speaker-0: G'day, Costas Zulio with you on TheBreakdown.net and I've got a very good mate with me today and we're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to call it Grumpy Jukebox because we're both grumpy old men and you probably remember him from Triple J. You remember him from a lot of different places but it's my very good pleasure to welcome Francis Leitch to TheBreakdown.net. How you going, mate?
speaker-1: Cozzy, Grumpy Nation, how are we?
speaker-0: I'm alright. So, what a great thing now. It feels like we've come full circle here, mate. You're back on the radio.
speaker-1: I know, who knew? Yes, I'm doing Overnights. I'm going back to doing a few Midnights to Dawns, as they are known in the industry, the graveyard shift. National ABC ⁓ Overnights, it's great fun though. I haven't been on the radio ⁓ as a host or broadcaster for nine years, eight years, been doing other things. But this opportunity came up and thought, you know, kind of like being on the radio. I've got a big mouth, got plenty to say. There's some people who might want to hear it. So why the hell not?
speaker-0: Exactly. And that's exactly what we're to be doing here as well. We're going to talk about music, we're going to talk about fashion, we're going to talk about art, we're going to talk about books, everything that we want to talk about and hopefully that you want to listen to out there in the breakdown.net land.
speaker-1: or read watching where Cozzie's fashion tips must be in here too.
speaker-0: Can't you see I've still got a, I've got my screen for you to burn out your name shirt. So it's not an original. I have to say that because the original shrunk. Arsenal. Yeah. Did they win again? Did they win the championship?
speaker-1: We're in the Champions League final qualified on Wednesday morning. and just clear at the Premier League table with two points and hopefully, hopefully going to win one, if not both trophies, which will be special.
speaker-0: I'm a Spurs fan and you know at least we won a trophy while Andrew's there. What's happened? Yeah. You know we need Ange back.
speaker-1: Bring back. Well, it's a great conspiracy.
speaker-0: It is. I'd like to know where he's from because you know the the Poster Coglu and the Zulu Yu I wonder if he's a Cypriot lad as well.
speaker-1: Hahaha! That's a question. I'll try and find out and report back for you.
speaker-0: That'd be nice, mate. You could probably find it on that internet thing.
speaker-1: Yeah, well, that's that. Oh, you're the way back machine. Yeah.
speaker-0: All right, so give us a bit of a rundown on what has been grabbing you, Francis Leitch.
speaker-1: Well, first thing I want to bring up is the new album by Necap, Irish, Northern Irish lads who, by taking the world by storm in lots of different ways with their rather, sometimes confrontational, but very funny approach to hip hop. The film that they made was extraordinary. I don't know if you've seen Necap, film, which talks about their sort of, their growing up and the band coming together and becoming successful. One of the great rock films, rock documentaries. mean, even just the chutzpah of them making a feature film. just as their first album came out, tells you everything. But the new album, Fenian, and I am a Fenian, as a good Irish lad, leans into what people might describe as their politics and their attitude, because they've taken a lot of stick, kneecap, the boys out of Belfast, around their very ⁓ direct and proud celebration and defense of Irish culture and Irish language. And they play with the motifs of provisional ⁓ army life ⁓ and the rebel life. You've got the DJ who wears the tri-color balaclava. The album cover has the balaclava and eye covering with word feney written on it. So all the motifs, I guess, of the struggles are there and the troubles. But it's a way of playing with, ⁓ I guess, cultural signifiers which might frighten people in the same way that punk did. know, the same way that punk rock was all about that shocking and pressing the sore point in for people who may be a little bit more conservative, a little bit more frightened of these sorts of things. But it's just a great record. Every track punches out at a million miles an hour. I love the Irish language. I don't understand a single word when they sing in Irish, but I'm just glad that it exists. And yeah, it makes me feel young again. It makes me feel naughty. It's good to have some rebel music back in our lives.
speaker-0: Now the first time I heard the term Fenian wasn't all that long ago, but it was during a Netflix series called The House of Guinness. I don't know if you've seen that at all. Yeah, it's worth a watch, but give us a run because they were like, they were certainly rebels ⁓ back then. were, you know, punching against the...
speaker-1: I know of it, I haven't watched that one. The British occupation, so the really, yeah. So it was the first sort of incant, well not the first, but the 19th century sort of incant carnation of the Irish Republican movement and they were determined to take it up to the British occupying forces in Ireland ⁓ and they basically championed the survival of Irish culture and language, which the British occupation had put very much at risk. So. You know, in Irish schools in that time, English was taught, and Irish language was dying out. ⁓ And after the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, there was a real crackdown on Irish culture, Irish language. Even the gathering of Irish men in particular was frowned upon in case they you know, it seemed to be rebel meetings. So there was an attempt to try to scrub Irishness out of Ireland and turn Ireland into another sort of a province of the British Empire and of the United Kingdom itself. So the Finians... were determined and consciously working against that and that's what they have continued to do and Fenian itself became an insult that obviously a lot of politicians and then particular people that political persuasion would use a Fenian if you're a Fenian you were a rebel and aroused rebel rouser or troublemaker and a terrorist so they've taken it on themselves and and embraced it and that's what they do they tend to take on those motifs where they frowned upon and leaned right into them in the same way they have done over their unstinting support for the campaign for ending the war in Gaza and for the justice of Palestinians in Gaza, which they've also taken an enormous amount of. You remember Glastonbury last year, where Bob Villan, the other British band, got in trouble for making statements from the stage look that went live on the BBC. Meek had also got into similar problems at Coachella in the United States. because they made similar sorts of statements. Whatever your position on that particular issue is, ⁓ is what it is. And I'm not trying to convince you one by another, but I do like to think we can defend their right, particularly as artists, to express themselves in a way, as long as it is infilifying people or inciting people to violence. And they don't do that. I really love them. I've loved the first album. ⁓ The energy's fantastic. The humor in it is there too. And they are just fantastic, magnificent shit posters. You know, they really are just really deliberately winding up the right people to wind up and the people who really hate them, they say, here, have some more of this. And I say, all power to you, lads.
