Running Guns At Tiny Migrants - They're All Friends Though!

I was going to write about these Brisbane bands separately, but seeing as they are interrelated, what with sharing band members and all, it made more sense to join them together, like re-attaching Siamese twins (?!).

 

First up is Tiny Migrants. I have spoken extensively about these crazy space-garage tweaks on many an occasion – they supported Mark Sultan in 2011 in what was the first gig Id been to in Brisbane for almost four years, when on returning from Europe I thought I might be doomed to a dire music scene, just to find it stronger than ever; and they also played Sonic Masala Presents… and The Waiting Room’s 1st Year Celebrations. Now, they haven’t been overflowing with releases, so it’s very exciting to see we are close to seeing their debut 7” EP come to life (thanks to Mere Noise Records). This band has improved exponentially over the past two years, so it stands that this first proper release is going to slay potato chips (I don’t know what that means either – I've just come back from my first day of work in two months and am currently on painkillers and beer). Apparently the record is “a collection of western movie tunes, spazzed out psych and reverb trenches”. They are currently mid-celebration – having supported Nobunny on his ad-hoc party annihilation, and will also support Day Ravies in March (the excellent Nite Fields round out that amazing bill). Who know when we will actually see the thing – Tiny Migrants are predictably slacker than a sack full of sloths – but in the meantime, here is this track. Control yourselves now…

Tiny Migrants – Uncontrollable

 

Wild leading beer monkey Julien James then jumps over to his “other” band Running Gun Sound – he is also in Thee Hugs, Woodboot, has a bit-part in the Shiva of garage gods Velociraptor, and other acts that take his fickle fancy. The rest of his band don’t sleep easy at night either – all in Velociraptor and in bands such as Tiger Beams, Lovely Legs, and The Majors, with some solo endeavours just for shits and giggles, RGS fleshes out with Jeremy Neale, James Boyd, Michael Fletcher and Lauren Jenkins. They have an album coming out, called Friends. Because they are friends, you know? Aren’t we all? Maybe. I haven’t made my mind up yet – are you looking at me with the evil eye, or you just need corrective surgery? Either way, this so-laconic-they-should-be-played-on-higher-speeds-and-on-a-slightly-warped-turntable just so that you are leaning in the right direction. Great, jangly, discordant pop that leaves the tracks because they sold them for scrap years ago. Listen if you like sitting next to an open window which is always open in your house because the rains warped the hinges, drinking from a tallie (or regular stubby – I wont push you into new frontiers if you aren’t ready), watching the neighbours’ weed garden bearing fruit, the sound of lawn mowers and verbal domestic abuse flicking your earlids, and faintly remembering that you owe your housemates money but bought this record instead. Everyone’s been there.

Running Gun Sound – Best Of It All

You can buy Friends (the record, not real friends – although I'm sure if you slip them an extra tenner, some flakes of weed and the pretension that there’s more where that came from, they’ll be friends forever!) here. They are touring next week too – Julien is busy when he gets his shit in rollerskates - Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney and Gasometer next weekend, then Brisbane’s Crow Bar on the 28th. UPDATE - After 5 years of recording, playing shows, and pal'ing about, Brisbane's RUNNING GUN SOUND are calling a hiatus. To celebrate singer Michael Fletcher's big move to Germany the band have recorded Friends for one last hurrah (well, until the next time - Fletcher is considering taking the moniker to Deutschland with him). That means this tour is crucial. Make these shows, or you're jerks! (Unless you have seriously legit reasons - you may still be a jerk, but not because you didn't make it).

Definition Of Meatboy = A Cannon With Lovely Legs

 

Local Brisbane garage rock miscreant label Long Gone Records is promising some proper dirty releases this year, and to get a true understanding of what that means, we need to go back to their last release Meatboys, a split cassette between Cannon and Lovely Legs.

 

There arne’t many messier bands in Brisbane than Cannon. Their shambolism may infuriate some, but there is something inherently fun and slapstick about this five-piece’s rawer-than-a-dead-kitten take on playing. The recording, like much of their debut self-titled LP, is so low fidelity that it sounds like my old cassettes that I taped off VHS tapes – shit over shit. If you’ve heard it before, its because its verbatim their Blerndaddy EP. I still think that ‘Dogs In Space’ is one of their best songs, whilst ‘Poor Taste’ is the closest they come to being an actual band. Glad it doesn’t fire though – can you imagine? Cannon, a real band? The sky would definitely be falling in.

Cannon – Dogs In Space
Cannon – Get It On

 

Country punk Lovely Legs don’t exactly up the ante – these four tracks sound like The Growlers listening to The Johnny’s after snorting a bottle of amyl nitrate, hijacking a low frequency community radio station near Blackall, and hitting the record button on their stream-of-consciousness with the mics encased in corrugated iron. Such debauched foot stompers that you can taste the whisky before the bottle is smashed over your head. Hoedowns for skinny clowns, the soundtrack to Bob Katter’s feverish wet nightmares.

Lovely Legs – I Got It Made
Lovely Legs – Mr Death

 

Each tape is bright orange and feature volume drops, cracked cases and bad folding/cutting. The release is truly lo-fi in sound and quality – get it here. You can catch them both, alongside a rare-as-hen’s-teeth support from Chinese Burns, propping the stage up for irascible air-humping garage jackalope Nobunny. That shit is real, and is going down at the Primitive Room this Saturday. That poster (by the ever excellent Sam McKenzie) is just TOO good.

GET THERE.

Friday Cover Up #1 - The Horrortones Souled Out.

Leave it up to rock'n'soul cover behemoths The Horrortones to put out something as irregular yet delectable as a triple 7" box set. These guys only play like twice a goddamned year! Seriously though, it's great to have these consummate pleasure machines put tracks on wax, and the six songs on display will have you greasing your hair back and shimmying in no time! Just try to resist the decadent, blitzed charms of 'W.A.S.T.E.D' or the swinging frenzy of 'Mojo Hannah'. None of the band members even know where 'They Don't Know' comes from, but the tune does James Brown and hootenannies proud (trust me, such extremes can co-exist). And it wouldn't be The Horrortones without a Dirtbombs cover - or at least a cover of the Dirtbombs covering The O'Jays ('Living For The Weekend').


Courtesy of Mere Noise, there are only 150 of these suckers on planet Earth, so pre-order this diamante delicacy here. The launch is on Friday June 1 at The Beetle Bar, where they will be joined by Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side, Cannon and Lovely Legs (who have just finished recording tracks for an upcoming cassette - I've heard the unmixed tracks and they are special!) And look at that poster! The caricatures are more life-like than the band members in person!

Ill Never Learn From Lovely Legs

I don't know much about Brisbane's Lovely Legs, but have been listening to the 4 track EP Never Learn on and off for the past four months and need to purge. These shambolic country-punk hoedowns (or as they state, "cunt-punk")are as dirty as they are frivolous, and you cant help but feel drunk and crazy just from listening to them. Plus Lovely Legs - formed from members of the Sulphur Lights, Keep On Dancin’s, Velociraptor, the Chokes and Foreign Junk - claim Cheater Slicks as an influence - Im sold.

Grab Never Learn from the Bandcamp here.

Lovely Legs - Holy Bore