Thursday, October 10, 2024

The AC/DC-Angels Intersection, with John Brewster

Australian rock rhythm guitar master John Brewster improvises a piece, in the below video, after being asked to explain where his band The Angels and their Alberts label mates (and friends) AC/DC crossed paths in sound/style in the mid-1970s. 



Rhythm guitarists John Brewster and Malcolm Young jammed together in motel rooms on the TNT Australian tour, with Young being so impressed by 'The Keystone Angels' he and his brother Angus recommended them to Alberts and their producers Vanda & Young.

When AC/DC left Australia in April 1976, The Angels bought the amps and some of the guitars AC/DC played on the TNT, Dirty Deeds and High Voltage albums, which The Angels then used them to record their chart-rocking, pub-packing Face To Face and No Exit albums.

Considering the global musical impact of AC/DC and the direct influence of The Angels (Angel CIty) on 1980s L.A. hard rock and Seattle's grunge, I sometimes think that two year period when AC/DC and The Angels intersected was ultimately more influential on 1990s-2010s rock and metal music than the punk era that was beginning to unfold at the same time in the U.K. and the U.S.

And it all began in some of the cheapest, grittiest motel rooms in South Australia in 1975, with both bands fighting to find The Sound that would electrify brutally drunk and unforgiving Australian pub rock crowds and make them cheer instead of throwing glass ashtrays and full beer cans.

Both bands found their sound. And their own levels of success and fame. 



Saturday, October 05, 2024

What If Australia's Breakout Band Of 2025 Is Named 'Worst Album Ever'?


Australia's 'Worst Album Ever' band

A completely unappealing band name; an extremely shite live album; a Top 100 Countdown of 'AI Music Slop' that lasts half a day; experiments in so many genres it's impossible to say what kind of band they even are (which is, of course, half the point) and still Australia's 
'Worst Album Ever'
Band has clocked up 10,000s of YouTube views in a few months, with no marketing.


Incredibly, those numbers make them a 'Rising Australian Band' according to the grim realities and statistics of the Australian Music Industry, where bands of any kind are becoming scarcer.

It's going to be strange indeed to see a song by 'Worst Album Ever' listed in the ARIA Top 100 next year, or bottom of the bill on a festival. And funny, too, I suppose. 

The Worst Album Ever 'AI Music Slop Top 100 Countdown' begins here. Lots of rock and metal abound, and not all of its AI-generated. There's Real Human Music slipped in, too. 


How far can this really go?