speaker-0: Alright, sounds good mate. Yeah, like I said, we've got to have a little bit more danger in rock and roll and that kind of brings me to who I'm gonna want to have a talk about. You will remember the band Savages who I think we were both fans. records. Silence Yourself in 2013 and Adore Life in 2016. And then what happened? And then what happened? Well, they went on hiatus and nothing else happened. As far as I know, they are not around anymore. But Jenny Beth... has brought out a few records, but her latest one that came out, it was a second album, kind of late-ish last year. It was called You Heartbreaker You, and it's kind of this ⁓ post-punk, a bit of electronica in there with crashing guitars and drums. So I think people of good things and people of laneway, you need to get her over here. She's been touring the UK and Europe and doing massive business over there. She was born in France. and the record is fantastic. You Heartbreaker You. The opener is a song called Broken Rib and it pretty much doesn't let up from there on. It kind of slows down a little bit with a track called Outta My Reach and then up it goes again. So it's ⁓ definitely worth if you like. Prickly guitar driven female fronted noise Jenny Beth is for you. And the latest video which is a very unhinged collaboration with Mike Patton, ⁓ it's called Look at me go have a look at that and video and you'll know what I mean And she also does a cover of Birk's army of me So if you want to have a listen to something that sounds like you know army of me with loud guitars There's a recent recording up there as well on the stream. So that's kind of my What's new for me? It's not all that new but ⁓ I think it's worth people going out and having a listen to it
speaker-1: And Jenny Beth is bringing back the leather pants.
speaker-0: Just get the leather pants, mate. You need to look at that video with Mike Patton. ⁓
speaker-1: go in a pair of leather pants? Wearing leather pants in Brisbane you must have the sweatiest crack on the planet. Do you just hose them out?
speaker-0: It'll be awful. Can you imagine, you know, like three, you only got one pair, three nights in a row on stage.
speaker-1: There is that. So if you are a man of a certain way and you just, you you don't do your washing, you don't really change your sheets for a month at a time, just being able to hose your pants sounds like a really good, very good use of your time. needs Kelvin Klein when you've got Glenn 20?
speaker-0: Bit of Glen 20? ⁓ now the Met Gala, mate. Speaking of fashion.
speaker-1: Speaking of fashion, this is my what the fuck? Seriously, look I know the Met Gala is big if you don't know the Met Gala It's the night of nights in New York City. It's supposed to be a massive charity event But what it really is is an excuse for high society is dressed up like this characters out of a Marvel comic book ⁓ And really it laid on thick ⁓ as Jeff Bezos is running this particular event and And for some people, it's just great eye candy and they love it. And Beyonce looked magnificent in whatever the gown that she wore. And, ⁓ but, and there's some wild and crazy looking costumes. don't call them dresses or outfits because they really are dressed up like they are, you know, like a, you know, the dark night rises go strictly ballroom, right? It's just really, it's really full on. But the thing that I, that maybe go WTF on this is that it just, so jarring, so jarring that the United States. in its current circumstance with the president taking them to a needless war with the Congress, you know, basically fighting each other to a standstill, getting nothing done ⁓ with the cost of living through the roof, people really struggling. And then this is sort of tone deaf, elite sort of gathering of people living like they are in some sort of lullaby land, golden Gilded Age. It's just so jarring. that this is a thing at the same time as the rest of the country's on fire and people can't feed themselves. I just find that it's the, that contrast in particular this year really gave me the irritants, particularly because Jeff Bezos was the money in the finance behind this thing. And he's one of the, they Americans like to call the mag seven, the magnificent seven tech bros who actually run the world. I find the whole thing really quite sinister. I just find it creepy as hell. that these people are living this or putting on this lavish spectacle at a time when the rest of the country, it's got its ass out of its pants. It really does speak to the end of empire feeling of the whole place. Like it's just going back in Aaliyah because what the hell, why do we bother anymore? The whole place has turned to shit. And I just found it really, really weird.
speaker-0: Some of the the get-ups, did you see I don't know they had him as the best-dressed man And I don't know who he is. He's got a like a hair shirt like a proper hair shirt But it's a whole like a suit
speaker-1: I've got one of those, you have to pay for it. ⁓
speaker-0: You need to have a look. Some of them, yeah, and I don't know, I mean, is it playing the devil's advocate or is it for charity? Do they raise money for charity? Does the Met Gala? I mean, not that that excuses it.
speaker-1: Just give them money. All these people have got more money than guys. Just give them money and put your socks and crocs on and
speaker-0: Exactly. Thank you very much for coming.
speaker-1: I don't know. That's pretty much recovery. I'm just trying to, I'm looking through the people who are currently ⁓ listed as the best dressed men at the Met Gala and there's, you know, there's some reasonably sort of demure looks out there. I love Luke Evans starring as Dr. Frankenford from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. mean, he's got out the leather pants. He went full Jenny Beth. He's got, he looks like a linguist.
speaker-0: I can't see him, I haven't found him yet. I Yeah, anybody else? else? I mean, let's let's stick with the men.
speaker-1: Jay-Z looked pretty cool. Like he took a very very trad approach with it. I did love his double breasted waistcoat, which I mean, yeah, he looks really good. He's got and he's got the sort of the tails as well. So he looks like he's off to a really good wedding. That's okay. Like, you know, it's making it not about him, which is great, but
speaker-0: Some of the rap stars look pretty good too.
speaker-1: ASAP Rocky with his pink chiffon long coat with tassels which would look great in a valley on a Saturday night out there in Brisbane.
speaker-0: Nothing would actually happen to him at all.
speaker-1: But you thinking of Jeremy Pope. ⁓ Just Google Jeremy Pope. Jeremy Pope met Gala and tell me what you think of his extraordinary outfit. ⁓
speaker-0: Yeah. That's the hair shirt I was looking at. Yeah, I was talking about that's spectacular. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's spectacular.
