, the Calculators weren't allowed to do, as they resurrected themselve in the late eighties,and recently released a new LP??? for fucks sake!......yeah lets fuck up our legend like every fucker else is doing these days.
A lot's to be said for early deaths in the pop world. Jimi Hendrix was just beginning to suck real bad when he choked on vomit, and a lot lesser lights would have been thought of far more fondly if the reaper called just before that difficult second album.......Bono excepted of course;that particular gnome was beyond redemption as soon as he sported his mullet and placed a pixie boot on the monitors for the first time.A fine advert for abortion.
Tracklist:
A1 I Can Tell
A2 Do The Icepick
A3 Signals
A4 Stains
A5 Mud In My Eye
A6 Beat Goes On
B1 Lullaby
B2 Do That Dance
B3 I Can't Stop It
B4 Bake In The Sun
B5 Shout
"I Can't Stop It" 7" (1979)
A - "I can't Stop It"
B - "Do That Dance"
