Nothing Dumb About These Golden Numbers

Good dude Geordie Stafford has been a mainstay in the Brisbane hardcore scene - his efforts in Dick Nasty and Teargas in particular leaving indelible claw marks across the underground. But he found it easiest when he worked on his own - his lone wolf approach to doom metal, Golden Bats, has been incredibly prolific, having put out six self-titled EPs, a few 7"s and some split releases with the likes of Pale Earth and The Steady As She Goes.

He was also involved in the Tym Record Club, where the seminal label put two likeminded artists on flipsides of a 7". Golden Bats' effort sat alongside Adam Harding, a similar Australian rock journeyman who started performing under the moniker Dumb Numbers. Harding has the Midas touch, and on his second album has roped in a who's who of rock and metal royalty to help out (including members of The Melvins, The Jesus Lizard, Einstürzende Neubauten and Dinosaur Jr) - including Monsieur Stafford, who lends his axemanship to 'Unbury The Hatchet'. This song alone also features David Yow on vocals, and Alexander Hacke with keys and throat singing (!). The album itself predictably slays, of course, but I can't be any more stoked for Geordie (and Adam, of course) on this one. Grab Dumb Numbers II here (in purple vinyl no less), listen to the track below, and the entire album below that.

Friday Cover Up - A Pale Golden Beatle

I knew that when Brisbane artists Pale Earth and Golden Bats spoke about covering some Beatles songs for a split release, almost three years ago, that something special was building - if they could just get their shit together. And they have - finally - and we should all thank our lucky stars that we have By George in our midst. Pale Earth take the Mono riff vibe to his ambient permutations and smothers it in industrial clamour when attacking 'Blue Jay Way'; while Golden Bats' rendition of 'Long, Long, Long' is orchestral, funereal, and borderline between earnest and hilarious. This has made my month.

IT'S TIME - SONIC MASALA FEST PART DEUX

That's right people, after the success of last year's inaugural Sonic Masala Fest, we are ready to throw down again. Descending once again on Brisbane's Greenslopes Bowls Club on Saturday March 14, we bring you 22 bands from across the land for a day of music, food, booze and barefoot bowls. We are opening up channels to buy an early bird ticket of $15 (and some bundles with records and T-shirts of the design above, made once again by the brilliant Phoebe Paradise), which will go up to $20 after February 1 - which still works out as less than a dollar a band, so win win. So far the lineup is pretty stellar if I say so myself!

SCREAMFEEDER

WHITE WALLS

SUMMER FLAKE

GHOST NOTES

DOLLAR BAR

DANYL JESU

UNPEOPLE

THIGH MASTER

BARGE WITH AN ANTENNA ON IT

PLEASURE SYMBOLS

MCKISKO

PRIMITIVE MOTION

THESEASHALLNOTHAVETHEM

GOLDEN BATS

ULTRA MATERIAL

GO GO FISH

VULTURE CIRCUS

JULIA R ANDERSON & THE JOHNNYS

With more bands and added extras to announce, including criminally cheap Cooper's Pale Ale schooners once again, and as another excuse to fly back into perennial sunny good times, I for one am pretty excited.

A Frown Is The Greatest Gift To Give

Now that I’ve dished the psyche dirt on Dreamtime, let’s dive into the sludged-out filth that is new member Fergus Smith’s other band (well, one of them anyway), Frown. You can see where the connection comes from – if Dreamtime’s riffs ratcheted up the tension, dropped a little tone and ingested some Melvins atrocities, we would have The Greatest Gift To Give, Frown’s latest EP. The cover art - what I assume to be a woodcut of a high priestess sitting at the foot of a tree praying, her head cowled by a hooded robe that opens up to show her chest, her candle impaling a skull whilst others lay strewn around her – is also indicative of what is in store. This doom metal is a blast furnace to the face, an underworld chasm of deafening howls, destructive riffs and perforated eardrums. There are moments of respite here though that to me holds added atmosphere – the ruminative close-out of ‘Harpocrates Unborn’ for example, or the almost tribal drums that bring in the thundering ‘Cold Gail That Blows My Lonely Grave’. This track is more of a psych drone number than any before it, whilst closer ‘Offering’ takes the archetypal Black Sabbath notebook and burns it asunder. These guys are all about suffocation, celebrating the Fall, the occult and the bruising effects of heavy metal – but above all else, Frown knows how to rock. Brisbane needs to celebrate these guys more (ask Golden Bats, another local bastion of doom, for how peripheral this genre truly is).

Here is their last EP for a taste...

Set These Bats Aflame

I have to say - Brisbane, you are doing a fine job in razing conventions to the ground, with some excellent doom-laden acts scorching the earth. Of course the leading contender (in my heavily biased opinion) is No Anchor. One you may not be aware of though is Golden Bats, Geordie from Dick Nasty/Teargas' solo project. He has two EPs available on Bandcamp (called I and II), and the plaintive yet evocative cover spells it all out for you. A skull spewing a skull spewing fire? A besaddled rat with some dude sleeping on its back? Its dark, heavy dirgey metal with a sense of humour. You've gotta love that!

Golden Bats - Wooden City

You can get I for free here, plus purchase II there too. Georgie has almost finished the third release and is ready to roll out the fourth - its an assembly line of destruction kids! There are tremblings that Golden Bats will be on an SM show further along in the year (maybe creating a nuclear winter...) but you MUST go see him play next Friday, May 4. He is the opening act at Alhambra Lounge, supporting Hope Drone, No Anchor and Heirs! Holy fucking shit! Take your ear plugs, forget your mind, and lose yourself in the beautiful horror...