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In their earliest incarnation,
the Saints were one of the one of the most blazing bands on the Australian punk scene of the '70s, and their 1976 single "(I'm) Stranded" became an international success. The group would go through many creative shifts in the years that followed, in particular after co-founder
Ed Kuepper left the line-up and
Chris Bailey became their uncontested leader. But
Kuepper would seek to re-create some of the taut energy of his salad days in
the Saints in a band he called
the Aints, which took a similarly stripped-down approach while adding new and noisy twists to the formula.
The Aints were a no-frills outfit with
Kuepper's guitar work hitting a midpoint between punk rock fury and a thicker, semi-psychedelic approach on their first two albums, both released in 1991 -- the studio set Ascension, and the live disc S.L.S.Q. While
the Aints' recording career was over nearly as quickly as it started,
Kuepper revived the concept in the 2010s to cut an album of unreleased songs penned before and during his tenure with
the Saints, 2018's
The Church of Simultaneous Existence, which added a touch of unpretentious refinement to their sound.
Kuepper founded
the Saints in Brisbane, Australia with
Chris Bailey and
Ivor Hay in 1973, originally using the name Kid Galahad and the Eternals. Initially playing '50s rock covers at a blazing speed and intensity, the trio evolved into
the Saints and self-released their debut single, "(I'm) Stranded," in 1976. The single initially fell on deaf ears, but when a small label issued it in England, a rave review in Sounds Magazine brought it to the attention of punk rock fans in Australia and the U.K., and it became a modest hit.
EMI quickly stepped in to sign the band to a record deal, and between February 1977 and October 1978,
the Saints released three albums --
(I'm) Stranded, Eternally Yours, and
Prehistoric Sounds. However, financial problems and creative differences stymied the group, and in 1979,
Kuepper left
the Saints. That same year, he debuted a new group, the Laughing Clowns, releasing their self-titled debut EP in 1980. Taking a more ambitious and jazz-influenced direction than
the Saints,
Kuepper would release four studio albums with the Laughing Clowns before embarking on a solo career with the 1986 album Electrical Storm.
While
Kuepper clearly had diverse tastes, he hadn't lost his passion for simple, guitar-based rock & roll, and with this in mind, he formed the first edition of
the Aints in 1991. Supposedly taking the name from an old
Saints bass drum head that had lost its S,
the Aints made their live debut in Sydney in April 1991, with
Kuepper (on guitar and vocals) joined by bassist
Kent Steedman and drummer
Tim Reeves, and the set list dominated by old
Saints tunes, though
Kuepper's guitar work was significantly heavier than it was in his early days. A cassette recording of the debut show became the group's first album when it was issued as the live disc S.L.S.Q. (the title was said to mean "Strictly Limited Sound Quality"). In November 1991,
the Aints released their first studio album, Ascension, which featured new material as well as a revised lineup, bassist Artie Sledge, sax player
Tim Hopkins, and drummer Mark Dawson. Autocannibalism followed in 1992, and a five-song EP, Cheap Erotica, was released in 1993. However, by the time the EP arrived,
Kuepper had returned to his prolific solo career, and a third
Aints studio album, Afterlife, was shelved and he retired the project.
In 2017,
Kuepper returned to
the Aints' concept when he formed a new version of the band for a tour in which he primarily performed songs he wrote for
the Saints. The new version of the band, which he billed as
the Aints!, included Peter Oxley of
the Sunnyboys on bass, jazz artist
Alister Spence on piano, Eamon Dilworth on trumpet (he also wrote horn arrangements for the band), and Paul Larsen Loughhead of
the Celibate Rifles and
the New Christs on drums. Touring lasted into 2018, and then
Kuepper took the group into the recording studio. The Aints!'s 2018 album
The Church of Simultaneous Existence found them performing a collection of songs that
Kuepper had written between 1973 and 1978, but had never recorded, believing they might not be a good fit for
the Saints. ~ Mark Deming