THE BALLROOM The Melbourne Punk and Post-Punk Scene (2011); Paperback
Australian/Little Band Scene/Post Punk/Documentary 244 pages, Used
The Ballroom is a brutally frank memoir of what has become known as one of the most pivotal, fascinating and influential periods of Australian musical and cultural history. The story is illustrated with original flyers and candid photos, some never before seen or published. The scene: St. Kilda, Melbourne in the late 70s. It was here amongst the prostitutes, drunks and junkies that a music venue was born, a venue that would soon become the pulse of punk and new wave music in Australia. Melbourne's most famous and infamous musicians, artists, filmmakers and fashion designers such as Nick Cave, Hunters and Collectors, Richard Lowenstein, Sam Sejavka, Howard Arkley and Alannah Hill gathered on a weekly basis during their formative years. Internationally acclaimed acts such as Iggy Pop, The Cure, INXS and Johnny Rotten also performed there.
LUCHA LOCO: The free wrestlers of Mexico (2012), Paperback
272 pages, Lucha Libre/Luchadores/Mexican Wrestling Book, New
Malcolm Venville’s rare deluxe Mexican wrestling volume, now available in an accessible, popular format. Lucha Libre, or "free wrestling," is a cultural phenomenon—renowned not only for the wrestler’s high-flying moves, but also for the mythology of their personas. These masked figures (a ritual dating back to Aztec culture) treat their masks—and the identities they embody—as sacred. El Santo, the first luchador pop star, rarely took off his mask even in retirement, and was eventually buried in it. It is such a significant part of the sport (and the performance) that the removal of an opponent’s mask in the ring is grounds for disqualification. Malcolm Venville fell in love with the sport after catching a show in Mexico and spent several weeks photographing and interviewing wrestlers outside the ring in a small portrait studio. Alongside each portrait is the wrestler’s fighting name and a signature quote from these interviews. Among the subjects are an accountant and a doctor by day—but Super Pinocchio and Astro Boy by night. They offer such gems as: "American wrestling is more about the lighting," "My character is the fastest in Mexico, but not when I’m making love," and "I combine wrestling with stripping but wrestling’s my passion." The result is an even more hilarious and colorful look at this already entertaining spectacle—part sport, part soap opera—as well as a window into the life of a luchador, a world normally shrouded in mystery.
ELECTRONIC SOUND George Harrison (1969); LP
Avantgarde/Electronic/Experimental/Noise/Beatles - Original 1969 press LP, Used (Small tear in cover)
Writing in 'Fusion' magazine, Lloyd Grossman pondered whether Harrison's "Electronic Sound" LP would have been released if not for the Beatles owning the Zapple label. He said that the record's shape and resistance to water made it useful as a "porthole cover" and concluded, in imitation of the noises heard on the LP: "If YOU fweemfweemfweemfweem apapapapapapap have an olD SunbeamToaster ugwachattttattachurgchurg churg and enjoyputting your dddddldddlddlllder ear up to it wwhoooooooggggg*-*- you may enjoy this album phwerpphwerp phwerp …"
GARBAGE GANG (Australian 1st release) 1985; Stickers
Assorted "Garbage Gang" stickers, Australia/New Zealand first edition from 1985 'Topps' (Rare)
$2.00 per sticker - contact store for details
BANANAFISH Number 16; Magazine + CD
Avant-garde/Noise/Experimental/Music/Zine Magazine, Used
Issue 16 of San Francisco’s cult influential and idiosyncratic noise zine 'Bananafish'. Over the years, Bananafish’s compelling taste in obscure music, art and performance, as well as the amusingly irreverent tone and content, elevated it from a well-produced amateur fanzine to a renowned scene figure in its own right. Some of its subjects, like Dylan Nyoukis of Prick Decay and Bruce Russell of the Dead C, became contributors, and others were avid readers. Wolf Eyes’ John Olson, who appeared in Issue #13 in 1999, wrote via email that he had followed it from beginning to end, and Australian drone guitarist Oren Ambarchi sought out every issue after he first found it in a Sydney record shop in the late 1980s. “It was a very important resource for me, being in Australia without much ‘literature’ on the noise underground – and it was hoot,” recalled Ambarchi, who was interviewed in Issue #16 in 2002. “It shaped what I did as a young musician, as I would search for releases of the artists that Bananafish covered,” he said, describing a search for Bananafish’s hardly-known subjects. “I would pore over it to find more clues about this mysterious underground music/culture.”
