''The Ugly Americans in Australia'' is a live album by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Wall of Voodoo Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single " Mexican Radio" became a hit on MTV and ...

, mostly recorded at the

Palace Theatre Palace Theatre, or Palace Theater, is the name of many theatres in different countries, including: Australia *Palace Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria *Palace Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales Canada *Palace Theatre, housed in the Robillard Block, Mo ...

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 ...

in August 1987, during the group's Australian tour.

Background

Bassist

Bruce Moreland Bruce "Ravens" Moreland (born January 22, 1959) is an American rock musician and songwriter. He has worked with such bands as Wall of Voodoo (with his brother Marc Moreland), The Weirdos, Nervous Gender, and Concrete Blonde among others. As of 20 ...

had departed the group again by this stage, and in order for Chas T. Gray to play bass in addition to his normal keyboard duties, the group took on guest keyboardist Roger Mason from popular Australian band

the Models The Models (credited also as Models) were a short-lived punk band formed in Harrow, London, England. It consisted of Cliff Fox on vocals and guitar, Marco Pirroni on guitar, Mick Allen on bass and Terry Day (Terry Lee Miall) on drums. Pirron ...

. Two of the album's tracks, "Living in the Red" and "The Heart Never Can Tell", were recorded at Big Joe's Bar 'n Grill in Bullhead City, Arizona. The CD and cassette versions included another two tracks from Bullhead: "The Grass Is Greener" and a cover of

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

's "Pretty Boy Floyd". The album was dedicated to renowned German producer

Conny Plank Konrad "Conny" Plank (3 May 1940 – 5 December 1987) was a German record producer and musician. He is known for his innovative work as a sound engineer and producer in Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scene in the 1970s. Plank was invo ...

, who had died in December 1987. Plank had not worked with Wall of Voodoo, but his productions for such German progressive/experimental bands as

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

Cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study t ...

Harmonia In Greek mythology, Harmonia (; grc, Ἁρμονία / harmoˈnia/, "harmony", "agreement") is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia. Her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discord ...

and

Guru Guru Guru Guru is a German krautrock band formed in 1968 as The Guru Guru Groove by Mani Neumeier (drums), Uli Trepte (bass) and Eddy Naegeli (guitar), later replaced by the American Jim Kennedy. After Kennedy collapsed on stage due to a serious ill ...

were an influence on the group's music. The album title and sleeve notes make reference to the bestselling 1958 exposé ''

The Ugly American ''The Ugly American'' is a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer that depicts the failures of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia. The book caused a sensation in diplomatic circles and had major political implic ...

'', by

Eugene Burdick Eugene Leonard Burdick (December 12, 1918 – July 26, 1965) was an American political scientist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, co-author of '' The Ugly American'' (1958), ''Fail-Safe'' (1962), and author of '' The 480'' (1965). Early life H ...

and William J. Lederer. The front cover painting was by iconic artist Robert Williams, featuring a vicious clown beating another with his fists while female conjoined twins in skimpy attire look on with astonished looks. The full title of Williams' painting is "An Allegory of Contradictions Revealing Serendipity Purveyors of Mirth Presenting a Tableau of Blood and Grease Paint in a Circusian Clash to the Death", while the colloquial title is "Duelling Bimbos". This album completed the band's contract with

IRS Records I.R.S. Records was an American record label founded by Miles Copeland III, Jay Boberg, and Carl Grasso in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave ...

, and they disbanded by mid-1988.

Track listing

*In 2012, the album was remastered and re-released by Australian reissue label

Raven Records Raven Records was an Australian record label that specialised in retrospectives and reissues or recordings by American, British and Australian artists. Raven Records was established in 1979 by Glenn A. Baker, Kevin Mueller and Peter Shillito ...

as part of a double CD set with the previous albums ''

Seven Days in Sammystown ''Seven Days in Sammystown'' is the third studio album by American rock band Wall of Voodoo, released in 1985. This was the first Wall of Voodoo album to include Andy Prieboy on vocals and Ned Leukhardt on drums—following the departure of fron ...

'' and ''

Happy Planet Happy Planet is a private company in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, known for making organic juices and smoothies. The company was started in 1994 by Randal Ius and Gregor Robertson. They originally started out with one farm producing carr ...

'', as well as three non album bonus tracks.

Personnel

Wall of Voodoo *Chas T. Gray – keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar *Ned Leukhardt – drums, percussion *

Marc Moreland Marc Moreland (January 8, 1958 – March 13, 2002) was an American rock musician. He was the former guitarist for rock band Wall of Voodoo, punk band The Skulls, and rock bands Pretty and Twisted and Department of Crooks. He also released a solo ...

– guitars *

Andy Prieboy Andy Prieboy (born April 17, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter, and author. He was lead singer of the band Wall of Voodoo from 1983 to 1988. He went on to record solo albums, musicals and wrote a novel. Life and career Prieboy was bor ...

– vocals, keyboards Additional musician * Roger Mason – keyboards and backing vocals Technical *Barry Rudolph – co-producer, mixing *Wall of Voodoo – co-producer, mixing *Greg Edward – engineer *Ernie Sheesly – co-engineer ("Living in the Red", "Pretty Boy Floyd", "The Heart Can Never Tell", "The Grass Is Greener") *Ryan Greene – co-engineer ("Living in the Red", "Pretty Boy Floyd", "The Heart Can Never Tell", "The Grass Is Greener") *Joseph Prieboy – back cover computer graphics *Andy Prieboy – layout *Ron Scarselli – layout

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ugly Americans Wall of Voodoo albums 1988 live albums I.R.S. Records live albums