This week a bloody bumper of an issue from GUILTFILTER RECORDS being TAKE 47 of GFR News we look at these things: MY BABIES ARE ALL GROWN UP + LIVE LAUNCH EXPERIMENT RESULTS + MY GREEK SAGITTARIUS HERO

GFR NEWS | TAKE 47

Warning! More than 20 words ahead! Approach with caution! IMMEDIATELY return to zoning out on plastic TUMO trinkets and cat videos if your brain starts thinking for itself. Warning! Aaagh!

LIVE LAUNCH EXPERIMENT RESULTS

Thanks to all who attended the live launch

Getting out of your safe little bubble on a cold grey arvo after a sweltering hot Friday night takes some guts and some balls, and a heap of you came through for the old GFR: it shall be remembered like a great grey elephant I can tell ya, free, signed vinyl coming your way pronto!

A special thanks to DJ Matt Munster (Munster Times, 3CR), lighting by Kellie, Shanaaz, the Suzi Q P Dhol contingent, Michael Mullholland (PBS Junkyard) & St Kilda artists Viv and Fred.

And it was so awesome to play for one of my artistic hero's Fred Negro for the first time - Fred draws the infamous PUB comic strip and gave us some of the best punk bands in the world like I Spit On Your Gravey, Brady Bunch Lawnmower Massacre and The Fuck Fucks (is 'Beer Sandwich' the greatest video clip filmed in St Kilda ever? Why yes I think it is).

A reminder that PUB is published in the Munster Times zine and Footy Mouth is filthier than ever and the penis and vagina count remains healthy thank fark.

Is PUB one of the best aussie comic strips ever? Certainly. Would it be world renowned if the artist hailed from US or Europe? Most likely. As we all know the rest of the world barely knows Australia even exists, "we are an artistic pimple on the arse of the world" Barry Humphreys used to say - a shitty curse that one of the greatest music scenes in the world is 24 hours plane ride from anywhere.

Also thanks to Mark @ BS Sound for the fantastic PA and Lofty @ Lock'n'Load for PA advice that helped me work out how to rig the quadraphonic PA.

OFFLINE Live Launch Flyer

Some quick notes on the experiment:

for the first time with a live show we did not use the internet to promote the show, no posts or events or online advertising. We sent individual texts and got out to see some bands to invite people in person. Attendance was up 600% from our previous few shows.
we asked people not to take photos or videos so the event stays only in memory (like every gig for thousands of years)
it was great for me because y'know like how we used to respect artists by actually focusing on the performance? It happened at this gig!
I sometimes wonder if we all truly know how disrespected hard working artists feel every time people up front watching a gig pull out their phones to look at meaningless notifications (yes TEMU really does want to bleed you dry and yes xx-media-app neeeeeeds your attention nooooowwwww! jesus those apps are like crying babies if you don't lick their nipples every 2 seconds.
Three separate people pulled me aside to say they were very emotional and almost in tears - likely this was during the more introspective songs like Moonlight, Black Market Bear or No Lies. This meant A LOT to me. All three were female.
Some of the men, not all but a fair few, to my reckoning, were, like at many gigs I go to, struck with a bit of FOMO, looking around and distracted. Do men have weaker minds thank women? Or perhaps they are more swayed by their surroundings and find it harder to focus? Or perhaps they are obsessed with knowing where the woman in their life is at all times, as if they own them and don't trust them, insecure as that may sound?
All this needs investigating and I am still getting feedback so shall update in a future post.
GFR shows going forward shall be mostly offline I imagine. The LP shall be available on vinyl, cassette & usb stick, something you can touch and keep with full size artwork. - GFR News shall remain online for now.

MY BABIES ARE ALL GROWN UP

Offline final tracklist OFFLINE tracklist in final order

After three years constant work my 12 new children/songs, who are still vulnerable little babies to me, are ready to leave the nest and get to know you all. And I am no helicopter parent, those little devils have just about sent me to an early grave!

