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!

Undead Apes' Mega Launch Of Death, This Friday!

Brisbane's finest purveyors snotty punk Undead Apes have had their second LP Killed By Deaf out for what seems like forever (it's only been a few months), but due to many reasons (chief amongst them, laziness) there has been no official launch. Sure, they killed January with four consecutive Thursdays at the Waiting Room, but that was for shits and giggles. The real deal comes on Friday night as they flood Fat Louie's (yes, they are still doing gigs! And dirty chicken wings!) with simian zombies. Also important are the supports, this time filled by SM faves Tiny Migrants, as well as Last Chaos and Shelby Cobra. And enough with the lame excuses (or flat out refusals, like the douches from last Friday's Sonic Masala show), cos this sucka be free, yo! Don't know why I'm speaking like this. Must be that this will be KILLER! So get there, for the love of your children (real, potential, illegitimate - just think of the children!)

Oh, and by Killed By Deaf here - it is loud and killer, so it speaks the truth. And all very quickly, so it's pretty painless death - quick and easy.

Undead Apes - Brain Drain
Undead Apes - Death Can Wait
Undead Apes - Stamp Out Thatcher

Keep On Dancin' For A Standing 8 Count

That Meltdown that Mere Noise is promising gets ever closer, so it's high time we threw the limelight on two more local acts that will be brandishing the blowtorch.


First up we have a band we have briefly mentioned here in the past, The Keep On Dancins. Their debut album The End Of Everything came out earlier this year, and it is just another of Brisbane's 2011 Easter eggs of rocking delectability. What's even better though is that in December it's being released on vinyl, so it will be the greatest Christmas gift too! This album is the brooding, maudlin, eyelids-at-half-mast kind of garage rock, less giddy I love the sunshine and more I love twilight (the time of day, not that raping of the vampire genre shtick). you can pre-order it on Bandcamp now if you want to take advantage of a sweet limited edition pack that includes the vinyl (w/ download), a black (of course) tee and a poster, all for $35 + ph. It can be a gift to yourself if you want...


Secondly, it's all about the institutions at the Meltdown, and these guys are elder statesmen of kicking arse. The Standing 8 Counts are the band that pretty much started it all for this label has reformed, with the original lineup getting together just under a month ago at the Crown Hotel in Lutwyche for the first time in over ten years - it was like 2001 all over again! Very exciting.

The Keep On Dancins - Summertime

The Standing 8 Counts - (You Make Me) Stiff

Migrating To The Woodland And Into Your Drunken Heart

Murky fuzz band and local whale enthusiasts Tiny Migrants are releasing their debut EP on CD (7” available through Mere Noise later this year) at Woodland tomorrow night! Ive been a big fan of every facet of this shambolic collective ever since I saw them support Mark Sultan in February - they were literally the first "new" band I saw when arriving back in Brisbane, and they still delight with every show, especially their interesting set when in support of the brilliant Ty Segall.


Now this show will be incrediballs, not just due to this (and they love to drink, so you know it will get fuzzy and friendly), but the supports have stepped up in the form of motivated party-bunch Cannon, reverb spiked Sunshine State and the return of punk trio the Sulphur Lights. That is huge, shitfaced-worthy news, and seeing as its all for $8 you cannot go wrong. CAN NOT. So get there. And to sate you, here is the first song I heard them play that really grabbed me...

Tiny Migrants - Honeycomber

The Horrortones

The next band to come off the Mere Noise Meltdown honour roll is...

The Horrortones. This behemoth of a Brisbane supergroup slash institution slash intermittent rockabilly raconteurs are currently working on a triple 7" box set, which is hugely exciting. The band revolves around ex-Vegas Kings frontman Pete, with a steady backing band and a revolving door of hangers on. The bands cover the gamut of ace Brisbane band - the aforementioned Vegas Kings, The Grates, Texas Tea, SixFtHick, The Stress of Leisure, Wiseacre, The Tremors, Gin Club, Giants Of Science, Butcher Birds...the list goes on and on. The membership is fluid, its all about drinking with buds and having a good time (space permitting). The M.O. is to funk the fuck out, have a hell of a time, systematically destroy everything and everyone in sight, and wake up the next day in a perpetual state of amnesia and pain. And seeing as they list King Khan, The Dirtbombs and Reigning Sound as influences, there isn't much else to do than ensure you catch one of their shows... (And due to their reticent nature to get things down, all I have is this not so great video of them covering King Khan & the Shrines' 'Saba Lou' from back in 2009. Still, as more about the box set comes through, I will let you know).