speaker-1: He looks like someone's just stuck a whole carton full of secatah crackers on a black shirt and just...
speaker-0: To be honest, if he was gonna do that look, Jeremy Pope, he needed to do the whole, the pants as well, You know? Yeah. I think it's just a little bit half-arsed the way it is.
speaker-1: It's a little bit half-assed, but I think you could have gone with ⁓ Conor Story's blouse. He's got a blouse on, which I...
speaker-0: No, it looks like he's got his mum's work shirt on. You know, like the uniform. I'm going to tuck shop. They're not touch-up arms. They're great buys.
speaker-1: The only tech shop that you go to, all they sell is amino acids and proton bars.
speaker-0: I'm out. ⁓ dear.
speaker-1: They're the fashion out, the looks from the Gala. But the whole event itself, man ⁓ man. Come the revolution, we've got names and we've got photos. That's all I'm saying.
speaker-0: ⁓ well, look my WTF has got nothing like that made, my I was trying to work out what I was doing. I felt like this old old man at Deftones on Wednesday night and I couldn't for the life. Yeah great show. But I was trying to work out like there was, was in Brisbane as you go into the entertainment centre they segregate the people, the G8.
speaker-1: in the young
speaker-0: No, well I was with the young people standing on the floor. ⁓ So as we walked in and I'm, you know, we're all standing, waiting to go through security and you know, get your pockets ⁓ emptied and the metallic wand go over you. I was standing there, I was with my daughter who's 28 and Rebecca and I said to her, where did all these young people come from? Where, how did they know about Deftones? because you know, he's a band that you and I played on the radio back in like the late 90s, I guess, and who, you know, took the place by storm for a while and then kind of disappeared and then a couple of not so great records. But the last two or three albums have been absolutely fantastic. But I still could not put two and two together of how these young and I'm talking Emo, you know, from 15, 16 year olds, know, through to 25 year olds. And literally I was the oldest person standing on the floor in the general admission ⁓ section. And then I spoke to somebody or somebody told me online that they went viral a couple of years ago on TikTok. And that's where all the young folk heard them. And what a great show. What an absolutely fantastic show. I hadn't seen, I saw them at Good Things. The sound was kind of, two or three years ago I think it was, sound was a bit questionable. On Wednesday night it was just an absolute cracker of a show.
speaker-1: It's interesting in the digital age that the timeline that we understood, the linear timeline of cultural experience has completely changed. So we would remember albums from a particular year or even a particular summer or a particular event that occurred. We'd share that experience together because you and I were part of that. We were the gatekeepers. worked for Triple J and if we played a record and it went big, then everyone heard of it at that time and it would be associated with a particular summer or an event. But these days, you can choose your own adventures so easily. because the way the algorithms work, if a kid listens to a record by a young contemporary artist that has, you know, you seem to have an influence by Radiohead or the Gang of Four, then the algorithm might throw up, try this. And they go, ⁓ that's where that comes from. Or they'll hear it and go, ⁓ okay, I'll listen to that. there isn't that stigma, not stigma, but there isn't that sense of... ⁓ but that's old music. It's just music. doesn't belong to any other time. And I had a similar experience when I took Evie along about six years ago to see the Gang of Four. And we went in there and she knew all the records and there were all these young people there. And she said, yeah, they're huge. Young people love the Gang of Four. And it was the same thing. It was more the algorithm was saying, ⁓ you listen to Radiohead or a block party, listen to this. And there was a whole gaggle of young people in front of you, all the words to the Gang of Four. So I love that element to it. It's really nice. It breaks down that barrier and you And a band like Blood Orange who had a hit with Champagne Coast in 2011, found out in 2024 it was part of a TikTok meme and it reared to the US charts. It's happened a fair bit. course Fleetwood Mac's Dreams was the big one. That became a massive meme on TikTok with that skateboard meme where people were rolling along on skateboards miming to Dreams. it's kind of really, I like it. It's really playful and it recontextualizes music for a younger audience, which is, you know.
speaker-0: And Kate Bush with... Running up that hill. Running up that hill on Stranger Things. Well that was the first thing that I thought. I don't remember hearing the death tones on Stranger Things, you know. ⁓ But you know, that gave her a great life again.
speaker-1: Yes, it much deserved as well. well done, Death Tones. Got the kids on board.
speaker-0: Got the kids on board and they still rock. mean, I've got no idea how they'd probably be getting close to their 50s now you'd expect Yeah, I know and no they were just great great energetic show great light show great projections The projections were incredible the sound at the entertainment center in Brisbane. You can get you know, it can be a bit iffy the sound but tool managed to fill it and Deftones also managed to fill it not just with volume but with with
speaker-1: ⁓ my god!
speaker-0: you know, it sounded really really good so I was really happy with that. What else has surprised you mate? What surprised you in the land of pop culture?
speaker-1: Well, Cosy, let's wind back to what I mentioned earlier on Robert Smith singing on the Rolling Stones new album, which is coming out soon. I don't know if we need a new Rolling Stones album or not. Foreign Tongues is the name of the new Stones record. But Robert Smith was just in a London studio and doing some work and Mick Jagger had been in the building or two to record vocals for the new record. And he walked into Robert Smith and said, Oi, aren't you Robert Smith from The Cure? And Robert Smith said, yes. And said, well, we'll see you here. you should come and sing on my record. And so he did, which is tell 14 year old Francis, he was listening to faith and pornography and getting my ⁓ post-apocalyptic Cold War gloom on that the Stones would be singing with Robert Smith. would have turned to a pile of action right in front of you. it just got me thinking about, you never know who's gonna turn up and sing with who. And who knows it might be a delightful surprise. Cause we've had a few over the journey. mean, When you first heard that Nick Cave was doing a duet with Kylie Minogue, you, like people, you would have said, fuck, how does that happen? But we got, you know, with the Wild Roses grow. that was a breakthrough for both artists, I reckon, because Nick had up to that point, probably wrongly been just perceived as this DOW, a sort of a soothsaying doom, a doom merchant, which I, when looking back, think that a lot of his stuff was actually very humorous and funny. But then he does this playful duet with Kylie Minogue, and we suddenly get this other. ⁓ and course it made her a million times cooler than she ever was with a certain crowd. So that works really well.
