Scientists – Sedition [Promo] [#2] (CD, UK)

This edition has a printed CDR disc and the rear sleeve is a photocopy of the commerically released version but it does come with the full cover/booklet.

A quote from the Jon Spencer sleeve notes was used on The Scientists retrospective A Place Called Bad cover sticker.

Recorded live on Thursday May 11th at Shepherds Bush Empire when the band were supporting Mudhoney.

PRESS RELEASE: “Sedition’ is an ultra-high quality live recording from the legendary Scientists presented in souvenir packaging (like a moleskin book) with liner notes by Thurston Moore, Jon Spencer, Warren Ellis and Henry Rollins. Recorded on May 11th 2006 at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, the superior sound quality and amazing setlist make this album more of a ‘best of’ than simply a live record. Not to mention the packaging…. The Scientists were chosen by Mudhoney to play last year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in the UK. ‘Burnout’ from ‘Sedition’ was included on the recent ATP compilation which was given out to all 6000 attendees of ATP and included on the December Plan B as a covermount. They are also playing the Dirty Three curated ATP on April 27th – 29th as well as London show on April 26th. The Scientists went through many incarnations in their 9 year history but are remembered mostly for the lineup that existed from 1981 to 1985. Kim Salmon, Tony Thewlis, Boris Sujdovic and Brett Rixon together had the peculiar chemistry that produced the classics, ‘Swampland’, ‘Happy Hour’, the ‘Blood Red River’ mini LP and ‘We had Love’. With a sound that was swampy, primal and modern-urban all at once – as much in the tradition of rock and roll and punk rock as it was a rejection of those things.The Scientists were about what it was like to be young and living in modern times in an Australian urban/suburban environment. You could put on a Scientists record from this period and not know it was 23 years old! .There has been no shortage of younger bands who have cited them over the years. Mudhoney, Nirvana et al, Jon Spencer, the Von Bondies, The White Stripes, The Drones and scores of others just keep coming along dropping their name.”

02. Burnout
Writer: Kim Salmon
Published: Universal Music
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

03. Solid Gold Hell
Writer: Kim Salmon
Published: Universal Music
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

04. Nitro
Kim Salmon/Brett Rixton/Tony Thewliss
Published: Copyright Control
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

05. Blood Red River
Writers: Kim Salmon/Linda Fearon
Published: Copyright Control
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

06. Set It On Fire
Writer: Kim Salmon
Published: Universal Music
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

07. Revhead
Writers: Kim Salmon/Boris Sujdovic
Published: Copyright Control
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

08. When Fate Deals Its Mortal Blow
Writer: Kim Salmon
Published: Universal Music
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

09. Leadfoot
Writer: Kim Salmon
Published: Universal Music
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

10. Backwards Man
Writer: Kim Salmon
Published: Universal Music
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

11. We Had Love
Writer: Kim Salmon
Published: Universal Music
(p) & (c) 2007 ATP/Recordings Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recorded: Shane Browne at Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK, Thursday May 11th 2006.
Mastered: Greg Wadley/Kim Salmon

They were originally from Perth, Western Australia. Perth is a long long way from anywhere else. More so than anywhere else. You don’t go starting a band there thinking you’re ever gonna benefit from it. But real music is not a commodity. Keep in mind that cave men invented music. How it got ‘em off is debatable but what you have here is as authentic as something bashed out by some stocky little maniac sitting by the fire 100000 years ago. Or by a fender bender in the factories of Henry Ford. Perth’s utilitarian poverty of culture is not for teenage daydreamers but it makes them dream this sorta shit up. Perth. But this gig here is recorded in London in 2006 at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

This line up was the very last line up of The Scientists. You got Kim, Boris, Tony and Leanne. She replaced Brett Rixton after he left in 1985 and was in the band for one and a half years. She hadn’t touched a kit before then or since then until this. I have no idea how she does it. This is the first time you get to hear the band recorded properly live at full destroyer volume. And the first time for them too I expect. I watched them the night before thinking what a drag it was that they were the only ones that don’t get to see The Scientists, They just got up and methodically turned the joint into dust.

Listen here to ’Backwards Man’. I never heard of anyone busting six strings in one song. You gotta have a little lunacy. That’s the first thing everyone forgets. This is head music and dumb fuck music and soul music and drug music and it’s primal and it’s mechanized……it’s like a 900db physics lecture in an abandoned mine. A whole lot of thought goes into making this shit up but it’s gotta have that rabid execution…..it’s gotta have the absolute crap smashed out of it or it won’t mean a thing……and Tony does six strings in one song. This is some of the best rock n roll ever……it is really fucked up.

