It's Liner notes time again!
Liner Notes is an ongoing series of events that matches Melbourne's finest writer/performers to the classic albums of our time.
Liner Notes Vol 5 is a spoken word response to Nirvana's groundbreaking 1991 album Nevermind. The record that broke down the wall between 'alternative' and 'mainstream.'
Twelve tracks - twelve writers respond.
Their brief is to respond to their allocated song any way they choose. Poem, story, song, limerick! Whatever!
The results are surprising, compelling, sometimes shocking and always entertaining.
Thursday, July 10,
8:30pm - 11:30pm
Bar Open upstairs,
317 Brunswick Street,
Fitzroy, Australia
Our line up is....
SIDE A.
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Anthony O'Sullivan.
2. Bloom - alicia sometimes.
3. Come As You Are - Paul Mitchell.
4. Breed - Dan Lee.
5. Lithium - Emilie Zoey Baker.
6. Polly - Julez.
SIDE B.
1. Territorial Pissings - Ben Pobjie
2. Drain You - Chloe Jackson.
3. Lounge Act - Justin Heazlewood.
4. Stay Away - Kieran Carroll.
5. On A Plain - Sean M Whelan.
6. Something In The Way - Josh Earl.
Hosted by the stupidly charismatic Michael Nolan.
Music by The Heavy Cases (playing Nirvana covers and a set of original tunes.)
Entry by donation.
Previously Liner notes has tackled Bowie, Madonna and most recently The Cure's Head On The Door.
It was an amazing night, I learned so many things about the Cure including the fact that Robert Smith and Morrissey have had a long feud lasting most of the 80's. I was given "Six different Ways and this is my response...
This is the story of Scarlet and Nathaniel.
Scarlet used to go out with Nathaniel, he was completely smitten with her,
she was a goth,
white face, red lips, corsets and black nailpolish. She would sing to dead birds and write poems about stabbing rainbows. She was perfect.
Then one day she told him she had to break up with him, she was in love with someone else, this love was deeper and much more meaningful than anything she had felt for anyone before. She had to leave him.
Devastated, he asked who it was?
and she replied;
‘Robert Smith.’
He realised that he had been fooling himself all along. She had a poster of Robert Smith’s face blown up so large you could see every pixel in his eyes, and when she told him there were 332 in the right and only 297 in the left, he thought she was kidding. There was no way Nathaniel could compete with this.
He liked reggae and worked in a bakery.
The Cure was touring in six weeks. He knew she would go and declare her love to Robert Smith.
Saddened, Nathaniel declared: If he loves you back, I will let you go.
If he doesn’t, would you consider my love?
She agreed.
She had six weeks to prepare herself to meet the man of her nightmares
She set about preparing six different ways to get inside Robert Smith’s heart.
Week 1.She bought the screams of Edgar Allen Poe off eBay and encased each one in a porcelain pill. She played her favourite six albums and swallowed one every time Robert Smith said the word pain.
Week 2. She wrote all the lyrics on sugar paper with thick black ink then ground up every word in a mortar and pestle, and used the mashed up inky orchestra to tattoo across her heart, the words
‘My door, your head.’
Week 3. She made his portrait out of paper maché, using every page from her childhood copy of Wuthering Heights
Week 4. She counted every tear he claimed to have shed and for each one she pierced herself with a thorn and collected a drop of blood. She filled a fountain pen with this blood and wrote a love poem on the back of a bat and will set it free the minute his plane lands
Week 5. She broke into every supermarket in the city and carved that deadbeat assbag Morrissey’s name into every steak, sausage and
meatball she could find
Week 6. She obtained a vial of Robert Smith’s breath, which came free with the latest copy of Dead Unicorn Magazine, which she wears around her neck. She will open it to her mouth the day that she dies, so her last breath will be his
And then, the day came.
She followed Robert Smith into the cake shop
and stood before him and told him everything she had done.
Six different ways.
He was so genuinely touched he turned into his true form – a white owl – and flew her through the city, her long hair trailing behind them like a black ribbon. They perched upon the top of the Arts Centre spire and he told her all about being in The Cure, and sneakers, and eyeliner and what a prick Morrissey is.
Nathaniel, one bite into his chocolate éclair, had seen them take off and his heart cracked like an ice lake.
He was no shape changer. He had no special powers, just the power to love.
Suddenly he heard a strange sound. The rest of The Cure were hovering above him in their true form – black crows. He recognised the three from the poster, and he assumed the other one was the bass player.
They swooped down and picked him up with their talons and flew him straight up to the top of the spire, where Robert Smith was just about to kiss Scarlett with his small yellow beak.
In a mess of feathers and hooting, the band swept their owl leader away, screeching at Scarlett to stop. They told her that Robert Smith eats those who truly love him.
Scarlett was shocked, but pleased that Nathaniel was now there to take her home. As Robert Smith flew off towards the MCG, weeping, the bass player gave Nathaniel some magical powder made from the dreams of Boris Karloff, which he used to fly Scarlett back down to his bakery.
Nathaniel had saved the girl of his dreams and for that he had her heart in his hands. They lived baking liquorice buns, singing to dead birds and writing poetry about stabbing rainbows together, occasionally happily ever after.
photos by Me, Sean M Whelan and Andrew Watson. in the photes, EZB, Sean, Michael Nolan, Chloe Jackson, Dan Lee and the Heavy Cases.