UPDATE! It looks like this site has met with the approval of the band and the label, and I'll do all I can to provide all of you with more information, more pictures, more news and of course, more music, as the band have a new album coming out in February of 2007. I'll let my original disclaimer stand though.
I'm just a fan, but for me this reissue has been the discovery of the year. I am in no way affiliated with the band, and I will readily comply with any demands to cancel this account, if the band or the label feels it has to be taken off of MySpace. I would also gladly surrender control of this page if someone associated with the band or the label wants to take over responsibility for the spreading of the word. I just wanted to have one of their songs on my own profile, know what I mean? Anyway, enjoy, this is Australian power-pop/garage at it's very best!!!
The following review is taken from FasterLouder.com.au. I hope they don't mind too much.
Re-releases can often be a chance to simply replace your own well worn vinyl with a cleaner quality compact disc copy of music you know and trust. But occasionally it can be a vehicle to re-discover a lost gem of musical heritage. And so it is with Young Modern.
Despite a strong local following in Adelaide – centered around The Tivoli in Pirie Street – Young Modern's only recorded output was a bunch of demos released posthumously as the Play Faster LP. After splitting up in the late 1970s (following a move to Sydney encouraged by Dirty Pool management, responsible for some notable bands of the time, including The Angels), the band reformed (sort of) briefly in 1980 to promote the album and from there into the dustbin of history (apologies to Greil Marcus) went Young Modern.
Lead singer John Dowler went off to form a series of bands through the 1980s, including The Zimmermen (who released the thematic Don't Go to Sydney (It's a Place Without a Heart)), and continues to play around Melbourne (without indulging in any old Young Modern classics).
To address this terrible omission the clever people at Aztec Music have decided to re-release Play Faster on disc to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the album's initial release. As their name suggests, Young Modern were
influenced strongly by the sixties pop rock licks of the British Invasion (their white shirt/thin black tie attire indicates these influences were more than just musical) – the opening lick on Red Dress On brings to mind The Who's A Quick One While He's Away, while Do You Care has the catchy feel of Them in all its Britgarage glory – as well as the pop sensibilities of Big Star (It's Not a Crime, She's Got the Money).
Dave Laing's liner notes suggest Young Modern was the prototype Australian powerpop band, an assertion all but confirmed by such pre-Sunnyboys gems as She Wants to Be a Singer and The Big Beat. Unfortunately there's no I Wanna Be a Birdman (according to Dowler, the lyrics for each live version of this song was different).
The bonus live tracks (including an unlisted version of The Beatles' She Loves You) have been taken from various shows, and the sound quality varies accordingly (Pensacola Blues is particularly rough). But there's something ruggedly authentic about hearing live tracks recorded using rudimentary analogue equipment at the back of a local pub.
This is a very significant re-release – Young Modern may not have the reverence and mythology of its hard rock contemporaries, but the music is just as relevant today as it was 25 years ago.
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
