slackbastard

everything old is new again… in sydney, tutti parze has re-formed… or gotta myspace page at least… in melbourne, reactor records has released RR22, ‘depression — the reactor years’, 40 tracks of classic punk rawk, featuring their debut 7″, debut album, ‘Australia Australia’ 12″ ep and a couple of previously unreleased 1982 demos. available direct from reactor records — P.O. Box 623 Camberwell Vic 3124 // [email protected] — or from missing link for the measly price of $22… on ozpunk history, see regression zine…

t u t t i p a r z e : crazy crazy knights

the recordings that are up [on the tutti parze myspace page, from which this post is stolen] were recorded in 1990 at troy horse in newtown, sydney. we are rehearsing at the moment, got down some early songs and we have written a few new ones. if you liked us then, we sound a fuckin’ lot better now! this recording [1990] is wil and donna/vocals.. spin/bass.. billy/guitar.. simon/drums and i think it was spacy, stu and mega doing backing vocals on the chant on ‘it’s time now’.

many people have been involved with tutti parze in the past, so a list of some seems appropriate, they are- wil.. spin[r.i.p].. donna.. billy.. simon.. jenny[r.i.p].. nipper.. space.. keith.. stu.. mega.. damian.. the jellyheads collective.. those comrades that helped cook the food.. brothers and sisters that helped lug gear [especially when we had to escape fast from newtown festival after a rather outrageous performance] some heavily involved, some in passing but all contributed. its to the members that have passed away we dedicate our future work as tutti parze, you are dearly missed but never forgotten, comrades to the end now returned to the void. form to formlessness, formlessness is form.

tutti parze formed in the palmer street squat, bringing together some sydney punx, some melbourne punx and some punx living on a commune in mullumbimby rainforest nth nsw. as band members were spread over nearly 2000km it seems amazing they managed to pull anything together at all. for all the personal problems and fuckups i guess we didn’t do too bad. tutti parze were maybe the first of the crusty anarchist punk bands in sydney. all the first gigs were free, with free weed from nth coast communes, free vegan macrobiotic food, heaps of propaganda and a smattering of taoism. most were held at the randwick racecourse hotel and they tolerated the slightly illegal behavior of the band and its audience. tutti parze played with other likeminded bands like Mahatma Propaghandi, i am bacteria i am filth, Fred Nihilist, deviant kickback, mental health, Warp Spasm, subliminal pressure, compost, Mutiny, tofu terror, blind ambition and many others.

the fred nihilist 7″, ‘liberation’, is really neat! you can buy it from clinton @ shamefilemusic.com. supposedly, only 200 copies were made… on aboriginal land some time prior to world war three… a long time ago… when i went to a mutiny gig @ the empress… i gotta demo tape, 1992 i think it was… which the lazypommybastard bren will one day supposedly upload on to teh intertubes… along with the two-year olds’ demo… ‘warp spasm’ is also a gaelic term, riastradh, and refers to the ability of ancient warriors to gosickmate in battle… mahatma propaghandi morphed into non bossy posse –> vibe tribe –> ohms not bombs… the randwick racecourse hotel also played host to neo-nazi bands like white lightning, whose most recent reincarnation is t.h.u.g.: t.h.u.g. play regularly around sydney with all the usual suspects (avo, blurters, corps, homicides, rust, toe to toe), and whatever former divisions there were between anti-racist and anti-fascist punks, on the one hand, and boneheads, on the other, have mostly dissolved with time… a similar development has occurred in melbourne over the last few years, and is also now evident in perth…

‘Show Us You Care’, pioneering crust / grindcore from Ipswich’s finest: Extreme Noise Terror! Grindcore: “Fiercely political lyrics, grinding guitars, extremely fast tempo, and often very short songs.” (Antonym: pop punk.) Album: Earslaughter, split LP with Chaos UK on Manic Ears Records (1986). I swapped my copy… D’oh!

