“Enter the world of Billie Reid. A musician who stands proud as a purveyor of righteousness in current times → punk, alt-rock and Americana all come crashing down from his pedestal in a fuss of anger, girth, with his trademark vocal – a furious, grizzled spit that emulates the late, great Joe Strummer from The Clash”
“…. Reid’s deeply poetic lyrics stand at the fore of his arson, brandishing words like a sword and hitting injustice square in the jaw ….”
Enter the world of Billie Reid. Australia’s resident singer-songwriter out to get the bad guys and keep the good guys in check. Through his album ‘Ode To The Dudes’, and single ‘Demon Street’, he’s fast making a name for himself as a musician you do not want to miss. Flunking tradition for a life on the road; Campaigning against religion, science and politics; Generally sticking it to the man. These themes run wild throughout the history of multiple, troubadour-peddling genres. Some of the world’s greatest musicians have valiantly proclaimed war on society’s invisible boundaries. They’ve taken it upon themselves to preach a life of freedom in the face of the institutions that surround them on a daily basis. This ethos is pinnacle to some of the greatest movements in the history of music. It continues to live strong today.
Billie Reid is a musician who stands proud as a purveyor of righteousness in current times. Based and working out of Fremantle, Australia, the singer-songwriter’s artillery is a huge catalogue of music and a will to perform. His deeply poetic lyrics stand at the fore of his arson, brandishing words like a sword and hitting injustice square in the jaw. Unsurprisingly, Reid draws influence from genres that are notorious for encapsulating a determination to rebel against social norms, as well as famous literary rebels Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. This is the wordy goodness of the ‘beat movement’ put to music.
Punk, alt-rock, Americana, all come crashing down from his pedestal in a fuss of anger, girth, and the occasional nod to the fairer sex. Joining him on his stand is his trusty acoustic guitar. It works in collaboration with his trademark vocal – a furious, grizzled spit that emulates the late, great Joe Strummer from The Clash. With songs ranging from one to three minutes, the tracks contained within ‘Ode To The Dudes’ typically display an aptitude for punk music, clawing in the listener and bellowing punk-pop-rock infused morality in their ear.
Standout tracks on the album include ‘Honey Skin’, the opening lament to lost love, and ‘About You’, a whisky drenched swill to round things off towards the end of the record. Although ‘Ode To The Dudes’ has been compared to The Buzzcocks, The Flaming Groovies and Elvis Costello, it holds the undeniable hallmark of a unique musician fighting his own fight.
In comparison his single ‘Demon Street’ is a well executed howl of desperation, aimed in the direction of an unobtainable woman. Despite being, on the face of it, a love song, Reid uses the track to open up about the social and personal constrictions he feels. Punk doesn’t need to be soulless, after all …. and neither do Facebook messages.
Through a series of sometimes controversial updates, Reid has made a name for himself as a musician who’s not afraid to speak his mind on and off the page. Queue copyright accusations a-plenty …. “Powderfinger song just on Triple J, is such an absolute clone of The Cars’ ‘Who’s Gonna Drive You Home’ …. I thought they’d gone to their “like a version” segment but then Bernard Fanning claimed it as an original! Sickening really, the song is literally plagiarism, not just a direct lyrical rip-off though, even the riffs are blatant copies of that song from 80’s. Even the actual arrangement of the tune and phrasing of the words is the same! How rude …. AARGGH!” There’s even time for some self-preservation …. “Jose Gonzales has definitely heard my ‘Down the Line’ … his words are different, but the title, feel and sub-structure are the same.”
From structural similarities to local radio stations and gun owners, through to songwriter extraordinaire and recording maverick, whatever Billie Reid’s metaphorical gun is pointed at, it’s clear that he’s one passionate and determined guy.
Tiffany Daniels
Beat Movement (Britannica): Beat movement, also called Beat Generation, American social and literary movement originating in the 1950’s and centred in the bohemian artist communities of San Francisco’s North Beach, Los Angeles’ Venice West, and New York City’s Greenwich Village. Its adherents, self-styled as “beat” and derisively called “beatniks” expressed their alienation from conventional, or “square” society by adopting a style of dress, manners, and “hip” vocabulary borrowed from jazz musicians. They advocated personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz, sex, or the disciplines of Zen Buddhism. The Beats and their advocates found the joylessness and purposelessness of modern society sufficient justification for both withdrawal and protest.
