A Loose River of Alcoholic Snakes

Ben Wrecker from Melbourne destructive rock label Bro Fidelity sent me this to the Facebook inbox last week, and it reminded me that I haven't yet talked about my love of one of their roster's albums. But before we get to that, let's focus on perennial brutal blasters Hotel Wrecking City Traders and their latest single 'Loose Alcoholic.' Seven minutes and forty nine seconds of visceral propulsive rock, corkscrewing into your brains and setting things on fire, an aural incendiary bomb. The two-piece (Ben on drums, Toby on guitar) is joined here by Raul Sanchez (Magic Dirt, Midnight Woolf) taking on the indecipherable howling, itself another bludgeoning bile-flinging instrument of death. The repetitive growl of the riffs and explosive drumming here is the key though - there is nothing innately loose about this at all.

Now to the band that this brought back to me with a vengeance (and the photos may have given it all away...). The cantankerous trio River Of Snakes (who features the aforementioned Sanchez, The Loveless' Elissa Rose and Mr Bro Fidelity himself on the drums) brought an album out back around July 2014 called Black Noise, and it is a heady amalgam of introspective, downer Australian pub rock, squalling no-wave destruction and bottom-heavy blues, coming out like a black wave of aggression tempered with maniacal grins. 'Beauty' is my key track, but the Kim Gordon channelling on 'Hacksaw', the nihilistic desolation of 'Slater' and the fuzzed-out Ratcat echoes on 'I Wanna Be Your Baby' ensures the album gets off to a killer start. 'Middening' should be much bigger seeing the love for Brisbane miscreants HITS' latest record Hikikomori before fading out into a purgatorial ambiance, and tracks such as the cathartic crawl of  'I Lied' and straight up RnR of 'The Words I Love You (Ain't Enough) ensure the album steams the full distance into the rock abyss. 

Stranger Marville Gods

Local grunge-addicted duo Marville may not have hit your radars that often, but that's not because they are a new band. Rather, they have been playing the traps for some time since humble beginnings of a solo outlet for Bottlecock aficionado Ash Kerley under the moniker Strangers. After teaming with Linda Dark, the band have been not-so-quietly chipping away, until Sydney band Strangers threatened to take them to task over "their"name, despite Kerley playing under the moniker for ages before the pipsqueak screamos came onto any semblance of a "scene". Anyway, the duo obeyed the lesser of two evils, and are reborn as Marville.

Which is working out mighty fine, as the duo prepare to launch their debut album (in either incarnation) today, Vayan Con Dios. An album of unabashed tension, atmosphere and slack-jawed nihilism in the Adalita-in-mid-career-Magic Dirt mould, with some smouldering instrumental interludes, the album doesn't push the envelope, instead happily espousing the strengths of their limits, comfortable in their brittle skin. With a Bottlecock LP in the ether, Kerley promises to be a busy presence in Brisbane circles over the next twelve months - and if this album is any indication, the 90s alternative scene is coming along for the ride.


Marville launch the album tonight at the Beetle Bar alongside ol' SM faves El Motel (it's been awhile, padres), You In Reverse and the rising glory of The Steady As She Goes. For a $10, it tees off at 8pm.

These Strangers Aren't Losers

 

It's my birthday today, so I'm only giving short blasts of posts. The rest of the day is being spent doing nothing – watching Justified and Workaholics, and sleep probably. Not exciting, sure – but its sounds pretty rad to me.

This track ‘Loser’ comes from the debut vinyl 7” from local duo Strangers, not to be confused with that shitty Sydney hardcore band or any of the many other Strangers bands in the universe. They play Aussie grunge a la early Magic Dirt as if it never left us, yet imbue it with a gentler side as seen by the B-side cover of Nick Cave’s ‘The Ship Song’. Ash Kerley (of Bottlecock) has been Strangers for years now, this being her “solo” outlet with Linda Dark smashing the skins, fleshing things out towards their timely, apocalyptic conclusion. It rarely explodes, just holds that upper-level velocity and intensity, and in the right atmosphere Strangers can kill.

Strangers launch Loser at the Hideaway Bar this Thursday. $8 entry, with support coming from fellow female rocker Sabrina Lawrie. A good night out, and get the 7" there. Splash out on some beers too - the girls love it.
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