Making It Count

So, this is going to another one of those little, quarter-page stories again, right?” asks the slightly menacing but infinitely interesting Stuart Grant, frontman with seminal electro-punk outfit Primitive Calculators. Inpress's answer contains lots of umms and errrs, but ultimately adds up to an affirmation. “Jesus,” Grant goes on, “who do we have to fuck to get on the cover?”

Metafictional cleverness and this writer's personal bias notwithstanding, it's a good question. Famously invited to reform by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for that band's curatorial efforts at All Tomorrow's Parties; guest stars in Richard Lowenstein's quintessential document of the punk era, Dogs In Space, and creators of the little band phenomenon, it could be surmised without too much fear of contradiction – except, interestingly, perhaps by the band themselves – that the Calculators are one of this country's most important-ever outfits. Which is why the release of a new single – their first in 33 years – is such a noteworthy event. Sick/Cunt (Sick Of Myself and Cunt Life) marks the only time this writer has felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck in that first-seeing-the-Sex-Pistols-on-Countdown kind of way since, well, first seeing the Sex Pistols on Countdown. How does it feel to be releasing a single so long after their first? Grant seems to think it's all a bit of a non-event.

“It doesn't feel like anything, really. It is what it is. There's been lots of other releases here and there, so it's not like nothing's happened.”

And, while Sick Of Myself – a gorgeously un-ironic (or perhaps ironic?) paean to self-loathing – is a recently composed song, Cunt Life hails from 1977, and pre-Calculators band The Moths. Grant explains something of where it fits in. “Cunt Life is a song that's never really fit into our live set. It's kind of a '60s psychedelic punk number, but it's still fucking nasty. More like something Flipper might do. Frank [drum machine and computer operator Frank Lovece] used to walk around our flat in St Kilda in 1977 kicking things and going 'cunt life, cunt life', so I thought, 'There's a song title'.”

“It seems that a lot of things I say turn into song titles,” offers Lovece.

Recorded in producer Julian Wu's kitchen, it seems that the making of the single was something of a, well, a mess really. Inpress gets the impression, though, that Grant thinks this was a decidedly good thing. “We could never tell what it was going to sound like after we recorded it. He had these really shitty speakers and this really old tape deck. We would play it through these speakers and it would sound okay and then we'd take it out to the car and we couldn't hear anything. It was a mysterious process.”

The launch for Sick/Cunt is to take place at the Northcote Social Club, and keyboardist Denise Hilton says the band have some history with the place.

“We used to run a venue at that pub. It was called the Bum Club. We'd charge a buck to get in. In those days you had to provide food, so we'd make a chilli and four or five bands would play. We also had films and strippers.”

With their debut studio album to be released early next year, it becomes impossible not to ask the band about what punters can expect from that record. Is Sick/Cunt something of a preview? It would seem not.

“The album will be slicker and glossier,” says Grant. “The album is aiming to make us a major, international stadium rock act.”

“We'll be on The Footy Show next year,” says bassist Dave Light.

“I want to sing Cunt Life at the Grand Final,” offers Grant.

Primitive Calculators will be playing the following shows:

Friday 5 October - Northcote Social, Melbourne VIC