Wot WOD

Jesus, WOD are a mess, aren't they? The Melbourne four-piece have finally brought out their album I'm Gonna Tell Everyone We Slept Together, Even If We Didn't through Pissfart Records and it's a blistering, dumb blast. Most people will have heard 'What A Drag' - one of the most hilarious pisstakes on being a slack prick that I've ever heard. (Although I totally agree on the chicken salt/regular salt conundrum...) The album alternates between more aggressive punk meltdowns ('Top 5', 'Bad Smell') and barely-awake drunken drawls ('Not Again', 'Monday Morning'). Its all lowest common denominator stuff - the kind of punk that actively encourages drunken belligerence and idiocy but will laugh at you when you hurt yourself. Grab it here and get smaaaaaaaaaashed.

You may have missed the launch and their early Cosmic Psychos support, but they still have a couple dates up their sleeves this month, as they are halfway through their Tote dismantling/residency, and support Food Court at the Gasometer too:

JUNE 20th

THE TOTE HOTEL

COLLINGWOOD

W/KING CHOONGA

JUNE 26th

THE GASOMETER HOTEL

COLLINGWOOD

W/FOOD COURT

JUNE 27th

THE TOTE HOTEL

COLLINGWOOD

W/TOMB HANX

Losing My Pale Head

As if I wasn't going to love the fuck out of Headless, the new (and wholly unexpected) album from Pale Heads, the hastily assembled Melbourne super/uber/shitgroup. Featuring Batpissers, Nation Bluers, Harmonisers, Droners, and a Pair, Pale Heads come together as a rusted barrel mess, sloshing their wrecked memories, battered bodies, and twisted limbs into one destructive black mass that rides the pendulum between these guys' past influences (blue collar nihilism, violent drunk diatribes, bucolic flannel punk, frenetic numbskull noise), the filaments drawn into a swirling abyss of madness and mayhem.

From the brilliantly explosive (and slightly unhinged) 'Thomy Cut Off A Head' Headless careens off all of the walls - the dour-with-weird-effects 'Pale Head', the charged throbbing rock of 'I Can't Lose You', the caterwauling black hole and SY instrument annihilating of 'Milk Eyes', the nobrain attack of 'Transitioning Out' with the stumbling moments of tooth-nerve-ending bloodcurdling screams of madness masquerading as lucidity; the singalong skree of 'Devotion', the melancholy outro to 'Homeless'; the roughhousing spit-drenched outlier 'Small Town Casualty'; the twisted out of shape bent sonics and wrenched emotions of 'Power & Privilege'; the inherent vitriol spewed forth out of 'The Pits'; the charged groove and growl of 'Chrome'; the gleeful destruction and Morricone twang undercurrents of 'Accountancy Is Hard' (a great track this one); and the closing title track, which feels the closest to a true amalgam of the band members' former selves (and the last few seconds of banter IS the band).

There isn't much cohesion amongst the songs per se, but seeing as the band played together five times before slamming these down on tape at The Tote is a huge reason why Headless remains so loose. But it is a badge of honour too - these guys have bashed out songs that are jammed, crushed, gutted and burnt into their contorted, blackened angularities, and are all the more cathartic for it. For something so instinctual and instantaneous to be so brutally accomplished (albeit streamlined and battered) is bloody good. Imagine what the boys will be like when in each other's faces for a little while longer. There might be more scabs and scratches on those pale heads, but the ferocity and noisy abandon could be monumental. Headless is out now through Poison City Records on blue, red or black vinyl - get in.

Pale Heads launch the album this Saturday in Melbourne at the Gasometer with excellent support from the likes of Spinning Rooms, Steve Miller Band and Slab Knackers (an Eddy Current Suppression Ring "side" project), and play two shows in Sydney the following weekend. I'm sure there are more shows to follow (Brisbane, watch out). 

Glazed Haze On Our Black Vacation

I meant to get this out sooner, seeing as their first two shows (in Newcastle and Sydney) were this weekend. Better late than never I guess... Local woozy amblers Black Vacation have just released new single 'Glazed', and its a suitably excellent track that doles out nonchalance and whimsy in equal, chiming measures. Its the most concise, crystalline effort that the Ford brothers have slapped their name to thus far (Daniel and Matt are also in Kids Cryptic and Thigh Master), whilst the added gravitas of Helena Papageorg (Feathers) and Michaela Chin (Marl Carx) helps to anchor Black Vacation's sound somewhere between the Australian slacker pop revelation and the Stateside introspective fare that the likes of Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing delve in. Excellence par none.