They are nervous and shy, exited and bursting to show off to someone other than me and my fussing, so here are the 12 new songs of Guiltfilter's 3rd LP OFFLINE, in alphabetical (and album) order:

TRACK 1. BLACK MARKET BEAR

Lineage: Heavy Jazz-Synth Alt-Rock
Identity: Self destructive Male in Chromatic E minor
Personality: Complex 10/8
Co-performers: Session drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: The resistance leader from Total Recall

The oldest child and a feature of my solo sets since 2011, now re-imagined with layered, distorted synths, low B string bass and baritone chords alternating with the original jazz guitar verse replaced with ragtime piano. The entire song loops a chromatic descending bastardisation of the jazz guitar standard that begins EmSus2 /EbAug5 - we extend that chromatically to become EmSus2 /EbAug5 / D4(G) / DbDim5 / C / BmAug5 / Bb6 / A7sus4.

Emotionally an angry shell of a child trapped in a life of crime, the lyrics remain unchanged and describe the racism, poverty and indifference that leads second generation Vietnamese youth, mainly boys from the commission flats, to become addicted to heroin and then tricked into joining the army of low level dealers, ghosting along Victoria St in Little Vietnam selling cheap smack, brazenly and dangerously, resupplied by the serious mid level dealers that I made it a steadfast rule to never see or go anywhere near. They ply their trade, such as it is, making barely enough to support their habits, all the while being simultaneously abused and ever so briefly befriended by their customers; who are mostly poor Aussies, from the suburbs, and a few artists like me and some lost tradie's and office workers barely clinging to their jobs and straight friends. I was a solid customer every day between 2007 and 2009, they all know me, and I got to know a few of these young guys and would sit and talk to them a fair bit. What struck me is how invisible they felt in the country they were born in. A few First Nations fella's also occasionally sold to me and I made friends with them until they invariable lost interest in such a capitalistic supply and demand life.

When the lyrics first came out as a poem I could not shake the feeling that while I felt certain my music would get me out of that nightmarish loop, it eventually took around 6 years, I knew they were all most likely trapped in that facsimile of a life, awaiting jail, another overdose or death and way too young and innocent to see it. These young boys are despised by the many hard working shopkeepers and locals who are mostly Southern Vietnamese - allies of Australian soldiers - and who were forced to flee there beloved homes and cities and villages losing most of their memories and possessions, only to come to a country and be mistaken for Northern Vietnamese or Viet Cong half the time, their epic and distinct language ridiculed and looked down upon by not just white colonial Australians but also many whiter skinned Asians who consider them provincial hics. This is the reason the Vietnamese are the only immigrants, beside the centuries old Chinese towns, to ever have their own distinct and named towns in all the big Australia cities. Cabramatta's Little Vietnam in NSW is roughly twice the size of Victoria St. Cabramatta also had a very severe street heroin trade until around 2010 when the local community received help from the city and state governments and wiped out the street dealing quickly and without issue. Meanwhile in Victoria the government and councils have simply thrown more and more police at the problem and pretty much gave up a decade ago and installed some injection sites that have saved plenty of lives. Unfortunately for recovering addicts Victoria is the only state in Australia that can't be bothered, or is too incompetent, to eradicate the street dealing; so while you may go through all the shit-stained hell of getting clean here, staying clean is the most challenging of any city in this country.

TRACK 2. CHANGE OF HEART

Lineage: Heavy pop-metal Spectre Wall of Sound (in stereo, not mono)
Identity: Wide open G major with some free thinking second inversions
Personality: Common time with a bridge of double kick demi-quavers
Co-performers: Trumpet by Reuben Strentz, drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome's most esoteric quotes

The Laotian milkman was around a lot for the birth of this independent travel loving young hermaphrodite. We predict s/he'll leave home young, get on the drugs and explore their sexuality.

A tale of epic Fear & Loathing type narcotic adventures across South East Asia. The essence of the chorus is that even if fate, the universe and everyone you know pushes you towards a relationship that seems right for you.. it don't mean shit if your hearts not in it.

TRACK 3. DIRT POOR

Lineage: Dirty pop-rock
Identity: Florida white trash female in G strap minor with a jazz turnaround
Personality: Common 4/4 with an attitude and a poly-rhythm outro
Co-performers: Drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: Good Will Hunting's darker underside

Sure to be expelled and suspended before running away from home and turning to a life of belligerent petty crime and most likely a purveyor of street drugs and prostitution. Hates her parents and her judging siblings and most of all despises herself. Everyone loves her.

