easy action records

Live at The Whisky A Go Go – Iggy and The Stooges (Easy Action Records)

It’s ridiculous to say, as many of you have, that the management at the I-94 Bar treats Stoogesrecordings with the reverence of ancient religious artefacts.

Let’s dispel that untruth right now: We hold them in much higher regard than that. If you want to know why, go no further than this Record Store Day vinyl release.

Record Store Day was a good marketing idea that devolved into a clusterfuck. Sure, it encourages otherwise disengaged to find a bricks and mortar shop and lay down their hard-earned, but it’s been taken over by greedy fucks who run major labels that issue/re-issue “product” that cost them sweet fuck-all, or recouped a million years ago.

Witness To The Crime – Gunfire Dance (Easy Action)

If you loved the Damned, Thee Hypnotics, Bounty Hunters, and Lords Of The New Church, be sure to order this gorgeous Gunfire Dance vinyl album from Easy Actionand play the motherfucker as loud as you can.

It is a posthumous compilation and a thing of real beauty, designed by Dave Twist with liner notes by yours humbly, and features some really beautiful, seldom seen photos of our UK lads from back in the day.

Lockdown Holiday – TV Smith (Easy Action)

Write about the things you know, the critics say. And when songwriters do, they run the risk of being taken down in a hail of journalistic bullets for crimes like inauthenticity, awkwardness or bandwagon jumping.

There’s no risk of TV Smith suffering that fate with his latest album, “Lockdown Holiday”, a stark and compelling take on his own experience with the dreaded COVID clusterfuck.

The ex-Adverts punk is still standing after 50 lives dates were cancelled - a fate shared by many in these fucked-up times. - but his own experience was enlivened, somewhat, by him and his partner being mowed down by The Plague.  following close contact with an infected roadhouse patron in the early stages of the pandemic.

Theater of Cruelty – Iggy and the Stooges (Easy Action)

And back down the rabbit hole we go…

It’s apparent that all that exists in the way of Stooges demo's and live recordings is probably in the public domain by now. The chances of somebody unearthing another “Goose Lake” desk tape, or a slew of pre-production demos that the band misplaced, is a longshot.

So, Stoogephiles, we are done and dusted.

Not quite.

Beyond The Sound  (...And Beyond) – Scott Morgan’s Powertrane (Easy Action)

The passing of guitarist Robert Gillespie after a lengthy illness earlier this year should give you an excuse (if any were needed) to chase down this vynil re-issue of the 2007 CD he played on as a member of Scott Morgan’s Powertrane.

Gillespie was a guitarist of rare skill who’d played in The Torpedos,glammy Motor City Rockersand The Rob Tyner Band, and was a longtime Mitch Ryder sideman. Scott Morgan’s Powertrane may not have been household names but, damn, they were a fine band that was blessed with one of the great vocalists in Scott Morgan. He and Gillespie were also a superb guitar pairing – as you’ll hear on this record.

Replay the Adverts - TV Smith and The Bored Teenagers (Easy Action Records)

You say you liked the punk stuff at the beginning? If you don't have the first Adverts LP, “Crossing the Red Sea with..”,  or their second, “Cast of Thousands”, then this will do nicely. 

Sure, we weren't at the fabled 100 Club, or the infamous CBGBs in the Bowery, or the Mermaid in Sparkhill when Swansplayed... but we have our own memories of the fantastic, never to be repeated underground. 

And, let's face it, the only thing that elevates a shithole is the scene we punters and creatives make. When the scene ebbs and flows away, the shithole is still a shithole. I bet CBGBs is a lot cleaner now (it's a designer clothing shop) and while the 100 Club is still around at a different location, it's well and truly part of the establishment. Perhaps appropriately, the Mermaid stands as a gutted derelict after a fire.

Last Bite b/w You Take My Money -Black Bombers  (Easy Action Records) 

So, Black Bombers are on tour through UK, which to many of us may seem bizarre as the place is far more riddled with the stupidvirus than we are in Australia. However, almost everyone's been vaccinated and boosted, and the latest major variant, BA.2 doesn't wallow in the lungs like a family of grumpy hippos like the Delta and Co did. 

Now: there's only 300 copies of this single and I can't imagine there'd be that many left. Get on it while you can.

Why? well, first, the BBs are freaking awesome (as the young folk used to say) live and if you only have what they've released so far - a self-titled LP, a seven-inch “'Rush” b/w “Raw Ramp” (a Bolan cover), and the mini-LP “Volume 4”, then you know what you're in for, and any and every release from the BBs is greasy dark manna from Purgatory.