You say we won’t change nothing
But at least we’re fucking trying
Say we’re always moaning
But at least we fucking care
Say we should be happy
We’ve tried to but we can’t
Say we should see sense
But we already fucking have

Use your shit-filled minds
And show us you fucking care

You don’t care about the rich
As long as you’re not poor
Don’t care about vivisection
‘You cannot change the law’
Don’t care about the police force
Because they haven’t beaten up you
Don’t care about the starving
Because it’s nothing new

j e l l y h e a d s : omg! punk for the punx! eeek!

after a while the scene grew and realized it had its own economic power and that too much money was going to big corporations who owned either the pubs or the alcohol. a meeting was held at the old newtown cemetery and out of that meeting came the jellyheads collective [nearly all activist/anarchist bands and groups were represented on the collective]. after that meeting nearly all gigs were held in community halls with the money going to jellyheads so a venue that was run and organized by the scene could be rented [a permanent squatted venue just wasn’t an option in sydney at the time]. eventually enough money was raised and a two story building with a courtyard was rented behind the brewery right in the city near central station.

this was what everybody had wished for.

a pool table and video projector was put upstairs where film nights were held, and a vegan cafe, stage and p.a. downstairs. many bands, fundraisers for different causes, different community groups and students used the space, even running kids’ days. it also had its own newspaper, printed by the prisoners action group, who had a space upstairs. this is where most tutti parze gigs happened, with only the rarest organized as a fundraiser by someone else at a pub. it was because of the collective’s politix and bands like tutti parze’s revolutionary position, their access to and spreading of ideas to young people (now including those outside the anarcho punk ghetto) and the active spreading of anti-authoritarian propaganda — and most probably tutti parze’s blatant disregard for the law — that the authorities started to take an interest. tutti parze often were seen to encourage their audience to break the law, and it may have been for this reason the police chose a tutti parze gig to raid jellyheads.

this did not exactly go as the cops expected, with a slight ‘roughing up’ and isolating of the undercover cops who infiltrated before the raid [everyone knew who they were], the ‘collection’ of a police hat and radio that was used to negotiate the release of 14 audience members detained by the cops, and the cops ending up leaving with no arrests/captives. tutti parze then played a ripper of a victory gig. but the cops would learn from their mistakes.

around 1991 a gathering of the tribes was held in nimbin, a town established by hippies after the aquarius festival in the early ’70s. this brought punx and bands from the whole east coast of australia together for 3 days of chaos and fun, with many staying at the now [sadly] defunct terania creek vegan anarchist community.

In August 1979 a contingent of 100 police arrived in Terania Creek to ensure a bulldozer could resume work on reopening a logging track to be used by sawmillers. However, courageous people stood firm in a protest that lasted for over a month, compelled to save a part of the largest single area of subtropical rainforest in Australia, the Big Scrub. In 1979 only 2% of the big scrub remained. Terania Creek was the first time direct action tactics were used anywhere in the world in the defence of a forest. The image of somebody defying a bull dozer is somewhat cliche these days but in 1979 it was a bold new idea. The scientific debate that ensued had a profound impact on rain forest policy throughout Australia. Terania Creek was finally protected, becoming part of Nightcap National Park, and its spectacular waterfall was consequently named in honour of the protestors.

d o o f d o o f d o o f : helga makes musical history

with the onset of dance music culture, massive sound systems and noise complaints, jellyheads folded, the end of the first and only alternative venue in sydney. punx picnics continued (with bands); police tolerating the stolen electricity [or they didn’t know]. members of tutti parze started to want different things out of the band and to go in different directions. the scene was changing fast, not always for the better, drugs being a major problem emerging in the scene and like all good things tutti parze eventually disbanded after what may have been one of their best, tightest and most powerful sounding gigs. the party was over, long live the party!

