Sick / Cunt

About the album

Only 33 years after their iconic 1979 debut single I Can’t Stop It b/w Do That Dance, Melbourne’s synth-punk snarlers Primitive Calculators return with a new seven inch single. Having reformed in 2009 at the invitation of the Nick Cave- curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, Primitive Calculators made up for 30 years of lost time, releasing this 7" in 2012 and their debut studio album The World Is Fucked in late 2013. After ATP, Primitive Calculators toured the nation with Lightning Bolt, performed at Old Melbourne Gaol for Melbourne Music Week, played with Psychic TV and had their vaults plundered by Canadian label Sweet Rot for an archival vinyl single. French label Desire also released vinyl reissues of the 1979 live album and first single in early 2013.

Sick/Cunt, however, represents Primitive Calcualtors' first new studio efforts since their brief reunion in 1986 for the movie Dogs In Space. Sick Of Myself expresses all the self-loathing involved in being in a 50-something synth-punk, whille the charmingly-titled Cunt Life is a 1977 classic originally performed by pre-PCs band the Moths, now finally recorded for posterity. These tracks were recorded by famed Melbourne personality Julian Wu, then mixed and mastered by Casey Rice. Both recordings are different to the versions that appeared on The World Is Fucked in 2013.

For many years, Primitive Calculators’ sizeable legend thrived on their self-released 1979 single, a posthumous live album released in the early 80s, and their involvement in Richard Lowenstein’s 1986 film Dogs In Space, starring INXS’ Michael Hutchence. Primitive Calculators reformed for the film (based on the Little Bands scene they created in the late 70s), appearing in a memorable bar scene and recording bleak stomper Pumping Ugly Muscle for the soundtrack. The track was also released as a now very rare 12” single. Chapter Music reissued their landmark 1979 live recordings on CD in 2004, then followed up with Primitive Calculators And Friends in 2007, a compilation including the first single, the 1979 Little Bands EP and a host of bonus obscurities. Sick/Cunt is an impressive, harshly hilarious signpost along the way to The World Is Fucked, their first studio album ever!