See The Fortress?

Not that you need to hear it from me - but Thee Oh Sees is still one of the most consistently breathtaking live acts on the planet. Not only carving a sweaty swathe across the globe at regular intervals, but John Dwyer and co are continually bringing out new material. Now 'Fortress' has been out since before Xmas, but I need to melt my face off to keep warm this Friday night, and knowing that pals Blank Realm and Kitchens Floor played with them in Brisbane last night (this afternoon for us UKens), the start of their Australian tour as over the course the month they traipse across the Great Southern Land doing show with mates White Lodge and Straight Arrows as well as UV Race, Terrible Truths, Power and Tyrannamen - so bummed! So I'm building a fortress with endless TOS records and beers - it should see me through, right? 'Fortress' will feature on a 7" out on Dwyer's Castle Face Records next month.

Hellish Highlife Made

I have to say I am a little confused by Making... I was pretty sure the Sydney trio were breaking up. But seems I was (thankfully) entirely wrong, as they release their new LP Highlife next month through Trait Records. I have been a fan of theirs since hearing their excellent self titled EP and this lives up to the long expectations. The first track that really grabs me is the fourth track on the album, 'Come To Me' - it has that My Disco brooding pendulum rhythm and clipped/barked monosyllabic vocal approach, but then it explodes into something altogether more gnarled and corrosive. 'Zs' also fits into this vein, although there is a heavier metallic expulsion here that pushes them into noisier terrain. 'Dream Job' lurches forth, a metallic monster, deliberately unsettled and unsettling, serrated and scabrous, forcing the bile into the back of the throat. Then 'Amazon' has a more sinuous groove inherent, something Battles might produce without all the theatrics; 'Pascal' has moments of reflection in the middle third that allows for the pummelling bookends to smash forth with more controlled venom; and the psychotropic freneticism of the closing title track is the weirdest yet most cathartic song on the album. It does take the foot off the neck a bit, so to speak, and it is essentially what enlivens Highlife and makes those moments of black tension and white-hot release so potent. The production is powerful and precise too, thanks to Ivan Lisyak (Narrow Lands, Tanned Christ) and Lawrence English.


Preorder Highlife here - it's a corker. Making hit the road in Australia to launch the album on these dates (which also features Sonic Masala Records band Danyl Jesu in the mix!):

5th September - Crowbar Brisbane

w/Sewers, Danyl Jesu vs Pale Earth + Nature Trails 

11th September - Black Wire Records, Sydney 

w/Marcus Whale (LIVE), Mere Women + BV (connect the dots)

12th September - The Public Bar, Melbourne 

w/Diecut, CAMP COPE + JAALA

INTERVIEW - Batpiss

Ah, Batpiss. The loose trio produced one of the best balltearing releases of the year in the form of Nuclear Winter back in the first half of the year. Yet this interview, conducted with bassist/vocalist Thomy Sloane, was actually conducted back in May, the same time Nathan and I interviewed another excellent Melbourne band White Walls. Why has it taken so long to air? Because I had been holding on to this for their album launch shows up here in July – that never happened. Then I was holding it for when they would launch the album at a Sonic Masala show slated for October 12. But that ain’t happenin either. Why? Because the bloody Nation Blue bloody asked em to bloody support them on a little covert tour, didn’t they? The same day I have a wedding to attend (not my own, but a close friend’s). Fuckers. No, it will be a killer show this Saturday night down at Crowbar (with the excellent Roku Music and new anomaly Greig filling out the bill). So here is the interview. (Yes, Thomy does speak like this; and yes, I laughed a lot).

SONIC MASALA – Hey Tommy, how are you man?

THOMY SLOANE – umm…fucking working on the door (at the Tote) at the moment. So if the band starts Ill ask someone to cover me if it’s too loud.

This is the flyer I saw. OFF! was a dream come true for Black Flag head Thomy...

SM – Cool, Ill get stuck in then. I can’t remember exactly where I had heard of Batpiss originally, because you haven’t been around all that long – it may have been on a flyer that I saw in Melbourne back in February – and so it feel you have leapt out of nowhere to be slaying it down there.

TS – Yeah man, fuckin ahh, it’s pretty new ay? We’re blown out by it all too, we’ve only been doing this for a year and a half. Shit’s just worked out for us, we haven’t really had to do anything, we’ve just been lazy pricks and shit’s just fallen in our laps, which is lucky for us I guess. We’re spun the fuck out over it hey!

