Ed Kuepper
Encyclopedia
Ed Kuepper is an Australian guitar
ist, vocalist
and songwriter
. He co-founded the seminal punk band The Saints
, the experimental post-punk
group Laughing Clowns and later the grunge
-like The Aints
. He has also recorded over a dozen albums in his own name with a variety of backing bands, notably Ed Kuepper and the Yard Goes On Forever, Ed Kuepper and his Oxley Creek Playboys, Ed Kuepper and The Institute Of Nude Wrestling, The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper, Ed Kuepper and the New Imperialists and presently Ed Kuepper and the Kowalski Collective.
In 1976 Kuepper and the Saints were one of the first Australian acts to form their own record label, Fatal Records, to release that band's first single "(I'm) Stranded
". In 1980 Kuepper started up Prince Melon Records to release his work with Laughing Clowns.
Kuepper was awarded ARIAs
for Best Independent Australian Release in 1993, for Black Ticket Day
, and 1994 for Serene Machine
and was nominated for similar awards in 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998. He was one of Australia's most prolific recording artists in the early nineties.
In recent years Kuepper has been involved in soundtracking radio drama and experimental films. He toured Australia and Europe performing semi-improvised music to some of these films under the banner of MFLL. Venues included The Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), Sydney Opera House
, The Austrian Film Museum (Vienna) and The Cartier Foundation (Paris), where Kuepper has the distinction of being the only rock musician to be invited to play apart from the Velvet Underground.
2007 saw the release of Kuepper's Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog
album, which was inspired by the story of Jean Lee
who was the last woman hanged in Australia, and features amongst others, performances by Jeffrey Wegener (Laughing Clowns), Peter Oxley
(Sunnyboys), Warren Ellis
(Dirty Three), and Chris Bailey (The Saints).
After extensive touring in 2008 opening for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Kuepper joined this band as a touring guitarist upon the departure of founding member Mick Harvey
in early 2009. This year Kuepper also relaunched Prince Melon Records.
He has also covered several songs by Eric Burdon & The Animals.
|-
! Title || Year || Notes
|-
|(I'm) Stranded
|| 1976 || The Saints
|-
|Eternally Yours
|| 1977 || The Saints
|-
|Prehistoric Sounds
|| 1978 ||The Saints
|-
|Laughing Clowns || 1980 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Throne of Blood/Reign of Terror ||1981 ||Laughing Clowns
|-
|Mr Uddich-Schmuddich Goes to Town || 1982 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|History of Rock'n'Roll Volume One || 1983 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Law of Nature || 1983 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Ghosts of an Ideal Wife || 1984 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Electrical Storm
|| 1985 ||
|-
|Rooms of the Magnificent
|| 1986 ||
|-
|Everybody's Got To
|| 1988 ||
|-
|Happy As Hell EP || 1989 ||
|-
|Today Wonder
|| 1990 ||
|-
|S.L.S.Q || 1990 || The Aints
|-
|Honey Steel's Gold
|| 1991 ||
|-
|Ascension || 1991 || The Aints
|-
|Black Ticket Day
|| 1992 ||
|-
|Auto-cannibalism || 1992 || The Aints
|-
|Serene Machine
|| 1993 ||
|-
|The Butterfly Net || 1993 || Compilation
|-
|Legendary Bully || 1993 || UK only compilation
|-
|Character Assassination
|| 1994 ||
|-
|A King in the Kindness Room
|| 1995||
|-
|I Was a Mail Order Bridegroom
|| 1995||
|-
|Exotic Mail Order Moods || 1995||
|-
|The Most Primitive Band in the World ||1995|| The Saints - garage recordings from 1974
|-
|Heart of New Wave || 1997 || Greece only compilation
|-
|Sings His Greatest Hits For You || 1996 || Compilation
|-
|Frontierland
|| 1996||
|-
|Samplerland || 1996 || Compilation
|-
|Starstruck: Music for Films & Adverts || 1996||
|-
|Wheelie Bin Affair (Some Odds And Sods) || 1997 || Rarities compilation
|-
|With A Knapsack On My Back || 1997||
|-
|Cloudland || 1997||
|-
|Live! with The Oxley Creek Playboys || 1998||
|-
|The Blue House || 1998||
|-
|Reflections Of Ol' Golden Eye || 1999 ||Compilation
|-