Beat poets sought to transform poetry into an expression of genuine lived experience. They read their work, sometimes to the accompaniment of progressive jazz, in such Beat strongholds as the Coexistence Bagel Shop and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. The verse was frequently chaotic and liberally sprinkled with obscenities and frank references to sex, all intended to liberate poetry from academic preciosity. Allen Ginsberg’s Howl became the most representative poetic expression of the Beat movement: the poem itself embodied the essence of the Beats’ voice; its first performance, in 1955, was a disorderly celebration; and the obscenity trial, in 1957, that followed its publication showed the movement’s social and political relevance. Ginsberg and other major figures of the movement, such as the novelist Jack Kerouac, advocated a kind of free, unstructured composition in which the writer put down his thoughts and feelings without plan or revision in order to convey the immediacy of experience.
By about 1960, the Beat movement as a fad had begun to fade, though its experiments with form and its social engagement continued and had lasting effects. The movement produced a number of significant writers, including Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Philip Whalen, and Gary Snyder; the poet LeRoi Jones had also been part of the Beat circle and published their work in his magazine Yugen, though he broke with the movement in the 1960’s. The Beats paved the way for broader acceptance of other unorthodox and previously ignored writers, such as the Black Mountain poets and the novelist William S. Burroughs.
“Tombstones and a cheating heart … a dark reading on a timeless theme” | Demon Street | Billie Reid
Modern technology gives us a chance to explore Billie Reid’s “alt” version of ‘Demon Street’. Sneering ‘Clash’ inspired chords, college-art backing, and snarling lyrics that bite. Tombstones and a cheating heart … “I ain’t got no time for lies” … this isn’t trendy art but a dark reading on a timeless theme. There’s darkness and a sense of desperation that pulls you in. ‘Demon Street’, don’t go there, but if you do, I wish you luck because this song has no room for sensitive types. It’s a bitter tirade lamenting loss, yet there’s no sense of introspection or poignant reflection from the safety of distance. Self pity isn’t in Billie’s emotional vocabulary. ‘Demon Street’ is hard edged, razor-sharp, and word perfect. Perhaps only those who have been hurt will connect.
‘Demon Street’ captures Australian axeman Phil Bradley at his fiery best, locked in a brutal Strummer-esque guitar-attack with the track’s stomping percussion, whilst Reid relays a tale of love and loss with the bile and poetic fervour of a punk troubadour. He presents the listener with the fiery sound of defiance .… “I’m not about to waste my life on someone else’s whim” …. mixing up a bitter brew of betrayal, torment and regret, whipped up into song form. Anger, he reminds us, is an energy after all. When your world falls down, it’s better to feel something rather than nothing at all.
‘Demon Street’ is sure to provide an ideal swig of Dutch courage for anyone undergoing a painful, messy breakup. Why mope around when you could, like Billie Reid, count your losses and continue to kick ass! Liam Allen.
“Poet, songwriter, Billie Reid eschews the road of rock’n’roll excess and fake outrage”
Some people sell out, they get worn down or just become plain desperate for a payoff or hunger fame, but for others their music and words are non-negotiable. They never do the record company thing and can’t sway from their chosen path, always true to their roots it’s in the DNA of their lyrics and tunes. That’s Billie Reid. Perhaps he knew he would never fit in. Honest and unpretentious with an almost indifferent disregard to what was fashionable and in the charts. He couldn’t and wouldn’t play the music biz game.
But Billie isn’t desperate for fame, he won’t play that game. Reclusive and flying under the radar he eschews the road of rock’n’roll excess and fake outrage, and in his own way his game plan has made him the underdog. It’s a dangerous fickle game that can lead to nowhere, but with this territory comes credibility and I guess this is priceless, and Billie has it by the bucket load.
His songs are here. Give them time and they will slowly seep into your life. All that matters is the moment and the emotion. Simple words, honest musicianship.
“… put more simply, Billie Reid is a poet and he **** **** knows it!”
“… this street walkin’ cheetah, with a heart full of napalm, has a lot to say about love, loss, and the state of the world. Put more simply, Billie Reid is a poet and he **** **** knows it!”
