Primitive Calculators- Primitive Calculators

Label: Chapter Music

Released 2004

Melbourne’s Primitive Calculators met as teenagers in the early 70s, growing up in the grim outer suburb of Springvale. The Velvet Underground and The MC5 were there early heroes, but they were also inspired by lesser known (at the time) bands like The Fugs, The 13th Floor Elevators and The Godz (they went on to dedicate their album to Godz singer Jim McCarthy) as well as the writing of obsessive rock journalist Lester Bangs. By 1977, they had deserted Springvale for the more musically liberated environs of St. Kilda, where they fomed a band called The Moths. Well-known figures like Nick Cave (The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party) and Ollie Olsen (Whirlywirld, No) would often come by to listen to records, but the Primitive Calculators’ suburban origins always made them outsiders in Melbourne’s punk scene. A move to Fitzroy in 1978 helped Primitive Calculators cement their own identity and develop a network of likeminded friends. The band set up a series of gigs called Little Band nights, where up to ten hastily-formed bands, with names like Too Fat To Fit Through The Door and Thrush & The Cunts, would play sets of fifteen minutes each. Their debut single was released in 1979, featuring the songs I Can’t Stop It and Do That Dance. Pressed with plain black labels in a stark monochrome sleeve, the single introduced many to the impassioned, atonal, electronic chaos that was the Primitive Calculators’ trademark, and it has gone on to become a highly collectable classic of Australian post-punk.

Track Listing:

1. I Can Tell    
   
2. Do The Icepick    
   
3. Signals    
   
4. Stains   
   
5. Mud In My Eye    
   
6. Beat Goes On
   
7. Lullaby    
   
8. Do That Dance    
   
9. I Can't Stop It    
   
10. Bake In The Sun    
    
11. Shout
    
12. Sec Sec Sickle    
    
13. All I Get Is A Girl    
    
14. Nothing
    
15. Glitter Kids    
    
16. Casualty Ward    
    
17. I Want To Live   
    
18. I Can't Stop It