Saturday, August 30, 2008

My Karma's In The Red

click for enlarged view

This is easily my favorite Aussie single of all time, if not for the absolute classic a-side then for the balls-to-the-wall scorcher of a b-side. And, I've managed to own the exact same copy of this single twice.

See, back in the very late 80's I put a whole bunch of records up for consignment at Brass City Records, including this one (that's what the little star next to the $8 price tag is for). Most of the records sold right away, except for about a year ago when I was at Brass City thumbing through an old box of 7"-ers tucked away on one of the shelves and found this one, still with my identifying * on the sticker, still unsold after almost 20 years. Walt was decent enough to let me take it back for nothing, and now here it is-- back in my collection.

Because for two decades no one was willing to take this totally amazing single off my hands for a measly eight bucks, you can now have both songs for free, losers.


click for enlarged view

The New Christs -

"Born Out Of Time"

"No Next Time"

(these files are now listen-only)


8 comments:

ib said...

Very nice. I don't know what it is about Australian bands. They're like British buses; you wait for years just waiting to jump on, and then two or three come along at the same time.

It's derivative, sure - more echoes of the Damned - but in a good way. I really used to like Denis Tek's Radio Birdman. He was a big Stooges fan. The Saints were another great group too.

I might have bought this for the cover alone. The New Christs ? Lords Of The New Church ?

Brushback said...

Yeah, I didn't make a point of this in the post itself, but The New Christs' Rob Younger = frontman for Radio Birdman.

ib said...

Hey! I hadn't fully realised the connection with Radio Birdman. Just a shot in the dark. Neat. The sleeve IS very cool; I love almost anything which features odd details on cars.

$8 is a tad steep, though.

Did you donate them ? Or put them in the store on Sale Or Return ?

ib said...

By the way, Brushback, I left a comment on the King Khan post you recommended but it didn't register back on my reader for some reason. Good stuff!

Brushback said...

I'm pretty sure 8 bucks was a fair price for an import single from a really good Australian band at the time.

Most of the hardcore stuff (Touch n Go, Dischord, XClaim, etc) that I sold for 10 or 20 bucks back then is going for hundreds on eBay now..

I just wrote my little asterisks on the price tags and put the records out in the general inventory, and that way the store knew that they were my records whenever someone brought them to the register.

ib said...

I was only half serious. I meant to say, "$8 is a tad steep for the sleeve alone".

On second thoughts, I'm probably just a cheap bastard!

Chris said...

To me the A side sounds like the Celibate Rifles. Do you know if there were members of that band in The New Christs at that time?

Brushback said...

Kent Steedman of the Celibate Rifles does play on the a-side, as a matter of fact.