Ep479: Aussie Legend James Baker - The Victims, The Scientists, The Beasts and more
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2024
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Australian drummer James Baker chased after punk rock overseas before returning to Perth, forming The Victims, The Scientists, The Beasts of Bourbon and more with an extensive discography of increasingly collectible records.
Topics Include:
- Born in Perth 1954, travelled to US/UK at age 21 in 1976
- Saw early Ramones shows at CBGB's in New York
- Met Sid Vicious on bus while wearing NY Dolls shirt
- Auditioned as drummer for The Clash in London
- Formed The Victims in Perth after returning home
- Pressed 500 then 1000 copies of "Television Addict" single
- Hand-stamped Victims record sleeves during beer-fueled parties
- The Victims only lasted eight months as band
- Joined The Scientists a day after Victims broke up
- Scientists' "Frantic Romantic" shipped 500 copies to LA
- Never got paid from BOMP
- Early punk records now worth hundreds of dollars
- Reformed The Victims with Ray Ahn of Hard-Ons
- Beasts of Bourbon formed when Tex needed backup band
- Recorded The Axe Man's Jazz album in just one day
- New Beasts album "Ultimo" recently released
- Planning Sydney and Melbourne tour for new album
- Released multiple records during 70th year celebration
- Live Victims album coming soon through In The Red
- James Baker Experience single produced by John Foy
- Most recent recordings done in just two days
- Still actively recording but less live performance
- Original Victims records now worth thousands of dollars
- New "James Baker Beat" single on Cheersquad Records
Get new music from the Beasts and the James Baker Beat now!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, vinyl lovers, listen up. It's time to take your vinyl experience to the next level |
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| 0:28.2 | Elevate your vinyl setup at sidetracked workshop.com. And now on with the show. |
| 0:35.5 | Welcome to the vinyl guide. The podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:40.3 | Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer. |
| 0:43.9 | Well, hello everyone and happy holidays. It's Nate. |
| 0:47.1 | Welcome to episode 479 of the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:54.0 | I think this is going to be |
| 0:55.1 | my last episode of 2024. Don't worry, I've got a ton more ready to go kicking off 2025. Very |
| 1:03.2 | strong indeed. But I wanted to share this before we got too far down the line, because it's |
| 1:07.7 | important. We have spoken to an absolute pioneer of punk rock music. |
| 1:14.4 | A dead set Australian legend James Baker, a man who has seen it all lived many lives, hailing from |
| 1:21.0 | Perth, yet discovered punk music early and even traveled to witness it for himself. |
| 1:29.7 | As a young man, James went on a sojourn to the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.K. to see bands like the Damned and the Ramones in their very |
| 1:34.4 | early stages, had some amazing experiences, developed some great friendships, then brought |
| 1:40.1 | all of that wisdom back to Australia and made some of the most important music of the |
| 1:46.0 | punk genre, certainly to come out of Australia, if not the planet. This included the victims, |
| 1:51.7 | the scientists, the hoodoo gurus, the beasts suburban, and many others in between. James spearheaded |
| 1:58.0 | much of the DIY aesthetic of the time, and as a consequence, it's been hailed |
... |
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