M SQUARED MEMOIRS
by
Michael Tee (Year 46)
M
Squared - again
People
have been telling me that there is a bit of renewed interest in the
M squared noises again. Suggestions for a compilation CD to be produced.
I wonder if this just a bit of ado about nothing or if there is some
genuine interest?
Let
me know, please! What stuff do you want to hear? yayachoral@spin.net.au
Also
people have been emailing me questions etc.. for interviews for music
mags and e-mags etc. Just to let you know I am not interested in talking
to these questions, (i find it difficult to keep a straight face) ....
but only interested in 'interesting' correspondence. Or perhaps email
indicating something that they would like me to put on these pages,
as a memoir.
M
Squared A moment in time/ index of possibilities
The
universe has lost its centre overnight, and woken up to find it has
countless centres. So that each one can now be seen as the centre, or
none at all. Suddenly there is a lot of room.
Brecht, B (1980) Life of Galileo
For
one brief moment in my timein music - with M Squared - the rules were
broken, the world was de-centred. Within afairly public arena, we stole
music back from the 'experts' and the 'music and art industry'. Anything
was possible and nothing was possible. There was a lot of room and not
much furniture.
Outside
there were lots of other centres / possibilities. Good.
Perhaps
i t was a lazy- ironic - couldnt give a fuck - revolution. Perhaps it
was an accident.
It
didnt last for long .
.Michael
Tee July 2004
MSquared
memoirs on No Night Sweats.
Warning:
Dont leave your instruments overnight at Msquared.
Reflection
on Xmas 1979 and the Barons - the genesis of Msquared
.Michael
Tee April 2004
History
is being forgotten as we speak...!!!
History
is being forgotten as we speak ...!!!
.Michael
Tee December 2002
The
MSquared Secret Squirrel Society
As
always we fiddle ... while the world burns ... and I am ashamed and
too uncertain!
...
and we fiddle .... Meanwhile these partial stories of M Squared will
probably remain a secret between you and us, whoever we are. and whoever
you are .... " M Squared Secret Squirrel Society". The M Squared
people (in 2003) are somewhat removed and indifferent to each other
so we won't be pushing to be included in the "Story of Australian
Rock" ... hey remember us!!!!
But
when I think about it more ... we never thought of ourselves (in the
rare moments of solidarity) as an Australian thing ... but more of a
global thing.... "World Domination" was our motto in 1980
and now I think we will let the USA claim that one.
Our
best little gem was the "builders labourers of the avant garde"
or "avant garbage". Not mainstream, not alternative ... perhaps
anti-cultdom or anti-alternative - like the joke which ran through earl;y
Residents material.
My
alibi ... was that I was young /stupid/arrogant and not drug free/then
drug less... so don't believe anything I remember.
.Michael
Tee April 2003
The
dirty linen.... M Squared not a good idea - just an accident at birth!
Ironically
- not even a good idea - but in fact an accident at birth. It was hatched
in Xmas 1979 by Mitchell Jones & myself
- Michael Tee (hence m2-geddit?) and then
Dru &
Patrick..
it snowballed for a couple of years .. propelled by its own lack of
cognition and inspired amateurism. Though it started off fairly open
ended and free - a bit naughty Ñ risky É the joke, the speed, lack of
consultation / consensus and the misogyny wore somewhat thin Ñ [depending
on where you were positioned within M Squared - according to your age,
gender, class].
Mitch seems to think that
it stopped being alive after his nuptials with Dru in 1984, but I suggest
that it died much earlier when, without consultation, M Squared released
the awful series of Eps by the Same, Coolies and Xero É it really stopped
being M "Squared" just "M" and a lot less than itÕs exponential potential.
It
also had a lot to do with money, money decisions, Ôjust too lateÕ business
and amphetamine commonsense. But I was too stupid (green/unconscious)
and too lazy to do something about it and instead coasted on the earlier
momentum/inertia or else scowled from the sidelines. We was just kids!
Sadly,
I lost some dear friends along the way.
However
this did not occur to me until much later.
In
a true sense M Squared was perhaps alternative - and so were many others
like ourselves... (long forgotten) - our bickering and continued lack
of consultation and respect ensures this. Too stupid and full of ourselves.
Too scared of failure to market ourselves. Irony was always our last
resort.
M
Squared happened at no's 1 and 3 Wilshire St, Surry Hills between 1979
and 1984.
I
guess you had to be there !!
Amidst
the crap and selective listening and recycling were a few hits- 'Prat
Culture,Vessels etc' and many more stinkers 'Xero,Coolies,EST,The Same
etc.." at the heart of M Squared were SCATTERED ORDER, SYSTEMASTICS,
DEAD TRAVEL FAST and PROD and all of their hybrids and short lived complicities
(SPLENDID MESS, PLEASANT PEASANTS)- this was the good stuff.
