Australians Of The Year, Beaten Black & Blue - The Nation Blue (World Keeps Turnin' #3)

I had to step away for a bit after the Trump implosion/possession, and breathe. But there is one more post that I wanted to put up that best outlays the hope that rugged tenacity and no-fucks honesty will prevail. It is reconciled by another band that does things in their own inimitable way, that despite the same familiar life decisions and obstacles that face us all (and the focus of my last post, Brisbane's Turnpike) and other creative outliers, they ensure the same aggrandising grievances are railed against, the fights for their compatriots and the disenfranchised fought and, if not won, left to fight another embattled day. The older, more battle scarred and weary the trio get, their anguish and anger remains unbridled.

The Nation Blue, starting their rugged working class throttled punk rock in Tasmania before anchoring down in Melbourne, are another of those blood-sweat-and-beer-tainted-tears bands that rally and toil, roaring until the cords in their necks thicken with blood, like knotted nooses of discontent, whose politicised passion and rabid vigour precede them and echo around the world. The more they lessen their workload and presence, the bigger the reputation and murmured myth. It doesn't matter how often Tom throws his guitar around his neck, into the wall or speaker, bludgeoned against his own crosstitched forehead; it doesn't matter how much Matt and Dan lay down brutal, pummelling rhythms, coalescing into cacophonous calamity and catharsis - it always feels like an exorcism not wholly won over, the well of anger and disappointment seemingly endless.

And what with Wednesday's US election results and Australia's own political cesspool, it does seem like retribution or revolution or even the subtlest forms of appeasement are at the end of a very long, winding, poorly constructed and claustrophobic tunnel.

The trio have returned with the eternal fire in their bellies at the right time, kicking against the myriad pricks on not one but two albums, both out through Poison City Records. I'll start with Blue, which features a black and white photograph of a forest filtered with a dense fog - both foreboding and starkly beautiful. The album follows suit, a melancholy yet charged exploration of disquiet and anguish whose personal gnashing of the teeth owes as much to Lyngcoln's other major project, Harmony. Focusing on depression and death of loved ones; the natural and unnatural fears of being a new parent; fatigue, desperation brought on by a deluge of media-spewed exaggerations and lies; the ever-widening chasm between class groupings, aspirations and outlooks; the degradation and idiocracy of a humanity that you at once love and loathe... Ending with the broken howls of 'Black Light' possibly encapsulating the insular fears expelled into teeth-rattling emotion that the boys do better than anyone else I know. Fucking wonderful, soul-destroying, purifying stuff.

Black is more overtly aggressive yet no less edifying. The cover art says all here - a black and white painting of Australia's House of Parliament warped and melting, a mixture of naive art and magnifying skewed vision. It's stepped up, outside the singular man and into the populace, politicised, brutalised, purging. 'I Have No Representatives' is Lyngcoln screaming in reverb for almost a minute, nothing mirroring back at him bar his own tar-black vitriol at the state of affairs the world has fallen into. The perfect rant for an album that exposes the contradictory nature of abject patriotism, using the flag as a foundation for base racial vilification, detention centre hypocrisy and gross negligence, the turning of blind eyes from very clear genocidal warfare that is funded by the 1st World "heroes", the evisceration of gender politics, the continual misuse of foreign policy weight and (ir)responsibility. Every song, regardless of subject matter, revolves around violence - physical, mental, emotional, social - and its redundancy. Closer 'Beat That Man' says it explicitly, but it's 

'Wild' that presents it perfectly - take for the wilderness before it disappears or becomes commodified. And any band that has a song referencing one of the nation's unsung bands Venom P Stinger and has it reviewed by Gocsy has raised things to an all new level.

If that isn't enough, lap your laughing gear around these demos from where it all began. The fruit never fell far from the tree, and thank fuck for that. Thank fuck for men like The Nation Blue.

INTERVIEW - Pale Heads' Rui Perreira

One of my favourite albums of the year, even though it's fresh outta the blocks, is Headless, the debut belter from Melbourne drongos Pale Heads. Featuring guys that spread all four corners of the Melbourne music scene (current and ex members of The Nation Blue, Harmony, Batpiss, The Drones and Bang!Bang!Aids!), these dudes have cobbled together an album that is relentless, throwaway, acerbic, abrasive and a hell of a lot of fun, all done off a handful of practices. The cobbled together nature of the record is what gives it its heft, and with this calibre of clientele this nuclear fusion is only going to get deadlier (whether they get tighter or looser though remains to be seen...) 

