| Hee Haw | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| EP by | ||||
| Released | 8 December 1979 | |||
| Recorded | 1979 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Label | Missing Link Records (MLEP-3) | |||
| Producer | The Boys Next Door | |||
| The Boys Next Door chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Underground |  [1] |
Hee Haw is the second release and first EP by the Australian post-punk band the Boys Next Door (later renamed the Birthday Party). The Hee Haw EP was released in 1979 by the independent label, Missing Link Records.
By 1978-9, the Boys Next Door were making efforts to distinguish themselves from Melbourne's punk and post-punk bands. The core members – Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Phill Calvert and Tracy Pew – had been joined by Rowland S. Howard on guitar in 1978. The Boys Next Door released an album ( Door, Door ) on the Mushroom label in 1979 (recorded in separate sessions in mid-1978 and early 1979).
After the release of Door Door, the Boys Next Door transferred to the independent label, Missing Link Records, and took on label owner Keith Glass as their manager. [2] Cave said, "We played [Hee Haw] to Michael Gudinski of Mushroom Records and he wasn't really interested." [3] The tracks for the Hee Haw EP were recorded during July and August 1979 at Richmond Recorders in Melbourne, engineered by Tony Cohen. The five-track EP was released in December 1979. The artwork on the cover and insert sheet was done by Marcus Bergner.
The Hee Haw EP represents a musical departure from the relatively conventional punk/pop songs on Door Door. The EP introduces a more abrasive, rhythmic and exploratory sound that was further developed when the band re-located to the UK (and changed their name to the Birthday Party).
Two of the songs on the EP, "The Red Clock" and "The Hair Shirt", the former sung by Rowland S. Howard and the latter by Nick Cave, were included on the Boys Next Door's second album entitled The Birthday Party in 1980. The songs on the EP and The Birthday Party LP appeared on the 1989 Birthday Party compilation album, also titled Hee Haw.
The EP was reissued in Australia in December 1983 by Missing Link (ING008), credited to the Birthday Party. [4] It was also reissued by the same label in 1987 credited to Boys Next Door. [1]
| Hee Haw | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | 7 August 1989 | |||
| Recorded | August 1979 – January 1980 | |||
| Studio | Richmond Recorders, Melbourne, Australia | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 40:44 | |||
| Label | 4AD | |||
| Producer | The Birthday Party | |||
| The Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [5] |
The tracks from the original Hee Haw EP were re-released on CD by 4AD on 7 August 1989 as part of a compilation of early recordings under the name of the Birthday Party; this album was also called Hee Haw. [6] It includes all the tracks from the original Hee Haw EP by the Boys Next Door and from their second album entitled The Birthday Party (before they changed the band name to the album title).
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Mr. Clarinet" | Nick Cave | 3:47 |
| 2. | "Happy Birthday" | Cave, Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard | 3:50 |
| 3. | "Hats on Wrong" | Cave | 2:40 |
| 4. | "Guilt Parade" | Howard | 2:52 |
| 5. | "The Friend Catcher" | Cave | 4:22 |
| 6. | "Waving My Arms" | Howard | 2:15 |
| 7. | "Catman" | Gene Vincent, Sheriff Tex Davis | 2:27 |
| 8. | "Riddle House" | Howard | 2:42 |
| 9. | "A Catholic Skin" | Cave | 2:25 |
| 10. | "The Red Clock" | Howard | 2:47 |
| 11. | "Faint Heart" | Cave | 2:51 |
| 12. | "Death by Drowning" | Howard | 3:10 |
| 13. | "The Hair Shirt" | Cave | 4:05 |
The Birthday Party were an Australian post-punk band, active from 1977 to 1983. The group's "bleak and noisy soundscapes," which drew irreverently on blues, free jazz, and rockabilly, provided the setting for vocalist Nick Cave's disturbing tales of violence and perversion. Their 1981 single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential on the emerging gothic scene. Despite limited commercial success, The Birthday Party's influence has been far-reaching, and they have been called "one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s."
Anita Louise Lane was an Australian singer-songwriter who was briefly a member of the Bad Seeds with Nick Cave and Mick Harvey and collaborated with both bandmates. Lane released two solo albums, Dirty Pearl (1993) and Sex O'Clock (2001).
Prayers on Fire is the debut studio album by Australian rock group The Birthday Party, which was released on 6 April 1981 on the Missing Link label in Australia, later licensed to the 4AD label. This was the band's first full-length release on an international record label and the first after changing the group's name from The Boys Next Door to The Birthday Party. It was recorded at Armstrong's Audio Visual Studios in Melbourne and Richmond Recorders in the nearby suburb of Richmond, between December 1980 and January 1981.
Michael John Harvey is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Phillip Calvert is an Australian rock drummer and producer best known for his playing in the post-punk band The Birthday Party with Nick Cave.
Rowland Stuart Howard was an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with the post-punk group The Birthday Party and his subsequent solo career.