Black Vacation travel down to Melbourne and the Gasometer on Friday July 5 (with support from SM faves Velcro as well as Legendary Hearts and Aktion Unit), before finalising their launch in their hometown (and a Sonic Masala Presents!) at Trainspotters on Sat July 13. Supports for that one will be Cobwebbs, Stress Waves and Dag.

Spilling Paint on White Walls

I've been listening to the White Walls debut Self-titled for a few months now and it is still right up there as album of the year for me. I have a feeling that the upcoming shows at the Crowbar on Friday, 7 June (next weekend, for those playing at home) and at Tym's guitars (the best goddam guitar shop in the entire world) the following day for a free in-store will be up there on my live list too.

I caught up with Dylan from the band for a chat:

First of all, congratulations on the album, it’s a fucking fantastic piece of noisy craftsmanship. For me it really captures the hopeful side of world-weariness; a sunlight through the fringe kind of deal.

Thank you. It's really nice to hear good feedback on the record.

No worries. A lot of people up here [Brisbane] are really looking forward to hearing those doom guitar swirls live. It’s a sound that really fits well with the lyrical content: dealing with loss or regret, but in a way that’s more cathartic than depressing.

I think you have summed up the feeling of the record perfectly.

Going into it did you have any particular notions about what you wanted to convey?

Although we didn't consciously set out with any particular notion, there is definitely a familiar feeling that flows throughout.

Can you go into a bit more depth about the cover art on the album; it’s a very intriguing choice.

The cover art for the album was done by a good friend of ours; Gus Lord. He was actually working on something else initially, in a similar vein, but then came across this picture that he accidentally got paint on and built on that to create the final design.  It was perfect! We liked the fact that it was intriguing and also felt it suited the music well.

I definitely agree with that. As a band you seem very keen to talk about other people’s stuff that you think is worth getting in to, between the playing, writing, listening and sharing, it’s pretty obvious music plays quite a big role in your lives.

Music definitely plays a big role in our lives. The Melbourne music scene is thriving these days. It’s very exciting to be a part of it.

Yeah, the Melbourne music scene seems to be really kicking along at the moment. I get a sense of a sort of cross-pollination making for a vibrant and healthy environment for the bands.

We play with friend’s bands regularly and at the Gasometer Hotel more than enough - It’s almost like a second home. So our social life pretty much revolves around music, on top of the general listening enjoyment.

You must be stoked about getting on the Release the Bats line up.

We are extremely stoked on being asked to play ATP! It's a huge lineup of bands we like. Can't wait!

Tone and volume are pretty central (even to the sake of ‘worship’) – when you start a new song do you have a way of irking out or describing the sounds you want, and how long will you spend finding the right tone?

We are rather obsessed with tone, haha, this healthy obsession has grown since we started this band. We have a good idea of how we want new material to sound these days. Recently our setups have grown and we have now perfected the guitar tones we want at this point in time.

Does anyone have any secrets with their setups at the moment? Personally, I’m very keen to hear how you got the epic guitar sound in ‘transmission’.

There's no real tone secrets kept from anyone that has seen us live. Basically comes down to powerful guitar amps. The transmission guitar tone was a combination of death by audio fuzz pedals through an orange OR120 and a JCM800. This was pretty much the setup for this record. The next record will involve new and old setups.

The absence of bass guitar is something people often note about the band – was it a conscious decision at conception to leave it out? Does it impact on the song writing process?

The lack of bass guitar simply came from Fuj and myself both being guitarists when we started out and alongside Rory it just felt right. We figured if we could create a full enough sound then we wouldn't need a bass player. Some of the new songs have bass parts written in which are played on guitar.

New songs, eh? Can we expect anything anytime soon?

Got a second record in the works, which we will be recording late July, so lots to look forward to.

Get your hands on a copy of the album and the split 7" with Deep Heat (both out through the fucking incredible Poison City Records) here.