It’s been totally ages, but we have the immense joy to return to playing after, what.. 2 years???, on this fine, fine, evening of entertainment.
Potential, a “…weirdo dark-pop synth-wave plus-a-sax three-piece operating on stolen Gadigal and Wangal land[Sydney]”., which contains 2 of the 4 players who were in the once incredible Ted Danson with Wolves. Potential will be touring their new album.
Soda Boyz, from Te Papaioea, Plamerston North, accompany Potential on this tour of Te Aka a Maui.
Recent additions to the skirted Records store are the new mr sterile Assembly 3 song coffee cup Run Peter Run – hand made by sterile themselves, each uniquely wonky yet functional. This release [skirted 25] is the first release for the new album coming out sometime 2023.
Along with this bespoke goodness are a few handmade tapes – never played but liberated from their previous existence and repackage anew! boom
The obscure, oddball, dadaesque oddity that is Ba-Umf now available on a re-jiggled cassette. This jaunty release is wrapped up in a jaundiced Santa sleeve.
This is a collaborative ongoing musical project between mr Snakebeings and mr sterile called SMES-21. New recordings are in the pipes.
RELEASE DATE Oct 2 UK/Oct 3 NZ 9 -10 pm/am respectively
The 3-song ep Run Peter Run is the 25th release by skirted records. The title track being the first single from the new album (due likely early 2023). Buru and Good as Goldie are new versions of older tunes.
Drums and bass recorded by Vanya at Scumbag College 2020 and 2021.
Additional bass, vocals etc at the sterile homestead.
Slide guitar on Good as Goldie, and some superb tech assistance, by David Long, Pōneke.
Mixed and master by Stephen Cole, at What Studio, Liverpool.
Massive thanks again to Nicole from Nice Assets for the help with the cups!!
Run Peter Run
“We kept up the pressure despite the approach of the Olympic Games, but you could sense that the government’s final onslaught was coming” P Taibo, 68
’68 was a hell of a year. The Soviet invasion of Prague, the Vietnam war and protests, assassinations of key figures in US history, as well as a student massacre in Mexico City two weeks before the torch igniting the symbolic flame celebrating spirit, knowledge and life opened the Olympic Games.
Defying the powerful has always been a dangerous and unforgiving act.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 1st and 3rd respectively, became infamous for the Black Power salute on the dais during the medal ceremony for their success in the 200 metre sprint.
Lesser remembered is Australia athlete Peter Norman, 2nd place, who stood solidly alongside Smith and Carlos.
Prior to the ceremony Norman became aware of the action and offered both encouragement and support. The photo of that action has become iconic. However Norman willingness to stand beside these two earned the ire of authorities back home. 40 years pasted before the government offered a posthumous apology to Norman for the treatment he received for standing in ally-ship with Carlos and Smith in the fight for justice.
To date no-one in the Oceanic region has been been able to beat Normans saint time.
Buru
The Earth of Mankind, Book 1 P. Toer
Based on the books The Buru Quartet by the Javanese author Pramoedya Ananta Toer. A tale of the Indonesian experiences and injustices of colonisation under Dutch rule. These books, written between 1980-88, were banned by the government for many years in Indonesia. The ban was lifted in 2000.
Toer commenced writing these books in a oral fashion while incarcerated on Buru Island detention centre. Authorities denied Toer the ability to write for two years while imprisoned. Undeterred Toer started the ‘writing’ process by composing and verbally telling the story to fellow inmates in instalments.
We are very lucky to have the sonic contribution by our friend Indra Menus for this track. Menus is a continuous supporter, creator and facilitator of adventurous music and sound in the city of Yogyakarta, Java.
The original version appeared on the cd that accompanied our 2006 tour to Java, Indonesia. Chrissie Butler [bass, vocals] Jeff Henderson [Saxophone, Vocals] Dave Mike [Guitar, vocals] mr sterile [drums, vocals]
Good as Goldie
Karl Sim, reportedly the 8th best art forger in the world, was born in the Manawatū region, into a family who knew how to spectacularly stir things up.
Sim became famous in the mid 80’s by becoming the first, and only person, convicted for art forgery in Aotearoa New Zealand. His catalog is extensive, the full extent unknown, possibly even unidentifiable to the expert eye. But his main identification is with the painter C F Goldie.
We had the opportunity to meet the old boy a couple of times. On one occasion he told us that there was a story waiting to be published which included some escapades that he hadn’t got caught for. His story just seemed to good not to tell.
We are very lucky to have the sonic contribution by our friend David Long who beautifully rendered these guitar lines using two local legends Bill Sevesi and Peter Posa as inspiration.