I spoke to Rui Pereira briefly as he stumbled around Sydney before Pale Heads' Blackwire Records show alongside Burlap, Dispolar and Roland Major.

SONIC MASALA - Headless was recorded in a series of blitzkrieg recordings at The Tote. Before these took place, how did Pale Heads come to pass?

RUI PEREIRA - Xiao Zhong, whose identity shall remain secret, lived in China for a good part of the 2000's. There he found a life for himself learning the ancient ways of making origami drum kits for the locals. A few years ago he came back to the Melbourne world, looking for excitement in the form of some boom boom, while in the midst of furnishing his abode. Tom Lyngcoln asked him to play percussion and Thomy Sloane, who straps the bass, joined soon after. I have been friends with both Thomy and Tom for yonks. They asked. I was thrilled to join.

SM - What has been the purpose of the band? Five or so practices and then recording and releasing an entire album is pretty solid going after all!


RP - I find there is this urgent sound to the album, raw as fuck, thousand miles an hour beats. Perhaps the main purpose was to keep the juices flowing. We were all taking breaks from our primary bands at the time so we thought it was a good idea to form another. 

 
SM - How much of the songwriting was/is shared around?


RP - Tom and Thomy pretty much wrote all the lyrics. They bring structure to the songs. We all put in musically.

SM - How do the different personalities glue together as a band? You have some loose units there... 


RP - Alright, alright... who have you been talking to? I've done my share of stupid shit while touring. Even lost my mental health one time looking at ginger bread houses in Switzerland. But as a band we all thrive on humour so that keeps us unified.  At the end of the day our similar tastes in music is the Araldite.

SM - Where does the name Pale Heads come from? Or the infatuation with heads (and the cutting off of them) for that matter? Especially with Tom's constant negative comments about his own mug, bringing it more attention seems counter-productive...


RP - It's interesting what other people's interpretation of someone else's lyrics are. For instance, I thought most of the content on the album was about peace, love and scoring lots of weed... with the occasional head chop. The beheading element is perhaps a metaphor for most humans. They are either in a day dream daze with their heads in another state or trying to chop one off to get ahead.

SM - How have the live components of the show gone so far? I heard that your first show was a bit of a balls-up...


RP - Yep. First show was at the Old Bar in Melbourne. Was a fairly noisy affair. By the end Thomy's pedals didn't work as they got drenched in beer, accidentally poured by someone who shall remain nameless. Since then we've naturally progressed live. The ins and outs of what works on stage can only be refined on the road.  Like Paul Kelly once said, 'venues are my universities'.

SM - You have lined yourselves up with Poison City to release Headless - what was the attraction to joining up with Andrew and co?


RP - Andrew was attracted to us. He and Tom had dealings in the past with Harmony and pretty soon the second Batpiss record will also be under their wing. Keeping it in the family I guess.

SM - Any particular gigs lined up that you are pumped for?


RP - Yes. 16th July 2015 @ The Convent in Abbotsford Melbourne. Playing with Flour, The Meanies and Screamfeeder. See you there.




SM - What does the future hold for Pale Heads? Will there be other releases? Will it follow the same rushed MO?


RP - We already started writing/recording the second LP. It will take a little longer to put together mainly due to Thomy touring with his other group and Tom about to be a Dad! So from this August on, till next year there will be no Pale Heads shows. Just lots of nappies.

SM - What have you been up to in particular Rui? Is Pale Heads a major ongoing concern, or are there other irons in the fire/fingers in pies?


RP - I'll be concentrating with Pale Heads in the next few months. I also work at Bakehouse studios in Richmond, 12 rehearsal spaces with one zen courtyard. That's kept me fairly fit the last five years. I dig working there. A real productive environment. My band other band 'RIGHT!' is in the process of mixing and mastering our first record. I also draw and paint in my spare time, often with my head buried in paper and ink. That will keep me busy for life.



