ED KUEPPER LIVE - Ed Kuepper (Prince Melon Records)
You might have missed the little things - and that would be missing a lot - if your reaction to the plainly-named tour CD "Ed Kuepper Live" is simply: "Meh, it's just another exercise in minor (chord) reinvention". Musically speaking, it's true that Sir Ed's worn more masks than a middle-aged Double Bay matron with a gold Amex card at an around-the-clock day spa, he's done his shape-shifting in a way that's never been boring.
Some of the reinvention on "Ed Kuepper Live" is by degrees, granted. But if those nuances in "La Di Doh" or the hypnotic "Honey Steels Gold" are lost on you, or alternatively you're not bowled over by the rock and roll power of his latest band The Kowalski Collective's take on "Little Fiddle" or "The Laughing Clowns", then cash in your deposit on the hospital TV and ask them to turn off the life support machine, there's no hope for you.
The Collective are drummer extraordinaire Jeffrey Wegener and the rock solid bassist Peter Oxley, two storied players whose combined musical history and cooking finesse would fill a stack of scrapbooks or pile of pizza boxes (whichever is more appropriate.) With Ed, they've been traversing the country for a few years now, sometimes as a trio or sometimes in stripped-down drums-and-guitar mode. They're at the core of the most recent studio album, "Jean Lee And The Yellow Dog" and up there as one of the man's best ensembles. Which is saying something.
I don't know what it is about Ed Kuepper, an occasional capo, a row of effects pedals and six strings, but after all these years he still summons up some incredible sounds. Horns are central to "Eternally Yours", right? That glorious line is at its heart. Well here's a version where you scarcely miss it; Kuepper compensates while Monsieur Wegener traverses every piece of his kit.
If there's a criticism it's that "Collapse Board" doesn't match the original Laughing Clowns version for outright tension, but even so it has a certain molten magnificence that deserves a hearing.
"Ed Kuepper Live" spans 51 minutes and while it's contents won't surprise many it won't disappoint most either. Copies were pressed for the 2008 Kuepper supports to Nick Cave in Europe - if you're quick/smart you'll grab one at an Australian show near you. After they sell out, eBay might have to become your friend. - The Barman
3/4
JEAN LEE AND THE YELLOW DOG - Ed Kuepper (Hot)
This will be the first Ed Kuepper review in the history of the written world that fails to use the words "prolific" and "re-invention". I won't mention the War either (that's a cheap German joke, for the benefit of the slow learners or anyone that hasn't seen a reference to Ed's ethnic background in interviews, ad infinitum.)
Reviewing the first Ed disc in a month of Sundays should be easier than stealing Stephen Hawkin's lunch money from under his nose in the university cafeteria during a black-out; I own almost everything he's recorded (Ed that is - not Professor Hawkins - hey, anyone gotta second-hand "Cloudland" they don't want?) and they're all like close relatives/drinking buddies, laid out on the shelf in chronological order.
I can remember where I scored each of them and what I was doing at the time (this is so "Hi-Fidelity".) Even the disco-fied "Frontierland" gets a spin. There are high points on most of them. There are songs that have a direct lineage back through others. I can tell you exactly why I think "Electrical Storm" or "Honey Steels Gold" is The Shit. But "Jean Lee" is one complex lady and can't be explained away in 400 words.
"Jean Lee" is a concept album but that's not what I'm getting hung up on. I know the back story of the last Australian woman to be hanged and how she was used and abused by her male co-conmspirators and the legal system, but that's not the issue. Nor is the inability to succinctly explain why this album is so good a problem for anyone but me. Unless you like reading short paragraphs. Staccato statements even. Tough shit. So I'm going to go with the flow and just say it is what it is and not for the last time urge you to listen and think for yourself and tell me that this isn't as good as anything Ed has ever committed to tape or hard drive.
The core of most Kuepper albums is usually the band and the fascination is how they work with what may seem on the surface simple songs, but are in reality many-layered and sometimes quite complex.