|Smile, Pacific || 2000 ||
|-
|Honey Steel's Gold – Remastered || 2000 ||Re-issue
|-
|Out-takes, Castaways, Pirate Women and Takeaways || 2001 || Rarities compilation
|-
|Today Wonder || 2002 || Re-issue/remastered
|-
|Real Wild Life || 2004 ||Brazil only compilation
|-
|Everybody's Got To || 2005 || Re-issue
|-
|This Is The Magic Mile || 2005 || 3 CD compilation
|-
|Cruel But Fair || 2005 || Complete Laughing Clowns anthology 3 CD set
|-
|Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog
|| 2007 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live – The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 1 || 2008 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live – The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 2 || 2008 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live – The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 3 || 2008 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live -The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 4 || 2009 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live -The Prince Melon Bootleg series Volume 5 || 2009 ||
|-
|}
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist, vocalist
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. He co-founded the seminal punk band The Saints
The Saints (band)
The Saints are an Australian rock band, which formed in Brisbane in 1974 as punk rockers. Founders were Chris Bailey , Ivor Hay , and Ed Kuepper . Alongside mainstay Bailey, the group has had numerous line-ups...
, the experimental post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
group Laughing Clowns and later the grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
-like The Aints
The Aints
For the nickname of the professional football team, see the New Orleans Saints.The Aints is a band name used by Ed Kuepper during his prolific early 1990s period for loud, feedback-drenched three-piece performance and recordings....
. He has also recorded over a dozen albums in his own name with a variety of backing bands, notably Ed Kuepper and the Yard Goes On Forever, Ed Kuepper and his Oxley Creek Playboys, Ed Kuepper and The Institute Of Nude Wrestling, The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper, Ed Kuepper and the New Imperialists and presently Ed Kuepper and the Kowalski Collective.
In 1976 Kuepper and the Saints were one of the first Australian acts to form their own record label, Fatal Records, to release that band's first single "(I'm) Stranded
(I'm) Stranded (song)
" Stranded" is the first song released by pioneering Australian punk rock band The Saints. Issued in September 1976, it has been cited as "one of the iconic singles of the era", and pre-dated vinyl debuts by contemporary punk acts such as the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Clash...
". In 1980 Kuepper started up Prince Melon Records to release his work with Laughing Clowns.
Kuepper was awarded ARIAs
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
for Best Independent Australian Release in 1993, for Black Ticket Day
Black Ticket Day
Black Ticket Day is the sixth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1992 and released on the Hot label.-Reception:The album spent 2 weeks in the Australian charts in 1992 peaking at number 45...
, and 1994 for Serene Machine
Serene Machine
Serene Machine is the seventh solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1993 and released on the Hot label. It received an ARIA Award for 'Best Independent Release' at the ARIA Music Awards of 1994.-Reception:...
and was nominated for similar awards in 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998. He was one of Australia's most prolific recording artists in the early nineties.
In recent years Kuepper has been involved in soundtracking radio drama and experimental films. He toured Australia and Europe performing semi-improvised music to some of these films under the banner of MFLL. Venues included The Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
, The Austrian Film Museum (Vienna) and The Cartier Foundation (Paris), where Kuepper has the distinction of being the only rock musician to be invited to play apart from the Velvet Underground.