Headless is out now - buy it here - it's an imperative.

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). 

Pale And Headless

Ever since the neanderthal lurk of Pale Heads crawls out of the gutter of the mind, this lethal band are on the up and up. They are on the cusp of launching their debut record Headless (out through Poison City Records - what AREN'T these guys responsible for lately?) - and with the conscious coupling of Nation Blue/Batpiss/Drones/Pairs seed, this is gonna be one beautifully ugly bastard child. Have a listen to 'Devotion' and 'Thomy Cut Off A Head' - its dirty, rusted arse pub rock n roll at its most backward. Goddamn fucking delicious.





Pale Heads have some killer shows in the next couple months. They are supporting Sun God Replica on Monday night at the Tote, Against Me! in June 7 - and the launch of the album the day before, June 6 at Gasometer, with support from Spinning Rooms, Slab Knackers (2 of Eddy Current Suppression Ring) and Steve Miller Band. Get in.

Old, Pale Rock Heads

Should be called Rough Heads. The cream of the noise crop have come together to create some buzzsaw punk as Pale Heads, as Tom Lyngcoln (The Nation Blue), Riu Periera (ex The Drones), Thom Cones (Batpiss) and Xiao Zhong (Pairs and Bang! Bang! Aids!) belt each other around at The Tote, pressed to tape. The resultant mess is Headless, a thirteen track piece of rough-as-guts suck punch rock that comes out mid-year. 'Transitioning Out' is breakneck, and with Lyngcoln's rusted throttle on display it's a 94 second nugget of sewer gold.

 

Redeeming The Stickmen

The Tasmanian music scene has always mirrored the way us mainland Aussies treat the Apple Islers – as outsiders, bereft of this country in most respects, left to their own devices. I love Tasmania – its possibly the most beautiful place in Australia. This geographical ostracism is what allows this beauty to remain untouched – but is also why those persistent inter-family rumours also persist. Its nasty and untrue (I assume).

But being ostracised and forced into inbreeding does bring about great dividends (stay with me…) Because of this ostracism, both geographically and musically, the Tasmanian musical community was left to fester and ferment, scrounging together the smallest scraps of sonic alleviation and epiphany to carve out whatever they could. Thus the music that came out of Hobart in the late 90s and early 2000s is acrid, warped, coruscated – and utterly mesmeric. Most people will know about The Nation Blue and their rise from this bastion of musical barbarity, but there were many bands strangling instruments and concepts with blue-veined glee. (If you haven’t listened to Sea Scouts, for example, do yourself a favour and sort that out RIGHT NOW).

Another of these young bands doing incredible things within this nebulous musical landscape was The Stickmen. Their music was instantly recognisable yet deliberately obfuscated the accepted norm – taking the supposed trappings of post-punk and hewing out of them a nervy, chaotic dynamism that was instantly recognisable. Plenty of likeminded bands exist now that mirror this aesthetic, but the Stickmen were one of a unique few bands that truly challenged any form of sonic norm. And the inclusion of turntables is probably the only time I can think of where it belongs in rock music. It’s a bizarre concept, but when you hear the skittish scratches on songs like the excellent ‘Who Said’, it is a stroke of ardent genius. And on songs like ‘Night’, Aldous Kelly could stand up alongside the greats of the post-punk beginners, his wail as impassioned, as cathartic, as confronting.

 The Stickmen brought out two albums only – 1998’s self-titled debut, and Man Made Stars the following year. And that was it – this combustible ball finally imploded. But they never truly left the ether of the aggravated Australian musical fringes, and when The Drones convinced the band to reform for last year’s ATP Melbourne, they were an unbelievable surprise package for most – myself included. Tom Lyngcoln of The Nation Blue insisted I catch their set – and I am forever in his debt. Whilst the Per Purposes and indeed The Drones’ of the world are a breathtaking menagerie of energy and unease, it was somehow more engrossing to see The Stickmen easily in command of their raw, rancid realm.

Now the great Melbourne imprint Homeless Records have released both of these “lost” albums on 12” vinyl. If you don’t partake in this frontier freneticism, you have no right walking this earth. Tap in to something inherently visceral, a fission of collective fidgeting energies, and enjoy.