Journeymen (not a slight) Peter Oxley (bass) and Jeffrey Weggener (drums) have played numerous gigs with Kuepper in recent years. The Wegener-Kuepper relationship especially is deeply historied. The trio's combination and empathy is inspiring. Cock an ear to the groove they work up in "Shame" and say it isn't so. The studio and Ed Kuepper became comfortable fellow travelers long ago and he also uses that to the fullest advantage.
So it sounds great and the playing is a treat. The songs aren't remotely commercial (no "Real Wild Time" here) and haven't gotten within a bull's roar of commercial radio airplay. No matter. The songs demand attention and stand up to repeated exposure. Dark and abrasive.
There's a lot to say. Chris Bailey has a vocal cameo (not that you'd pick him right away) and there's occasional instrumental augmentation (notably horns and violin) and there's the occasional rude word and "Hang Jean Lee" sounds just like The Aints and there's a two-disc version with out-takes and extra songs (only a few of which are redundancies.)
So if you're into being challenged by music just buy the fucker. I dare ya. - The Barman
THIS IS THE MAGIC MILE - Ed Kuepper (Hot)
And this box set is the Magic Era of Ed, spanning the decade 1990-2000 over
three glorious discs.
There are 49 tracks on "Magic Mile", culled
from a 10-year period. Kuepper spawned 18 full albums (a couple of live ones
in that tally, but omitting compilations) in that decade and, for the most
part, the quality never faltered. In many ways, Ed could be considered to be
the Phar Lap of Australian music, such is his staying power - except, of course,
he's not a horse. But you get the drift.
Some critics take Kuepper to task
for occasionally falling back on his past material like a comfy chair. They miss
the point. A great song is a great song - and Kuepper has written some crackers.
There are only so many chords you can play, and there isn't a guitarist or composer
of any longevity that doesn't have some familiar phrases that they re-visit.
The knack Kuepper has over his contemporaries is an ability to make whatever
he writes smell fresh and new. Plus a prodigious talent for musical and lyrical
understatement that's grown since his Saints days.
So many highlights, so few
paragraphs to praise them without boring the shit out of anyone. Needless to
say, the shelves at home are bulging with Kuepper back catalogue. It's all in
the ear of the beholder and everyone will take out something different. The stand-out
factor, for me, over the course of these (admittedly non-chronological) discs
is the way Ed became more attuned to using the studio as a means to different
sounds. That's not unique - anyone here played with ProTools? - and empowerment
of just about anyone to make music in their back shed surely is A Good Thing,
but Kuepper's production muse never gets in the way of the songs.
Consider the
varied offerings: While "A King in the Kindness Room" (1995)
dabbled in samples (and I found the songs a bit weak), "Honey Steels
Gold" (1991) explored soundscapes with grandeur and poise (and made
the mainstream take notice). "Today Wonder" (1990) predated both,
and showed what Kuepper, a guitar, minimal effects pedal and a killer drummer
with a set of cardboard boxes could do with skeletal folk tunes. If he recorded
it today, they'd call it bent blues and promote the shit out of it. 1996's "Frontierland" ("Weeping Willow", "Fireman
Joe" and "MPPD" representing it here) is still the only techno
album I've owned - mainly because it actually rocks.
Both Aints studio albums
- where Ed reverted to the primal basic-ness of the early Saints with lashings
of Coltrane and a touch of "Funhouse" Stooges overlaid - were simply
among the rawest and most visceral Aussie guitar releases of the '90s. Conspicuous
by its absence is anything from "Everybody's Got To",
the big budget stab at the US market by Ed and his then band, The Yard Goes
on Forever. So did the touring, so maybe that's a reason.
There's a sprinkling
of singles tracks (a remake of "Car Headlights" from
'94) or songs that can only be found on tributes or compilations (Slim Dusty's "Camooweal")
to give the set a left-of-centre feel. Both instrumental sound-grab albums
("Starstruck" and "Cloudland")
are represented. I can't confess to either of them sitting in my collection
- they're just too fragmented - but that raises an interesting aspect of
Kuepper's music: his vocals. Much-maligned in his Laughing Clowns days (and
ex-bandmate Chris Bailey has delivered regular shots over the years) but
a fully-fledged part of the package. Is it overstating it to say that what
was once an acquired taste is now an asset? Probably not...although I do
listen to a lot of people who have "guitar player's voices".
