EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE - Hierophants Have Got A Nervous Tic

I got to see that gangly maelstrom of giddy energy Jake play in his Ausmuteants mutation last Wednesday night at the Shacklewell Arms here in London. They were a brilliant ball of synth punk energy, with UK barbs thrown with gay abandon. Jake can't rest easy now that he is back in Melbourne-town, because Aarght! Records are preparing to launch the looooong-awaited debut album of one of Jake's other bands, Hierophants (whoda thunk it?!) Parallax Error.

It fits perfectly on the Aarght! roster, especially seeing as it was originally started surrounding one of my favourite Aussie bands of recent years, Ooga Boogas, what with the stilted post-punk synth madness and all (see songs like 'Taste' and 'Think' for a direct relation; perennial knob twitcher Mikey young did the final production glossage too). In other places there is an early Mint Chicks fuzz (like 'Nervous Tic'), but mostly Parallax Error marks another sonic seismic shift for the Geelong-via-Melbourne four-piece. Their propensity for writing songs at the drop of a hat isn't really in evidence on the album - it's a tight synth prog playground and you're all invited to bomb-dive the ball pit.

Here is the video for 'Nervous Tic', directed by Moontown's Danny Wild. A lurking number that is fun for all the wrong reasons, like a high that starts to get the wobbles as you realise you are running with scissors barefoot across broken glass across a peak-hour highway. If the video tells you ANYTHING, it's don't eat drug-laced chocolate cake slice that has been sent you in the mail. Or, actually, eat the whole lot. And wait til you get to the surprise cameo! When is your next sequel, dawg?

Parallax Error is out soon - keep eyes peeled!

School Break Ups

(NOT a pic of the band - but you get the idea)

Australian musicians are the fidgetiest bunch. Most are in a multitude of bands, with one the focus but a myriad of half-cooked ideas floating about spilling out in weirder and wilder realms. School Damage is no different - and yet definitely IS different, in that this relatively new four-piece seem fully formed. Formed by Jake Robertson (Ausmuteants, The Hierophants, The Frowning Clouds, Drug Sweat etc) and Carolyn Hawkins (Chook Race) with Danni Damage and Jeff Raty bringing in the rhythms, School Damage is the perfect amalgamation of all these exterior pursuits - synth silliness, mewling guitars, loose-limbed garage rock bluster, B52s-esque garishness run through the rusted grinder of grit-in-the-wound punk, monotone vocals...it all adds up to a night with a beer-stained shirt and a shit-eating grin, loving life even while vomit flows down the slides at the local children's playground at three in the morning. They put out a cassette, Deep Net, on Moontown Tapes, and now have the impending 7" Break Up coming out of Detonic Recordings (Multiple Man, Diesel Dudes). All elements are present and accounted for on these three tracks, especially on the title track, which plays like a slow-swaying synth number of doo-wop-less pop before crashing into a guitar wash meltdown.


Grab your copy of Break Up here. School Damage launch this puppy on Friday August 29 at The Grace Darling alongside The Clits and Waterfall Person.