Whalehammer @ Hyde Park Hotel - 29th August 2007

Whalehammer played last night at the Hyde Park Hotel. It went quite well. The song we played was called 'Atlantis'. Thanks to the organiser/attendees. The shots were taken by Jillian West (http://www.jillianwest.com/). Feel free to tap us for your next party, gig, exorcism, orgy or ritual - ratcolumns@gmail.com.

WHALEHAMMER - Playing live at The Hyde Park Hotel, Wed 29th August

Hi there.

Whalehammer will be playing at the Hyde Park Hotel @ 8.20pm on Wednesday, 29th August. Other bands playing are Blac Blocs, Carbuncle, Blast-Off Girls and Wales. 5$ to enter the vortex. Whalehammer are also probably going to be playing a gig in September, and one in November.

If anyone would like a CD-R copy (with basic artwork) of Whalehammer's recent 2nd LP 'The Birthing Hour', their first self-titled album or any of the titles mentioned on this site, send an email to ratcolumns@gmail.com.

Orgy Of The Undead - 'Love Is Dead' LP

It is now time to return to the strange and distant world of Orgy of the Undead, and their only full-length album: ‘Love Is Dead’. It followed the ‘Don’t Just Lie There, Say Something’ EP by oh, 9 months or something, prompted by the imminent departure of the two guitarists for England and Japan. Once again the recording was a patchwork process, this time using a laptop instead of a four-track (losing some lo-fi charm in the process).

The drummer had quit after being unable to keep time while drunk (MILDLY drunk, not even fully wasted ha!) and the bass player had been unfairly booted for reasons not really based in 'reality', resulting in much of the album being recorded by the two guitarists. The plug was pulled on them not once, not twice but thrice at the BASS PLAYER'S OWN PARTY whilst torturing his elderly family members with a 10 minute dirge revolving around the joys of man/fish love. Strange days indeed, to strike a 60's rock biography-like tone.

Anyhoo, back to the music. On 'Love is Dead' the uber-juvenile garage punk of ‘D.J.L.T, S.S’ is largely gone, to be replaced by strange and messy interpretations of post-punk, noise punk and garage rock. Barry White’s Love Orchestra is sampled on the opening track, the drummer unleashes his debut Lou Reed vocal impersonation on ‘Windmills’, Drive Like Jehu is placed on a pedestal for ‘Papercut’ and the schizoid ‘Fashion’ is subjected to a 2-step UK garage remix by the previously mentioned Bobby Scissors. The weirdness comes to a close with a live version of the O.O.T.U anthem ‘Fat Bloated Fuck’ from the drummer’s going-away party, which basically concluded the Orgy of the Undead tale.

In the months before this final gig half the band had morphed into The Betty Ford Experience, whose sole EP (a winning semi-return to the trashier earlier style of OOTU) will be uploaded when I find it.

After finishing the album and playing the final gig as Orgy Of The Undead/The Betty Ford Experience the four members of O.O.T.U split Perth for the exotic locales of Japan, London and....Queensland. They would later resurface in bands like Blah Blah and the Blah Blah's, Not Important and Who Really Cares.

You can download ‘Love Is Dead’ as a whole album zip file at www.doddrell.com/mp3.

Direct link to the Orgy Of The Undead page =

http://mp3.doddrell.com/Default.asp?FolderSpec=%2F%2FOrgy+of+the+Undead+%2D+2001+to+2003+%2D+Juvenile+punk+rock&sort=2

Bobby Scissors - 'Blame It On Bobby' LP

In this instalment we move away from guitar crud and into the heady world of sampling, fruity loops and computer music, with the first and only solo album from Bobby Scissors - ‘Blame It On Bobby’. The brainspawn of one of the Orgy Of The Undead members, this album was made in London around 2002 (?) on a borrowed laptop in a decrepit flat in Kentish Town and in a lovely townhouse in posh Hampstead Heath during Christmas.

The record was inspired by two giants in the world of non-crap sampling albums; The Avalanches ‘Since I Left You’ and the Soft Pink Truth’s ‘Do You Party?’. The music drifts between distortion-soaked brain-busting pseudo-hip-hop, electronic noise-core and dance tracks. Maximum mileage is attained from minimal sample sources. It was assembled and sequenced in the immortal Fruity Loops program.

Three quarters of the album is made from these samples: a couple of moments from Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ album, an accapella from ‘This Whole World’ by The Beach Boys, a snippet of ‘Loose’ by The Stooges, a bit of a track from ‘Daydream Nation’ by Sonic Youth (possibly the feedback breakdown in ‘Total Trash’), ‘Ice on The Rocks (?)’ by De La Soul, an acoustic guitar chord from a My Morning Jacket song, a chunk from a Ronettes song and a section of ‘Have You Seen Her’ by a soul group whose name I can’t remember right now.