[see the MSquared disco]
In
1980 it was funny (you had to be there) PiL had just done Metal Box;
Ian Curtis was still warmish; The Residents hadn't stretched their muse;
the ghosts of Can + Neu + Faust still lived on; synths were still monophonic
(not poly) and analogue; Eno's voice and lyrics were still potent; Bowie
hadn't done Lets Dance ; Cabernet Voltaire (a good drop) and Throbbing
Gristle (bring your own toothpix) made noise; Wire were still a good
pop band; the Birthday Party sounded like a xerox of the Pop Group;
people would shout out "where is your drummer!"; the Australia
Musician's Union would hassle us about our drum machines putting drummers
out of work.
IN
MY "PRE DIGITAL" DAY KIDDIES ... it was tape loops and not
samples. Thank dog we did not have Pro Tools!
Outside
-in the real world- apart from the sort of kinfolk of the Birthday Party,
Voigt / Wild West / PelMel / Limp / Slugfuckers / TameOmearas / TchTchTch
/ Terse-Severed Heads /the Doublethinkers.. [for more on the Sydney
postpunk thing see Phil Turnbil's excellent site!] the blokes of Oz-rock
played their boogie-rock ornew wave pub rock. Waiting in the wings were
the sons and sons of the Birdmen / Ramones / American 60's nuggets and
other sounds of swampy beast things .
In
Sydney 1980 the live pub scene was booming, there was a small space
in the inner city [Trade Union Club, Governor's Pleasure, San Miguell,
Paddington Green/Brownies, and the Paddington Town Hall] for the M Squared
bands to draw 1000 people every week, and yet all of the Sydney booking
agencies continued a "scorched earth policy", milking the
live scene dry... not developing or nurturing new ideas or talent ....
thinking that the old ideas would work forever that there would always
be another Chisel/INXS etc... and so the M squared bands could seldom
venture out into the suburbs of Sydney. M Squared and friends became
the property of the chosen few (thousand) in the inner city.
I
am sure that M Squared baods would have been happy to play anywhere.
Michael
Tee - early 2001 [revised Jan 2003]
[for
me] The best 2 things about the whole MSquared shebang were:
1.
Our cheap studio (built December 1979) which was a magnet for
all of the interesting and eccentric bands, hybrids and partners. As
the engineers / producers we got to hear some magnificent and raw stuff
see Phil's excellent No
Nigh t Sweats site for more kind words about these bands. Unfortunately
we also got to hear early Hoodoo Gurus etc..
2.
The monthly(ish) "Tinkily Bonk Balls" at St Peter's
Hall on Devonshire St where we get together 10 bands of various profiles
and each would play for 15 - 20 mins ... generating variety in the arts.
For me the "superstars" of the Tinkilies were the very dry
Nov U Bleet (or was it Nov A Bleet).... kind of like a smarter and more
pomo-savy Go Betweens. Some of the package nights at the long gone Trade
Union Club were comparable. The patron saint of the Tinkily bonks was
Astroboy.
Alas..
M Squared was charcterised by a complete lack of ambition.. by the time
we got a record out we were bored with it and looking to our next one.
We gave away free studio time, under cut overselves and generally had
a good time.. a bit like the dealer who sells a bit so that they can
earn a bit of free smoke (maaaaan!) . We released stuff in Europe without
contracts.. no money. Our stuff was played on all of the US College
radio stations but we just laughed never bothered to follow up US or
UK releases.
Unfortunately
after 5 years together we were on different drugs / planets.
Michael
Tee May 2001
SPK
(yawn!)..... and then my mind split open..........
A
few people have emailed me asking me about SPK. Various members of SPK
(1980-82) - some of them as "SoliPsiK" had a little bit to
do with M Squared. I can remember engineering the SoliPsiK contribution
to our "A Selection" collection in 1981 and during the recording
feeling a little sad for Nihil - at his inability to disconnect from
his particular aural fantasy- but a gentle likable chap. After his suicide
a few weeks later (or was I dreaming) he perhaps became a metaphor for
futility in my life.
The rest of SPK (that weren't solipsik) were a bunch of wankers with
no sense of humour, far too serious [f]"artistes" with dubious
gender politics which could rival M Squared's own dubious fraternity.
Their moment in time had come a year or so earlier at the legendary
(yawnn) Sydney Brickworks Gig. The bossy one was called Graham.... I
think. It was post Alice Cooper and proto - Marilyn Manson / NIN - go
down to the morgue today... really scarey maaaan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like a lot ofthe early M Squared stuff I thought at the time SPK was
basically the sort of music that people first make when they realise
they can't play heavy metal guitar or the Velvets "Heard her call
my name/ Sister Ray " but soon discover that the synthesiser and
studio could make significant noise.... (we used to describe Scattered
Order as "white noise with a beat").
Twenty
years on the msquared solipsik stuff sounds neatly refined and disciplined
to me - I am glad we released that stuff. I am glad that we didn't get
to release the SPK album from the wanker lot.
Guy
Francois writes: "Please check out my site :
http://home.pi.be/~spk thee reference site on SPK"
Michael
Tee August 2001