SM – (laughs) The funny thing about your album Nuclear Winter is that its brutal but it does sound like there's some kind of manic glee in the entire process, there's no, as full as it can be it is not a serious endeavour…

TS – Totally. There’s nothing serious about us. We get labelled and put alongside these heavy as hell bands, but you listen to the record and…we’re not, you know? We’re the opposite in some ways. There are heavy elements for sure…but I don’t even think its heavy! (laughs) The album itself has real diverse shit in there; some of it’s pop I reckon…

SM – (laughs) Really?

TS – Yeah, yeah. The ‘Loose Screws’ chorus is pretty poppy, same with ‘Portal’ I reckon.

SM – That’s a pretty warped take on pop.

TS – Yeah, pretty much (laughs) Well not pop, but catchy. Catchy can be the word; I don’t wanna be in a pop band, fuck that.

SM – (laughs) Not with a name like Batpiss, that’s for sure! Where did the name come from?

TS – It came from Marty our drummer. We were drunk as shit one night, trying to come up with a band name. We came up with heaps of stupid ones, then that came up. We –

(Noise as the band starts up. The next three minutes is Thomy trying to get someone to take the door; lots of expletives; finally he works something out and things quieten down)

TS – So sorry dude! Where was I? The name? Yeah, so, do you really wanna know the long story?

SM – (laughs) That’s up to you, do you want to tell it?

TS – Ok…(sigh)…I went on this date with this chick at the Tote, and at this time of year bats hang out in the trees. It’s a clear arse night, and I’ve seen them piss on someone before in the beer garden. So that’s happened to me; it was a clear arse night, so it clearly wasn’t rain. And the girl was like “Oh, what was that?” And I was like “Ah, nothing…I'll be back in a sec.” I just live around the corner so I'm fucking running home, ripping my fucking shirt off that’s covered in fucking bat piss, ran back to the pub and ran into Marty, and I was like “Dude, I got pissed on by a bat!” He laughed and said “We’re called Batpiss, that’s it” And yep, that’s it. How good is that?

SM – (laughing)

TS – We came up with heaps of other stupid names afterwards, because it was just a joke at the start. The whole band thing – Marty and I only played songs that went for one minute. Then we got Paul in on guitar, we started writing different shit to suit him, and the name stuck.

SM – So the name literally fell from the sky?

TS – It literally did, and it covered me! (laughs)

SM – So you said you brought Paul in and started changing the dynamic of the band, were there any influences or goals that you had at the very least?

TS – Yeah, well, all three of us love different shit, like Marty our drummer is heaps into doom stuff, and I enjoy old punk rock, Black Flag and all that punk shit, and Paul our guitarist is heaps into blues – he’s one of those dudes who can just play mad shit. So I think it’s just a blend of three different people throwing whatever they want to the mix. There’s no boundaries, like we don’t say “We’ve got fucking do this or fucking sound like this!” We just sit around and fucking jam out, so things start fast and end up slow, that kind of thing. And there’s no real band influences either. If it was anything like that, it’d be local bands around Melbourne I reckon. Just got a dark Melbourne kinda sound, you know? We’re just a bunch of weird cunts, really…

SM – (laughs) Yeah, that you are! It’s funny you should say that, because one of my favourite bands at the moment is The Spinning Rooms, and there’s a certain level of affinity that you guys hold with them too…

TS – Oh majorly man, I reckon those guys are awesome! I actually live with Pete (Dickinson, vox/guitar for The Spinning Rooms). I absolutely love what they do and once again I think they’ve got that real dark underground Melbourne kinda sound, that noisy kinda thing. Whatever they do is fucking rad and I’ve definitely taken influence from them for sure. Mainly the noisy guitar and Pete’s vocals as well.

SM – It’s just something else, isn’t it? I’ve known Tom Lyngcoln since 2011 when I came back from the UK and he was starting up Harmony, who’s a goddamn legend, and…

TS – Who’s that?

SM – Tom Lyngcoln? He did your album?

TS – Oh, yeah, Tom, sorry I couldn’t hear for a second. Yeah he’s a fucking legend.

SM – Yeah, and he recorded the Spinning Rooms stuff, so it’s clearly a sound that he is gravitating towards as well, or at least is searching him out…

TS – Oh majorly man! I don’t know what it is about him hey. He’s got such an ear for good shit. I'm not saying that about us, though, the other stuff he does, including the bands hes in. He’s totally onto it.

