You've gone Kuepper Keraaaazy!

Yup. I managed to have a little chat to Jeff Wegener at the DP Forum gig the other week. He's a strange, intense man, possibly a genius.

''anyone at all, i just can't live with anyone at all...''

http://www.brella.org/sandpebbles/Ed%20Kuepper.html

for the lengthy interview I've just finished reading.

That weird-o formatting in the first post is not my doing, by the way. I just drew a little dotted line and presto. Didn't even see it till I logged out. Just so you know I'm not a Peter (Milton) Walsh obsessive or anything, making his name bigger.

Last time I saw Ed and Jeff (at Dirty Three ATP), they had a sax player come out for Eternally Yours
:)

My favourite Australian band ever. Sometimes I think they're one of the greatest anywhere. Quite amazing.

Can people who saw them play talk about it? Thanks.

EK did some gigs here at the end of last year with a guitar / Wegener / bass / sax configuration and they were really fuckin great.

Jeff Wegener has started a blog about the Clowns - hope he keeps it up. It made me realise I know almost nothing about this band's history, despite obsessively listening to their music. Write a book, someone, so I can read it.

bookmarks

the 3xCD set ''Cruel, But Fair'' has pretty good liner notes.

Too good! Listenin' too them right now!

Uddich-Schmuddich = Art Ensemble of Kings Cross.

1980 live to air

rad pic. i'm so excited that i'll actually be seeing these guys play live.
mimes drum break from flypaper

Ed Kuepper vocals and guitar ,Jeffrey Wegener drums,
Louise Elliott saxophone and Leslie Millar upright bass.

yep. i think it's the most i've ever wanted to see a band, like, ever.

i love the clowns records, and i think the slightly dodgy recording actually adds something positive in the way of atmospheric textural murk - but to see them smashing the shit out of those songs live would be something else i reckon

God I love that pic __v. So cool.

I second that.

Where'd you get it __v? I notice it's not via stolen bandwidth.

I saw it on Facebook a while ago. You're in that group, aren't you barman? Probably Trade related. I'm not in it, just stalked the photos.

Warm up shows hopefully.

Review of the Tivoli show published on M+N here

... then there were the Laughing Clowns people who struggled with the Dirty Three.

struggled? more just couldnt be arsed wrestling with ellis' ever-increasing ego.

i found this pretty charming

That video is private, v. What is it?

oh. it was a webcam video of a big german guy asking for help in identifying a laughing clowns song - then he did a really great job of singing the horn parts.

i think he guy must have taken it down having received a response (the answer was ''possessions'').

also, if anyone is interested - the latest volume in the prince melon bootleg series is out now - recorded live at the basement (2nd night) - a snip at AUD$10 - i reckon those may gigs were the best they have sounded since they got back together, and stand comparison with the live recordings i've heard from olden times

order here

That Vol8 is excellent, there are some nice arrangements, like the extended version of ''Crying Dance'' incorporating bits of ''When What You See is What You Get''.
Good to see that Vols 4,5,6 are still on the way too.

yep - they were playing at such a high level at those shows, and EK's guitar sound was perfect
(which i have come to think is really crucial for the clowns arrangements to gel) - the bootleg of the first night at the basement is probably my most-listened-to recording of last year

struggled? more just couldnt be arsed wrestling with ellis' ever-increasing ego.

I'm glad I wasn't the only person having this problem. But then, I hated the Clowns that night too.

was it the six-string bass ron?

I still can't figure out exactly what it was, but it was definitely the ''six-string bass''ness of the whole thing. It all sounded like music that would be played at a winery for semi-retired accountants, middle-managers and/or productivity consultants.

It started out ok but something went wrong. It sounded way more watered-down than ATP and way WAY more watered-down than gigs BITD*.

Maybe it was just me. But it definitely didn't have any of the unsettling edge that makes them great.

• Back in the day.

i know what you mean, i think they'd probably got their thing sorted out a bit more by the sydney show, it worked pretty well as a balls-out rockier take on the material with mucho guitar - but it was a different/new proposition

there's something about having that sharp nasty guitar sound scratching away slightly back in the mix that helps with the unsettling edge of which you speak - it's there on the old shows i've heard, and it was present and correct for the basement shows

a non-fan told me after the sydney show that they could see how the clowns were a precursor to bands like primus. i didn't know what to say to that.

a big german guy asking for help in identifying a laughing clowns song

the bizarre sequel

i think i will back slowly away from the youtube now

just picked up an old OTS with a clowns live review, law of nature vintage.

''...the jazz influence appears relatively insignificant... it makes more sense to think of the Clowns as a very sophisticated form of heavy-metal band.''

excellent stuff.

anyway, as you were.

Heavy metal, eh?

Right.

Tonight ABC2 @ 11PM

Live at the Basement: Laughing Clowns

Can someone tell me if that's available for download and/or recorded and upped online somewhere? Bednowthanks.

I'm hoping it will appear on their Iview site, will be looking out for it.

Holy shit that is cool. Better be on iview

it was uploaded on dime after the first time it was on ABC - about a year ago? don't know how long torrents live on dime though. i thought it was slightly disappointing (odd song selection & ugly as fuck lighting) but still worth seeing and great to have any document of the clowns playing live of course. the DVD of the brisbane goma show that's available from prince melon is probably marginally better overall.

I taped laughing clowns at the basement the other night. it is laughing clowns I hope. I haven't got to it yet. but will tonight