Scientists

Scientists

Negativity

In The Red

The Scientists’ powerful brand of deranged swamp-rock returns with a vengeance as In the Red Records unleashes Negativity, an all-new magnum opus featuring the first new full length album by the Australian band’s penultimate line-up in thirty-five years. The bruising eleven-track collection features a Scientists configuration much beloved by connoisseurs of the band’s work: singer-guitarist Kim Salmon, lead guitarist Tony Thewlis, and bassist Boris Sujdovic, all veterans of the group’s defining 1981-85 outfit, and drummer Leanne Cowie, who replaced drummer Brett Rixon on the storming 1986 release Weird Love.  A solid crop of fresh originals is highlighted by the opening statement of purpose “Outside”; the offbeat, yowling waltz “Naysayer”; the hilarious, self-mocking “Suave,” which Salmon says was inspired by the work of his countrymen the Moodists; and the utterly surprising “Moth-Eaten Velvet,” a Velvet Underground homage in ballad form that features a three-piece string section. Instrumental guests on the album include producer Mumford, who contributes trombone on “Make It Go Away,” and Salmon’s daughter Emma, who essays piano and background vocals. Negativity is the third Scientists release and the first full-length album for In the Red. The current quartet cut the single “Braindead”/“SurvivalsKills” in 2018 and the five-song 2019 EP 9H2O SiO2, the title of which translates (in a hat tip to the lyrics of the group’s classic “Swampland”) as Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand. Those recordings were issued in conjunction with the group’s first two U.S. tours during that period. Raw, freewheeling, and spattered with the high-voltage...

Scientists

Not For Sale: Live '78/'79

Grown Up Wrong

***BACK IN STOCK!!! The Scientists’ pre-Swampland days in Perth are brilliantly encapsulated on this collection of mostly unreleased live material from ’78 and ‘79. These were the days when former Victims and future Hoodoo Gurus drummer James Baker led the band alongside guitarist/singer Kim Salmon, and when their poster read “Rock ‘n’ Roll in the tradition of The Groovies and The Heartbreakers”. The Perth-based line-up recorded the brilliant “Frantic Romantic” single and self-titled EP highlighted by “Last Night.” They also recorded a posthumously released LP—the “pink album”—which came as a massive disappointment due to bad production and a reduced line-up. Not For Sale: Live’ 78/79 is a collection of live and rehearsal tracks that captures the band making the same noises as on those 45s, and presents live versions of the fan faves and vastly superior versions of most of the LP tracks as well as coughing up a bunch of hitherto unreleased originals and covers to boot. This is “The Legendary Scientists”—as they were dubbing themselves within months of forming—as they should be heard. The main set comes from late 1979: a live-to-air broadcast from Melbourne’s 3RRR. The same line-up is also present on a handful of primitive live recordings, made by a friend at one of the group’s regular haunts, the Governor Broome Hotel in ‘79. Play this really loud and it sounds like right there in the pub, shitty PA and all. Packaged with rare and unseen images, an original 1979 Roadrunner magazine feature by Kim Williams...

Scientists

9H2O.SiO2

In The Red

The Scientists are the ultimate cult band! Mysterious, undefinable, and yet many quite distinct things to many people. Some blame them for grunge, some think they’re a power pop band, some think they’re experimental. Tav Falco describes them in Ghosts Behind The Sun thus: “Mercurial individuals who’s science is strictly alchemical.” Originating in Perth, Western Australia, in the beginnings of post-punk, they travelled to Sydney, then London, cutting a swathe through the indie scene throughout the 1980s, only to vanish. Sited as a seminal influence by so many —Sonic Youth, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Mudhoney, Nirvana—the band had to return some time.  In 2018 they returned with two new singles and tours of Australia, Europe and the U.S. (their first time ever in the States!). Now In The Red is proud to announce the release of 9H2O.SiO2—a 12-inch E.P. featuring five brand new originals just in time for the band’s follow up U.S. tour in April. These new tracks prove that the band is still as original, brutal, rocking and scientific as they ever were. This is not to be missed!

Scientists

Braindead (resuscitated) B/w Survivalskills

In The Red

In the summer of 2017 Australia’s premiere swamp / grunge / punk / noise band The Scientists unexpectedly sprang back to life and started playing shows and making new music again. Kim Salmon is back with his Scientists—Boris Sujdovic, Tony Thewlis, and Leanne Cowie (the mid-’80s line-up)—and are delivering their first recording in thirty years. For this occasion they have recorded “Braindead,” a reworking of song from their 1987 Human Jukebox album, and a brand new track called “Survivalskills.” Anyone who loves the band’s original fuzz-filled swamprock will not be disappointed. The band will be touring the US for the first time ever and plan to release a follow up to this single on In The Red later this year.