Ducks Battle Satan

The late 1980’s were halcyon days for Australian rock. There were a plethora of great Australia labels like Au Go Go , Red Eye and Citadel releasing music that I don’t think was ever bettered. One of my favourite bands from that era is Lubricated Goat, the sleazy, lurching rock pigs of Sydney. Fronted by the dignity-free Stu Spasm, they released the all mighty Paddock of Love in 1988 on Red Eye’s avant sister label Black Eye (also the home to the fury of Thug, Tex Perkins experimental nosie band). Overseas readers may remember Mr Spasm from his membership in the quasi-supergroup of Crunt (with Babes in Toylands Kat Bjelland and John Spencer Blues Expolsion’s Russell Simmins) that released a self-titled record on the much missed Trance Syndicate label. Lubricated Goat were also released on Amphetamine Reptile and had a single of two released by Sub Pop. To my mind they are like a fine antipodean example of pre-grunge pub rock.

Sadly this record in now out of print and I managed to secure this mint copy on ebay last year. In fact all of the Red Eye and Black Eye releases are now out of print, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists (if anyone wants to sell me a copy of Hit Me with That Surreal Feel on CD leave a comment), Beast of Bourbon and Thug are bands that defined an era but whose records are now very hard to find.

Lubricated Goat would have managed to slip under the radar in Austalia had it not been for a performance on Andrew Denton’s talk show Blah Blah Blah in 1988. Blah Blah Blah for overseas readers was the ABC’s (Australia’s BBC equivalent) attempt at edgy youth programming. Below is the video for In The Raw which you may have guessed Australian slang for being naked. Lip-synching nude on Australian TV? Brave, very brave.

This entry was posted on February 4, 2008 at 11:23 am and is filed under Australian underground, Lubricated Goat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.