The HARD ONS have announced a new EP titled the Cash Converters Session.
From the Hard Ons' bassplayer Ray Ahn...
"THE MAGIC LIVES HERE, and HERE
I saw the band X as many times as I could back in 1983-84. I just loved getting blasted by their insane live power. Ian Rilen their bass player mesmerised me.
I cornered him in a pub once. I asked him to sell me his bass, that Telecaster of his. It was quite battle-worn. He told me “NOT FOR SALE”. I expressed that I was a fan of X and may be some of that magic would rub off if I’d play his bass. Ian looked at me and waved his fingers in front of my face. “The magic is here, not on the bass”.
On a similar trajectory once I got talking to Captain Sensible about the MC5. In particular about how magical their rhythm section of Davis and Thompson were. The Captain told me how magical he thought the bass and drums of the Five were. He pointed to his chest where his heart was: “it’s just in there, isn’t it... It’s magic. It’s completely from the heart”. Or something similar.
I saw Lucy Spazzy turn up to a Spazzys show at the Tote with a horrid Trace Elliot bass combo and a Mexican made Precision with fret action that would make a $10 op-shop Ukulele blush. I could not help myself, and I think I actually mouthed off exactly what I thought of the gear. What the hell are you supposed to achieve musically with such under-strength garbage anyway? Here I am – an Ampeg fridge-rig, American-made bass snob, all cold-shoulder and disdain. But to what end?
The Spazzys hit the stage, all Eastern Europe-meets-Fitzroy swagger and they absolutely lay waste to all-and-sundry. They completely blew everyone in the room away. The rhythm was monstrous. Driving Ramones-rampage insanity, insatiable and blistering. Everyone in the room became fans.
The magic does not live inside brilliant equipment choices. It does not live inside vintage Marshall tube amps. Quite frankly, the magic lives inside our fingers and in our hearts. Full stop. Granted, The Hard-ons are fussy old men who act like the world is ending if there are less than sixteen speakers spread over the backline. Who doesn’t love being armed to the teeth when they ply their musical trade, whether it be on stage or in the studio?
Our homage to the idea that the magic resides in our souls, not inside expensive equipment, led to a wild chase through the suburbs of the Illawarra, Sydney and the Hunter in NSW. With a combined budget of $900.00 we purchased at various Cash Converters hock outlets, a complete backline and a guitar and a bass, and accessories such as pedals – everything you need to play our songs – and entered Parliament Studio with producer Lachlan Mitchell, at the end of 2018. We were to hide behind no expensive backline or instruments. We were to wring every ounce of magic from our souls in that session, with the absolute cheap shit we purchased.
The resulting effort will be released on a 4-track 12” MINI-LP fittingly titled “CASH CONVERTERS SESSION”. These four songs make up a power-pop and punk setlist that grabs onto the coat-tails of our last LP “So I could Have Them Destroyed” and ups the dose liberally with fantastic and intelligent production and if I do say so myself, pretty awesome extracting of insanely decent sounds from dirt-dirt-cheap equipment that a busker would not be caught dead with.
Where does the magic live? It lives inside our souls, on our fingers. And now, we believe, it will be on our new 12” MINI-LP “Cash converters Session”.
300 will be pressed of this record. It will be available on-line only. Details on ordering will come soon. For now, please marvel at the front cover artwork kindly provided by our good mate, the Art of Fox...!!!"