SM – He sure is…

TS – And he’s the most humble dude to work with, man. Recording was completely stress free with him. It’s a fucking pleasure to know the guy.

SM – (laughs) He puts his neck out for anyone that he thinks is the real deal, he’s a great guy…

TS – Fucking oath. He’s someone where it’s like if you don’t get along with him, then you must be a fuckwit. (laughs) If you can’t like this guy then there’s something fucking going on with you, mental issues or some shit. He is just a fucking good dude.

SM – Stepping away from the gushing for a second…

TS – (laughs) Yeah, that was getting a bit like that…

SM – You said that Nuclear Winter was an easy recording process, you did it all at the Tote in your rehearsal room, is that right?

TS – Yeah. Well me and Marty work at the Tote, jam here, we know what the room’s like, it’s just around the corner from my house, so why not, you know? It’s where the band fucking started, so we feel at home here. Plus we don’t have to fucking pay any money, which is luck because we haven’t fucking got none, plus all our gear’s here so we don’t have to lug it anywhere. Tom has a portable studio he can take anywhere with him, so he set up a bunch of shit and we recorded it live.

SM – Nuclear Winter kind of sounds live, but it sounds so good. When I heard it was all recorded in the Tote rehearsal rooms, well, I know you can make anything sound good from anywhere I suppose, but it’s a sleeker production that still sounds brutal, like it can break down at any time…

TS – Yeah, it’s got a real roomy sound, not like it’s in a sterile environment like a studio.  There’s lots of bleed in it. It’s pretty much how we sound live, and I didn’t want to capture anything else. You know when with bands you see them a bunch of times then you hear the album and it sounds really polished? I wanted the opposite, to say “Nah, this is how we kill it” and press play. I think it’s come out sweet, I'm really happy with it.

SM – With songs like ‘Loose Screws’ that are more straightforward rock tunes, then there are songs that are slower, stretched out, dirge like songs – it’s an album that truly showcases what Batpiss has been able to achieve over the past year.

TS – Totally man, and I think that’s to do with the different stuff we all listen to as well. You can be heavy without being metal, and the riffs on the albums prove that I reckon. It’s good to be diverse, rather than be labelled as a punk band or a whatever band. We play fast paced songs, medium paced shit, it’s all good.

SM – Do you find yourselves being corralled into heavy sets or heavy lineups that don’t really suit you, or sort of diverse acts that don’t really gel together?

TS – Yeah, we get thrown onto lots of doomy sort of shows and that always flips me out because all the bands before us are heavy as fuck, and I'm thinking “Man, we’re gonna sound like the Spice Girls coming after these guys!” I don’t know, I feel we’ve always played shows with different genre bands as well. I prefer to play mixed-genre bills. A good band’s a good band, you don’t have to all sound the same to have a good time. And that’s where I think we’ve branched out to a lot of people as well. A lot of people who listen to country or folk grew up as little punks, everyone’s had their day listening to hardcore shit, and Batpiss might take them back to that. I don’t know…

SM – Well you had a pretty eclectic lineup for your launch too, didn’t you?

TS – Yeah man that was nuts. And once again I think the scene down in Melbourne is so strong dude. Every fucking band is seriously got their A game on. All the bands we picked for that were bands that we’re mates with. We couldn’t do a launch where you have one or two bands support you, we though “Fuck that! We wanna get them all!” So we made a party out of it, and it was off the tap man. Every band was on the money, and we were sitting there shitting ourselves, thinking that it had all backfired on us and we were the worst band to be finishing off such a fucking awesome lineup. I don’t know, I reckon it all worked out in the end.

SM – (laughs) Just going back to the album for a second, the artwork is pretty cool, where’d that come from?

TS – That’s our guitarist; he does all our art. He’s a freak at drawing, like you go to his house and the place is covered in pictures he’s drawn, all like skulls and that kinda shit. I reckon he’s got a distinct kind of style about him, and it’s good for us too because then our releases can be seen as Batpiss just from the drawings. His artwork is off the chain! That’s fucking nothing compared to a lot of his other stuff, it’s pretty loose.

Shit indeed. A wild guy from a wild band. Make sure you can get to the show at Crowbar this Saturday – Ill be the guy in the spew-stained suit – but if you can’t get there, you can pick up their excellent album Nuclear Winter through Every Night Is A Saturday Night Records here.

