BROTHER BRICK: A PORTABLE ALTAMONT DOWN UNDER

For fans of uncompromising rock, Australia might just be Heaven.

Ever since an Ann Arbor-born/bred medical student named Deniz Tek carried the gospel of Detroit (mixed with some garage, soul, and surf) to the land Down Under and rocked the world (well, a small part of it) with Radio Birdman, Australian rock has been a little bit different. In the sixties, Australian beat groups bore the stamp of the Brit groups who'd toured there in the watershed years '65-'68 -- ravers and stompers like the Pretty Things, the Who, the Small Faces -- and the early seventies saw the rise of a wave of blues-based pub rockers that's never really subsided (Rose Tattoo being the apotheosis of same). But post-Birdman, American underground rockers -- from high-energy Detroit bands like the MC5, Stooges, and Sonic's Rendezvous Band, to garage kings like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators -- all became primary influences on loads of Aussie bands. Even a band as pop as Sydney's impressive Died Pretty boasts a strong Velvet Underground influence, while the mainstream Hoodoo Gurus covered the Flamin' Groovies' "Teenage Head!"

In the wake of the Birdmen came other Oz aggros cut from the same guitar-heavy, high energy mold: the Hitmen (fronted by former Birdman MC Johnny Kannis and featuring Tek's guitar foil Chris "Klondike" Masuak), front Birdman Rob Younger's New Christs in their many incarnations, Tek projects like the Visitors and New Race (which combined Birdman alumni with original members of the Stooges and MC5, cementing the Detroit connection), plus others like the Lime Spiders, the Screaming Tribesmen (also including Masuak for a spell), and the Celibate Rifles. Those bands in turn became primary influences on others that followed in the eighties and nineties.

In some ways, Oz has become like a "parallel universe" to the United States, where honest, hard-rocking music never went out of fashion. Sure, there were by-the-numbers punk and metal bands; Down Under, as everywhere else, mass communications (and MTV) did their work. But Oz was (and remains) different. Perhaps it's because, in a country of just 19 million (compared to 250 million plus here in the States), it's easier for a good band to rise. A record that sells a couple of thousand in Oz is doing pretty well, while such low numbers would be catastrophic for a record released in the U.S. Or maybe it has to do with the essential character of Australians. Compared to their trendy, fashion-conscious Brit cousins, the archetypal Aussie is almost an American, only more so -- down-to-Earth, blunt, unpretentious. Kinda like comparing a midwestern kid with one from the East or West Coast.

Don't take all of the previous to mean that rock is big business in Australia -- far from it. Government taxation and regulation of venues has caused many to close, one reason why so many Aussie musicians play with several bands. Gigs might be few and far between, but audiences remain loyal and enthusiastic. In many ways, the subjects of this article are typical of a lot of bands in Australia (or in your town, or mine) that struggle to continue making hard rockin' music WITH INTEGRITY against all odds. If you hear 'em and dig 'em, tell ten friends. Then go out and find your own Brother Brick, tell 10 friends, write your own article, etc. After all, it IS folk music...

Brick story begins with Glasgow-born guitarist/singer/writer Stewart "Leadfinger" Cunningham, who emigrated to Oz with his parents when he was four but remains proud of his Scottish birthright, the bloodline of Roberts Burns and the Bruce (not to mention Bon Scott, the Young brothers of Easybeats as well as AC/DC fame, and Jimmy Barnes, "angry young men who can scream and shout"). As Stew says, "It comes with centuries of alcoholism and deprivation and being the constant underdog...Who needs heroin and bohemianism? I was BORN this way!"

In 1990, Stew was playing around Sydney with the Proton Energy Pills (good luck finding their two singles and an EP on the extinct Waterfront label). The Brick grew out of jams between Stew and the rhythm section from another local outfit, the Horny Toads: drummer Mickey J. Stephenson and bassist Kurt Anderson. They joined forces in 1992 as a three-piece band with the balls of a five-piece, while the remaining members of their previous bands wound up in Tumbleweed and the Dubrovniks. The name Brother Brick came from a song by the American band Clawhammer, who in Stew's words "epitomised the DIY punk ethic...rocked...and laughed!"