speaker-0: Well, they're like you two and the three tenors. Yes, I was the pebrotti. Only the one tenor.
speaker-1: Well, was at Three Tennis, I was at Three Tennis, I think with the Passengers, the band, the Passengers, they made that record. Well, that beautiful song, mean, Cereovo, they recorded. It was beautiful, but yeah, it's a stranger. I know, really, with Metallica.
speaker-0: Fantastic. Yeah, but kinda weird.
speaker-1: Kind of weird. So even something like R.E.M. for their album In Time, the opening song radio song, so about 1990-ish that record came out and you know R.E.M. the ultimate college rock band but they invited KRS-1 to do the rapping in the middle of their song and it sounds great but you know I like those collaborations when Public Enemy and Anthrax work together. It's great when it happens but yeah Robert Smith I guess maybe they could have just compared their makeup to it.
speaker-0: Maybe fashion tips because we're going back to fashion as well. Now, do you know what Robert Smith might have been wearing? Because we've both had an encounter at a livered festival backstage with our friend Robert. So do you know what he was wearing when he met Mick Jagger? I'm glad he didn't say, hi, you're Robert Smith. And Robert Smith went back to him and didn't say, who are you? ⁓
speaker-1: Well, I'm hoping at some point Robert Smith had someone got the jaws of life out and managed to free him from those bicycle pants he was wearing the time that we met him backstage at Livid and he was getting around in tight bicycle shorts.
speaker-0: It was a sight to behold, wasn't it?
speaker-1: Let's just say that he didn't have Bradley Wiggins leg.
speaker-0: Ha
speaker-1: It didn't look like he was about to ride up the mountain stages of the Tour de France, up Al Ques. It didn't look like he was ready for that.
speaker-0: Give him his due, it was quite warm day, wasn't it? I remember seeing Susie and the Batchies when they headlined Livid Festival in old Davies Park in the old Oh, I love those kids. It was probably, must have been like 35 degrees that day and the poor Goths and they were just melting under the Moreton Bay figs.
speaker-1: It was a tough day out for God. But God love them for dying for their
speaker-0: It was fantastic, great show. Great, all that, love those old festivals, they fantastic.
speaker-1: stay true to himself. hasn't, you he's still got a head full of wooly hair and his lipstick still looks like it was applied by a drunk panda. But good on him for doing that. And the eyeliner is still world class. ⁓ Nick had a lot to compete with. But yeah, Robert Smith and the stones. There you go.
speaker-0: Looking forward to hearing that.
speaker-1: That's may be.
speaker-0: I can hear it once. I want to hear it once.
speaker-1: I need another Stones album.
speaker-0: Nah. But you know, do think they'll tour again? Yeah. Without Charlie? Yes they Have they got a-
speaker-1: And that's okay, isn't it? Excellent. They will. What else are going to do?
speaker-0: Well that's it, can't suddenly become accountants can they?
speaker-1: No, we've got a lot of money to count, you know, it's gonna be a full time... What about for you? What was the surprise for you this week?
speaker-0: Maybe one of the good things. Surprise for me in the last ⁓ month or so, last couple of weeks has been the fact that the drones are getting back together. Yeah, they be said commander by the They did, completely. Yeah, well, I've been lucky to see, know, Gareth Liddyyard and Fiona Kitchen of, ⁓ you know, two of the members of Tropical Fuckstorm. Their new record, new record, latest record, Fairyland in Codex has been ⁓ an absolute cracker. I really love it. And, ⁓
speaker-1: Completely?
speaker-0: So yeah, I thought they were done and dusted, but the good news is they'll be back touring later in the year. Their shows pretty much all over the country have sold out. They're doing three shows at the zoo, or what was the zoo? Sorry, the crowbar in Brizzy, and they're doing three and four shows everywhere around the place. So the good thing is they're smaller shows. So that'll be good. I'm gonna go to a couple of them. I was lucky enough to see Tropical Fox Storm at Z50, which is one of the shows last year celebrating four triple Zs. 50th year on radio. Triple Z, if you don't know, is one of the longest running community radio stations in Australia, if not the longest. It was an amazing lineup. The Saints, 73 to 78, headlining. Regurgitate, Full Flower Moon Band. That's another breezy act everyone should be having a look out for. Full Flower Moon Band supported the Foo Fighters in Tassie a little while ago. Got rave reviews there and they scored the support for the Queensland leg of the Foo Fighters. I think they're playing later on. this year and I had managed to miss TFS every other time they toured. I really dig Fairyland Codex though. It just gave me that same feeling when you're listening to a drone's record. know, one minute it's this gentle, almost lullaby kind of thing and then the next minute it feels like an out of tune grand piano rolling down a hill and coming straight at you. That's on record and live it's even more vicious and more dangerous.
speaker-1: Lydard is absolutely electrifying live. mean the band out there, but he's got that certain charisma about him that it makes him utterly compelling on stage. He's something to behold in full flight.
speaker-0: Yeah, incredible with the drones and with TFS. Really looking forward to seeing the drones. I'm to go to two of the three nights playing at Crowbar in Brisbane because, you know, I can.
speaker-1: in your crops and yourself.
speaker-0: My Croxsama sucks. And that brings us back to where is the danger in today's music?
speaker-1: Well, we'll be at the drones gig if you're there.
speaker-0: Alright mate, well have you got anything more to add for the grumpy jukebox?
speaker-1: Really? But it's been great doing it. Shall we do it again sometime?