No Anchoring The Dead

Not so local noisemongers No Anchor (Ian is being all literary-y and full of disdain in Melbourne these days) haven't been overly active in the live sense in 2013 (hence the electricity of their shows that have rolled around - the Sonic Masala show in May, the show they did only last week), but they do have some new wares courtesy of a split 7" they've put out with fellow maniacs DEAD. Perfect marriage this one - two bands blatantly fucking off the guitar and brutalising the bass. So far, so angry. Would you expect anything less? The NA trio feel 'Bogan Ash' is the poppiest thing they've ever done. They aren't reaching for the mascara and microphone headsets (yet), but as far as No Anchor goes, it is a much more straight down the line number. Sorry lads, but whilst this song really rips, it makes DEAD's whorling bloody maelstrom 'Scratching My Arts' look even better. Backhanded compliment? I can keep em comin all day. Its the kind of lurking leering head explosion that I absolutely love; Jem absolutely kills it on drums; my skin is flayed without notice. Well done, lads, well done.


No Anchor have one more show up their sleeve at the end of November at Crowbar. They will have the crazy up-and-comers Clowns in support - they eat Juggalos for breakfast. If you still need your NA fix in any form (and let's face it, who doesn't) Donnie's band Roku Music is supporting the sublime Sydneysiders Yes I'm Leaving this Friday at the Waiting Room - it's another Sonic Masala Presents show, so you should all be there. Finally, Roku Music and Greig (Alex's new band) are the other supports for what could very well be the best show of the year - The Nation Blue and Batpiss, also at Crowbar, on Saturday October 5. I have a wedding that day, so Ill be the dude in the suit. Pete from The Spinning Rooms has promised to spew on me too, so I should be pretty recognisable. No Anchor, in whatever form, rule hard.

Hoisted Out Of The Sewers

(photo by Glen Schenau)

Nihilistic nightdwellers Sewers have been slaving away in the darkness for some time now. They fit into some of the seamier, leerier cracks of the Brisbane scene, but regardless of whether they are flaying the locals at Chardons Corner, spitting venom at Crowbar or bleeding into the cement underneath a dilapidated house, they always managed to be cut from much coarser stuff than those around them. It's been captured to some degree of success on a couple of cassettes, but leave it to Homeless Records to pour some acetone on the festering wound and produce their first LP, Hoisted. Things are still as diseased as you'd expect - Shan is growling through decimated chords and depraved drums, dead eyes and hateful lullabies all present and accounted for. But there is just the right amount of cleanliness applied to the recordings that wipes away the grime and gives off enough light to peer through into the belly of the beast - which makes these songs that more terrifying. Sewers often feels displaced - they should be in the bowels of Brooklyn, or even the back alleys of 1980s Sydney - but Hoisted more than effectively smashes such notions (and seven shades of shit) out of all naysayers. Drive the nail.

You can buy Hoisted here - I can hear your palms sweating already.

Foreign Thieves

I thought I'd end off  Chicago's Daylight Robbery, who I caught playing a no-frills rocking set at The Waiting Room on Friday night (alongside others such as Roku Music and Screaming Match). The trio are no nonsense, clearly doing it for the love of it, and there was something disarming about their throwback garage punk that is often missing from others of their ilk.

I'm closing down for the weekend. I'm a little bit sore from last night's stellar Trainspotters gig (thanks for coming out, by the way), I'm dreading my first day at two of my jobs in three weeks tomorrow, I've done a mountain of washing, and I'm looking at the final day of the Ashes Test with a queasy sense of trepidation. I need to medicate. And their latest release, the EP Distant Shores, is the ticket. Apparently created specifically with this tour in mind (they only released their Ecstatic Vision LP last year, but wanted something "new" to bring with them), the three tracks electrify; fast paced and urgent, with a mirthful glint in the eye, feeling more in sync with MC5, the Jam and X than more recent punk luminaries (which also speaks to their final show being a support of Straitjacket Nation).

You can pick up Distant Shores (in white 7" vinyl), and indeed any of Daylight Robbery's back catalogue, from here. They are halfway through an extensive Australian tour, have been playing with the likes of Deep Heat, White Walls, Cuntz and Native Cats of recent times, and they have tapped another show tonight at the Crowbar alongside the ever-excellent Blank Realm (Yoghurt Blood are also playing a rare set).

Daylight Robbery - Distant Shores