After playing their first gig in 1993 at Sydney's legendary Evil Star Hotel, the Brick decamped for Melbourne, where gigs and airplay were more forthcoming. Response to a 6-song CD of early demos, released on Adelaide-based Space Beer Records as "Gettin' Beyond a Shit", led to the release of a single, "Chokito Bar" (an Australian candy bar) b/w "Feel Strung Out" (self-explanatory) on Dave Laing's Melbourne-based Dog Meat Records. In March 1995, the Brick released their theme song, "Rock Action," on a split single with fellow Detroit enthusiasts Asteroid B612 for Steven Danno's Brain Salad Surgery label, and headlined a show at Feedback in Sydney that drew 200 fans -- a watershed in the Sydney scene, which gives you some idea of the popularity of rock in Oz in the early '90s. The Brick cemented their reputation that year, opening shows for headliners of the caliber of Magic Dirt, the Celibate Rifles, the Deniz Tek Group and the New Christs, but that didn't prevent the rhythm section from quitting, faced as they were with incipient fatherhood (Kurt) and financial desperation (all). Mickey J. became an architect.

Stew signed on with Asteroid B612 for three albums on Au-Go-Go, but continued playing a gig a month with the Brick (including a slot opening for the American band Dead Moon), having recruited drummer Craig "Crash" Jackson (boss of Sydney's Swivel Disc label) and Asteroid B612 bassist Scott Nash. This was the lineup which recorded the album "A Portable Altamont" in September and October 1996. Recalls Stew: "Back when we did that record, I was very confident about what I considered rock 'n' roll and I was angry about the scene here in Sydney and how fucked it was, so when I wrote those songs, I had a lot to get off my chest...it was good therapy." This mindset is reflected in songs like "We Are Not You," where he rails with mounting frustration, "I can't get through to you...Fuck the radio!" and "No Turning Back," with its recurring declaration that he's "sick of the city." The album remained criminally unreleased until the French label Hellfire Club wisely decided to put it out in 1999.

More personnel changes ensued. When Stew parted company with Asteroid B612 in 1997, Jay Curley from Tumbleweed took over bass duties in the Brick from Scott Nash. Craig Jackson "spontaneously combusted" in 1998, leaving the drum stool to Austrian Nik Rieth, who'd also manned the traps for the Celibate Rifles, New Christs, and Deniz Tek Group. In July 1999, former Kelpies/Wigworld/Soggy Porridge and current Panadolls drummer, Head Miles Records impresario, ex-junkie, and internationally renowned bon vivant, raconteur, and website designer Ashley Thomson made his entry to the Brick.

In early 1999, still awaiting the release of A Portable Altamont, the Brick released a single, "The Same" (about a pair of socks!) b/w "Chip On My Shoulder" on Rockin' House Records out of Philadelphia, as well as a track ("Color Me Impressed") on an Australian tribute to the pride of Minneapolis, Paul Westerberg's sloppy-drunk Replacements. They also recorded a couple of tunes ("Olympics on the Brain," about the impending 2000 summer Olympics to be held in Sydney, and "See You Tonight") in Stew's front room for a compilation CD, Trash Can Royale, which was given away to attendees at the "mini-festival" where the Brick celebrated A Portable Altamont's (belated, French-only) release.

Speaking of the Brick's music today, Stew allows "there is a 'strange brew' of influences in that Brick band...partly the result of my insatiable appetite for all sorts of rock 'n' roll and a desire to make a record that is not one-dimensional, partly also a result of playing with dudes who are into their instruments too." Among overseas acts who've made an impact on the Brick sound, he lists the Wipers, Moving Targets, Bullet Lavolta, Replacements, Flamin' Groovies ("Now that was a rock 'n' roll band...I learnt how to play guitar by playing along with [that Still Shakin' LP on Buddah]"), MC5 and Stooges, Wayne Kramer, Swervedriver, and Mark Lanegan. Australian influences Stew mentions include Eastern Dark, X (the Sydneysiders, not the L.A. band), Powder Monkeys, Freeloaders, Hoss, Celibate Rifles, New Christs, and Asteroid B612. "Oh yeah, and John Needham and Steve Danno [of Citadel and Brain Salad Surgery Records respectively] without whom..."

If you always thought that Cream and Led Zeppelin were pussies, but secretly longed to believe that it was possible to play powerful rock 'n' roll with a three-piece band without dumbing it down (sorry, Craig) to Ramones level, then Brother Brick is the band you've been waiting for. The Brick pulls you into a maelstrom of sound, assaulting you with raging riff-rock and densely textured guitar damage, then surprises you with interesting breaks and dynamic shifts. Underneath all the fury, their music is surprisingly and intensely melodic, a tribute to Stew's songwriting skills. In live performance, they've been known to reinvent their material and take the songs to some very different places.

