"Even people in love get hit by bullets."
During the late seventies and early eighties, there were few places as fertile as Australia when it came to innovative alternative music. While bands such as The Church and The Go-Betweens managed to experience brief flirtations with commercial success outside of their homeland, many other fine bands went virtually unnoticed, especially in the U.S. The Triffids more or less exemplified this unfortunate situation, despite having been one of the more interesting and singular bands to emerge from Australia during the eighties. Combining the darker inclinations of bands like The Velvet Underground and Television with the same American country-blues influences serving The Birthday Party as main muse, The Triffids were peerless at conveying a sense of stark desolation through the melodic structure of a pop song. Their debut LP, Treeless Plain, finds David McComb and co. still feeling their way toward their finest work, but there are, nevertheless, flashes of the brilliance to come peeking around every corner. For example, the album kicks things off with a stunner, "Red Pony"; with strings vaguely evoking the Middle-East and McComb's off-kilter croon, the song sounds something like Nick Cave fronting The Church. On "Hanging Shed," the band moves into darker territory in a way reminiscent of The Birthday Party, but then the song takes a surprising turn with a hooky chorus that manages to make the gloom all their own. While not The Triffids' best album, Treeless Plain is, nevertheless, an under-appreciated chapter in the discography of a vastly under-appreciated band.
Treeless Plain (2008 Remastered and Expanded Edition)
1. Red Pony (4:10)
2. Branded (2:43)
3. My Baby Thinks She's a Train (3:38)
4. Rosevel (3:00)
5. I Am a Lonesome Hobo (2:14)
6. Place in the Sun (2:21)
7. Plaything (3:01)
8. Old Ghostrider (3:07)
9. Hanging Shed (4:02)
10. Hell of a Summer (4:30)
11. Madeline (2:36)
12. Nothing Can Take Your Place (3:05)
-Bonus Tracks-
13. Interview (Live Radio Appearance, Aug. 8, 1983) (1:19)
14. Old Ghostrider (Live Radio Appearance, Aug. 8, 1983) (2:51)
15. Plaything (Live Radio Appearance, Aug. 8, 1983) (2:48)
16. My Baby Thinks She's a Train (Live Radio Appearance, Aug. 8, 1983) (3:21)
17. Rosevel (Live Radio Appearance, Aug. 8, 1983) (2:57)
18. Hell of a Summer (Live Radio Appearance, Aug. 8, 1983) (3:40)
19. On the Street Where You Live (Live Radio Appearance, Aug. 8, 1983) (2:24)
great write-up voixautre! this is a mighty fine record.
ReplyDelete"let's not talk about love/that's just something you feel/for a dog or a cat/and you can tell him all your problems/and that puppy dog/he won't answer you back"
Thanks so much. I am not familiar with The Triffids so this seems like an excellent starting point. Do you have any other recommendations of their CDs? What do you consider to be their finest effort? Thanks. Kurt
ReplyDeleteMore than excellent voixautre. A perfect record and a perfect write-up.
ReplyDeletebedlam, I love that lyric- almost used it at the head of the post
ReplyDeleteKurt, I'll post their remaining albums every so often. "Born Sandy Devotional" and Calenture" are considered the best, but it's all good. I'll post some more soon :)
ReplyDeletethank you frankroo!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the flac voix. I've been on a strict australian diet for the last 3 weeks, thanks to bedlam. Wasup. It causes severe alcohol cravings. Saludos.
ReplyDeleteEl Isabelino, yes, there has been an avalanche of great Aussie material lately thanksa to bedlam & frankroo, and after Talk Talk, I'm set to add even more with a Church series
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the Triffids advice. And thanks in advance for any additional Triffids posts. You are amazing! Kurt
ReplyDeleteDave had so many great lyrics to choose from voixautre! another one i like is "i knelt, i aimed, i missed, i ran" from chicken killer. always the humour lurking below...
ReplyDeleteduring the eighties, I was a huge Church fan, and to this day, I still can't understand how I missed out on The Triffids. I didn't even know they existed until long after their demise. I guess better late than never
ReplyDeletei was lucky, you know that :)
ReplyDeletedefinitely, though I grew up in L.A. during the seventies and eighties, which boasted an amazing underground music scene (one of which was the Paisley scene), so I guess I was pretty lucky too
ReplyDeleteA great band. Thanks to your post I immediately put "Born Sandy Devotional" in my cd tray. An album which I used to hear many times alongside "Calenture", both I haven't heard for sometime.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the first album and looking forward to hear it.
Lon, the two albums you mentioned are their best in my opinion, but this debut album has a lot of great moments
ReplyDeleteThis is great!
ReplyDeletePieter, I'm going to be posting CD-sourced FLACS of all the Gun Club albums in my Paisley Underground series
ReplyDeletehooray!! too much gun club is never enough
ReplyDeletethe lins are long gone, but thanks anyway!
ReplyDelete