speaker-0: I think we should do it again. Don't forget to come along to TheBreakdown.net where you can hear grumpy jukebox, Francis Leach and I just, you know, shooting the breeze, talking shit, having fun. Thanks mate.
speaker-1: See you Cosy!
speaker-1: Cozzy, Grumpy Nation, how are we?
speaker-0: I'm alright. So, what a great thing now. It feels like we've come full circle here, mate. You're back on the radio.
speaker-1: I know, who knew? Yes, I'm doing Overnights. I'm going back to doing a few Midnights to Dawns, as they are known in the industry, the graveyard shift. National ABC ⁓ Overnights, it's great fun though. I haven't been on the radio ⁓ as a host or broadcaster for nine years, eight years, been doing other things. But this opportunity came up and thought, you know, kind of like being on the radio. I've got a big mouth, got plenty to say. There's some people who might want to hear it. So why the hell not?
speaker-0: Exactly. And that's exactly what we're to be doing here as well. We're going to talk about music, we're going to talk about fashion, we're going to talk about art, we're going to talk about books, everything that we want to talk about and hopefully that you want to listen to out there in the breakdown.net land.
speaker-1: or read watching where Cozzie's fashion tips must be in here too.
speaker-0: Can't you see I've still got a, I've got my screen for you to burn out your name shirt. So it's not an original. I have to say that because the original shrunk. Arsenal. Yeah. Did they win again? Did they win the championship?
speaker-1: We're in the Champions League final qualified on Wednesday morning. and just clear at the Premier League table with two points and hopefully, hopefully going to win one, if not both trophies, which will be special.
speaker-0: I'm a Spurs fan and you know at least we won a trophy while Andrew's there. What's happened? Yeah. You know we need Ange back.
speaker-1: Bring back. Well, it's a great conspiracy.
speaker-0: It is. I'd like to know where he's from because you know the the Poster Coglu and the Zulu Yu I wonder if he's a Cypriot lad as well.
speaker-1: Hahaha! That's a question. I'll try and find out and report back for you.
speaker-0: That'd be nice, mate. You could probably find it on that internet thing.
speaker-1: Yeah, well, that's that. Oh, you're the way back machine. Yeah.
speaker-0: All right, so give us a bit of a rundown on what has been grabbing you, Francis Leitch.
speaker-1: Well, first thing I want to bring up is the new album by Necap, Irish, Northern Irish lads who, by taking the world by storm in lots of different ways with their rather, sometimes confrontational, but very funny approach to hip hop. The film that they made was extraordinary. I don't know if you've seen Necap, film, which talks about their sort of, their growing up and the band coming together and becoming successful. One of the great rock films, rock documentaries. mean, even just the chutzpah of them making a feature film. just as their first album came out, tells you everything. But the new album, Fenian, and I am a Fenian, as a good Irish lad, leans into what people might describe as their politics and their attitude, because they've taken a lot of stick, kneecap, the boys out of Belfast, around their very ⁓ direct and proud celebration and defense of Irish culture and Irish language. And they play with the motifs of provisional ⁓ army life ⁓ and the rebel life. You've got the DJ who wears the tri-color balaclava. The album cover has the balaclava and eye covering with word feney written on it. So all the motifs, I guess, of the struggles are there and the troubles. But it's a way of playing with, ⁓ I guess, cultural signifiers which might frighten people in the same way that punk did. know, the same way that punk rock was all about that shocking and pressing the sore point in for people who may be a little bit more conservative, a little bit more frightened of these sorts of things. But it's just a great record. Every track punches out at a million miles an hour. I love the Irish language. I don't understand a single word when they sing in Irish, but I'm just glad that it exists. And yeah, it makes me feel young again. It makes me feel naughty. It's good to have some rebel music back in our lives.
speaker-0: Now the first time I heard the term Fenian wasn't all that long ago, but it was during a Netflix series called The House of Guinness. I don't know if you've seen that at all. Yeah, it's worth a watch, but give us a run because they were like, they were certainly rebels ⁓ back then. were, you know, punching against the...
speaker-1: I know of it, I haven't watched that one. The British occupation, so the really, yeah. So it was the first sort of incant, well not the first, but the 19th century sort of incant carnation of the Irish Republican movement and they were determined to take it up to the British occupying forces in Ireland ⁓ and they basically championed the survival of Irish culture and language, which the British occupation had put very much at risk. So. You know, in Irish schools in that time, English was taught, and Irish language was dying out. ⁓ And after the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, there was a real crackdown on Irish culture, Irish language. Even the gathering of Irish men in particular was frowned upon in case they you know, it seemed to be rebel meetings. So there was an attempt to try to scrub Irishness out of Ireland and turn Ireland into another sort of a province of the British Empire and of the United Kingdom itself. So the Finians... were determined and consciously working against that and that's what they have continued to do and Fenian itself became an insult that obviously a lot of politicians and then particular people that political persuasion would use a Fenian if you're a Fenian you were a rebel and aroused rebel rouser or troublemaker and a terrorist so they've taken it on themselves and and embraced it and that's what they do they tend to take on those motifs where they frowned upon and leaned right into them in the same way they have done over their unstinting support for the campaign for ending the war in Gaza and for the justice of Palestinians in Gaza, which they've also taken an enormous amount of. You remember Glastonbury last year, where Bob Villan, the other British band, got in trouble for making statements from the stage look that went live on the BBC. Meek had also got into similar problems at Coachella in the United States. because they made similar sorts of statements. Whatever your position on that particular issue is, ⁓ is what it is. And I'm not trying to convince you one by another, but I do like to think we can defend their right, particularly as artists, to express themselves in a way, as long as it is infilifying people or inciting people to violence. And they don't do that. I really love them. I've loved the first album. ⁓ The energy's fantastic. The humor in it is there too. And they are just fantastic, magnificent shit posters. You know, they really are just really deliberately winding up the right people to wind up and the people who really hate them, they say, here, have some more of this. And I say, all power to you, lads.