One evening after hours at the I-94 Bar, I sat down with Stew and Ashley for this chat.

KS: How'd you all start playing together?

SC: The Brick started around 1992, before I was in Asteroid B-612. Both bands played a lot together after '93 and were the only real rock'n'roll bands in Sydney for a long while. The scene was really fucked, so we had to stick together, and we liked each other's music. Asteroids were a lot straighter than the Brick, 'cos the guys in that first line-up of Brother Brick had just come from playing in five-piece Detroit rock bands, and we wanted to do something different, but it still had that flavour -- you know, not as "down the line" or retro as Asteroids. The original lineup was Mikey J. Stevenson on drums, Kurt Anderson on bass, and me on guitar. We all shared vocals, but I kinda did the most.

Before Brother Brick, Mikey and Kurt were the rhythm section in a very AC/DC, Birdman-inspired group called The Horny Toads, and I was in a more poppy (but still Detroit-ish) five-piece called The Proton Energy Pills. Both these bands played a lot together and I guess we got to know each other's music and hang out. When our bands split around the same time in '91, we decided to form a new band and do something a bit more original. I didn't end up joining Asteroids until '94 or '95.

AT: I knew Stewie from times the Panadolls had done shows with the Brick on Sydney's northern beaches, and at Panadolls gigs, Stewie would come backstage and give us a back slap and some beers after the show. Also, the Panadolls and Asteroid B612 did quite a few shows together. To me, Stewie always stood out.

A couple of years later, I was sending a few e-mails back and forward to Hellfire Club Records about the Panadolls 7-inch, and Nicolas said he was putting out a Brother Brick album. Also, I heard a rumour there was a 7-inch coming out on Estrus. I was pretty impressed! Stewie was doing a Challenger 7 gig, their Hellfire Club Records 7-inch launch, and I was talking to Stewie after the show and congratulated him on the releases. I asked him when the band was playing next and he said they didn't have a drummer. I was astounded! I said "I'll see you tomorrow" and I was in. We've done about 20 gigs with this lineup so far.

KS: What other musos have been involved?

SC: Brother Brick has been a very on-and-off thing for awhile, and I think I'm used to it being that way 'cos I get distracted very easily and like playing other people's music as well as my own! So there have been a fair few other musicians involved. I think this is the third rhythm section in eight years, so it has kind of evolved to the point where it's my band and people respect it as that now. That's not to say that I am some sort of music Nazi! I value the musicianship and integrity of the people I have been fortunate to play with very highly, and I guess they want to play with me, so that is reciprocated. One thing you learn out of playing in a band is that you have to respect the people you play with and treat each other as cool as possible, otherwise it's gonna suck and you will hate the band and the music and the people in it. After that, there is no point!

The line-up now, which is really starting to gel, is Jay Curley on bass and Ashley Thomson on drums. Jay and I go back to the Proton Energy Pills and he has been in the band since '97. Ash just joined to help us tour in July '99, but he likes it and we like him, so it has become a pretty tight lineup now. Other people who have filled in and joined the Brick (fuck, where do I start?)...Scott Nash from Asteroid B612 on bass, Nik Rieth from the Celibate Rifles and New Christs [and Deniz Tek Group] on drums, Mark Wilkinson from the Girlies and New Christs on guitar, Craig Jackson from Drill on drums.

KS: Stew, when I mentioned what I took to be an Angry Anderson influence in your vocals, you attributed it to your Scottish birthright and claimed kinship with Bon Scott and the Young brothers, Jimmy Barnes, etc. How do you feel that's affected your music?

SC: I guess it makes you a bit more passionate about it and a bit more full-on about rock'n'roll than the average Aussie, who as you know is renowned for being laid back. Those guys knew how to belt it out and I reckon I have a good go at belting it out myself. I am pretty fiery -- especially when it comes to the bands I play in. Sometimes I make shit happen that didn't really need to happen, but on the reverse side, when it is channelled into the music or a live gig, it takes it to a higher level. Passion is a good thing and I wouldn't change the way anything has happened
in the band. It has taken us down the long road, but pressure makes diamonds..