Walking On These Angry Seas

Melbourne punk survivalists Angry Seas were up here in Brisbane launching their self-titled 7" last week. Which is a shame, because I missed them - if only I had listened to the release (or anything of theirs) beforehand I would have made the journey into Fat Louie's for the show (they were playing alongside Grinning Loons AKA an incognito Spinning Rooms - on the same night Nation Blue & Batpiss were also playing - what a Melbourne-centric night...) Four tracks of tearing shit up, Angry Seas plays like an Aussie blue collar VB swilling Bronx, especially the jostling juxtaposition of melodicism and raucous riffs. Yet another Mikey Young production too - the guy has the Midas touch. If you like your punk rock in a pub, screaming and spitting and leaving you with cuts, bruises and a shit-eating grin, get this 7" ASAP.

INTERVIEW - Batpiss

Ah, Batpiss. The loose trio produced one of the best balltearing releases of the year in the form of Nuclear Winter back in the first half of the year. Yet this interview, conducted with bassist/vocalist Thomy Sloane, was actually conducted back in May, the same time Nathan and I interviewed another excellent Melbourne band White Walls. Why has it taken so long to air? Because I had been holding on to this for their album launch shows up here in July – that never happened. Then I was holding it for when they would launch the album at a Sonic Masala show slated for October 12. But that ain’t happenin either. Why? Because the bloody Nation Blue bloody asked em to bloody support them on a little covert tour, didn’t they? The same day I have a wedding to attend (not my own, but a close friend’s). Fuckers. No, it will be a killer show this Saturday night down at Crowbar (with the excellent Roku Music and new anomaly Greig filling out the bill). So here is the interview. (Yes, Thomy does speak like this; and yes, I laughed a lot).

SONIC MASALA – Hey Tommy, how are you man?

THOMY SLOANE – umm…fucking working on the door (at the Tote) at the moment. So if the band starts Ill ask someone to cover me if it’s too loud.

This is the flyer I saw. OFF! was a dream come true for Black Flag head Thomy...

SM – Cool, Ill get stuck in then. I can’t remember exactly where I had heard of Batpiss originally, because you haven’t been around all that long – it may have been on a flyer that I saw in Melbourne back in February – and so it feel you have leapt out of nowhere to be slaying it down there.

TS – Yeah man, fuckin ahh, it’s pretty new ay? We’re blown out by it all too, we’ve only been doing this for a year and a half. Shit’s just worked out for us, we haven’t really had to do anything, we’ve just been lazy pricks and shit’s just fallen in our laps, which is lucky for us I guess. We’re spun the fuck out over it hey!

SM – (laughs) The funny thing about your album Nuclear Winter is that its brutal but it does sound like there's some kind of manic glee in the entire process, there's no, as full as it can be it is not a serious endeavour…

TS – Totally. There’s nothing serious about us. We get labelled and put alongside these heavy as hell bands, but you listen to the record and…we’re not, you know? We’re the opposite in some ways. There are heavy elements for sure…but I don’t even think its heavy! (laughs) The album itself has real diverse shit in there; some of it’s pop I reckon…

SM – (laughs) Really?

TS – Yeah, yeah. The ‘Loose Screws’ chorus is pretty poppy, same with ‘Portal’ I reckon.

SM – That’s a pretty warped take on pop.

TS – Yeah, pretty much (laughs) Well not pop, but catchy. Catchy can be the word; I don’t wanna be in a pop band, fuck that.

SM – (laughs) Not with a name like Batpiss, that’s for sure! Where did the name come from?

TS – It came from Marty our drummer. We were drunk as shit one night, trying to come up with a band name. We came up with heaps of stupid ones, then that came up. We –

(Noise as the band starts up. The next three minutes is Thomy trying to get someone to take the door; lots of expletives; finally he works something out and things quieten down)

TS – So sorry dude! Where was I? The name? Yeah, so, do you really wanna know the long story?

SM – (laughs) That’s up to you, do you want to tell it?