The original version of this song appeared on the 2009 album Bug my Ride. Sarsha Douglas [bass, vocals] Chrissie Butler [bass, vocals] mr sterile [drums, vocals]
Your third eye is a brown eye Your temple’s portaloo Lets hear your spirits talking I hear they speak in dungs Opinions are like arseholes reckons rhymes with rectums You just see connections I see the full of your moon
Some ideas golden, some ideas are green This idea presenting here, comes straight to you from dreams But of all ideas and options, line ‘em up in rank For the swiftest of attention, go shit your pants
I, took a shit in my pants You, took a shit in your pants They, took a shit in their pants We, we, we, take a shit in our pants
Some throw toys, or hissy fits, or fingers full of shit But as they saying plainly goes, if the nappy fits If you’ve lost attention, feel abandoned, you know you want it back Grab a hand and take command, and go and fling your scat
So less than juvenile but time and tested true There’s a little cleaver trick that rhymes with you If you like your message loud, brown and sticky thick Call Crap the fecal postman, who hand delivers shit
It’s politicians, opinion pieces Comment sections full of feces The tik-tok, meta, Twitter species The social media ablution theses Whinging grown ups wringing wrists Those billionaires throw hissy fits Mate, forget the beaches, fill your trousers Man shit your pants, your super powers
Ba-Umf, the second release by the MSEs-21 collaborative project which is both mr snakebeings and mr sterile. The first release, Open to Suggestion, was released August 2021.
This release was written and recorded between September and November 2021. Recorded in both Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand and Suva, Fiji. Flies were transferred back and forth – being first listened and then responded to, hacked apart, glued together, mixed, edited, remixed, re-edited and re-remixed till some form of completion was settled upon.
An open process with no set directive or direction other than exploratory collaboration. Sometimes the pieces took an ‘obvious’ song-style, while others grew into more evocative sound pieces accomodating field recordings, abstracted ambience, classic rock and home-made instrumentation and text of various kinds.
Words were written by both snakes and sterile alongside additional voices included from other environments such as lectures, messenger chats and online videos.
Other sources tapped for inspiration – a misappropriated phrase from a Sleaford Mods song, a classic animation from Japan, an edited acceptance speech from the author Ursula Le Guin, excepts from a collaborative poem by A Ginsberg, J Kerouac and N Cassady, and the text-in-full from the 1916 Dada poem Karawane by the artist Hugo Ball.
Wow, 20 years. Sending huge squeezes to all who have shared gear and beds and bathrooms and chippies in the van and waited in airports and shared make up and cooked plans for adventures and made breakfast for us after we have crashed – sweaty and smiling in your baches and homes and garages and tents and caravans after a night where we either cleared the bar or made it bounce.
Big ups too to all the organisers, the venues and bars and festival makers, the creators of one-offs in gardens, on big stages, at school fairs, at memorials, and on the back of flat bed trucks.
Massive thanks to those that came to shows. Sometimes you were one of 10. Sometimes one of a 1000. You are the best. If you ever sang along and we saw you, we still talk about it. And to those that bought the merch be it a CD, or a t-shirt, of a hand-made book or a jar of chutney, we are incredibly grateful. Thank you.
I wanna hug all those you have helped us record in cellars and sleep-outs and flash studios and in your front rooms. And if you wrote about us, we wanna thank you too.
Thank you to the collaborators who have played out front in the band for a long stretch or a sniff, the collaborators unseen, the videographers and costume creators and puppet makers and the album artists, and all you soundies: You are part of our DNA. We raise our glasses to you.
And to those who have shared stories and histories and experiences and dreams with us as we have travelled, your words have often changed us and we thank you too.
I wanna also acknowledge and squeeze the small crew who coach and coax and mentor and walk with us across time zones. You know who you are. You have been life line, catalyst and conspirators. You are our family.
Almost finally, I wanna thank our girls who grew up with this band. You shared your home with repeating riffs and howling and costume changes and random strangers from around the globe. Your patience has been endless. And a special thank you if you stepped in for K and I and wrapped your love and practical care around our girls whilst we were away. This wouldn’t have happened with out you.
And lastly, mr sterile, I want to thank you. This has been and continues to be the most incredible and fantastic journey. I am so thankful we have gotten to live our lives like this. All love, always.
CB
20 years ago this evening(13 September 2001) the first iteration of the mr sterile Assembly took to the stage – a three piece, drums, guitar and trombone blurted out 2 days after the event of the world trade centre collapse – what a strange time it was.
it’s has been, however, a thrilling 20 years – but rest asured we aren’t finished yet – there’s still some oddness up these sleves.
a massive thanks and love to all that have participated, played and partaken in this at-times random beast. the love continues to flow to all those that have shared their company with us in the form of audience punters, of hosts and of organisers.
this rickety go-cart has taken us to some extraordinary and wonderful places around the globe – more than we every expected possible when we cranked that barely tuned guitar two decades ago on to an unsuspected rabble, and for ALL those opportunities, meals, mattresses, trains, translation disasters, set-ups and break-downs, gastro problems, and life-long-friends-made-along-the-way we thank you, we thank you, we thank you!!!