Missing Link Records was an Australian-based independent record label established in 1977. The Missing Link label was created by Keith Glass and David Pepperell who were the owners of a Melbourne record store of the same name. The name was taken from a 1960s Australian rock band, The Missing Links. The label's initial releases were two retrospective 7-inch singles, "The Ultimate Garage Band" by The Union and "Living in the 60's" by Cam-Pact, both of which band from the 1960s that the owners had respectively performed with. Following a few more releases Pepperell departed and the label took on a new contemporary release program to reflect the punk-new wave movement of the late 1970s. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, "[it] was a cornerstone organisation on Melbourne's independent scene of the late 1970s". The label became influential through the release of both Australian and overseas material, scoring a top 20 hit single with the local release of The Flying Lizards kitchen electronic version of "Money" (1979), when it was passed over by Festival Records.
Junkyard is the third studio album by Australian post-punk group The Birthday Party. It was released on 10 May 1982 by Missing Link Records in Australia and by 4AD in the UK. It was the group's last full-length studio recording. It has received critical acclaim.
Tracy Franklin Pew was an Australian musician, and bassist for The Birthday Party. He was later a member of The Saints, and worked with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Mutiny/The Bad Seed is a compilation album by The Birthday Party. It is compiled from 2 EPs, The Bad Seed recorded in October 1982, and Mutiny! recorded in April and August 1983, and both were released in 1983. The Bad Seed and Mutiny! were released as a compilation in 1989. It is written by Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard, and Tracy Pew.
Australian musicians played and recorded some of the earliest punk rock, led by The Saints who released their first single in 1976 and subgenres or offshoots of punk music, such as local hardcore acts, still have a strong cult following throughout Australia today.
Door, Door is the debut album by Australian rock band The Boys Next Door. The album was recorded before the band left Australia for London in 1980, at which point they changed their name to The Birthday Party and created the body of work for which they are most recognised. Likewise, the album is different stylistically from their later work, being less dark and slightly more poppy.
It's Still Living is a live album by The Birthday Party recorded at The Astor Theatre in St Kilda, Victoria on 15 January 1982, and released in May 1985. The initial LP release in 1985 by the band's former manager and backer Keith Glass, on his Missing Link label, was not sanctioned by the band. The sound quality of the recording is poor and it is marred by technical glitches. In 1991 the album was re-released on the Virgin label, with the LP being released on green vinyl.
The Birthday Party is a 1980 album by Australian rock band The Boys Next Door. The album was produced by The Boys Next Door, Tony Cohen, and Keith Glass; it was recorded with Cohen engineering at Richmond Recorders Studios in Melbourne from July 1979 to February 1980.
"Shivers" is a song by the Australian post-punk band the Boys Next Door, who would later become the Birthday Party. It is the tenth and final track from the band's debut studio album Door, Door, released in 1979 on Mushroom Records. It was released as the album's only single in May 1979, backed with the B-side "Dive Position".
Keith Robert Glass is an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, musical theatre actor, record label owner, producer and journalist. In April 1967 he formed a soul music group, Cam-Pact, which released four singles and an extended play, Something Easy. He left by June 1969 to appear in the Australian stage production of Hair as Berger. As a solo artist Glass released country and R&B albums, Going Over Old Ground (1989), Living Down My Past (1991), Smoke and Mirrors (1997), Southerly Buster, Australian Soul and Miss Ala.
Drunk on the Pope's Blood/The Agony Is the Ecstacy is a split compilation EP by the post-punk acts The Birthday Party and Lydia Lunch, released on February 18, 1982, through 4AD. It contains live material from a show performed on November 26, 1981, at The Venue in London. Three of the four Birthday Party tracks were included on their Live 1981-82 CD. Their version of the song "Loose" and the Lydia Lunch piece have never been officially reissued on CD. The Lydia Lunch side is a single track recorded up to the run-out groove, causing the song to play endlessly on manual turntables.
The discography of The Birthday Party, an Australian post-punk band, consists of four studio albums, two live albums, six compilation albums, six extended plays and nine singles. The group began under various names in Melbourne in 1973; formed by vocalist Nick Cave, guitarist Mick Harvey, drummer Phill Calvert, guitarist John Cocivera, bassist Brett Purcell, and saxophonist Chris Coyne —all of whom were students at Caulfield Grammar School. By 1978, following several membership changes, the band consisted of Cave, Harvey and Calvert with bassist Tracy Pew and guitarist Rowland S Howard. Under the name The Boys Next Door, the band released several singles and two studio albums, Door, Door in 1979 on Mushroom Records and The Birthday Party in 1980 on Missing Link Records.
Live 1981–82 is a live album by The Birthday Party and released in August 1999. The performances were "[c]ulled from the private collection of founding member Mick Harvey with assistance from super fan Henry Rollins".
"Release the Bats" is a song by Australian post-punk band The Birthday Party. Written by Nick Cave and Mick Harvey, the song was released as a single on 31 July 1981 through 4AD record label, with the B-side "Blast Off". The recordings were produced by the band and Nick Launay. The single charted on UK Indie Chart, peaking at number 3.