At endless group sessions in rehabs and NA you come across streams of hard luck stories. And sometimes, not often, you witness some childhoods so violent, so unfair and so disgusting, that every addict in the room, including the therapist, is speechless, and in tears, and heart-broken, and filthy angry. But mostly heartbroken. And you know for a fact if she hadn't of got on the hard drugs at 11 years old she would be long dead. And you pass no judgement and you realise that while you consciously chose your path, some are perhaps not so fortunate.

TRACK 4. DUMPSTER DIVE

Lineage: Heavy prog-rock pop
Identity: Fuck knows, it has so many notes.. let's say B in the Locrian mode
Personality: Angry 15/4 (which is a fancy way of saying I chopped a beat off every 4th bar of basic 4/4)
Co-performers: Drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: David Thewlis, the legend, in a Mike Leigh classic getting hot and bothered over the lazy and bored masses love of anything new, regardless of it's merit

The angry middle child who spurns his generations addiction to money and passes judgement on everything he sees. Usually seen wearing a dirty old 'Eat The Rich' t-shirt and rolling a cigarette.

One thing I notice about big business and it's minions is their constant worrying about the economy and their own money glues them to material items and separates them from friendships and good company. Meanwhile folks who live without all of that wealth seem to focus on their immediate friends and having a good time with them.

TRACK 5. ICEHOUSE by Flowers

Written: by Iva Davies in the mid 1980s
Lineage: 80s synth and drum machine pop
Identity: Femenine C# Phrygian, transposed down to B
Personality: Drum machine 4/4
Co-performers: none
Quadraphonic affectations: Reality TV in the meth-head exploitation genre

Swear to God she's not mine, I mean Guiltfilter doing a cover song.. Blasphemy!

I have always loved this band Flowers. And this song, the melody and the lyrics especially, and the way it drops a semitone menacingly to the chorus, it just always makes me want to hear it again. I met Iva Davies at a soulless record company exec party in Ultimo when I was 18 and trying to get my second band together and he is a fucking really nice guy.

TRACK 6. KAMAY

AKA: Botany Bay
Written: 75000 + 237 years ago on Koori land by an Irishman*
Lineage: A standard Irish jig
Identity: Irish Male convict [E minor]
Personality: ADHD, needed plenty of Ritalin [140bpm], a swinging and complex 12/8
Co-performers: Drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: The British Empire becomes Choppa robbing all the peaceful tribes of the world. As Neville says: "No cash.." But Choppa robs them all blind anyway and portrays himself a hero.

The youngest child, a surprise to his parents and the last song added to the album. A drinker of Irish Whiskey and a rebellious trouble-maker who stole an English noble's pearl broche and was sentenced to rot in the hold of convict ship bound for Terra Australis over 200 years ago. Almost didn't make it: I seriously debated whether to put this song on the album and understand he could offend. I have some English in my distant past I am sure so I stand by him 100%. Self criticism is healthy.

*I found a bunch of copy write free piano sheet music and took the chord structure, piano and violin solo note for note, so credit to some long gone Irish folk composer/s. The melody, harmonies, bass line, guitar lines and lyrics are 100% Guiltfilter Mags.

TRACK 7. KIDS ARE GOING OFFLINE

AKA: OFFLINE
Written: Guiltfilter Adrian's drum room circa 2022
Lineage: Glorious 80s rock
Identity: Melancholic beauty with an angry, judgemental sting in her tale.
Personality: Complex [7/4 changing to 4/4 for the jazz outro]
Co-performers: Drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: A cynical and vacuous ass licking of the internet.

Well la de da, aren't we the bell of the ball with the album title in your name. This oldest sister thinks she is just a little bit above all her siblings and doesn't she lord it over all her younger sisters. Her key message? Don't helicopter parent me, god forbid if she catches you spying on her. Tracking her TicToc account? Then she's going fully offline. Enough said.