Hunting The Narwhals

I picked up this 7" a few weeks ago for three reasons.

One, I was on a recording buying binge and couldn't help myself.

Two, I wanted to support local bands, especially good ones.

Three, my mate Dan who plays in the band wouldn't give me a free one.

Instrumental surf rock bands need to err on the side of Dick Dale or The Shadows if they want to avoid being thrown in with the Best Coast crowd, which Narwhals do well. Its at times funky, at times moody, at times addictive, at times surly, at all times it floods the place with hooks.

Unfortunately it's nigh on impossible to see them live anymore due to members being flung far and wide. That said, have a listen to a couple tracks below, hunt down their 7" here through Mere Noise, and then hunt the members down and give them crow pecks, noogies and Chinese burns until they play once more!

Narwhals - Cosmic Reef
Narwhals - Hell's Gates

HITSing Out For Our Third Mere Noise Post

Time for a look at another Mere Noise artist that will be destroying at the Mere Noise Meltdown in December...and who better than those face-melting miscreants HITS.

HITS played a support show with New York Dolls last week - and that pretty much sums up this band. They murdered that gig, laying it on thick with their thundering, shredding, strutting, "fuckyeahs" and guitar caterwauls. These guys have always thrown every inch of their shit at the wall to see what sticks, and have lost none of their energy (if a few pints of sweat and blood). Its timely too, as the five balltearers have a new release forthcoming - and there is a sweet deal in the mix for it! Entitled the "Smoke Em Like You Got Em Deal", you can pre-order their new 'Gates Of Steel' single which is on a split 7" with Dimi Dero Inc's 'Unfair Enough' - and get a bonus ashtray that's been made out of the initial dud pressing! Head over here to get onto that - it is also HITS' first Bandcamp outing, so they are kinda getting all technologified (but not really).

In other news they have a new 7" in the works and a European tour planned for 2012 - Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain at this stage. All of which bodes well for the future - if you're into a future that will be blackened by rock cliche, evil grins and double entendres...which, let's face it, we all wish for.

Deafened By Undead Apes

Its still two months until the Mere Noise Meltdown comes to our shores, but I thought Id spend each week looking at a band that will be playing it, giving them the individual work over that they deserve.

Brisbane has been a veritable hotbed for diseased, rabid punk in all its guises, and one of the greatest exponents of this in past few years has been Undead Apes. Their take on balls to the wall punk follows in the vein of NY idols The Ramones, and their debut album of last year Grave Consequences was pretty stellar, yet they have gone and pissed all over it with their newie, Killed By Deaf. It was recorded in the back rooms of Tym Guitars and mixed by Eddy Current Suppression Ring's Mikey Young. AS stated by the PR, "If Grave Consequences was a long black then Killed By Deaf is a double shot espresso and a kick in the nuts - 14 songs, 19 minutes you do the math." The coffee references aside - the band really do step up to the plate for some real genital roughhousing - expect many lineages to be abruptly ended when the needle drops.

People of earth can pre-order the vinyl version of this great new record in a limited edition pack right now from here, where you can get a range of awesome presents like an exclusive T-shirt, a hand screened and numbered "glow in the dark" poster and exclusive bonus tracks! PLUS you get an immediate download of the record!! That IS goddamn tasty! So have at it plebs!

Undead Apes - Brain Drain

Mere Noise Meltdown

The guys over at Brisbane label Mere Noise Records are holding their annual Mere Noise Meltdown this year on Saturday December 3rd. The venue has shifted to Woodland due to the shaky nature hanging over the future of the Step Inn, but Im sure it will be as awesome as ever (and the beers on tap won't taste like beer circa 1973 combined with detergent - hey, I love the Step Inn - but bottled booze was the only way to go...). Its gonna be the biggest of its kind, with three stages, a German sausage sizzle and one hell of a lot of noise! At just $32 + bf (grab them here - first 100 tickets get a free album from the Mere Noise catalogue - otherwise they are $40 on the door), and seeing as it's headlined by none other than Japanese garage rock gods Guitar Wolf, its going to be monumentally, retardedly amazeballs. Higher kudos you will not find...

See the current line-up below. Expect a rundown of these bands each week until the Meltdown...err...melts down.

Guitar Wolf (Japan)
Hits
The Horrortones
Texas Tea
No Anchor
Undead Apes
Keep On Dancin's
The Danger Men
Tiny Migrants
Cannon
The Chokes
Go Violets

And here is a video of Guitar Wolf playing in Croatia this year...


Guitar Wolf - Live In Zagreb, 2011. by velimirgrgic