Classic Albums: Black & White Self-titled by Primitive Calculators + Remembering: Frank Lovece

Well, 2018 has started out pretty sad at only the second week in with the news broke on this weekend just gone that Frank Lovece of the Primitive Calculators, vocalist and drummer or it should be drum machinist? Of one of the greatest and under-rated Aussie acts of all-time has passing away. Both these albums, yeah it’s two self-titled albums one having a black cover with white writing and the other having a white cover with black writing on it but the white includes some friends too from around the same time and scene. They have been on my list of to write about for a very long time, maybe the whole three years I’ve been doing this blog now but I guess this shit news made me finally write and post it!

The three other members are Stuart Grant on guitar and vocalist too, Denise Rosenberg on Keys and Dave Light on bass but most of the time just going under first names and no last names. All four forming the band called Primitive Calculators in the late 70’s, early line-up minus Denise called The Moths formed in 1977 which played only one gig at BBQ/cricket match but did recorded Casualty Ward as debut song. Mark 1 of Primitive Calculators happened in 1978 adding Denise plus someone called Dave B. who was then just replaced by a drum machine, LOL!

This main line-up active years were 1979 to 1980 and not-on-label black covered album in 1982 with those first 11 track, then the 2004 reissue by the great label Chapter Music which was my intro to them, at one point I just buy every thing they put out. This black album is live album too, you know? Originally recorded at some place called ‘Hearts’ in North Carlton, Melbourne in 1979. The reissue I got had a few extras, even the video clip to I Can’t Stop, which is just one shot of the band playing in some backyard full of weeds.

The White Self-titled or Friends album followed in 2006 but for me they just go together now. This compiled all the 7″ single and other live recordings by them and these other bands or should I say that be they included all four members of the Primitive Calculators with friends. Some post break-up of the Primitive Calculators band too. So they had bands called Too Fat To Fit Through The Door which both Stuart and Dave in it, then Morpions has Stuart, The Take was Frank and Take Two has Frank, Stuart and Dave, Ronnie And The Rhythm Boys is both Stuart and Denise also no one named Ronnie, Thrush And The Cunts is off course Denise, Zye Ye Ye is Stuart again, The Egg is pretty much all four Primitive Calculators plus someone called Marisa Stirpe who was also in Thrush And The Cunts, The Take and Take Two.

The biggest hit, if you can call it that? By the band was on a soundtrack in the mid 80’s which came at the time of the first reunion but I’m saving that for another post, I promise I’ll write that sooner than later. Then Primitive Calculators again returned to play live and the second and latest reunion for the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds curated Australian music ATP festival or in full the All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2009. Since then they have went on to recorded a brand new album called The World Is Fucked which was released in 2013 plus a few new 7″ singles too. Also this time around they even toured to China, their only overseas tour I think?

primitive_calculators_h_1113-8a5effc91569822480ff127413fa88a1 — What the Primitive Calculators looked like in 2013!

I bloody love these two albums so much but I do know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea! Well, I have even been told it’s total shit more than once like one ex-gf totally banning them from being played at all when we did lived together but shhhhhhh don’t tell her I did play it when she wasn’t at home.

If you love raw and harsh 70’s punk played mainly on synths, you’ll love this. Now they have been called the Aussie version of the NYC synth-punks Suicide but if you look at the dates they pretty much match up but off course they’re Aussies so are missing from almost all punk history books. I’ll do my little bit today from my tiny blog on this Tuesday morning to inform everyone, anyone looking at it about them!

Primitive Calculators Black Self-titled album reissue track list:

1 –Primitive Calculators – I Can Tell
2 –Primitive Calculators – Do The Icepick
3 –Primitive Calculators – Signals
4 –Primitive Calculators – Stains
5 –Primitive Calculators – Mud In My Eye
6 –Primitive Calculators – Beat Goes On (Written by Sonny Bono)
7 –Primitive Calculators – Lullaby
8 –Primitive Calculators – Do That Dance
9 –Primitive Calculators – I Can’t Stop It
10 –Primitive Calculators – Bake In The Sun
11 –Primitive Calculators – Shout (Written by The Isley Brothers)
12 –Primitive Calculators – Sec Sec Sickle
13 –Primitive Calculators – All I Get Is A Girl
14 –Primitive Calculators – Nothing (Written by The Fugs)
15 –Primitive Calculators – Glitter Kids
16 –Primitive Calculators – Casualty Ward
17 –Primitive Calculators – I Want To Live

Primitive Calculators And Friends, the White Self-titled album track list:

1 –Primitive Calculators – I Can’t Stop It
2 –Primitive Calculators – Do That Dance
3 –Primitive Calculators – Signals
4 –Primitive Calculators – Beat Goes On
5 –Primitive Calculators – Mud In My Eye
6 –Primitive Calculators – Shout
7 –Primitive Calculators – Do That Dance (Unplugged)
8 –Too Fat To Fit Through The Door – Flintstones Meet The Flintstones
9 –Morpions – Point Blank
10 –The Take – Summer
11 –Ronnie And The Rhythm Boys – Hey Joe (Australia-ished words changed of the song made famous by Jimi Hendrix)
12 –Thrush And The Cunts – 1 2 3 4
13 –Thrush And The Cunts – In Bed She’s A Circus
14 –Zye Ye Ye – Zye Ye Ye
15 –Take Two – Lamppost To Lamppost
16 –The Egg – Let Her Know
17 –Dave Light – Rumple

So here’s all my Classic Albums posts and this post is very first entry of 2018. They’re all my fave albums and the basic idea is write a little about each of all my fave albums but I don’t know why really I titled/tagged them all as classic albums? BTW I’m not anywhere close to finishing this little project too, you know?

Please leave a reply about this post or any of them or all of them, if you like?

Cheers 🙂

2 Comments

marisa says:

July 21, 2018 at 1:25 am

a 1000 mistakes and 1000’s more waiting to hatch

LikeLiked by 1 person

1. William says:
  
  July 22, 2018 at 12:42 am
  
  That’s right Marisa! 🙂
  
  LikeLike