1986 - 1991 - CD

Two CD retrospective from the noisy Australian outfit that evolved into the Dirty Three. File under: Punk Rock/Noise Rock/free-of-constraints Rock. It was the mid-'80s and everything was going fine. The music underground was it's own world, not related to the orbit of commercial music that rained bullshit down onto the over ground. Nobody down below had any great plans, they were just playing in bands. Melbourne had launched the career of the legendary Birthday Party, but that lot were long gone and there were loads of other interesting and great things going on. Venom P. Stinger attacked in a modified, somewhat streamlined Hardcore Punk style, with Mick's burnt-and-twisted guitar tone setting them apart. Frontman Dugald McKenzie's vocalizing was a ferocious, largely apolitical transference of personal experience, all about conveying the awful qualities of life with throaty sensuousness and dirty glee. A band with this kind of errant power fronted by a reprobate like Dugald, it made for madly entertaining shows! And records, as well.