The Primitive Calculators are an Australian
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
band, formed in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
in 1978. Described by British critic
Everett True
Everett True (born Jeremy Andrew Thackray on 21 April 1961) is an English music journalist and musician. He became interested in rock music after hearing The Residents, and formed a band with school friends. He has written and recorded as The ...
as sounding like "a very aggressive
Suicide",
[ True, Everett (8 January 2009)]
"True Tales: Melbourne's musical treasures"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 20 May 2017. the band is known for its mix of harsh guitar
noise
Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...
, fast and repetitive
drum machine beats, and abrasive synthesizers. Along with fellow Melbourne act
Whirlywirld
Whirlywirld were an Australian post-punk band led by Ollie Olsen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy. They played in Melbourne and Sydney and were supporters of the Melbourne ...
, the Primitive Calculators played a leading role in founding the experimental
Little Band Scene in the late 1970s, wherein both bands and numerous other acts formed large numbers of short-lived bands by frequently swapping members and inviting non-musicians to join in at live shows.
History
First era
They met as teenagers in
Springvale, a working-class outer suburb of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
and moved together in 1977 to
St Kilda, then the centre of the
punk rock scene. The band in its initial form was Denise Rosenberg, Dave Light, Frank Lovece and Stuart Grant. Despite socialising with the likes of
Nick Cave from
The Boys Next Door they remained outsiders to this scene, and in 1978 moved to
Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to:
People As a given name
*Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name:
**FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855)
** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...
.
In Fitzroy, they settled on a four-piece lineup for recording and found like-minded friends, such as
Ollie Olsen
Ollie Olsen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer. He has performed, recorded and produced rock, electronic and experimental music since the mid-1970s. His post punk groups included Whirlywirld (1978–80), Orche ...
and
John Murphy of
Whirlywirld
Whirlywirld were an Australian post-punk band led by Ollie Olsen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy. They played in Melbourne and Sydney and were supporters of the Melbourne ...
. They drew influence from
proto-punk acts like
The Godz and
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise ...
, Texan 1960s psychedelic punk,
James Brown, and
The Silver Apples, as well as Australian bands like
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.
The band were instrumental in organising a series of gigs named "
Little Band nights", where hastily formed bands would play for 15 minutes each; this led to the recording of a compilation
EP. They became known for their use of a screeching
Mosrite
Mosrite is an American guitar manufacturing company, based in Bakersfield, California, from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Founded by Semie Moseley, Mosrite guitars were played by many rock and roll and country artists.
Mosrite guitars wer ...
Ventures model guitar, primitive
synthesizers (a Wasp and Roland SH2), an electronic organ played through effects pedals and an extra fast drum machine (
Roland CR-78
The Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 is a drum machine launched in 1978. Although primitive by later standards, the CR-78 represented an important advance in drum machine technology at the time, in particular by allowing users to program and store thei ...
).
The Primitive Calculators played their last gig in March 1980, though their self-titled live album came out in the early 1980s. The band reformed briefly in 1986 to perform a live version of their song "Pumping Ugly Muscle" in the
Richard Lowenstein
Richard Lowenstein (born 1 March 1959) is an Australian filmmaker. He has written, produced and directed: feature films, including ''Strikebound'' (1984), ''Dogs in Space'' (1986) and ''He Died with a Felafel in His Hand'' (2001); music videos ...
film ''
Dogs In Space
During the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet space program used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. In this period, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at l ...
'' (they later appeared in Lowenstein's 2009 documentary "We're Livin' on Dog Food").
Second era
In 2001, a 1979 live recording of "Pumping Ugly Muscle" was included in "Can't Stop It", a compilation of Australian post-punk bands from 1978 to 1982, released by
Chapter Music
Chapter Music is one of Australia's longest-running independent record labels. Chapter Music has worked with a broad range of mostly Australian artists, in genres such as rock and roll, indie pop, post punk, country and western and folk. Betwee ...
. The title of the
CD was taken from the Calculators' only studio recording, made in December 1979, which was a 7-inch single of the songs "I Can't Stop It" and "Do That Dance". This led to a renewed interest in the band that led to the 2003 release of the ''Glitter Kids'' EP, which featured three live recordings from 1979, by Meeuw Muzik in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
.
The Primitive Calculators' album was reissued on CD by Chapter Music in 2004, with the inclusion of extra tracks from related projects (their first band The Moths from 1978 and other live recordings from 1979). In March 2007,
Chapter Music
Chapter Music is one of Australia's longest-running independent record labels. Chapter Music has worked with a broad range of mostly Australian artists, in genres such as rock and roll, indie pop, post punk, country and western and folk. Betwee ...
released "Primitive Calculators and Friends, 1979 to 1982", a CD that contained the only studio recordings of the band (the 7-inch single from 1979), the "Little Band" single, also from 1979, and live tracks from Little Band nights. It also contained other recordings from bands the members formed after 1980, such as a song called "Zye Ye Ye" (recorded in London in 1981 with Olsen and Murphy), and bands formed after the return of some of the band members to Australia from Europe, in 1982.
In January 2009, the band reformed for the inaugural Australian
All Tomorrow's Parties
"All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released on the group's 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''.
Inspiration for the song came from Reed's observation of Andy Warh ...
music festival, curated by
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and held at
Mount Buller
Mount Buller is primarily a resort town on the slopes of Mount Buller in the Shire of Mansfield of the Australian state of Victoria. It is located approximately northeast of Melbourne. It is popular with snowsports enthusiasts in winter due t ...
in Victoria.
The band subsequently commenced the recording of a new album, called ''The World Is Fucked'', released in 2013. Stuart Grant explained the album title in a December 2013 interview:
The album is called The World is F---ed because that's what we believe. The world's not any better now – in fact, it's worse. I can remember when the hippopotamus and rhinoceros weren't endangered species. I can remember when there was opposition, and when Chicago School economics wasn't a naturalised reality of life. And the anger in our music is because it doesn't need to be like that – and we don't need to be this nasty society.
Grant revealed that the band intends to record another album and stated: "I want to make a psychedelic-space-folk record about taking hallucinogenic drugs."
Midway through recording their third LP Primitive Calculators were invited by
Genjing Records
Genjing Records (simplified Chinese: 根茎唱片; traditional Chinese: 根莖唱片) is a vinyl-only independent record label in Beijing, China focused on contributing recordings of Chinese musicians into global scene and vinyl record culture.
Ba ...
and
Split Works
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, entertai ...
to play Jue Festival 2015 in Beijing and Shanghai. The band toured China also playing Xi’an, Yiwu and Wuhan and released a tour edition split 7-inch with activist noise artist Torturing Nurse.
In 2016, it Records released 'On Drugs', a single from Primitive Calculators forthcoming album by the same name. On Drugs, a boogie-rock soul inspired track, focused around the central character, Stuart Grant, signalled a change in the band's direction. The album is set for release in 2018.
Personal lives
Grant stated in 2013 that he enjoys reading, drinking coffee and tea, and "being of use in other people's lives".
References
Citations
External links
Official web siteInterview with Primitive Calculators on 3RRR FMInterview with Richard Lowenstein on Lateline for "We're Livin' On Dog Food" documentary
{{Authority control
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical groups established in 1978
Australian post-punk groups