TS – Ok…(sigh)…I went on this date with this chick at the Tote, and at this time of year bats hang out in the trees. It’s a clear arse night, and I’ve seen them piss on someone before in the beer garden. So that’s happened to me; it was a clear arse night, so it clearly wasn’t rain. And the girl was like “Oh, what was that?” And I was like “Ah, nothing…I'll be back in a sec.” I just live around the corner so I'm fucking running home, ripping my fucking shirt off that’s covered in fucking bat piss, ran back to the pub and ran into Marty, and I was like “Dude, I got pissed on by a bat!” He laughed and said “We’re called Batpiss, that’s it” And yep, that’s it. How good is that?

SM – (laughing)

TS – We came up with heaps of other stupid names afterwards, because it was just a joke at the start. The whole band thing – Marty and I only played songs that went for one minute. Then we got Paul in on guitar, we started writing different shit to suit him, and the name stuck.

SM – So the name literally fell from the sky?

TS – It literally did, and it covered me! (laughs)

SM – So you said you brought Paul in and started changing the dynamic of the band, were there any influences or goals that you had at the very least?

TS – Yeah, well, all three of us love different shit, like Marty our drummer is heaps into doom stuff, and I enjoy old punk rock, Black Flag and all that punk shit, and Paul our guitarist is heaps into blues – he’s one of those dudes who can just play mad shit. So I think it’s just a blend of three different people throwing whatever they want to the mix. There’s no boundaries, like we don’t say “We’ve got fucking do this or fucking sound like this!” We just sit around and fucking jam out, so things start fast and end up slow, that kind of thing. And there’s no real band influences either. If it was anything like that, it’d be local bands around Melbourne I reckon. Just got a dark Melbourne kinda sound, you know? We’re just a bunch of weird cunts, really…

SM – (laughs) Yeah, that you are! It’s funny you should say that, because one of my favourite bands at the moment is The Spinning Rooms, and there’s a certain level of affinity that you guys hold with them too…

TS – Oh majorly man, I reckon those guys are awesome! I actually live with Pete (Dickinson, vox/guitar for The Spinning Rooms). I absolutely love what they do and once again I think they’ve got that real dark underground Melbourne kinda sound, that noisy kinda thing. Whatever they do is fucking rad and I’ve definitely taken influence from them for sure. Mainly the noisy guitar and Pete’s vocals as well.

SM – It’s just something else, isn’t it? I’ve known Tom Lyngcoln since 2011 when I came back from the UK and he was starting up Harmony, who’s a goddamn legend, and…

TS – Who’s that?

SM – Tom Lyngcoln? He did your album?

TS – Oh, yeah, Tom, sorry I couldn’t hear for a second. Yeah he’s a fucking legend.

SM – Yeah, and he recorded the Spinning Rooms stuff, so it’s clearly a sound that he is gravitating towards as well, or at least is searching him out…

TS – Oh majorly man! I don’t know what it is about him hey. He’s got such an ear for good shit. I'm not saying that about us, though, the other stuff he does, including the bands hes in. He’s totally onto it.

SM – He sure is…

TS – And he’s the most humble dude to work with, man. Recording was completely stress free with him. It’s a fucking pleasure to know the guy.

SM – (laughs) He puts his neck out for anyone that he thinks is the real deal, he’s a great guy…

TS – Fucking oath. He’s someone where it’s like if you don’t get along with him, then you must be a fuckwit. (laughs) If you can’t like this guy then there’s something fucking going on with you, mental issues or some shit. He is just a fucking good dude.

SM – Stepping away from the gushing for a second…

TS – (laughs) Yeah, that was getting a bit like that…

SM – You said that Nuclear Winter was an easy recording process, you did it all at the Tote in your rehearsal room, is that right?

TS – Yeah. Well me and Marty work at the Tote, jam here, we know what the room’s like, it’s just around the corner from my house, so why not, you know? It’s where the band fucking started, so we feel at home here. Plus we don’t have to fucking pay any money, which is luck because we haven’t fucking got none, plus all our gear’s here so we don’t have to lug it anywhere. Tom has a portable studio he can take anywhere with him, so he set up a bunch of shit and we recorded it live.

