Saturday, December 5, 2009

Castrak Cassette and Ratsak Fanzine


A double treat for this post,
first a cassette and the Fanzine it came from.
The cassette comes under the name Castrak,
circa 1983 with a fantastic collection of rare
tracks. Of special interest is the JFK tracks,
including a different version of Follow that car,
than the album. Also theres more Tex, pork,
a song from Xero and another from Other Voices.
Originally I didn't have the issue that this cassette
came with but Steve have kindly scanned his copy
and Chuck has turned it into a pdf file.
Thanks guys.
You have to see this mag it is fantastic!



Track list
01 - Other Voices - Scene Unseen
02 - Xero - Lofty Joins The Navy
03 - Dumbshow - Illustration
04 - My Three Sins - Stand Up
05 - Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums - This Here Country
06 - Pork - Sketch
07 - Doby Gillis Experience - When The Memory Is Gone
08 - JFK and the Cuban Crisis - Follow That Car
09 - JFK and the Cuban Crisis - Goodbye

Download Castrak's Cassette here
Download the Fanzine issue 3 here



Teaming this cassette which originally came from Bazzil
of prehistoric sounds fame,
is a issue 2 of ratsak, which Chuck has found
and dusted off so it can see the light of day again.
Heres what Chuck has to say about it

some great articles in this... tex interviews the kicks...
the start of the mystery of sixes balckban era .....
tsk tsk tsk interview and that fat pig Russ Hinze
on the cover...
what more could ya want !!!

Download Fanzine issue 2 here

16 comments:

Unknown said...

castrak,, crastak,, ratsack.. all the same difference to these fanzine folk... some kind of anagram fixation methinks. bazzil has the cover for the cassette on the wonderful prehistoric.com and clearly shows the ratsack number on the bottom... maybe he will be kind enuff to post it if he has it :)) hint hint :))


here is a tsk tsk tsk {anyone know the alt asci code for little arrows??} if anyone finds the interview interesting

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2007/03/aka-tsk-tsk-tsk-kims-21st-birthday.html

bob nebe said...

I should have checked there thanks Chuck

Unknown said...

time for trivia anyone?


http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Brisbane-New-Wave-1977-82-99364.html


if google ever charged for searches id be fuked !

ALL HAIL THE GOOGLE!

shishkin said...

Hey Bob! i can vaguely remember Michelle Ratsack who put the zines/tapes together (she even put on some live shows i think i remember maybe??) - i still have my much played copy of the castrak cassette and actually played it for the first time in decades a couple of months bacl and it still sounded pretty good - wilsteed's lofty joins the navy cracks me up!!

Unknown said...

contributor Michelle Mcintyre im guessing is the drummer from the band dream poppies..
I have a 5 track dream poppies tape sumwhere in the dungeon circa 1990.. ill have a look later and send on over

thanks for the zine :)

chelle mcintyre said...

hi a friend forwarded me this link.. way cool, i still have loads of trivia etc anything you want to know?? think i may still have a copy of issue 1?? the original ratsack (yes was anagram) when i started it with greg (tex) perkins when we were not long out of school. later on i formed the dream poppies.

bob nebe said...

Great to see you here Michelle,
any interesting trivia concerning indy Brisbane music is welcome here
and you you have Issue one that would be fantasic.

Unknown said...

Hi Chelle,welcome to the blog.
Im with bob on the issue 1 post if u can find it.

Any trivia / contributions makes the blog a living book with a soundtrack to boot.so most welcome!

I find the tool that blog structures allow fascinating for reliving this important piece of brisneylands history often lost to the few ppl that lived it, or the few who pay silly money on the collectors market to hoard. Its a shame that so much of brisbanes pre 90's music history was always a chapter one... the horrid brain drain that brisbane was subjected to as ppl of any great talent felt obliged to run to sydney or later to melbourne; and the ones who stayed put and drifted into suburban middle age ....all leading to a city with a lack of easily accessible back history.
It probably wasnt until bands like custard/ the gurge and the finger who dug in deep and were happy to stay that the tide began to turn in any major way. Not to forget that the right honourable Robert and Grant deemed brisbane worthy of resettlement! many ppl spoke of Grant as a godfather figure in brisbane music circles at this time- offering advice ,stories of wisdom and encouragement at some dive valley nightclub in the early hours..
I found andrew staffords pig city book enjoyable, but not without its faults.. something like bobs striped sunlight sound has soo much more going for it in its delivery method and all the regular contributors in comments or sound files make it a living document.. who woulda thunk it even a few years ago ?

ALL HAIL THE BLOG !

bob nebe said...

Ive said it before and Ill say it again, this internet thingy is a wonderful thing

chelle mcintyre said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Hey, If you have anything else by Tex Deadly & The Dum Dums, can you let me know?
Spencer_GH@hotmail.com
Cheers

chuck said...

what u see here is what i got mark.... anything more would be sheer bliss :) The articles , the tapes, even the ads are an amazing time capsule of this era. If you want to add anything for a post scan em up and send em over and blogees and blogers from here will be yer friend for life;)

Anonymous said...

Hi, I've just spotted this info about RATSACK and note that Michelle
has already made contact & provided some info.
I co-published RATSACK with Michelle & Tex, having joined the team
after they had conceived the project, but just before the release of
the first issue. I met Michelle & Tex through their interest in a
poster-sized photo of Nick Cave that I'd taken at the 1982
Birthday Party show at the New York Hotel (Where the Myer Centre is today).
The anagram thing was my idea - I didn't really like the RATSACK name
and this was one way to change the name.
I have a full collection of RATSACK if you are missing anything from your collection

Regards, Mark Louttit

bob nebe said...

I second that mark we would love anything you have, the whole series would be fantastic

Anonymous said...

well hey mark how are you? bob - mark is an absolute wealth of knowledge and credibility. the anagram thing WAS his idea.. ratsack came from tex. sorry guys i oddly drift in and out of attachment to this whole period. xxchelle