speaker-0: Alright, sounds good mate. Yeah, like I said, we've got to have a little bit more danger in rock and roll and that kind of brings me to who I'm gonna want to have a talk about. You will remember the band Savages who I think we were both fans. records. Silence Yourself in 2013 and Adore Life in 2016. And then what happened? And then what happened? Well, they went on hiatus and nothing else happened. As far as I know, they are not around anymore. But Jenny Beth... has brought out a few records, but her latest one that came out, it was a second album, kind of late-ish last year. It was called You Heartbreaker You, and it's kind of this ⁓ post-punk, a bit of electronica in there with crashing guitars and drums. So I think people of good things and people of laneway, you need to get her over here. She's been touring the UK and Europe and doing massive business over there. She was born in France. and the record is fantastic. You Heartbreaker You. The opener is a song called Broken Rib and it pretty much doesn't let up from there on. It kind of slows down a little bit with a track called Outta My Reach and then up it goes again. So it's ⁓ definitely worth if you like. Prickly guitar driven female fronted noise Jenny Beth is for you. And the latest video which is a very unhinged collaboration with Mike Patton, ⁓ it's called Look at me go have a look at that and video and you'll know what I mean And she also does a cover of Birk's army of me So if you want to have a listen to something that sounds like you know army of me with loud guitars There's a recent recording up there as well on the stream. So that's kind of my What's new for me? It's not all that new but ⁓ I think it's worth people going out and having a listen to it
speaker-1: And Jenny Beth is bringing back the leather pants.
speaker-0: Just get the leather pants, mate. You need to look at that video with Mike Patton. ⁓
speaker-1: go in a pair of leather pants? Wearing leather pants in Brisbane you must have the sweatiest crack on the planet. Do you just hose them out?
speaker-0: It'll be awful. Can you imagine, you know, like three, you only got one pair, three nights in a row on stage.
speaker-1: There is that. So if you are a man of a certain way and you just, you you don't do your washing, you don't really change your sheets for a month at a time, just being able to hose your pants sounds like a really good, very good use of your time. needs Kelvin Klein when you've got Glenn 20?
speaker-0: Bit of Glen 20? ⁓ now the Met Gala, mate. Speaking of fashion.
speaker-1: Speaking of fashion, this is my what the fuck? Seriously, look I know the Met Gala is big if you don't know the Met Gala It's the night of nights in New York City. It's supposed to be a massive charity event But what it really is is an excuse for high society is dressed up like this characters out of a Marvel comic book ⁓ And really it laid on thick ⁓ as Jeff Bezos is running this particular event and And for some people, it's just great eye candy and they love it. And Beyonce looked magnificent in whatever the gown that she wore. And, ⁓ but, and there's some wild and crazy looking costumes. don't call them dresses or outfits because they really are dressed up like they are, you know, like a, you know, the dark night rises go strictly ballroom, right? It's just really, it's really full on. But the thing that I, that maybe go WTF on this is that it just, so jarring, so jarring that the United States. in its current circumstance with the president taking them to a needless war with the Congress, you know, basically fighting each other to a standstill, getting nothing done ⁓ with the cost of living through the roof, people really struggling. And then this is sort of tone deaf, elite sort of gathering of people living like they are in some sort of lullaby land, golden Gilded Age. It's just so jarring. that this is a thing at the same time as the rest of the country's on fire and people can't feed themselves. I just find that it's the, that contrast in particular this year really gave me the irritants, particularly because Jeff Bezos was the money in the finance behind this thing. And he's one of the, they Americans like to call the mag seven, the magnificent seven tech bros who actually run the world. I find the whole thing really quite sinister. I just find it creepy as hell. that these people are living this or putting on this lavish spectacle at a time when the rest of the country, it's got its ass out of its pants. It really does speak to the end of empire feeling of the whole place. Like it's just going back in Aaliyah because what the hell, why do we bother anymore? The whole place has turned to shit. And I just found it really, really weird.
speaker-0: Some of the the get-ups, did you see I don't know they had him as the best-dressed man And I don't know who he is. He's got a like a hair shirt like a proper hair shirt But it's a whole like a suit
speaker-1: I've got one of those, you have to pay for it. ⁓
speaker-0: You need to have a look. Some of them, yeah, and I don't know, I mean, is it playing the devil's advocate or is it for charity? Do they raise money for charity? Does the Met Gala? I mean, not that that excuses it.
speaker-1: Just give them money. All these people have got more money than guys. Just give them money and put your socks and crocs on and
speaker-0: Exactly. Thank you very much for coming.
speaker-1: I don't know. That's pretty much recovery. I'm just trying to, I'm looking through the people who are currently ⁓ listed as the best dressed men at the Met Gala and there's, you know, there's some reasonably sort of demure looks out there. I love Luke Evans starring as Dr. Frankenford from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. mean, he's got out the leather pants. He went full Jenny Beth. He's got, he looks like a linguist.
speaker-0: I can't see him, I haven't found him yet. I Yeah, anybody else? else? I mean, let's let's stick with the men.
speaker-1: Jay-Z looked pretty cool. Like he took a very very trad approach with it. I did love his double breasted waistcoat, which I mean, yeah, he looks really good. He's got and he's got the sort of the tails as well. So he looks like he's off to a really good wedding. That's okay. Like, you know, it's making it not about him, which is great, but
speaker-0: Some of the rap stars look pretty good too.
speaker-1: ASAP Rocky with his pink chiffon long coat with tassels which would look great in a valley on a Saturday night out there in Brisbane.
speaker-0: Nothing would actually happen to him at all.
speaker-1: But you thinking of Jeremy Pope. ⁓ Just Google Jeremy Pope. Jeremy Pope met Gala and tell me what you think of his extraordinary outfit. ⁓
speaker-0: Yeah. That's the hair shirt I was looking at. Yeah, I was talking about that's spectacular. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's spectacular.
speaker-1: He looks like someone's just stuck a whole carton full of secatah crackers on a black shirt and just...