SM – Nuclear Winter kind of sounds live, but it sounds so good. When I heard it was all recorded in the Tote rehearsal rooms, well, I know you can make anything sound good from anywhere I suppose, but it’s a sleeker production that still sounds brutal, like it can break down at any time…

TS – Yeah, it’s got a real roomy sound, not like it’s in a sterile environment like a studio.  There’s lots of bleed in it. It’s pretty much how we sound live, and I didn’t want to capture anything else. You know when with bands you see them a bunch of times then you hear the album and it sounds really polished? I wanted the opposite, to say “Nah, this is how we kill it” and press play. I think it’s come out sweet, I'm really happy with it.

SM – With songs like ‘Loose Screws’ that are more straightforward rock tunes, then there are songs that are slower, stretched out, dirge like songs – it’s an album that truly showcases what Batpiss has been able to achieve over the past year.

TS – Totally man, and I think that’s to do with the different stuff we all listen to as well. You can be heavy without being metal, and the riffs on the albums prove that I reckon. It’s good to be diverse, rather than be labelled as a punk band or a whatever band. We play fast paced songs, medium paced shit, it’s all good.

SM – Do you find yourselves being corralled into heavy sets or heavy lineups that don’t really suit you, or sort of diverse acts that don’t really gel together?

TS – Yeah, we get thrown onto lots of doomy sort of shows and that always flips me out because all the bands before us are heavy as fuck, and I'm thinking “Man, we’re gonna sound like the Spice Girls coming after these guys!” I don’t know, I feel we’ve always played shows with different genre bands as well. I prefer to play mixed-genre bills. A good band’s a good band, you don’t have to all sound the same to have a good time. And that’s where I think we’ve branched out to a lot of people as well. A lot of people who listen to country or folk grew up as little punks, everyone’s had their day listening to hardcore shit, and Batpiss might take them back to that. I don’t know…

SM – Well you had a pretty eclectic lineup for your launch too, didn’t you?

TS – Yeah man that was nuts. And once again I think the scene down in Melbourne is so strong dude. Every fucking band is seriously got their A game on. All the bands we picked for that were bands that we’re mates with. We couldn’t do a launch where you have one or two bands support you, we though “Fuck that! We wanna get them all!” So we made a party out of it, and it was off the tap man. Every band was on the money, and we were sitting there shitting ourselves, thinking that it had all backfired on us and we were the worst band to be finishing off such a fucking awesome lineup. I don’t know, I reckon it all worked out in the end.

SM – (laughs) Just going back to the album for a second, the artwork is pretty cool, where’d that come from?

TS – That’s our guitarist; he does all our art. He’s a freak at drawing, like you go to his house and the place is covered in pictures he’s drawn, all like skulls and that kinda shit. I reckon he’s got a distinct kind of style about him, and it’s good for us too because then our releases can be seen as Batpiss just from the drawings. His artwork is off the chain! That’s fucking nothing compared to a lot of his other stuff, it’s pretty loose.

Shit indeed. A wild guy from a wild band. Make sure you can get to the show at Crowbar this Saturday – Ill be the guy in the spew-stained suit – but if you can’t get there, you can pick up their excellent album Nuclear Winter through Every Night Is A Saturday Night Records here.

No Anchoring The Dead

Not so local noisemongers No Anchor (Ian is being all literary-y and full of disdain in Melbourne these days) haven't been overly active in the live sense in 2013 (hence the electricity of their shows that have rolled around - the Sonic Masala show in May, the show they did only last week), but they do have some new wares courtesy of a split 7" they've put out with fellow maniacs DEAD. Perfect marriage this one - two bands blatantly fucking off the guitar and brutalising the bass. So far, so angry. Would you expect anything less? The NA trio feel 'Bogan Ash' is the poppiest thing they've ever done. They aren't reaching for the mascara and microphone headsets (yet), but as far as No Anchor goes, it is a much more straight down the line number. Sorry lads, but whilst this song really rips, it makes DEAD's whorling bloody maelstrom 'Scratching My Arts' look even better. Backhanded compliment? I can keep em comin all day. Its the kind of lurking leering head explosion that I absolutely love; Jem absolutely kills it on drums; my skin is flayed without notice. Well done, lads, well done.


