The Boaties on the 2010 Australia Election

It is an election frenzy at the moment here in Australia. The two candidates for the position of Supreme Leader of Australia have been involved in an often heated debate on the issue of The Boat People.

I decided to cut straight to the chase and ask The Boat People in person what they thought of the election thus far, and get their side of the story. James from the Boaties was kind enough to indulge me.

It's election time and Tony Abbott and Julia Gibbard seem determined to make The Boat People an election-changing issue? What have you guys done to warrant such concern?!

Well it's very flattering to see ourselves in the headlines but without trying to jump to conclusions I'm not sure Tony Abbott is a fan of indie-pop, so perhaps it's not us he's referring to! You never know though. Perhaps the Liberal party should use a Shins track in their next T.V. ad!


Have you considered sending the candidates a copy of your quite accomplished third record Dear Darkly to assure them that the Boat People are contributing positively to Australian society?

No, but I thought I saw Julia Gillard at a gig recently. Then I thought it was Elly Jackson from La Roux. Turned out it was neither, but for a moment I was quite excited!!

What policy do you think the major party candidates should be concentrating on instead? Do you have any reform advice?

Well, I've never been a fan of economic rationalism so it would be a nice surprise if the major parties truly recognised the intrinsic, non-material value of the arts and followed that up with policy. That and a federal "free guitar strings for poor musicians" grant.



Echo Stick Guitars. Coming to a political ad near you.


If you had to pick a song off Dear Darkly to accompany a political or election ad, which one would it be? And could you imagine what kind of message this hypothetical ad might contain?

Perhaps "Echo Stick Guitars" because it's the most nonsensical song we've ever put out! Plus it has an off-beat electro drum feel that always makes me think "spoken by R. Reynolds for the Labour Party, Canberra".

You've been touring about now, heavily promoting Dear Darkly, hows the response been?

It's been the best response we've ever had! We're loving playing live more than ever, and good thing too as there's a lot more touring to come.

Will touring pretty much define the rest of 2010? Any international touring plans?

YES and YES! We love going overseas.

Well, you've heard it from the proverbial horses mouth. Do yourself a favour and don't comdemn The Boat People to some Pacific island off the coast of Australia by throwing away your democratic rights in the upcoming election. They're nice guys, ok!

Interview with Bonfire Nights

Ahead of the launch of their debut EP at the Troubadour (tonight), I had the chance to speak to Ruth and Steve from local duo, Bonfire Nights.

Hi Ruth and Steve, congratulations on the upcoming release of your debut offering. Now I know you guys have been collaborating for quite some time. What does it feel like to finally have something out there which people can grasp in their own hands?

We’re really happy to finally have a recording to share with everyone. It’s been our little secret for a while now and we’re quite proud, as it seems to be drawing a positive response from people.

Stylistically, your sound is different from your two previous musical endeavours - Steve, you with Black Mustang and Ruth, you with Hot Liquid Sex. Does this project feel more natural to you guys, more so than your previous endeavours?

It has been a natural progression for us – we started writing songs together in our bedroom for a bit of fun. It got to a point when we realised that we wanted other people to hear our music, so we started demoing tracks with the goal of recording an EP together.

It’s a project that’s very close to our hearts, because we are writing the sort of music that we’ve always wanted to write.

Ruth, I see you have now traded in the bass playing duties with to play drums. And before that, you were playing guitar. Whats the deal? Are you trying to master every single instrument on the planet?

You know what they say: “jack of all trades, master of none!” I started playing drums for Bonfire Nights out of necessity, because I couldn’t get the goddamned drum machine to work! That was an expensive mistake – all I can say is, thank god for eBay.

For the moment I might stick with the drums, but I would like to get better at the glockenspiel.


You certainly get a lot of sounds from a two piece. I note you recorded the EP on a four track. While this technique almost seems synonymous with the terminally abused label 'lo-fi', it sounds anything but that. Can you explain the whole recording process and what your thoughts are regarding the process?

We recorded the EP with Matt Redlich in his home studio in East Brisbane. The process was different to anything else we had done in the past – we recorded the tracks live, sometimes using our first take. We were looking to capture the vibe of the songs, rather than sounding technically perfect.

Although it was recorded onto a four-track, Matt knew what he was doing and the analogue tape really captured a warm and full sound. There was little post-production as well, because tape sounds so good without the need for extra tinkering.

It’s definitely not a lo-fi sound, but at the same time it’s not overly produced. When you think about it, the Beatles recorded onto a four-track and they wouldn’t be described as lo-fi. Ah, not that we’re trying to be the Beatles or anything…we just ‘borrowed’ a few of their ideas when we recorded the EP.