… the unfurling lyrical attack of Reid as he aims straight for the jugular, singing “they won’t let us live on the beaches, they won’t let us live in the trees, the bastards just lock us in stables, and sell one another the keys”. The lyrics appear to be born out of a particular brand of anti-capitalistic fervour aroused by the Occupy protests, with a call for an alternative beyond the current dire political outlook of partisan politics and limiting left/right perspectives.
Reid’s uncompromising spirit shines through the course of this album. This is a man whose footsteps aim to re-find the path set down by the luminaries of the independent music scene. While the machine-gun delivery of his words recalls the lyrical fire and brimstone of Bob Dylan, as well as the acerbic energy of Johnny Cash, the quick-fire musical vignettes that fill this LP bring to mind punk stalwarts the Wire. Resultantly, Billie Reid’s music is a volatile hybrid, combining the purebred folk compulsions of bluegrass and rockabilly, infused with Reid’s own punk-influenced approach to songwriting. This street walkin’ cheetah, with a heart full of napalm, has a lot to say about love, loss, and the state of the world. Put more simply, Billie Reid is a poet and he **** **** knows it!
* Nikola Tesla had a knack of being able to draw printed circuitry in his mind that worked, my forte is being able to totally rehabilitate this entire Planet, every last detail in my mind, all perfectly workable, TRULY Green, revivifying the deserts of the Planet as oasis after oasis producing more food than ten times the current population could use, more water than 100 times the current population could use, non-polluting power production, removal of current pollution and constructive recycling thereof, a Planet where your kids won’t be required to live in rabbit hutches. Billie Reid.
Billie Reid | ‘self, muso, poet, regenerationist extrordinaire, polymathic re-planetarizationist’
i began wandering around Australia, mostly on foot working farms, building sites, gold claims etc, from the south west through the gold fields and northern gold fields, out to the Kimberleys for walks through boab “forests”, into the northern territory (probably my favourite part of any good walk, that 1st glimpse each time of the rocks and “cliffs” before Victoria River as you 1st walk in from west oz) because you know Katherine ain’t “far”, all the while checking out the different facets of the Natural eco-system, how it’s changed since my last walk there in a different season etc, checking out the man-made catchments and dams stretching out around northern wa, etc, etc, et ***, cetera, my goal, to put all of this knowledge, hard won, into developing a plan to put PEOPLES in the “driving seat” of Australia again, which i proceeded to do, and to give y’all these perfectly workable ideas, designed to benefit y’all and your Kids and their Kids ad infinitum … njoi!billie
Billie Reid | Single Tachyon Extrapolation of Existence | Ode To The Dudes | Youtube
“…. this is the lightspeed and below universe of our physical senses, the single-particle-theory tachyon soup created as the single tachyon intersects with itself in different places at the same time, and the same place at different times; this may be metaphorically considered as the consciousness of creation, the mind ….“
Just as the cosmos in its physical sense is a totally inter-related manifestation of its component attributes of gravitational and electromagnetic coincidence, so the events/consciousness’s within that cosmos may be seen to be dependent on/connected to everything else that occurs within that same instant (i.e, synchronicity). Accepting this, and being that we can have no real concept of (or existence in) an instantaneous universe, we may extrapolate that for all our intents and purposes a combined continuity of time and space is a prerequisite of our conscious awareness of the reality that we appear to occupy and that therefore, all events throughout time and space are influenced by and influencing all other events within that continuum in a coherent and instantaneous manner regardless of temporal and/or spatial remoteness. This is the lightspeed and below universe of our physical senses, the single-particle-theory tachyon soup created as the single “tachyon” (4want’v betr word, i.e, instantaneous particle/wave “pixel/bit/packet” … no mass, no volume, “just” infinite velocity) intersects with itself in different places at the same time, and the same place at different times; this may be metaphorically considered as the consciousness of creation, the mind. The faster than light realm of the uninterrupted tachyon may be thought of as the subconscious mind of Eternity (as above, so below etc). We have the potential (in our role as an interface between rational/instinctive/emotional consciousness, between physical/spiritual, matter and energy) to challenge the apparent boundaries of our existence, to examine the walls of our cell for loose stones, to grab a can of spray paint and try to tag the invisible as it moves amongst us. Some try…. this is their Lounge … Welcome to the Dawn … “The game is afoot” … Eternity Beware, Oblivion is at hand. LOL.