No Anchor have one more show up their sleeve at the end of November at Crowbar. They will have the crazy up-and-comers Clowns in support - they eat Juggalos for breakfast. If you still need your NA fix in any form (and let's face it, who doesn't) Donnie's band Roku Music is supporting the sublime Sydneysiders Yes I'm Leaving this Friday at the Waiting Room - it's another Sonic Masala Presents show, so you should all be there. Finally, Roku Music and Greig (Alex's new band) are the other supports for what could very well be the best show of the year - The Nation Blue and Batpiss, also at Crowbar, on Saturday October 5. I have a wedding that day, so Ill be the dude in the suit. Pete from The Spinning Rooms has promised to spew on me too, so I should be pretty recognisable. No Anchor, in whatever form, rule hard.

VIDEO VACUUM - Batpiss, God Damn, Fist City, Cool Ghouls

Long time since we've attempted a good ol-fashioned brainwash, right? Here are four videos that are pretty rad, ranked in order of brutality. Let's get fried.



With a name like Batpiss, who needs enemies? Bursting out of the bowels of Melbourne, this trio have taken visceral annihilation to a new, bilious artform. Their debut record Nuclear Winter is out this week, and it is seriously the best thing I have heard this month. Melbourne has given birth to some killer acts of recent months - White Walls, Deep Heat, The Spinning Rooms. Speaking of, Nuclear Winter was recorded by Tom Lyngcoln - yep, the deranged redneck that spits vitriol and rhetoric when fronting The Nation Blue, gnashes his teeth like a blue-collar choirboy done wrong in Harmony, and recorded The Spinning Rooms. This dude always knows what he's doing, even when he doesn't. Don't trust me? Watch the video for Batpiss single 'Drag Your Body' again. This is indeed this. Listen to a stream of this killer record here.



Over to the UK and Wolverhampton's rakish rockers God Damn. I liked their first single 'I'm A Lazer, You're A Radar', and the video for 'Heavy Money' is just as impressive. A homeless man with telekinetic powers, going all Scanners on the scum of the earth? With a primary school kid in a Batman mask as his willing eyewitness? Gravy Records have unearthed a number of bands in the Midlands region that like to eat their candy with a liberal dose of razorblades - and with God Damn, they've done it again. This will be on an EP of the same name, pre-order it here.



I never thought I'd see the day that a band like FIDLAR would be a drawcard on the festival circuit. They aren't huge yet, by any means, but their name keeps floating closer to the surface with each passing week. And here we are with the band that brought you 'Max Can't Surf' featuring in RIYL's. None of this is derogatory - there is something aesthetically cleansing about a band that is so laconic in their slack-jawed stoner guitar punk that it feels like their tunes are aural hydro. And there is something equally great about a band mirroring such relaxed angular rants. that's where Canadians Fist City are at. Hit me.


Cool Ghouls - Natural Life from Robert Thomas on Vimeo.

Let's tag out with Cool Ghouls. This band from San Fran have been taken under the wing of Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys), and you can hear why. Talk about cruisy. But GOOD cruisy. Chilllllllllllllllll.But GOOD chillllllllllllllllllll. The more I listen to 'Natural Life', the more I want this to be my life. Cool ghouls indeed. Can't wait to hear the debut self-titled full-length - out now through Empty Cellar Records. Blow it - let's listen to it together!


NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Doing Harmony A Favour

I meant to get this post out earlier, as they played an incendiary show the other weekend at the equally excellent ATP Melbourne, and were in town over the weekend and played two shows (one I hear was amazing on Friday – I didn’t attend due to the fact that I had a chiptune-themed Sonic Masala Presents show on; the other yesterday at the Powerhouse that was sublime). Ah well – I’ve been assured Melbourne Gothic God-fearing rustic Australian working class gospel noise choir (!?!) Harmony will be up again before the year is out, when they have a new album to spruik (their follow-up to 2011's stunning self-titled debut will be entitled Carpetbombing). As it stands, they have this 7" - and as you could expect it's a belter. The guttural, anguished yowls of Tom Lyngcoln and his throttled guitar, juxtaposed with the soaring angelics of his three-female choir, will never get old nor less idiosyncratic - it truly is a unique voice with seemingly limitless depths of chagrin and despair to plumb, clawing desperately for that thin shimmer of hope amidst the morass of guilt, shame and regret. Catharsis has never felt more vindicated than when Harmony strike a chord.