While obvious comparisons will be made to bands like the Kills and the Ravonettes, your sound seems more complex in terms of instrumentation. For instant the use of what I believe is harmonica in 'Leave Yourself Open' may not seem like an obvious choice for a song that has such a grandiose and crunching guitar riff during the chorus section. How flexible you guys in terms of sound? And how do these track back to your alleged influences?

Our sound is really born out of experimentation, so we’re prepared to have a go at everything and anything. When we jam, we swap our instruments a lot, and play with anything we can get our hands on. I guess I don’t really how this approach relates back to any of our influences as we don’t tend to make a conscious effort to sound like any particular band.

While the EP is strong in all regards, my favourite song on the EP has to be 'We Don't Care' - it certainly seems to be the most standout song in terms of radio playability. What do you think of that assessment?

It’s definitely an upbeat fun track – that’s the song we wrote to annoy our neighbours with.

Strangely while listening to it, I'm reminded of Supergrass for some reason. Am I way off the mark?

Yeah, we can hear definitely hear that, it sort of has the same kind of feel as ‘Alright’.



Thematically, the EP seems to speak of a carefree approach of making music. I would venture a guess that it wouldn't matter if you sold 10 records or 10,000,000, its more for the love of writing a good song or playing live. Is that correct?

Exactly, we get a real kick out of creating something from nothing. Watching a song grow and take on a life of its own is something pretty special. If no one buys the EP it’s no big deal, because it’s still fun just doing what we do.

You've chosen the classic 'Teenage Kicks' by the Undertones, and given it an interesting interpretation. Can you tell us about the process of getting permission to put it on the EP, how it came about that you wanted to use this particular song in this fashion?

I always felt the song had a real innocent side to it and we wanted to bring this element out. We like it when artists give their own interpretation of a cover, as it’s a lot more interesting than trying to replicate the original.

We had to get permission to record the cover from the publishers of the original song. This delayed the release of the EP a fair bit, but APRA was really great in helping us get the green light.


You do know that in Ireland, any person under the age of 40 knows this song back to front. Probably most people in the UK as well. What about sending this version to radio stations over there?

We may be treading on thin ice, recording a cover of a classic song like ‘Teenage Kicks’. Some people will love it, some people will hate it. We probably will send it to a few radio stations in the UK, especially as we’d like to tour there one day.

I note that this Friday's show is an EP launch AND a birthday party. What can people expect at the launch party?

Good music and possibly some cake!

You will recall that I reviewed their EP just two days past. Click here to read my thoughts. Furthermore, as I mentioned the group launch the EP tonight. Tickets available from Oztix and the supports are the stellar Teenage Wolves and Blonde on Blonde.

Young Adult Canines: Interview with Teenage Wolves

I came across Teenage Wolves due to an extremely positive review I read on the Brisbane Sounds website. They're a relatively new band and, from what I can hear, should cause a bit of a freakin' ruckus in this fair town. Before the end of winter, they'll be cooreographing Clint-Eastwoord style gun duels in the Brunswick Street Mall. Doubt me? Well go have a listen and you'll soon understand.

Anyway, Jasmine from the band graced me with a few minutes of her attention via the ol' email, enough to answer a series of fairly innocuous questions courtesy of yours truly.

Do I detect elements of PJ Harvey and Ennio Morricone in your sound? Where do your influences come from?

We both have very different musical backgrounds but our tastes are slowly merging together as we influence each other with our own musical preferences. The Ennio Morricone influence rings very true, there’s something timeless about spaghetti westerns, in particular Sergio Leone’s films and the soundtracks Morricone adds to them are hauntingly brilliant. But spaghetti westerns aside my main influences are the Delta blues, psychobilly, early 60’s garage rock and 50‘s rock ‘n’ roll.  

I love the way the songs are recorded. Was this a conscious choice?

Lane studies audio engineering so we’re lucky enough to have access to a studio every now and then. I’m really glad people dig the reverb on the recordings, I fought hard to keep that in there! Lane told me I use ‘too much reverb’ I told him there’s no such thing. He let me do a vocal take in his bathroom recently so I think he’s warming up to it.

How did Teenage Wolves come to be?

We’ve known each other for fourteen years now but we’ve only started playing music together as a two-piece very recently. We would try out other people for different roles but no-one could really understand what we were about, so we just kept it as the two of us, it felt right.  

Any favourite records or artists?

