Vinyl Finds: Thug - Electric Woolly Mammoth LP (1988)

Everyone that I've ever met from Sydney has been pretty badass.  They're tall, sturdy, a little bit streety, a little bit nuts, will party you under the table and fuck you 'til you're exhausted (as applicable.)  Lachlan McLeod, member of Thug and Lubricated Goat, once politely excused himself from a conversation we were having in front of CBGB's, walked to the curb, vomited, and came back, picking up the conversation right where we'd left off (with vomit on his shoes.)  All in a day's work for a hearty Oz.

With that in mind, I present one of my favorite LPs from the late 1980s, Thug's Electric Woolly Mammoth, a noisy Australian post-punk Faust Tapes if ever there was one.  This album, the band's second and final LP, is a collection of anarchic hilarity, fuzzy blasts of noise, inspired space-rock trips and the occasional sweet little instrumental, like early Cabaret Voltaire filtered through a devastating outback demolition derby.  Though there are two slightly longer, dronier tracks, most of the ideas don't last too long—just long enough to push you on to the next little bit of abuse, the sonic equivalent of that spinning scene from Guinea Pig: Devil's Experiment.  I consider this the more resonant twin to their also excellent first LP, Mechanical Ape/Proud Idiots Parade (1987); though both discs are similar, Mammoth's thrust seems a bit more fleshed, less a collection of lo-fi bits and pieces.

Thug were the three-way collaboration of Tex Perkins, a veteran of several notorious Sydney bands (The Cruel Sea, Beasts of Bourbon, Salamander Jim), the talented nut-job Peter Read (you can hear some of Peter's recent work as Chimp, Inc. here—it's very much in the Thug spirit) and the aforementioned Lachlan McLeod.  The album was released in 1988 on the Black Eye label, the more radical, experimental subdivision of the successful Australian indie Red Eye Records.

Intro | Penis/Idiot Bum Lout | Don't Inter-Fear | Childish Behaviour | Dickhead | Useless | Scratch | Bulb | Electric Woolly Mammoth | Guitar Solo in a Rainforest | Everyday Living | Abolero | Generator (Robot Dance) | Untitled Bastard | Dave's Back From Outer Space | Hair Lip

Now sing along with me:  "Paenis, paenis, paenis, bosom, bosom, asshowle..."

Final note:  For years, I had a meaning dissociation with the song "Dave's Back From Outer Space," the only "proper" song on the album.  I thought it was about Dave's back being from outer space, rather than Dave having simply returned from outer space.

Comments

[Brian Turner]

yer psychic WM - I just played the Thug 7" a couple weeks ago....

[Ray Zinnbrazen]

Wm, you are to be thanked profusely for posting this classic record.

I have an old picture of you wearing your Thug T-shirt. Do you still have that thing by any chance?

[WmMBerger]

Ah, the old "Fuck Yr. Dad" t-shirt! RSM also has video of me stripping out of it, in the old Froeberg Hall WFMU main studio. Haven't seen it in years, though it may be in storage somewhere.

[JT]

HA! I own this record. Love it. Tho I was glad BT tipped me to the Thug/Thug mp3, been lookin for that for ever. Thanks for the downloads.

[Bart Furp]

This stuff is incredible... I gotta hear their other stuff!!! Seems impossible to find, can you post?

[T.J.K. Haywood]

In Australia they brought in these "Cane Toads" To eat the Cane Beatles, who were eating the cane crops.
This seemed like a good idea at the time, but, the damn things multiplied by the billions and did not eat any of the pests, but they ate everything else! Their skin is a toxic hallucinogen. They are considered an illegal drug. Snakes and wild dogs that ate them all died. Some people loved them as pets! Their toxins would only excrete if attacked or bitten.
They totally messed up Queensland from 1940 to 1980.
Today they are trying to breed only males (or as they say "Miles" ) genetically in order to exterminate the population. There is a movie about all this, a short documentary called "Cane Toad" an unnatural history".
I watched this and thought that would be a cool name for a band from Australia, The Cane Toads and there probably are bands who already used the name.

[Mars]

I met Lachlan on tour with Lubricated Goat in Portland, Me in '91. They stayed at my place and even though Lachlan was WAY dope sick (we were totally un-hip to the HAIR-on), he was easily one of the nicest, most interesting guys I've ever met.

[Dave]

According to Clinton Walker's 'Stranded', Black Eye was actually founded solely to put out Tex's ridiculous level of output. I heard a rumour that one of Red Eye's stores is apparently closing due to downloading and general economic hardship.

Both Tex and the cane toad live 'round the corner from me now, inland from Byron Bay. Rumours are that Tex's Bumhole Orchestra will be playing next year's Sound Crucible event here.

Thanks for the up. :)

[Hingehead]

Tex just showed up hosting oz tv's rockwiz http://www.sbs.com.au/rockwiz. What a multimedia dude.

[was there]

dave's back from outerspace is about peter reads then flatmate, dave, who had some strange beliefs, as in, he believed soap to be poison so he bathed in shampoo. Read drove him crazy but Dave let him live there because he liked the constant stream of hot chicks visiting read... none of which were ever remotely interested in Dave.

If you'd ever met Dave you'd understand.

Thug once dressed him in tinfoil and beer cans and he danced with the band to that song