“Existing pre-doof in Sydney in the eighties and early nineties, there was a collective called The Jellyheads, a group dedicated to transmitting anarchist principles at a time when the main liberationist and anti-corporate mantra was transmitted in the west through punk music. Jellyheads community fundraisers and gigs had Crass/Conflict style local bands, vegan cafes and info on various activist operations like ‘Stop the City’. Sydney Park was originally reclaimed as a music space by this tribe with the Punk Picnics still a regular annual event in town. The initial free techno parties were mistrusted by some of the punk contingent. Graffiti in the park read “Kill Non Bossy Raver Scum, Techno=Disco”, representing the sentiment of those few who didn’t understand that the emerging techno movement was in it for the same reasons. A group called Mahatma Propaghandi created a bridge from full-on punk power to more Balearic rhythms and dance grooves containing the same liberationist message. As members of Jellyheads turned on the acid house explosion, the Vibe Tribe – a loose collective of people drawn together to channel a powerful energy through allowing events to present themselves with maximum community involvement and co-creation – was born as a response to the mainstream commercialisation of the new rave craze.” ~ Peter Strong, ‘Doofstory: Sydney Park to the Desert’, in Free NRG: Notes from the Edge of the Dancefloor, edited by Graham St John, an OzAuthors/Pluto Press co-production, 2001

band members then spread around the australia, s.e. asia and the usa forging new lives and getting to know who they are, starting families and generally finding out what they wanted from life outside tutti parze. becoming travelers, activists, perfecting or learning a trade, lecturers, teachers and cooks, starting new musical projects or working in community health and development. as was said before, some would make it and, sadly, some would struggle and lose. it would be nearly 20 yrs until all surviving members would finally touch base with each other again… but time heals all wounds so don’t be surprised if, like rotten old zombies, tutti parze rise from the grave some place, some time, when least expected but most needed…

thank you all who were involved in the past and those in the future, sorry to those we failed to mention… cheers [oh yes don’t forget the warehouse and black rose anarchist bookshop, cheers for your support in the past], our politics may have changed over the last 20 yrs [we no longer believe in violent revolution] but we still believe we can all create a better world… peace, love and anarchy. only through cultivating the mind and body will this objective be achieved, something we can only do ourselves. if we want to change the world for the better we must change ourselves for the better, it is to this end we encourage our comrades on the path to realization and manifestation of the grand ultimate, return to the state of the uncarved block. TUTTI PARZE… stand together as individuals, united for a common good
thanks to all those who cared, love, peace & friendship
TUTTI PARZE – 2008
please correct the bad spelling and punctuation, we’re punk rockers after all!

Hungry Dave (Regression) : The Sydney scene continued into the ’90s but it was said that it had seen better days re: lack of venues, a lot of people getting out of punk and wanting to play more complicated or hip music like techno-metal or slap-funk or whatever. None the less a few bands kept it going… [Tutti Parze] was one of the most popular. Musically they were in the vein of British hardcore (Crass, Concrete Sox, Discharge) with extreme class war lyrics [lol]. The band formed in 1988 and broke up in 1991.

a p p e n d i x : the adventures of pink cadillac, melbourne, november 2006

See also : uncarved.org // oldpunksneverdie.com (October 2, 2008) | Keep racism out of music (September 27, 2008) | Old punks never die… (July 20, 2008) | Safety In Numbers / Kill Your Pet Puppy / CRASS (July 4, 2008) | The Punk Years (May 14, 2008) | Bloggy Thursday Anarchy // The Baldies + 20 (March 13, 2008) | What is this gay community shit? (March 9, 2008) | “Sounds of Hate” revisited… again (November 29, 2007) | DOA : Smash the State, “anarchy is a fag”, and neo-Nazis armed with pipes and bottles (October 19, 2007) | Slammy: Presente! (August 3, 2007) | “Stop! Hammer time!” Or: Boneheads and Baldies (July 26, 2007) | “Animal World” : The Last Words (July 10, 2007) | “I get so emo, I could die” / Drop the attitude, fucker / In music, nothing happens… (April 30, 2007) | First Ungdomshuset, now Blitz (April 10, 2007) | Anti-fascism in Melbourne: 1990s (March 20, 2007) | G20: Chris Tinkler and News Corporation contribute $10 to a drink-and-drug-fuelled all-ages protester orgy! (March 18, 2007) | The Youth House stays; or Copenhagen burns (March 4, 2007) | Evicting the Ungdomshuset makes baby Jesus cry… and social democrats smile (March 2, 2007) | “We’re not Nazis, we’re punk-anarchists”! (February 28, 2007) | Vegan punk A Matter of Record (January 24, 2007) | ‘We need to push and shove and throw things’ (October 21, 2006) | The Continuing Appeal of Crasstafarianism (October 4, 2006)…

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