‘Blame It On Bobby’ is a pretty cool record, somewhat stretched in places, with sparkling moments of inspiration conflicting with occasionally over-long songs and rudimentary arrangements. All in all I think there’s some gold, and a few chunks of silver in the grooves. Highlights include the gauntlet being thrown down something chronic in the record's opening track, the severe electronic torture in the Stooges samplefest ‘Silver Bullets’, the tropical shuffle ‘Honolulu’ and the psych hip-hop track that I can’t remember the name of. I think it’s the fourth song. There might even be a killer 80's megamix in there somewhere.

Check it out as a whole album zip file at http://www.doddrell.com/mp3.

More direct link to the Bobby Scissors page = http://mp3.doddrell.com/Default.asp?FolderSpec=%2F%2FBobby+Scissors+%2D+2004+%2D+Beats%27n%27Samples&sort=2

Ladykiller - '...And Then I Woke Up' LP

Champagne. Caviar. Sweat. Spotlights. Born of an unadulterated fetish for the masculine, streamlined ghosts of 70s debonair rock and 80s cock rock/ new wave, Ladykiller enter the fray in a haze of sweetly perfumed air and blazing white light. As the smoke clears, Ladykiller lay waste to your cheating heart in their inimitable fashion.

Equally at home in a head-to-toe denim ensemble or a fresh tuxedo, steely elegance and raw masculinity are combined to devastating effect. The heat of passion, a stolen glance, a bead of sweat flowing down a supple thigh, silk curtains shimmering over a bed of chrome, hearts ache, break, and eventually, are sated. You belong to Ladykiller tonight. Don’t waste it.

In London, 2003 (maybe) a brief dalliance with classic rock’s heart of darkness yielded sweet fruit. Two antipodean semi-youths shot their arrows at the mass consciousness, like Cupid in leather pants. They flew high…perhaps too high. Whether it was the adventurous and raw production techniques, the barely controlled passion and fire in the performances or simply the lack of a major label distribution network, their opus went largely unheard. In the wake of this album similar acts would achieve mass success so perhaps their timing was off.

Still, it matters not. We have the music and that’s what really matters, right? They were inspired by what could be termed ‘man-rock’, music of the late 60s, 70s and 80s which was made for one reason – getting high and getting it on. Better make that two reasons. The two singer-songwriters tipped their hat to greats like Thin Lizzy, The Cars, BTO, Whitesnake and The Who, but never settled into mere tribute. Lyrically, they covered 4 bases – first, second, third and home. The guitar solos are heroic and the passion is real. After this album a follow-up was started but never completed, for reasons unknown.

So check it out and prepare to get down in the most cataclysmic sense – Ladykiller’s first and only full-length ‘…And Then I Woke Up’. Yeooow!!!

Download the album as a zip file (you'll have to 'unzip' it using a program like Winzip to listen to it) from www.doddrell.com/mp3.

More direct link - http://mp3.doddrell.com/Default.asp?FolderSpec=%2F%2FLady+Killer+%2D+2003+to+2005+%2D+70s+cock%2Csoft+and+cowboy+rock&sort=2

Tracklist:

1. Burnt Lips
2. (I’m A) Ladykiller
3. My Heart Is Your Home
4. U Know It’s True
5. Desert Gigolo
6. Lady
7. Inside Of U
8. Campfire Cowboy
9. Hotel California

Orgy of the Undead - 'Don't Just Lie There, Say Something' EP

Well, a week has gone by and we are still yet to see Whalehammer's first OR second recording on these pages. What's the hold-up? I know not. Well actually I do know. I just haven't done it. I'm sure they'll pop up soon.

In the meantime, let's go some other place with this. I'm going to stick with the theme of related music and explore the sick sad world of Orgy of The Undead. In fact this blog will no longer be a pure Whalehammer resource, it is a compendium to the music archive site www.doddrell.com/mp3. I'll describe the work here and if you are interested, you can download it there.

So, Orgy of the Undead. These guys were pretty demented. They were the post-high school band of a bunch of private school kids, based outta the bass-player's and guitarist's neighbouring houses in Wembley Downs. They started off a four-piece and steadily contracted and expanded in between one and four members through-out their time. They played a total of three gigs, at the bass-player and guitarist's birthday parties and at the drummer's farewell show when he left Perth to travel around Australia. The main reason for this lack of activity was their determination to find a singer, which was incredibly fruitless. One of them really should have bitten the proverbial bullet but that's hindsight for you. I wasn't there but apparently they once 'auditioned' a middle-aged man who I THINK sang 'holy diver' by Dio or something like that. Or he just professed a kinship with the great one (fukk Ozzy), I don't know/can't remember. He can't have been too good as they didn't go with him. Great taste though!