speaker-0: To be honest, if he was gonna do that look, Jeremy Pope, he needed to do the whole, the pants as well, You know? Yeah. I think it's just a little bit half-arsed the way it is.
speaker-1: It's a little bit half-assed, but I think you could have gone with ⁓ Conor Story's blouse. He's got a blouse on, which I...
speaker-0: No, it looks like he's got his mum's work shirt on. You know, like the uniform. I'm going to tuck shop. They're not touch-up arms. They're great buys.
speaker-1: The only tech shop that you go to, all they sell is amino acids and proton bars.
speaker-0: I'm out. ⁓ dear.
speaker-1: They're the fashion out, the looks from the Gala. But the whole event itself, man ⁓ man. Come the revolution, we've got names and we've got photos. That's all I'm saying.
speaker-0: ⁓ well, look my WTF has got nothing like that made, my I was trying to work out what I was doing. I felt like this old old man at Deftones on Wednesday night and I couldn't for the life. Yeah great show. But I was trying to work out like there was, was in Brisbane as you go into the entertainment centre they segregate the people, the G8.
speaker-1: in the young
speaker-0: No, well I was with the young people standing on the floor. ⁓ So as we walked in and I'm, you know, we're all standing, waiting to go through security and you know, get your pockets ⁓ emptied and the metallic wand go over you. I was standing there, I was with my daughter who's 28 and Rebecca and I said to her, where did all these young people come from? Where, how did they know about Deftones? because you know, he's a band that you and I played on the radio back in like the late 90s, I guess, and who, you know, took the place by storm for a while and then kind of disappeared and then a couple of not so great records. But the last two or three albums have been absolutely fantastic. But I still could not put two and two together of how these young and I'm talking Emo, you know, from 15, 16 year olds, know, through to 25 year olds. And literally I was the oldest person standing on the floor in the general admission ⁓ section. And then I spoke to somebody or somebody told me online that they went viral a couple of years ago on TikTok. And that's where all the young folk heard them. And what a great show. What an absolutely fantastic show. I hadn't seen, I saw them at Good Things. The sound was kind of, two or three years ago I think it was, sound was a bit questionable. On Wednesday night it was just an absolute cracker of a show.
speaker-1: It's interesting in the digital age that the timeline that we understood, the linear timeline of cultural experience has completely changed. So we would remember albums from a particular year or even a particular summer or a particular event that occurred. We'd share that experience together because you and I were part of that. We were the gatekeepers. worked for Triple J and if we played a record and it went big, then everyone heard of it at that time and it would be associated with a particular summer or an event. But these days, you can choose your own adventures so easily. because the way the algorithms work, if a kid listens to a record by a young contemporary artist that has, you know, you seem to have an influence by Radiohead or the Gang of Four, then the algorithm might throw up, try this. And they go, ⁓ that's where that comes from. Or they'll hear it and go, ⁓ okay, I'll listen to that. there isn't that stigma, not stigma, but there isn't that sense of... ⁓ but that's old music. It's just music. doesn't belong to any other time. And I had a similar experience when I took Evie along about six years ago to see the Gang of Four. And we went in there and she knew all the records and there were all these young people there. And she said, yeah, they're huge. Young people love the Gang of Four. And it was the same thing. It was more the algorithm was saying, ⁓ you listen to Radiohead or a block party, listen to this. And there was a whole gaggle of young people in front of you, all the words to the Gang of Four. So I love that element to it. It's really nice. It breaks down that barrier and you And a band like Blood Orange who had a hit with Champagne Coast in 2011, found out in 2024 it was part of a TikTok meme and it reared to the US charts. It's happened a fair bit. course Fleetwood Mac's Dreams was the big one. That became a massive meme on TikTok with that skateboard meme where people were rolling along on skateboards miming to Dreams. it's kind of really, I like it. It's really playful and it recontextualizes music for a younger audience, which is, you know.
speaker-0: And Kate Bush with... Running up that hill. Running up that hill on Stranger Things. Well that was the first thing that I thought. I don't remember hearing the death tones on Stranger Things, you know. ⁓ But you know, that gave her a great life again.
speaker-1: Yes, it much deserved as well. well done, Death Tones. Got the kids on board.
speaker-0: Got the kids on board and they still rock. mean, I've got no idea how they'd probably be getting close to their 50s now you'd expect Yeah, I know and no they were just great great energetic show great light show great projections The projections were incredible the sound at the entertainment center in Brisbane. You can get you know, it can be a bit iffy the sound but tool managed to fill it and Deftones also managed to fill it not just with volume but with with
speaker-1: ⁓ my god!
speaker-0: you know, it sounded really really good so I was really happy with that. What else has surprised you mate? What surprised you in the land of pop culture?
speaker-1: Well, Cosy, let's wind back to what I mentioned earlier on Robert Smith singing on the Rolling Stones new album, which is coming out soon. I don't know if we need a new Rolling Stones album or not. Foreign Tongues is the name of the new Stones record. But Robert Smith was just in a London studio and doing some work and Mick Jagger had been in the building or two to record vocals for the new record. And he walked into Robert Smith and said, Oi, aren't you Robert Smith from The Cure? And Robert Smith said, yes. And said, well, we'll see you here. you should come and sing on my record. And so he did, which is tell 14 year old Francis, he was listening to faith and pornography and getting my ⁓ post-apocalyptic Cold War gloom on that the Stones would be singing with Robert Smith. would have turned to a pile of action right in front of you. it just got me thinking about, you never know who's gonna turn up and sing with who. And who knows it might be a delightful surprise. Cause we've had a few over the journey. mean, When you first heard that Nick Cave was doing a duet with Kylie Minogue, you, like people, you would have said, fuck, how does that happen? But we got, you know, with the Wild Roses grow. that was a breakthrough for both artists, I reckon, because Nick had up to that point, probably wrongly been just perceived as this DOW, a sort of a soothsaying doom, a doom merchant, which I, when looking back, think that a lot of his stuff was actually very humorous and funny. But then he does this playful duet with Kylie Minogue, and we suddenly get this other. ⁓ and course it made her a million times cooler than she ever was with a certain crowd. So that works really well.