Ain’t these the strangest of times aye? It’s certainly been an 18 months break from regular programming. A definite shake to the foundations for sure.
2021 started with a fractured left drumming hand. Bike meets car, soft meets hard – snap! We had started recording for the new album towards the end of 2020, seven tracks down and five more to do. Needless to say that all ground to a startling stop. Things got progressive more complicated after that and so that project is on pause until a better time. We’d like to imagine sooner rather than later. Watch this space.
Rehabilitation of the injured hand took time. Any idea of a show ceased till recovery. Happily we have played once, for the wake of our dear departed friend Peter Deutsch. We were scheduled to play again, but, you know, Corona!
It hasn’t been silent though. As noted in the previous blog a mr sterile solo track titled And Candor and Reason in Chat was released in response to a flurry of anti-tax hate mail towards the journalist, David Farrier. He published some excellent articles about the development and influence of conspiratorial actors in Aotearoa – [these two blog posts in particular – I hope you get hit by a truck, I talk to all the people who sent me threats] .
And released today isOpen to Suggestion by SMEs-21, a collaborative project between Mr Snakes and mr sterile, and between Fiji and Aotearoa. Provocative tracks are assembled and shared to the other who then takes all opportunity to reassemble anyway they see fit. The final edit reveals a collection that spans between cinematic soundscape to boisterous anthem beats, songs and sounds, a collage of street sounds, decaying electronics, electronic instruments and incidental sounding morsels.
It was a joy to include the poetry of our dearly departed Fergus Collinson. He came to dine one night with sterile, and after eating fired up the microphones for Collinson’s recitation. The recording slipped into the archive waiting for the right response – a delight to offer up here.
Also there are a couple of notable vocals onto other tracks. These are collected from the live-stream of Vinnie Eastwood. Vinnie is one of our local anti-lockdown conspiracy theorists – to quote “…this is not a lockdown, it is a military takeover!” The first track OK, Ladies and Gentlemen is a combination of two bombastic recording. The first from his car and the second is reported to be from the night before a protest in a pub in Auckland. The second track, St Ninny is Vinnie getting arrested at said protest. The transition to bombastic defiance to complete compliance is quite spectacular, alongside the call for support from fellow protestors and the complete lack of response.
The album is released simultaneously on Mr Snakes Circuit 47, and our own skirted Records.
Recently there was an article published on the Webworm blog by journalist and film maker David Farrier called I hope you get hit by a truck. This article documented a recent day when his inbox exploded with accusations stating that he was responsible for the removal of a ‘truther’ blogger from youtube. A screenshot was first fabricated that would indicate that Farrier was responsible for the removal of this channel. It’s interesting to note that Billy T K was the first person identified to post it.
It’s quite funny [not really..] how those who are so swift to decry the impact of ‘fake news’ leapt on board a fabrication which then enabled them to bombarded Farrier with hate mail.
Farrier’s followup article was a stroke of genius where he chose to then reply to each communication individual. This was documented in the follow-up article I talk to all the people who sent me threats. Farrier shares several of these conversation verbatim. I would encourage you to visit Webworm to read these.
In a light-hearted subtitle underneath a particularly nasty email Farrier described a communication as a poem. This seemed like an interesting proposition, to think of such animosity in a poetic sense and so this song was made.
Once complete I sent to David and he replied indicating that he had enjoyed the offering. The text is a nasty vent directed at Farrier, and I’d hate something like this song to compound further his sense of being attacked.
By the by: Not all conspiracy theories are bogus. There have been very real and terrible conspiracy theories enacted upon populations, so not everything ‘Conspiracy’ is off the charts. Tine Ngata offers five solid examples in the article The Top 5 Colonial Conspiracy Theories.
That some conspiracies are actually while others are off the charts is interesting and a challenge, it is how to tell the difference sometimes. However its curious that people can hold to ideas like the one that insists that there is a lizard overlord dressed in the skin of a politician, instructing and influencing populations by nano-technological infused vaccines and 5G doom rays, blasting into the sky to bounce off chemtrails over a flat planet … but can’t come to grips with some English gripper who, a couple of hundred years ago, devised plans to steal other peoples countries, resources and histories… go figure.
Finally: it is also worth noting that the new Adam Curtis doco Cant get you out of my Head does an interesting exploration of the invention of the original contemporary conspiracy theory, that of the Illuminati…check it out.
mr sterile Assembly 