Treeless Plain

Treeless Plain
Studio album by The Triffids
Released November 1983
Recorded Emerald City Studios, Sydney
August/September, 1983
Genre Rock / Folk rock
Label Hot Records/Rough Trade
Producer The Triffids
The Triffids chronology
Bad Timing and Other Stories
(1983)		 Treeless Plain
(1983)		 Love In Bright Landscapes
(1986)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Treeless Plain is the debut album by The Triffids, released in November, 1983.[2] The album was recorded at Emerald City Studios, Sydney, Australia in twelve midnight to dawn sessions, during August through to September 1983.[3] It was the band's first release after signing with Hot Records.

A remastered version of the album, with seven bonus live tracks recorded in 1983, was released in Australia in June 2008 through Liberation Music.[4]

Details

David McComb later said, "I don't think it's a great record, but at least we tried to do a few things that pub bands wouldn't normally do. For a lot of the underground scene all across Australia, we just weren't hard rock enough. We used to have a thing against pedals."[5]

Reception

An AllMusic review claimed, "Treeless Plain underscores The Triffids' knack for blending folk and country with indie rock in a way that anticipated the rise of alt-country in the '90s." David McComb's "commanding and resonant" vocals were particularly praised, and the songs, "offered incontrovertible evidence of McComb's skill as a songwriter with a unique lyrical and musical vision."[6]

Clinton Walker described the album as, "a remarkably mature, muscular yet sensitive statement, and it was probably as broadly successful as any Australian indy has ever been. But that still didn't mean big figures."[5] Elsewhere, it was said that the album would endear itself to listeners, "assuming, of course, that you can envisage a band that links folksy sounds, replete with fiddles, with those you might expect of some early Velvet Underground."[7]

Track listing

All songs written by David McComb [8] unless otherwise noted.

  1. "Red Pony" - 4:11
  2. "Branded" - 2:44
  3. "My Baby Thinks She's a Train" - 3:36
  4. "Rosevel" - 2:59
  5. "I Am a Lonesome Hobo" (Bob Dylan[8]) - 2:14
  6. "Place in the Sun" - 2:22
  7. "Plaything" - 3:10
  8. "Old Ghostrider" - 3:09
  9. "Hanging Shed" - 4:02
  10. "Hell of a Summer" - 4:30
  11. "Madeline" - 2:35
  12. "Nothing Can Take Your Place" - 2:49

2008 Reissue

  1. "Red Pony"
  2. "Branded"
  3. "My Baby Thinks She's a Train"
  4. "Rosevel"
  5. "I Am a Lonesome Hobo"
  6. "Place in the Sun"
  7. "Plaything"
  8. "Old Ghostrider"
  9. "Hanging Shed"
  10. "Hell of a Summer"
  11. "Madeline"
  12. "Nothing Can Take You Place
  13. "Interview" (Live at ahe Wireless)
  14. "Old Ghostrider" (Live at the Wireless)
  15. "Plaything" (Live at the Wireless)
  16. "My Baby Thinks She's a Train" (Live at the Wireless)
  17. "Rosevel" (Live at the Wireless)
  18. "Hell of a Summer" (Live at the Wireless)
  19. "On the Street Where You Live" (Live at the Wireless)

Personnel

The Triffids

Credited to:[2]

Additional musicians

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. 1 2 Holmgren, Magnus; Skjefte, Morten; Warnqvist, Stefan; Simonetti, Vince. "The Triffids". Passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 28 July 2002. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Listings for Treeless Plain". Discogs. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  4. ↑ Liberation Music website announcement
  5. 1 2 Clinton Walker (1996). Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music 1977–1991. Pan MacMillan. pp. 148–149. ISBN 0-7329-0883-3.
  6. ↑ Wilson Neate. "Treeless Plain". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  7. ↑ "Records". High Fidelity News and Record Review. Linkhouse Publications: 108.
  8. 1 2 "Australasian Performing Right Association". APRA. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
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