They were significantly more active in recording, knocking out an EP, 'Don't Just Lie There, Say Something' and a full-length called 'Love Is Dead'. Right now I would like to officially declare a massive FUCK YOU to a.) Brett Anderson, the former singer of Suede who used this title for his most recent full-length and the first single from it, and b.) Bernard Fanning, the singer from Powderfinger who incorporated this phrase prominently in his massive hit first solo single, which I think was called 'Wish You Well' (?). For the record, this phrase was really cool when Orgy of the Undead used it in oh, maybe 2000 or 2001? There was an associated liner note story that went with it too. So those two bastards can eat sh**.

Let's move on. OOTU's music could probably be described as trash-punk or garage punk, with a definite juvenile/moronic edge which was slightly put-on but whatever. Their main influences were The Misfits, The Ramones, a compilation called 'CBGB's - The Birth of New York Punk', classic UK punk, the music section in Thrasher (not the actual music) and garage rock. There was a slight post-punk feel on their full-length due to expanded use of such musical devices as 'octave chords', effects and 'bridges'. Big hits in the OOTU camp at this time were Interpol's first album and My Bloody Valentine.

Their late 90s/early 00's (can't remember) EP 'Don't Just Lie There, Say Something' is probably the definitive work in the Orgy of the Undead canon. The full-length is more diverse and experimental but 'D.J.L.T, S.S' is pure, a direct transmission from four idiotic minds. It is also quite funny, and full of lo-fi skuzz from the four-track/ghetto-blaster recording. They also had a strange habit of recording the vocals at the wrong speed. About half of the EP was recorded solo on four-track at the guitarist/singer's farm and half was recorded as a band at the various member's houses in the city. Lyrically, the EP is somewhat bizarre, half-formed ramblings about evil twins, animal skin mags, stripper cops, crack parties and doing it with porpoises. I'm into it. If Orgy of the Undead had an anthem it would have been their first song, 'Fat Bloated Fuck'. Check out the lyrical genius;

'Head up your arse
Shit up your nose
Money in the band
Records on the walls

Head in the toilet

Spew in the halls
You're out to lunch
She's taking the calls

Fat bloated fuck

You had your day in the sun

Now get the fuck out of my way

You fucking cunt'

You can download a zip file with the whole album in it from www.doddrell.com/mp3. Here's the direct link to the O.O.T.U page;

http://mp3.doddrell.com/Default.asp?FolderSpec=%2F%2FOrgy+of+the+Undead+%2D+2001+to+2003+%2D+Juvenile+punk+rock&sort=2

I'll write about / upload the 'Love is Dead' full-length in the near future.

Ciao

David

Rat Columns - Devotion EP

Whilst you're waiting for the new Whalehammer album (The Birthing Hour) and the self-titled debut Whalehammer full-length to drop in electronic form on this site, why not sample a solo EP from one of the members of the 'Hammer, the eternally mopey Rat Columns? His 'Devotion' EP is the perfect accompaniment to slow days gazing down from your 10th floor bedsit onto the rain-soaked cobblestone streets below, or alternatively, leaping out of the window.

Follow these links and bathe in the glorious hiss and chime.

***UPDATE***

The Rat Columns EP can now be downloaded as a zip file from www.doddrell.com/mp3, direct link = http://mp3.doddrell.com/Default.asp?FolderSpec=%2F%2FRat+Columns&sort=2.

**************

Rat Columns - 'Devotion'

Telephone Call
http://www.zshare.net/audio/2736633c4a3973/

I Wonder
http://www.zshare.net/audio/2736300a10665a/

Keep Waiting
http://www.zshare.net/audio/2736345b123707/

Looking At You
http://www.zshare.net/audio/27364124842e7d/

On The Nile
http://www.zshare.net/audio/2736445ebd2e38/

The Seed Is Sown
http://www.zshare.net/audio/2736735a1f70be/

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A few outcast songs...

Sick Earth
http://www.zshare.net/audio/27365833c1f998/

The Dancer
http://www.zshare.net/audio/273666874b7689/

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Alternatively, check out www.myspace.com/ratcolumns.

Whalehammer

This is the electronic portal for the band Whalehammer. Our last two albums will be posted here soon.