speaker-0: Well, they're like you two and the three tenors. Yes, I was the pebrotti. Only the one tenor.
speaker-1: Well, was at Three Tennis, I was at Three Tennis, I think with the Passengers, the band, the Passengers, they made that record. Well, that beautiful song, mean, Cereovo, they recorded. It was beautiful, but yeah, it's a stranger. I know, really, with Metallica.
speaker-0: Fantastic. Yeah, but kinda weird.
speaker-1: Kind of weird. So even something like R.E.M. for their album In Time, the opening song radio song, so about 1990-ish that record came out and you know R.E.M. the ultimate college rock band but they invited KRS-1 to do the rapping in the middle of their song and it sounds great but you know I like those collaborations when Public Enemy and Anthrax work together. It's great when it happens but yeah Robert Smith I guess maybe they could have just compared their makeup to it.
speaker-0: Maybe fashion tips because we're going back to fashion as well. Now, do you know what Robert Smith might have been wearing? Because we've both had an encounter at a livered festival backstage with our friend Robert. So do you know what he was wearing when he met Mick Jagger? I'm glad he didn't say, hi, you're Robert Smith. And Robert Smith went back to him and didn't say, who are you? ⁓
speaker-1: Well, I'm hoping at some point Robert Smith had someone got the jaws of life out and managed to free him from those bicycle pants he was wearing the time that we met him backstage at Livid and he was getting around in tight bicycle shorts.
speaker-0: It was a sight to behold, wasn't it?
speaker-1: Let's just say that he didn't have Bradley Wiggins leg.
speaker-0: Ha
speaker-1: It didn't look like he was about to ride up the mountain stages of the Tour de France, up Al Ques. It didn't look like he was ready for that.
speaker-0: Give him his due, it was quite warm day, wasn't it? I remember seeing Susie and the Batchies when they headlined Livid Festival in old Davies Park in the old Oh, I love those kids. It was probably, must have been like 35 degrees that day and the poor Goths and they were just melting under the Moreton Bay figs.
speaker-1: It was a tough day out for God. But God love them for dying for their
speaker-0: It was fantastic, great show. Great, all that, love those old festivals, they fantastic.
speaker-1: stay true to himself. hasn't, you he's still got a head full of wooly hair and his lipstick still looks like it was applied by a drunk panda. But good on him for doing that. And the eyeliner is still world class. ⁓ Nick had a lot to compete with. But yeah, Robert Smith and the stones. There you go.
speaker-0: Looking forward to hearing that.
speaker-1: That's may be.
speaker-0: I can hear it once. I want to hear it once.
speaker-1: I need another Stones album.
speaker-0: Nah. But you know, do think they'll tour again? Yeah. Without Charlie? Yes they Have they got a-
speaker-1: And that's okay, isn't it? Excellent. They will. What else are going to do?
speaker-0: Well that's it, can't suddenly become accountants can they?
speaker-1: No, we've got a lot of money to count, you know, it's gonna be a full time... What about for you? What was the surprise for you this week?
speaker-0: Maybe one of the good things. Surprise for me in the last ⁓ month or so, last couple of weeks has been the fact that the drones are getting back together. Yeah, they be said commander by the They did, completely. Yeah, well, I've been lucky to see, know, Gareth Liddyyard and Fiona Kitchen of, ⁓ you know, two of the members of Tropical Fuckstorm. Their new record, new record, latest record, Fairyland in Codex has been ⁓ an absolute cracker. I really love it. And, ⁓
speaker-1: Completely?
speaker-0: So yeah, I thought they were done and dusted, but the good news is they'll be back touring later in the year. Their shows pretty much all over the country have sold out. They're doing three shows at the zoo, or what was the zoo? Sorry, the crowbar in Brizzy, and they're doing three and four shows everywhere around the place. So the good thing is they're smaller shows. So that'll be good. I'm gonna go to a couple of them. I was lucky enough to see Tropical Fox Storm at Z50, which is one of the shows last year celebrating four triple Zs. 50th year on radio. Triple Z, if you don't know, is one of the longest running community radio stations in Australia, if not the longest. It was an amazing lineup. The Saints, 73 to 78, headlining. Regurgitate, Full Flower Moon Band. That's another breezy act everyone should be having a look out for. Full Flower Moon Band supported the Foo Fighters in Tassie a little while ago. Got rave reviews there and they scored the support for the Queensland leg of the Foo Fighters. I think they're playing later on. this year and I had managed to miss TFS every other time they toured. I really dig Fairyland Codex though. It just gave me that same feeling when you're listening to a drone's record. know, one minute it's this gentle, almost lullaby kind of thing and then the next minute it feels like an out of tune grand piano rolling down a hill and coming straight at you. That's on record and live it's even more vicious and more dangerous.
speaker-1: Lydard is absolutely electrifying live. mean the band out there, but he's got that certain charisma about him that it makes him utterly compelling on stage. He's something to behold in full flight.
speaker-0: Yeah, incredible with the drones and with TFS. Really looking forward to seeing the drones. I'm to go to two of the three nights playing at Crowbar in Brisbane because, you know, I can.
speaker-1: in your crops and yourself.
speaker-0: My Croxsama sucks. And that brings us back to where is the danger in today's music?
speaker-1: Well, we'll be at the drones gig if you're there.
speaker-0: Alright mate, well have you got anything more to add for the grumpy jukebox?
speaker-1: Really? But it's been great doing it. Shall we do it again sometime?
speaker-0: I think we should do it again. Don't forget to come along to TheBreakdown.net where you can hear grumpy jukebox, Francis Leach and I just, you know, shooting the breeze, talking shit, having fun. Thanks mate.
speaker-1: See you Cosy!