I think all those guys who came out here from Scotland and formed rock'n'roll bands -- and there are a lot of others that I probably don't know about or have forgotten about -- were pretty working class too. Let's face it, you don't uproot your whole family and travel halfway 'round the world unless things are pretty bad. Lyrically they were able to relate to people here, because they were working class and had had a rough time. Once they were in bands, they were also out to have a good time, too, if you believe all the stories and listen to the mischief and energy in the songs that Bon Scott wrote, for example. I like to think I share that sort of thing in common with them. I have definitely enjoyed myself on tour and stuffed around a lot, but I write lyrics that are down-to-Earth, and my political leanings are definitely of a left-wing/Labor/working class nature because of my upbringing and connection to where I came from.

KS: Who were your early musical influences?

SC: Me and Jay grew up going to see garage bands doin' the Pebbles stuff, and lots of blues bands down the pubs on Sunday arvos. Later on, it was the Celibate Rifles, New Christs, Died Pretty, Eastern Dark, and we were definitely already heavily into the Stooges, MC5, and all that New York '70s punk stuff. So that was the seminal influences that most good rock'n'roll bands absorb, and we were lucky to be turned on to all that when we were pretty young. Later on, I started to look a lot further afield and got into stuff like the Wipers, Moving Targets, Bullet LaVolta, Replacements, and basically anything American that was hard-edged guitar rock. Also lots of older bands like the Who, Flamin' Goovies, Pretty Things, Byrds, etc. seemed to become more interesting and worthwhile tracking down.

There's so much out there that you soak up -- I have a pretty open mind, I like blues and folk stuff too, anything with a good song and some guitar. It's kinda funny, 'cos everything I table as an influence seems to be before the '90s. I can't seem to cite any music from the '90s as an influence, although I'm sure there are bands that were from the '90s that I liked. It's like 1990 was the line where it's too soon to say whether it was an influence, you know what I mean?

AT: AC/DC were the biggest influence on me as a kid before punk rock, the early stuff with Bon singing. I was way into Alice Cooper and Thin Lizzy and saw all those bands play. Punk rock was a huge influence, the early New York bands and English bands. Punk rock was so cool, my favourites were like the Damned, Johnny Moped and Eater. I dug the Saints and Razar here in Oz and then playing in the Kelpies, the bands of my local scene were an influence.

KS: You have some illustrious musical bloodlines -- talk a bit about your pre-Brick bands.

SC: I've already told you a bit about it previously. The Proton Energy Pills were a pretty young band and we got signed (sic) to Waterfront Records, who were releasing lots of records by The Hard-Ons, HellMenn and Massappeal, and licensing stuff like Nirvana and [Henry] Rollins into Australia. We released two 7-inches and an EP on Waterfront and then we split up for really dumb reasons. We did some good shows and toured Australia with Mudhoney in 1990 and Dinosaur Jr. in 1989, so we were sort of tagged as the "next big thing," but the people around us (management and the label, etc.) were always trying to fuck with us and "mould" us and change us. It got too much and caused a lot of unnecessary friction in the band, and we split up after doing a recording session with Kent Steedman from the Celibate Rifles producing. It was a really bad session and in my opinion, Kent didn't help. One thing for sure is that nobody from the Proton Energy Pills ever did a recording session with Kent ever again and probably never will!

The other guys from the Protons went on to form a hugely successful grunge-style band called Tumbleweed, who were cool for awhile, but none of their records ever really stuck. The funny thing is that they're all pretty fucked up by the business now, and involved in legal shit and settlements, and I'm still doin' what I have always done -- with no support from the biz and no money, but I seem to be getting records out that are ten times better than any of the shit they did with millions of bucks behind them!

As I said, I was asked to join Asteroid B612 to help them out while the Brick was still going, and it was supposed to be temporary, but ended up being three albums, an EP, a handful of 7-inches, a U.S. tour, and a bad bad hangover! For most of the time I was in Asteroids, I felt (we all felt, I am sure) that we were the best and loudest Detroit-style rock'n'roll band in this country. We were the heirs to the Rifles, Birdman, New Christs thing -- you know what I mean. Fuck, it was really cookin', I see the Hellacopters and I just think, "FUCK, we blew it!" We were doin' that shit better than them and we had our own songs to boot! We meant it though, it was not just a show -- it was very unpredictable and on the edge.