Gareth Lddard
(The Drones)

I love their records, particularly Human Jukebox. Great sound and what a concept. They wrote fantastic singles and looked like they just crawled out of the ooze. What more could you ask for?

I heard the Scientists in the early eighties in Melbourne, my frie4nd played the eps on 33 because he thought they sounded better, in particular ‘This Heart Doesn’t’ and ‘Blood Red’. I saw them live opening for the Birthday Party around that time, great concert, great attitude. They had the looks downs and the songs to match.

In the early Nineties, when I first started playing in bands, I played with Kim at his Monday night residency at the Great Britain, this lead to the formation of a band, STM, myself, Kim, Jim White and Andrew Entsch, we recorded his ‘Hey Believer’ release and I played with the Surrealists on a few tracks live. One of the first songs we played as Dirty Three was Kim’s ‘Dirt’ and ‘Obvious Is Obvious’. Kim is a great songwriter and an astounding guitarist, one of my favourites. He has continued to develop his art in his own way, without concessions, the highest compliment.

Warren Ellis
(Dirty Three)

Many years ago, someone sent me some tapes of Australian bands. This was before internet files slammed down the info hwy, and one went to their respective P.O. Boxes with the anticipation of that paper slip inside indicating there was a package too large to fit. The package was torn open with Christmas day excitement and the cassettes hit the floor. One of these tapes that came to me was a radio interview with The Scientists, Kim Salmon talked about Captain Beefheart and the band’s cover of ‘Clear Spot’. The interview cut in and out of the band’s songs and I became very interested. Byron Coley very kindly gave me a copy of one of their records and I played it a lot.

The Scientists music sounded like it came from a place so distant from what was happening musically in America, it made me think there must be a lot of great music there, more than just The Saints and The Birthday Party. Years later I finally got to Sydney Australia and the first night I got there, I got dragged to a Beasts Of Bourbon show. There was Kim onstage rippin’ it. I found out he had another band called The Surrealists.

I was lucky enough to see them play a few times on that tour and they were amazing. Over the years I have seen different incarnations of Mr. Salmon and they’re all good. All of those records brought me back to The Scientists records right about the time that the best of CD came out. Those records stand the test of time as does Kim. I don’t know the A to Z of The Scientists catalog but I hope I’ve heard it all. I saw them on a televised reunion show a couple of years ago on one of my visits to Australia and they were great. I’m always up for checking out anything Kim Salmon is involved wth, new, old, doesn’t matter.

Henry Rollins

The Scientists turned my head around and made a man out of me! They grew hair on my palms and made my socks stink! I buzzed like a moo-cow with a tough outer-shell and gargled with broken glass. I may have read about them in Forced Exposure late at night in bed with a flash light under the covers. I do remember when I first went over to my wife’s apartment, when we first me, going through her records and finding the We Had Love 7”. My fate was sealed!

I have had the good pleasure and great honor to meet Mr Salmon on a number of occasions. The first time I ever went to Australia (93?) the Blues Explosion played a gig with the Surrealists in a small club in Melbourne. I was thrilled to death. It was the highlight of the tour for me. Kim is a sweetheart and a mean guitar player.

Jon Spencer
(Blues Explosion)

The Scientists proved to me that rock n roll could be played by gentlemen in fine silk shirts half unbuttoned and still be dirty, cool and real.

I saw the scientists when they first came to London and they were opening for Siouxie and the Banshees. I was amazed I was actually watching this band I knew from the OZ underground amongst a disinterested banshees craving audience. I went up to talk to them in their dressing room and they were bored yet seemingly curious as to my enthusiasm as London was so decidedly not. A nice moment and one we always look back to when we cross paths which has happened a bit through the years. Kim Salmon & The Surrealists played with Sonic Youth a few times.

Thurston Moore
(Sonic Youth)

Thanks: Stu Thomans, Mudhoney, Comets On Fire, The Drones, Rupert Orton, Chris Flynn, Anton Ruddick, Janine Bubb, Shaun Kendrick, Sandra Salmon, Barry Hogan, Deborah Kee-Higgins.”

BARCODE: 0 666017 160023

MATRIX: “CDR UG 80 E (05018105)”*

*Generic CDR matrix.