EXPLODING FROM A DIM DARK PAST

Half A Cow is pleased to announce the release of Way Too Casual, the second album by the Zimmermen on the usual digital platforms. Recorded and released in 1988 and produced by Lobby Loyde, this album has been unavailable on any format for over thirty years! This edition boasts remastered sound, new artwork and a bonus track (b-side “The Waltz”). The overall sound is surprisingly BIG (it was the 80s after all) with powerful in-your-face guitar (thanks Lobby) and a widescreen ambience thanks to a panoramic mix from Doug Brady.

*****

Two live shows from The Zimmermen and one from O’Hara’s Playboys (a short lived band of John Dowler’s from the mid-1990s).

Coming about six months after the release of our Rivers Of Corn album, the Elsternwick show featured a generous helping of songs from that album together with a smattering of material that would eventually be released on the next album, two years later. Although the band were all hardened road warriors, we had never played a TV concert before. I remember that the guitarists were freaked out at how softly they were being asked to play by the show’s producer.  Nevertheless, turn down they did, and the overall drop in volume contributed to the unusual lightness of sound and clarity of the set. Sole cover: John Fogerty’s “Almost Saturday Night”.

Two years later and the band that plays an afternoon show at St. Kilda Beach is a substantially different beast. Newly signed to Mushroom, and with a new rhythm section (our original drummer having relocated to Sydney – I know, I know…) we were in the middle of recording our second album with Lobby Loyde. No room for “Don’t Go To Sydney” or “ Ordinary Man” in this set as we concentrated on showcasing the new songs. This is as close to rocking out as the Z’men ever got! Sole cover: Gene Vincent’s “The Day The World Turned Blue”.

O’HARA’S PLAYBOYS

O’HP’s came together a few years after the Zimmermen’s demise as an acoustic duo, specifically to support Melbourne comedy legends Danger Lowbrow on a series of live shows at the Prince Patrick Hotel In Collingwood. I can recall performing a version of “Baker Street” with massed kazoos playing that song’s distinctive sax riff. For the last two shows, the Playboys morphed into a band with Jim Gamack, Russell Baricevic and Michaela Burke coming on board. When the comedy shows finished, so did the band…”

– John Dowler