TRACK 8. MOONLIGHT

Written: Sur Le Mur, St Kilda circa 2020
Lineage: Plodding dirge
Identity: Trans male twin [Em]
Personality: Simple [4/4] ending in simple poly-rhythm [3/4 over 4/4]
Co-performers: Trumpet by Reuben Strentz, drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: Fear Of Missing Out

Born a girl with a twin sister (Moonlight Reprise) and now identifying as a trans male. Never to be separated from his twin and they both are connected via a poly-rhythm and can read each others thoughts. Originally written on the acoustic guitar, as a solo song only, and one of the most emotional of all the children. Treat with care and love and an open mind he shall bestow great depth of feeling and sadness over you - xxx - one of my personal favourites.

TRACK 9. MOONLIGHT REPRISE

Written: Barkley St, St Kilda circa 2020/1
Lineage: Beethoven's lost love sonata
Identity: Female twin [Em]
Personality: Simple [3/4]
Co-performers: Drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: n/a

Telepathic female twin of Moonlight and the guitar picking is based on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata piano. Beethoven, that glorious deaf bastard, often used deceptively simple minor triads as building blocks. Inspired by the mysterious love letter Beethoven wrote to his only true love. Oh and this album gave me hearing loss and tinnitus so you only hurt the one you love they say.

TRACK 10. NO LIES

Written: Hydra Rehearsal Studios circa 2022
Lineage: Low melancholic dystopian dirge
Identity: Female in Bm
Personality: No beat, just sad ethereal harmonies
Co-performers: Trumpet by Reuben Strentz, percussion by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: A future history teaches remember the 2020s as the era of mega-mega-greed when every cent was stripped and mined from every human soul - a cent for every breath and your DNA owned by a multi-national.

A troubled girl, loved by all, addicted to psychotherapy and drowned in anti-psychotics, lithium and self medication, she rarely gets out of bed before 3pm and eats little to nothing. Clinically depressed she has given up on life and finds most human endeavour greedy, corrupt and foul.

TRACK 11. PURE PROPHET

Written: Hydra Rehearsal Studios circa 2022
Lineage: Sonic Youth's guitarists, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones join a cult
Identity: Male in E Mixolydian
Personality: Four to the floor
Co-performers: Drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: Actual audio from the Camp Davidian massacre

The second oldest boy and a strange loner who never talks except to sprout anti-government conspiracy theories. Reads gun magazines and collects army fatigues and was voted most likely to join a cult by his peers. Always on the dark web or playing with animals. He's creepy but we love him.

NOTE: I pinched an idea from GF drummer Adrian for the outro where the snare is swapped with kick, brilliant idea so credit where it is due.

TRACK 12. YOUR MY CORE

Written: Hydra Rehearsal Studios circa 2022
Lineage: Post punk pop prog
Identity: Teenage male in E major
Personality: Sounds like straight rock but actually 7/4
Co-performers: Trumpet by Reuben Strentz, drums by Iliya Zakharov
Quadraphonic affectations: Free your mind with micro-doses of LSD laced with fun

A gangly, happy force of nature, always upbeat and doing things for his core group of mates. Desperately trying to lose his virginity. Has a Freddie Mercury tinge of Arabic in his looks.

DVD REVIEW

MY GREEK SAGITTARIUS HERO JOHN CASSAVETES

DVD cover art

A Constant Forge - The life and art of John Cassavetes
Released: 2000
Director: Charles Kiselyaks

Sometimes if you venture away from the force fed garbage media on the beaten tracks of TV, the web and advertising, you discover some great art and an inspirational human being; a larger than life personality and they are everything you imagine you could be on your very best days.

Just recently I found such an artist by way of a documentary film on Greek-American filmmaker John Cassavetes, who is all those things and more.

Gave up fame and fortune for self-respect, creative freedom and true independence.
He loved his first wife and stayed with her till his death, never cheated on her and treated her as an equal in every way.
He worked hard and partied hard all day, every day and shared his success with those around him.
He created a completely original frame of work that was initially derided and took decades to be understood and celebrated.

This is one of the most eclectic and eccentric and independent doco's I have seen and I highly recommend you find it and watch it fucking pronto!