I can only say that I thought it was a pretty amazing band -- we had a great and unpretentious front man in Bullet (Grant McIver), and a real us-against-them mentality that felt like we were unstoppable. The rhythm section (Ben Fox and Scott Nash) was the kind of swinging shit you only get in Australia. Nobody else in the world can get near the kind of rock'n'roll Australians play, because of the rhythm sections we get here. Anyway, things were goin' pretty well, but we went on this bullshit tour to the U.S. and the records weren't out in time and all this shit went down and the band fell apart. I guess that was the test and we failed it.

AT: I started out playing live in Sydney in 1980 in the Kelpies, the meanest self-destructive punk rock 'n' roll fuck outs ever. We never played anywhere twice, like a bunch of punk rock 'n' roll kamikazes, we really had something and we really blew it. If anyone has the feeling of blowing something, well, at least it was good; no one laments a crap band, huh? Phantom Records released a single and our peers on the label like the Hoodoo Gurus went on to great things. [For the full saga as only Ashley can tell it, see Steve Gardner's Kelpies article on the Noise for Heroes/NKVD website.]

After that I did a stint in Soggy Porridge, but that ended up pretty lame. I shot up a ton of smack for too long and ended up in a bunch of hospitals and wards. Finally getting straight, I started playing with Damien Lovelock from the Celibate Rifles in Wigworld -- that was pretty cool -- then fooled around with some old friends and new players. One of the projects ended up becoming the Panadolls. That's been going for five years. Also, I had a band called the Funeral Clowns I sang and played guitar in. It was way too depressing for most people and eventually me as well. I have something in mind I have always wanted to do -- record and play all the instruments; sometime in 2000, I'll get that together.

KS: Talk a bit about your current "extracurricular activities."

SC: Current stuff includes, for me, the release hopefully in January/February of the Yes Men record, which is called Prosody, on White Jazz in Europe and on Stolen Records here in Australia. We've been doin' this record on and off for about two years, so it will be good to see it come out finally. There has been a 7-inch released on 007 records in New York called "Fratricide" that is pretty awesome, but I'm really looking forward to this album. I think it's gonna blow a lot of crap away -- well, we can only hope!

The Yes Men is basically an interstate thing between me and some guys from Melbourne, which is basically 10 hours' drive from where I live in Sydney. It just started from when I was goin' down there to play a lot with the Brick and Asteroids. I got to know a lot of the people in other bands down there and hooked up with Sean Greenway, who was in God and The Freeloaders. It's mainly his baby, but he wanted me to play guitar on it. The other guys are Tas Blizzard from the Meanies on bass (he recently quit, so his place was taken by Jay from Brother Brick) and Mark Hurst, who played drums in The Guttersnipes. It's really good when we play live, 'cos it happens so rarely, but I don't know how long we can keep it up, 'cos it makes it hard to get together living in different states.

I also have been playing in Challenger 7, which is more of a power-pop thing, but not light on or airy-fairy pop; we're talkin' cool melodic rock a la the Byrds, Real Kids, Plimsouls, and Replacements. Challenger 7 recently had a song on the [Japanese] 1+2 Records Saints tribute, along with Monomen, Nomads, Nashville Pussy, etc. We did "Big Hits On the Underground." 1+2 are also gonna release an album that was just finished in December '99 -- it's called Payola, and should be out by March. Challenger 7 is a pretty fun band to be involved in and the guys are all really cool to be around. Ian Underwood is the Challenger 7 main man, and he used to be in the Kryptonics, too, who came from Perth and did the Sydney rock thing -- put out a few records and split. We used to play around Sydney with them, too, around '89/'90 when we were in the Proton Energy Pills. I remember the Kryptonics used to do "City Slang" and so did we, so there was a bit of good-natured competition between us.

I started playing with Challenger 7 when I got back from the U.S. tour with Asteroids. I was really down and out, no cash, no job, and the Brick record was supposed to have come out, but the label releasing it folded and screwed me really badly. I had enough and just disappeared for a year and got a shit job, got out of debt, got a life. I was really counting on A Portable Altamont to come out and pick my spirits up, and when it didn't, I was really disappointed and disillusioned. I was hanging out with the Challenger 7 guys as friends and they asked me to play second guitar 'cos I wasn't doin' anything, and I guess out of hanging out with those guys, I got some motivation and fun out of playing again and got back into it.