Junkyard is a 1982 album by Australian post-punk

Post-punk

Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 group The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party (band)

The Birthday Party were an Australian rock band, active from 1973 to 1983.Despite being championed by John Peel, The Birthday Party found little commercial success during their career...

.
The album was recorded with Tony Cohen

Tony Cohen

Tony Cohen is an acclaimed Australian record producer and sound engineer based in Melbourne, best known for his work with The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in the 1980s...

 at Armstrong's Audio Visual (A.A.V.) Studios in Melbourne in December 1981 and January 1982. Additional tracks were recorded in London's Matrix Studios with punk producer Richard Mazda

Richard Mazda

Richard Mazda is a record producer, writer and musician. In later life he also became an actor and director.-Music career:Mazda was one of the co-founders of Poole punk/mod band Tours, singing and playing lead guitar. They signed to Virgin Records in 1979 after selling large quantities of their...

 in May 1982. Mazda's previous work with ATV

Alternative TV

Alternative TV were an English rock band, formed in London in 1976. Their punk rock and post-punk sound was influential for several musical artists.-History:...

 and The Fall had brought him to their attention. Later CD re-issues added the "Release the Bats/Blast Off!" single recorded at London's Townhouse Studio with Nick Launay

Nick Launay

Nick Launay is an English record producer and recording engineer. He is currently one of the most sought after producers in the world due to his current success with recent albums by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds...

 in April 1981.

The album was a somewhat transitional record for a variety of reasons. On 16 February 1982 in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Tracy Pew

Tracy Pew

Tracy Pew was an Australian musician, best known as the bass player for The Birthday Party.Born in Australia, Pew moved with his family to New Zealand in 1959, returning in May 1964...

 (the band's bass player) was arrested for drunk driving. For this and several other outstanding offences he served 2.5 months in Pentridge Prison

HM Prison Pentridge

HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison built in 1850 in Coburg, Victoria. The first prisoners arrived in 1851. The prison officially closed on 1 May 1997....

 in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and so Barry Adamson

Barry Adamson

Barry Adamson is a British rock musician who has worked with rock bands such as Magazine, Visage, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the electronic musicians Pan sonic and Depeche Mode. Adamson created the seven-minute opus "Useless " remix for the latter band in 1997...

 was drafted in on bass duties for several tracks.

The cover art is by Ed Roth

Ed Roth

"Big Daddy" Ed Roth was an artist, cartoonist, custom car painter, and pinstriper who created the hot-rod icon Rat Fink and other extreme characters. As a custom car builder, Roth was a key figure in Southern California's Kustom Kulture and hot-rod movement of the late 50's and 1960's...

 and Dave Christensen and features Roth's Junk Yard Kid character driving a hot rod hybrid featuring equal parts Caddy and garbage can, literally. Roth Studios' best known character, Rat Fink

Rat Fink

Rat Fink is one of the several hot-rod characters created by one of the originators of Kustom Kulture, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Roth conceived Rat Fink as an anti-hero answer to Mickey Mouse...

, makes a prominent cameo atop quad headlights next to the Edsel grille.

In October 2010, Junkyard was listed at No. 17 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums

100 Best Australian Albums

100 Best Australian Albums is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was published on 25 October 2010 by Hardie Grant Books...

.

Track listing

1. "Blast Off!" - 2:17 (CD only)
2. "She's Hit" - 6:06
3. "Dead Joe" - 3:08
4. "The Dim Locator" - 2:49
5. "Hamlet (Pow Pow Pow)" - 5:33
6. "Several Sins" - 2:56
7. "Big Jesus Trash Can" - 3:00
8. "Kiss Me Black" (Barry Adamson
   Barry Adamson
   Barry Adamson is a British rock musician who has worked with rock bands such as Magazine, Visage, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the electronic musicians Pan sonic and Depeche Mode. Adamson created the seven-minute opus "Useless " remix for the latter band in 1997...
   
    on bass) - 2:48
9. "6" Gold Blade" - 3:34
10. "Kewpie Doll" - 3:32
11. "Junkyard" - 5:49
12. "Dead Joe" (2nd version) (Barry Adamson on bass) - 3:07 (CD only)
13. "Release the Bats" - 2:09 (CD only)

Chart performance

Album

Chart	Peak
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	73