SID AND NANCY (1986); DVD
Cult/Music/Punk DVD, Used
Some films tend to glorify rock and roll by showing off its glamorous side full of adventure and wonder. Sid and Nancy does no such thing. Instead it exposes the dirty, grimy, seedy underbelly of punk rock which is full of violence and drugs. Gary Oldman plays Sid Vicious, the bassist for British punk rock group the Sex Pistols. The film chronicles his life from when he meets his junky girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to the tragic demise of that relationship. It is a loud, mean, ugly, and crass film that perfectly captures all that the Sex Pistols stood for... anarchy. Filled with all sorts of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, Sid and Nancy is a seriously wild ride. From director Alex Cox (Repo Man)
BARON BLOOD (1972) Mario Bava; DVD
Horror/Supernatural/Italian/Cult DVD, Used
A young man, Peter, returns to Austria in search of his heritage. There he visits the castle of an ancestor, a sadistic Baron who was cursed to a violent death by a witch whom the Baron had burned at the stake. Peter reads aloud the incantation that causes Baron Blood to return and continue his murderous tortures. As usual, Bava seems dismissive of things like story, character and acting, and concentrates on creating a memorable mise-en-scene, which makes a lot of the juxtaposition of the old and the contemporary: an ancient castle with a Coke machine, Elke Sommer in a miniskirt running through old fog-shrouded streets, etc. Mario Bava is one of the best Italian horror directors, his name is synonymous with terror! He influenced the "Friday the 13th" series, "Halloween", and countless other films, inside and outside of the genre.
SUSPIRIA (Dario Argento) 1977; DVD
Giallo/Cult/Slasher/Horror DVD, New
"Suspiria" has been acclaimed as director Dario Argento's masterpiece. Suzy Bannion travels to Germany to perfect her ballet skills. She arrives at the Tanz dance academy in the pouring rain and is refused admission after another woman is seen fleeing the school. She returns the next morning and this time is let in. She learns that the young woman she saw fleeing the previous evening, Pat Hingle, has been found dead. Strange things soon begin to occur. Suzy becomes ill and is put on a special diet; the school becomes infested with maggots; odd sounds abound; and Daniel, the pianist, is killed by his own dog. A bit of research indicates that the ballet school was once a witches' coven - and as Suzy learns, still is. Filmed in bright, lurid Technicolor, and accompanied by a thundering soundtrack by Goblin, Suspiria is a nightmare-come-to-life, and ranks as one of the best Italian-made horror films of all time.
BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA (1973); DVD
Cult/Exploitation/Sleaze/Grindhouse DVD, New
Dig it! You've got your black mama. You've got your white mama. You've got your lesbian prison guards. You've got your female prison shower scene. (That lasts about 5 minutes). You've got your tough Filipino gangsters. You've got your corrupt police man. You've got a Che Guevara like revolutionary leader. Put this together and what do you get? Pure cinematic goodness. This isn't a great movie. But hell, its a lot of fun. Pam Grier is great as usual as one of the mama's.(I'll let you guess which one.) Plenty of violence and nudity to spare. Don't go looking for this in the family section of your video store. When two troublemaking female prisoners (one a revolutionary, the other a former harem-girl) can't seem to get along, they are chained together and extradited for safekeeping. The women, still chained together, stumble, stab, and cat-fight their way across the wilderness, igniting a bloody shootout between gangsters and a group of revolutionaries.
BRIAN ENO 1971-77 The man who fell to earth; DVD
Documentary/Music/Art/Eno DVD, New
This documentary film - the first ever about Eno - explores his life, career and music between the years 1971 & 1977, the period that some view as his golden age. Featuring numerous exclusive interviews, contributions from a range of musicians, writers, collaborators and friends - plus performance and studio film and an abundance of the most exceptional music ever created.
Australian/Collected/Short films/Arthouse DVD, New
Collected together for the first time are the selected seminal short films of internationally acclaimed director Peter Weir ("Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Gallipoli", "Master and Commander").
This DVD provides a rare opportunity to witness Weir's formative work, displaying the themes and style that would ultimately propel him into the international spotlight and establish his reputation as one of the most thoughtful and talented directors currently working in Hollywood.
Personally selected by Weir, this compilation includes:
Three To Go: Michael
Weir's astonishingly stylish debut opens with Sydney under seige from young revolutionaries.
Can "Youth Quake", an uptight TV panel discussion, end this violent street battle by tackling some very perplexing problems concerning the youth of today? Resist-Revolt-Reform!
Homesdale
Welcome to Homesdale Hunting Lodge - "A New Experiment in Togetherness". The retreat is home to a mixed party of eccentric guests (including Kate Fitzpatrick and Grahame Bond) who are encouraged to act out their fantasies - watched on by men in white coats. Is Homesdale a guest house, a mental institution or a prison?
Three Directions In Pop Music
In this time capsule of the early 70s live music scene, Weir documents performances by legendary Aussie jug-band THE CAPTAIN MATCHBOX WHOOPEE BAND along with WENDY SADDINGTON & TEARDROP and Spectrum's alter ego, INDELIBLE MURTCEPS.
Incredible Floridas
Packed with stylish and atmospheric re-enactments, this short documentary chronicles Richard Meale's homage to acclaimed French poet, Arthur Rimbaud.