2007 saw the release of Kuepper's Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog
Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog
Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog is an album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 2007 and released on the Hot label. Described as a loose concept album based around Jean Lee, the last female hanged in Australia, the album was released in a single CD and as a double CD limited...
album, which was inspired by the story of Jean Lee
Jean Lee (murderer)
Jean Lee was an Australian woman, convicted of murder, and notable as the last woman to be executed in Australia.- Life :...
who was the last woman hanged in Australia, and features amongst others, performances by Jeffrey Wegener (Laughing Clowns), Peter Oxley
Peter Oxley
Peter Oxley was the bass player for 1980s Australian pop-rock band The Sunnyboys.He is credited with writing two songs with The Sunnyboys: "The Stooge" and "You Don't Need Me"...
(Sunnyboys), Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis (musician)
Warren Ellis is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and composer, best known for his work with Dirty Three, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman and his soundtrack scores with Nick Cave. He plays violin, piano, bouzouki, guitar, flute, mandolin, and tenor guitar...
(Dirty Three), and Chris Bailey (The Saints).
After extensive touring in 2008 opening for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1983. The band is fronted by Nick Cave and has featured international personnel throughout their career.-Formation and early releases :...
Kuepper joined this band as a touring guitarist upon the departure of founding member Mick Harvey
Mick Harvey
Michael John Harvey , is an Australian rock musician, composer, arranger and record producer. He is best known for his long-time collaboration with the singer and songwriter Nick Cave...
in early 2009. This year Kuepper also relaunched Prince Melon Records.
He has also covered several songs by Eric Burdon & The Animals.
Discography
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Title || Year || Notes
|-
|(I'm) Stranded
(I'm) Stranded
Stranded is the debut album by Australian punk rock group The Saints which was released by EMI on 21 February 1977. Their debut single, " Stranded", was issued ahead of the album in September 1976, which Sounds magazine's reviewer, Jonh Ingham, declared was the "Single of this and every week"...
|| 1976 || The Saints
|-
|Eternally Yours
Eternally Yours
Eternally Yours is second album released by the Australian music group The Saints in 1978. For their follow up album the band chose a bigger, more R&B-driven sound, including the addition of a horn section.The original title for the album was to be International Robots and recording initially...
|| 1977 || The Saints
|-
|Prehistoric Sounds
Prehistoric Sounds
Prehistoric Sounds is the third album released by the Australian music group The Saints in 1978. This was the final album to feature Ed Kuepper, who left the band shortly after its release...
|| 1978 ||The Saints
|-
|Laughing Clowns || 1980 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Throne of Blood/Reign of Terror ||1981 ||Laughing Clowns
|-
|Mr Uddich-Schmuddich Goes to Town || 1982 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|History of Rock'n'Roll Volume One || 1983 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Law of Nature || 1983 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Ghosts of an Ideal Wife || 1984 || Laughing Clowns
|-
|Electrical Storm
Electrical Storm (album)
Electrical Storm is the debut solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper featuring Nick Fisher and Louis Tillett recorded in 1985 and released on the Hot label...
|| 1985 ||
|-
|Rooms of the Magnificent
Rooms of the Magnificent
Rooms of the Magnificent is the second solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1986 and released on the Hot label....
|| 1986 ||
|-
|Everybody's Got To
Everybody's Got To
-Track listing:# "Everybody's Got To" – 3:45# "Too Many Clues" – 3:07# "When There's This Party" – 3:04# "Standing in the Cold, in the Rain" – 3:55# "Lonely Paradise" – 4:11# "Burned My Fingers" – 4:10# "Not a Soul Around" – 2:46...
|| 1988 ||
|-
|Happy As Hell EP || 1989 ||
|-
|Today Wonder
Today Wonder
Today Wonder is the fourth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1990 and released on the Hot label.. The album was re-released in 2002 with eight bonus tracks recorded for a Dutch radio station.-Reception:...
|| 1990 ||
|-
|S.L.S.Q || 1990 || The Aints
|-
|Honey Steel's Gold
Honey Steel's Gold
Honey Steel's Gold is the fifth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1991 and released on the Hot label....