The
package is nicely mastered too (only owning the original versions of many
of these means their descendents are an aural revelation - "Maria
Paripatetica" being an ear-bleeding case in point). It's all part of
the attention to detail that made the Saints and Laughing Clowns box sets
so great.
About the only thing missing - "Also Sprach the King of Eurodisco" and "Electrical
Storm" not withstanding - is a decent set of liners. You'll have to
make do with lyrics which is a pity; a good proportion have appeared elsewhere
and Kuepper's Brisbane brogue ain't that hard to work out.
After
digesting this three-course feast, you'll be hungry for a new Kuepper studio
effort (and the thought of Ed and Jeffrey Wegener collaborating on tape for
the first time in two decades or so is compelling). There's an extensive
schedule of live dates for those two over the Australian summer, so there's
no excuse is there?
- The Barman
OUT-TAKES,
CASTAWAYS, PIRATE WOMEN & TAKEAWAYS - Ed Kuepper (Hot)
At last count, Ed Kuepper had seven retrospective compilations and/or
collections of B sides and outtakes on the market, not to mention scattered
re-visitings of old
material in live or mail-order only form (and if that's a drawback, leave
now.) I admit, I had misgivings about yet another collection of rarities/alternate
takes but forked out anyway. I shouldn't have worried. This is proof, to
borrow a term from Uncle Lou, that Ed's shit is other peoples' diamonds.
The Barman is the most Anti-Techno Retro Bore on the planet (love that Monarchs
line about techno being a neurotoxin, and Birdman alumnus Mark Sisto's description
of the genre as "robot music" is superb) but I dare you to put track
one ("Also Sprach 2001") on the player and not testify THAT IT
ROCKS. Sequencers and noodling (some of it alarmingly close to my phone tone)
give way to a big booming drum sound and shards of stun guitar. It's a long
way removed from the Morricone-meets-the-Shadows twang of the original and
there's not a Saint in sight.
Not so startling aside: 1996's "Frontierland" album's lush studio
soundscapes were a shock to the system... a major shock. Still, "All of
These Things" from that disc remains a Kuepper fave. It's redone here,
with identical backing but with a sultry Rachel Holmshaw vocal bumping Ed off
the mix. It's from a project of other people recording Kuepper songs (a novel
concept) and works a treat. While "CCR Versus The 3rd Reich" is an
indulgent by-product of the "Honey Steel's Gold" album, a jaunty take
on Dylan's "If Not For You" follows and more than makes up for
it.
"Outtakes" is not flawless and has its moments, aside from the indulgent
"CCR". Looking at it subjectively (as only a fan-reviewer can), "Okie
from Muskogee" still has me scratching my head and asking why (is it a
pisstake or is he serious?) "Kissing Cousins" sounded nothing like
this on some record El Kuepper was involved on many eons ago, but is a bit of
a grower. "Eternally Yours" is a bona fide classic and the heavy-handed
treatment it's given here adds to the canon. While the "Poor Howard"
representation here is a cousin to Yothu Yindi's abhorrent dance floor standard
"Treaty" and the version of "Rough Neck Blues" almost indistinguishable
from the one that went before, the live version of "La Di Doh" is
a killer with netherworldly de-tuned violin and slack-string guitar.
The thing that stands out is the sheer class of some of the line-ups that have
graced Kuepper bills. It's been a long and varied road since the commercialism
of The Yard Goes On Forever days, with the brilliant Mark Dawson one of the
few constants on drums (or cardboard boxes, as the mood takes him.) From acoustic
duo-dom to eclectic big band, Sir Edmund's done it all. The only unrepresented
phase seems to be the guitar overdrive of The Aints (who are due for a grease
and oil change and spin around the block.)
- The Barman
1/4
