Well, I think I’m going to do my Classic Albums posts for awhile at least with Aussie albums in-between everything else because I’m an Aussie and it seems almost all these kind-off lists have very little from here down under unless it’s an all Australian in the first place. This is not that but I’m an Aussie, the idea is it’s just my all-time fave albums in a blog post here and hopefully I’ll do justice to them.
So today is Melbourne three piece My Disco‘s Paradise album from the late 2000’s but is not the newest album here. I’ve even included albums from the 2010’s but maybe it’s too soon for those and this but I can’t help myself. Recorded in just a few days in late 2007 and released early 2008, it’s been around for eight years now. This is the second album by the band, last year was a new album and it’s only the fourth so once again maybe it’s all too early to tell but I’ve taken a wild stab in the dark anytime because I do totally love this album and them. Also in that time they have had EP’s and even stand alone singles
My Disco is if you never heard of them are in the style of or labeled as everything from Indie Rock, Post-Punk, Minimalist, Math Rock, Avant-garde and even Dance basically because no music critics can easily put them in a box so it seems the theory to solve that problem is just thrown shit round until something sticks. Anyway I’m not a music critic so that’s the end of me saying stuff like that. It really might just be easier to listen to them your if you never heard them before but you’ve got the listen with an open mind, if you’re a narrow-minded asshole it’s most likely not for you, OK? This band can really divided music fans when supporting bigger bands, it’s pretty funny to watch sometimes. People can get worked up by something they don’t like or understand.
So they formed in early 2000’s, with a demo tape out somewhere around 2002 but a debut album waited to 2006 so just the year before this album. That debut album was called Cancer, the reason why it was and also gap in-between demo and album can, which it can be put down to one thing was Hodgkin disease. The bass/vocals Liam Andrews was diagnosed with it in the early 2000’s too, one of the members of the line-up along with drummer Rohan Rebeiro and guitar player Ben Andrews. Once he did recovered tours and recording soon followed. With a few oversea tours the band decided to go to their namesake to work with for recording. The name My Disco is a song that came from a Big Black EP called Headache. At the time of deciding on that name it wasn’t a big deal back in early 2000’s, they didn’t have a name at the time and it was all down to Ben picking something out of his own music collection and Rohan didn’t even know they had a name until after that first real gig at a Collingwood cafe. Earlier on they played non-music venues like warehouses, art galleries or just even on the sidewalks in Melbourne. So this album and the next album Little Joy were recorded with Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago.
The whole album is almost forty minutes long with ten tracks. The opening track is nothing but one note played over and over for a minute and half to a cool drum beat, wicked hey? It’s not all instrumental but when lyrics are sung it’s more to run along with the music say with the next song having the longest song title but all the words are “You came to” again and again until the music does take over but those words do came back before the songs end so all the the lyrics are like that. It’s so very total beats heavy album, it’s been called everything from harsh, mechanical, industrial etc. with the guitar playing to add more rhythm off course plus also alot of feedback, noise etc. but you do get into a real groove listening to it and you’ve got to turn it up while listening too.
As far as I known this album Paradise or even the band My Disco are not on any list like this at all, maybe it was a bit silly calling these posts/pages Classic Albums but it’s too last now anyway they do feature in two great books about Aussie music in recent times. Playlisted by Craig Mathieson which is kind-off sub-titled everything you need to know about Australian music right now and was out in 2009 which highlighted the track German For Attention from Paradise album. The book was somewhat of a mixtape of listening to Aussie music now and from the past too, Craig was also one of three authors who put together the book called The 100 Best Australian Albums but unfortunately My Disco did not appear in that one. Maybe the best book on Aussie music in recent times is called Noise In My Head by Jimi Kritizer which was more about talking with some of the acts from Aussie underground scene right now.
My Disco’s now iconic images, can I say that now? Those images of them walking around the Aussie outback desert in what looks like garbage bags but they’re not actually. These photos are totally amazing and off course used on the album cover art work, if you have do have a psychical copy it all folds out to see the horizon line in a huge panoramic-view. Photographer is Warwick Baker and where shot in and around the opal mines in South Australia, here where you can find more and read more about them too. Should be more written about this band but it seems there’s not that much around. For some reason I don’t know why, some or is it all oversea copies of the album have different artwork.
In the live setting is where My Disco are so powerful and amazing too, I don’t know if that video clip above really show them off that well. The first time seem them live was at ATP’s Melbourne show with full crazy laser and strobe light show, it was unbelievable set and they where just the opening band that day but for me it was just about great as anything else that played the whole weekend. I’ve seen they again just at the end of last year, it’s been a whole year now but you do have a chance/s to see them live jump at it because I know would, OK?
Paradise track listing and times
1. I – 1:38
2. You Came To Me Like A Cancer Lain Dormant Until It Blossomed Like A Rose – 2:56
3. / – 3:22
4. Paradise – 2:45
5. An Even Sun – 9:05
6. Mosaics – 5:20
7. A Christ Pendent Comfort Her Neck – 3:34
8. Pair & Pear – 2:27
9. German For Attention – 3:22
10. Land – 3:49
My Classic Albums are, so far:
Tales From The Australian Underground – Volume 1 & 2 by Various Artists
Station To Station by David Bowie
Unplugged In New York by Nirvana
Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins
Henry’s Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Whatever You Love, You Are by Dirty Three
In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd
Songs Of Love And Hate by Leonard Cohen
Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones
Silence Is Sexy by Einstürzende Neubauten
Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants
Drowning In The Fountain Of Youth by Dan Kelly And The Alpha Males
Paradise by My Disco
So, this was the reason I started this blog. The idea is simply to write page/post about one of my fave album each that I consider a classic album. Please leave your own comments below about each album because I would love to hear what you think/say about them too? cheers!
a1000mistakes 