|| 1991 ||
|-
|Ascension || 1991 || The Aints
|-
|Black Ticket Day
Black Ticket Day
Black Ticket Day is the sixth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1992 and released on the Hot label.-Reception:The album spent 2 weeks in the Australian charts in 1992 peaking at number 45...
|| 1992 ||
|-
|Auto-cannibalism || 1992 || The Aints
|-
|Serene Machine
Serene Machine
Serene Machine is the seventh solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1993 and released on the Hot label. It received an ARIA Award for 'Best Independent Release' at the ARIA Music Awards of 1994.-Reception:...
|| 1993 ||
|-
|The Butterfly Net || 1993 || Compilation
|-
|Legendary Bully || 1993 || UK only compilation
|-
|Character Assassination
Character Assassination (album)
Character Assassination is the eighth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1994 and released on the Hot label...
|| 1994 ||
|-
|A King in the Kindness Room
A King in the Kindness Room
A King in the Kindness Room is the ninth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1995 and released on the Hot label.-Reception:...
|| 1995||
|-
|I Was a Mail Order Bridegroom
I Was a Mail Order Bridegroom
I Was a Mail Order Bridegroom is the tenth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1995 and released on the Hot label initially as a mail order only release.-Reception:...
|| 1995||
|-
|Exotic Mail Order Moods || 1995||
|-
|The Most Primitive Band in the World ||1995|| The Saints - garage recordings from 1974
|-
|Heart of New Wave || 1997 || Greece only compilation
|-
|Sings His Greatest Hits For You || 1996 || Compilation
|-
|Frontierland
Frontierland (album)
Frontierland is the twelfth solo album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 1996 and released on the Hot label.-Reception:...
|| 1996||
|-
|Samplerland || 1996 || Compilation
|-
|Starstruck: Music for Films & Adverts || 1996||
|-
|Wheelie Bin Affair (Some Odds And Sods) || 1997 || Rarities compilation
|-
|With A Knapsack On My Back || 1997||
|-
|Cloudland || 1997||
|-
|Live! with The Oxley Creek Playboys || 1998||
|-
|The Blue House || 1998||
|-
|Reflections Of Ol' Golden Eye || 1999 ||Compilation
|-
|Smile, Pacific || 2000 ||
|-
|Honey Steel's Gold – Remastered || 2000 ||Re-issue
|-
|Out-takes, Castaways, Pirate Women and Takeaways || 2001 || Rarities compilation
|-
|Today Wonder || 2002 || Re-issue/remastered
|-
|Real Wild Life || 2004 ||Brazil only compilation
|-
|Everybody's Got To || 2005 || Re-issue
|-
|This Is The Magic Mile || 2005 || 3 CD compilation
|-
|Cruel But Fair || 2005 || Complete Laughing Clowns anthology 3 CD set
|-
|Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog
Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog
Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog is an album by Australian guitarist and songwriter Ed Kuepper recorded in 2007 and released on the Hot label. Described as a loose concept album based around Jean Lee, the last female hanged in Australia, the album was released in a single CD and as a double CD limited...
|| 2007 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live – The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 1 || 2008 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live – The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 2 || 2008 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live – The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 3 || 2008 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live -The Prince Melon Bootleg Series Volume 4 || 2009 ||
|-
|Ed Kuepper Live -The Prince Melon Bootleg series Volume 5 || 2009 ||
|-
|}
External links
- http://www.myspace.com/edkuepper
- http://www.myspace.com/laughingclowns
- http://www.myspace.com/princemelonrecords
- The Kuepper Files – The Ultimate Guide To Ed Kuepper
- The Official Ed Kuepper site Ed Kuepper's 1990s website, archived 12 July 2001 at PandoraPandora ArchivePANDORA - Australia's Web Archive is the national web archive for the preservation of Australia's online publications. It was established by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and is now built in collaboration with a number of other Australian state libraries and cultural collecting...