A Bon Scott Blog Giveaway!

bon scott project cassette tape

This is the Bon Scott Project “cassette cover”. It’s basically a jazzed-up exhibition invitation card.

Here are a few pictures of the insert once you fold it out (click on ’em to see bigger):

bon scott project cassette insert black side

bon scott project cassette insert white side
[Kudos to James and Robyn from the Fremantle Arts Centre for the design work…]

If you’re lucky, you might have received one of these handsome fellows in the post courtesy of the Fremantle Arts Centre (if not, it might still be wending it’s way through your country’s undoubtedly ancient mail distribution system).

Sad to say, these collectable little beauties have run out now, so there’s not really any point emailing me to ask for more. Sorry ’bout that folks!

However, if you HAVE received one, here’s your chance to get a bonus limited edition CUSTOM DUBBED CASSETTE TAPE to whack inside your case! (For there is nothing more tragic than a case without a tape).

Yes, that’s right, I’m producing a small run of Bon-Scott-Blog Old-Skool-Mix-Tapes™!

The tape features songs which either :

(a). inspired Bon; or
(b). were inspired by Bon.

And the song selection is based on some not very thorough research I’ve done in the last few months… In mix-tape tradition, the contents will remain a mystery until it arrives in the post!

(The dubbing process takes a while – and believe me, it aint easy to find blank tapes in the shops any more. So while the tapes are laboriously spooling away, I’m still open to suggestions – any particular songs you reckon should be included on my Bon Scott Influences/Influenced Mix Tape?)

Here’s the deal:

I’ll send you a mix-tape, in exchange for a photo YOU take of YOURSELF with the Bon Scott Project cassette case you just received in the mail!

(Or if you were unfortunate enough to miss out on getting one of these cassette cases, don’t despair! Be inventive… take some equivalent shot. I dunno, something which shows that its really you, that you dig Bon, and which also includes some reference to the place where you come from. Preference will be given to pictures which are amusing/saucy/poignant etc…)

How does that all sound?

Email me your entries (jpg or whatever) together with your postal address, and I’ll get a tape out to ya!

lucas[at]bonscottblog[dot]com

Or – if you don’t have a digital camera, you can post your old-skool photo (or better still, a mix-tape of your design!) to –

The Bon Scott Blogger’s Mix Tape Extravaganza
c/- Fremantle Arts Centre
PO Box 891
Fremantle
Western Australia 6959

Remember there won’t be many of these issued, get in quick!

“A door is either open or shut.”

dave aston album cover

For some weeks I have been meaning to post a blog entry about “quality” in the music of AC/DC. But it’s not ready yet.

In the meantime, I want to point to something written by Sydney musician (and 1980s Holden Commodore Station Wagon enthusiast) Dave Aston. Dave is probably best known to local music fans from his work with bands Trout Fishing in Quebec, and Dave Aston and the Spanish Authorities. He plays the drums. I seem to remember, from the few gigs I attended, that these featured sprawling funky lineups – many personnel playing at once. And no lyrics, just instrumental jamming. And they were amazingly “tight”. I mean, 11 people on stage at once and they all manage to stop or start simultaneously.

Looking at this entry on Dave’s blog, it seems this is no accident – it’s something he thinks about a lot. It’s Dave’s opinion that AC/DC are generally misunderstood. Their music is regarded as “easy”, and yet there is an ineffable “something” which makes it so crisp and compelling to listen to. It’s the timing:

It is one thing to write, and rehearse, and execute popular music. But, even when learnt, the very best transcend the note values, and move into the realm of milliseconds, where everything is executed as close as possible to where the time is, without the aid of a click track. Of course, as we are not machines, theoretically we cannot play with absolute mechanical precision. […But when it’s done right] it’s as if the execution is so good, that the listener doesn’t understand the effect that it is having on them […]

So, next time you hear someone say that AC DC’s music is easy, and it may be easy to learn the melodies, and beats, and basslines, ask why the covers band playing Highway To Hell doesn’t sound as sweet as the real thing. The difference may not be that the guitarist can’t play solos like Angus Young. It’s more likely, as with the 50,000,000,000,000 original bands that have tried to sound like them, that they just don’t have the touch, the discipline, the concentration and attention to detail, and the soul.

AC DC are the loudest funk band on earth. A door is either open or shut. But, if you close it half way, and then halve that distance, and halve it again, you’ll never actually close it. I guess having it closed is a computer, or the mechanical, and getting it as close to closed as is possible for humans is someone like AC DC, those great Australian exponents of soul music.