    

Grab Do Me A Favour here. The cover art is again done by Alex Gillies (No Anchor), and is suitably stark and stirring.

3 Years Of Spinning Rooms and Waking In Fright

 

Planet Masala disappeared behind an ash cloud for a couple months there. Its sole inhabitant busy with trekking the darker corridors of Europe, eating, drinking and laughing maniacally, having the time of my life with friends and lovers away from my actual life. Unfortunately it all came to pass - in a painful reminder of reality too, as what was thought to be a bout of indigestion ended up with a week of agony, bile drooling and a removed gall bladder. But we are back! I thought of starting this, the 3rd year anniversary of Sonic Masala, with something special - a look back at favourite articles, interviews, emails, songs, records, barbed retorts, death threats. Even fixing up what my fave albums of 2012 would suffice.

But no. I'm moving on up, and so should you.

Although choosing this as my first slice of life after a couple months off is more about desperately diving into the dirt rather than soaring for the sun. Melbourne's purveyors of small town despair The Spinning Rooms released one of the sweatiest, feverish, paranoid killers at the tail end of last year with their eponymous debut (recorded by The Nation Blue/Harmony's Tom Lyngcoln), and it is pure schizophrenic epiphany. I wrote favourably about it a couple weeks ago for The Music - check out that review here - but all I'll say is that this is the real aural equivalent of an Aussie suburban horror. Slug Guts be damned - these boys understand fear and depravity (and the true sinuous power of the saxophone), whether they want to or not. Shit just got real.

 

You can - nay, must - get The Spinning Rooms here. I aim to see these punks this year, even if I have to unleash them on Brisbane myself. Stay tuned.

Australian Gothic Cacophonies

(Pic by Ben Butcher)

Just saw this band on the weekend. Comprising of the core creative duo of husband and wife Tom Lyngcoln (of ace Melbourne rock band The Nation Blue) and Alex Kastaniotis, and fleshed out by a brace of female backing vocalists (Maria Kastaniotis, Amanda Roff, Quinn Veldhuis) and bass by none other than Jon Chapple (Mclusky, Shooting At Unarmed Men), Harmony are striving to create their own genre - Australian Death Gothic Folk. An unwieldy title, yes, and in no way endorsed by any member of the band, but how else do you describe what these great people have concocted? With songs steeped in depression, alcohol, suicide, and domestic distress, all within the confines of the working class, I can't help but think that we are hearing the best musical that never was. Raw, stark, elegiac, rough-hewn, yet stirring and ultimately it is harshly beautiful. You could say that they owe some of this to the road paved by the likes of the Drones, but this is very much its own tortured beast - and fuck me if its not one of the most striking albums Ive heard this year. Highly recommended.

Harmony is out July 1. Do yourself a favour - preorder it here.

Harmony - Cacophonous Vibes

Built On A Yeesh Kebab!

We here at Sonic Masala cant claim to know everything there is to know about music, so we are constantly in contact with others to find the best and brightest of all things sonic...and masala-y? One group of guys Ive just become aware of are bloggists Built On A Weak Spot - their best of 2010 had some stunning additions that Im sad to say totally missed my attention! (And they also loved Creepoid, who we spoke about here - serendipity or what...) So whilst reading that I listened to another band they championed, Yeesh, a Vermont indie hardcore act, and their debut cassette Little Stabs At Happiness. I liked the raw nature of the lead's howls, the scratchy guitar noodling, the crash pummeling drums...it reminds me heavily of another great act, Australia's The Nation Blue. Even the post rock tendencies and urgency of closer 'Attack Ships' echoed of Drive Like Jehu, one of the most underrated bands EVER. A friend of mine, upon listening to Yeesh, said that they sounded like Sparta, the 'other' band that formed from the ashes of seminal act At The Drive In. Yeah, I can see the comparisons. I also think that this is much more Wiretap Scars than like anything Sparta came up with afterwards - and that can only be a good thing.

Anyway, an exciting little player which you can buy for a physical copy or download for a digital one here.

Yeesh - Long Distance Calls