Lanes pick of record is Rated R by Queens of the Stone Age which is also his favourite band. I can’t bring it down to just a single record but I’m mad for The Cramps.  

Any local bands you think we should be paying attention to?

For personal safety reasons people should be aware of a group who creep around Brisbane and call themselves The Chokes. They’re some of the nastiest, low brow - low fi misfits playing instruments I’ve ever met. We’ll be arranging shows with them soon. 



I note a number of forthcoming gigs. What, when, how, why?

We’re lucky enough to be playing a handful of  local shows over the next month which is great, we get a real kick out of playing live. We have all the details for any upcoming shows on our site, with some more being added in the next week or so.  

What are the future plans for Teenage Wolves? Headline gigs, major festivals, the trashing of hotel rooms?

We’ll be recording as soon as we get the chance. We have a lot of new songs that have been written recently that I’m wanting to hear recorded, but until then playing around town and just focusing on writing and rehearsals. It’s such early days for Teenage Wolves that it’s still at this really exciting stage for us.  


Excellent. I suggest you check them out. Teenage Wolves play the Legions Club on the 2nd of July, Lambda on the 15th, The Troub on the 23rd (supporting Bonfire Nights at their EP Launch), and the Step Inn on the 24th. Holey Moley.

You can listen to their stuff on myspace and download some tracks from the Triple J Unearthed Website (I encourage you to have listen - it's great stuff].

Blaming Ringo For Pretty Much Everything Including the Dirty Linen

So, where was I?

Oh yeah, so me and my budding literary overlord friend, Mister JM Donellan, were lucky enough to catch the first of Blame Ringo’s laundromat gigs which I talked about last week. The gig was in West Ashgrove, a short walk from my place, though despite that fact, we still drove – our bad.

The band played a few numbers from their ‘Lucky Number 9’ LP which was released earlier in the year, as well as some newer songs – which I must say, sounded very good. Actually, this happened to be the first time I’ve ever seen the band live, something that I had been meaning to tick off my long ‘things to do before my death and eventual reincarnation as a puma’ list. I’m pleased to say that this has now been achieved.

Despite its short nature, no doubt due to logistical issues of attempting to play three laundromats within three hours, there was much to like about Blame Ringo’s gig. Newer songs like 'One Way Driver' and 'The Sunshine Song' sounded particularly good, the boys employing vocal harmonies and other techniques that have the power to make teenage girls soil their undergarments to great effect. I guess it was lucky they were performing in a laundromat then. The setlist (and some other photos from the laundromat tour) are available for perusal on their myspace blog. I managed to take a small video of the band performing ‘Garble Arch’ which you can see below. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out about a minute in...but you get the gist, right?


Anyway, Pete from the band, being the nice guy that he is, did me the courtesy of answering a few of my meandering and somewhat random questions about the band, the tour, and forthcoming plans.


Hi Blame Ringo, that certainly was a flattering photo of the band that I saw in the Sunday Mail a few weeks back. Some would say arousing. In the spirit of your moniker, can we also blame Ringo Starr for the inclusion of such racy material in our local rag?

We blame ringo for pretty much everything. I'm not sure whose idea it was to strip for that photo shoot though. In fact, I think it was Tony, and he ended up covering up with a Rave Magazine! Cheeky bugger.

A very interesting video clip of people attempting to re-inact the famous Abbey Road record cover accompanies the song 'Garble Arch'. Can you tell us the story behind how this came about?

We all love the Beatles and I'd always heard these stories about how Abbey Road is still as popular for tourists as it's ever been. It seemed like a no-brainer really. Granted, we had no idea that it was going to take off the way it did, but we always knew it was going to be very popular.



This laundromat tour is certainly a very interesting idea. You guys have a history of quirky live performances, I recall your former band “The Little Heavies” performing from a back of ute, parked on Waterworks Road in Ashgrove. How are you going to possibly one-up the laudromat idea? Playing on rooftops in New York a la U2? Gigs on a space shuttle en route to Mars?

To be honest, it's now time for us to cut the crap and put out a killer new record. We've got some wacky plans for the new year, but for now it's all about the music. We're demoing later in the month and feel confident that we're onto something special.

So these gigs at the various laundromats around Australia, did you manage to do any ‘covers’ (ho ho ho)?

Not much washing was done in the end. I booked the schedule far too tightly. We literally pulled up outside a laundromat, ran in, played our tunes, said our goodbyes and got the hell out of there, speeding off onto the next show. It was a riot though.

Your recent record “Lucky Number 9” is a great little local release. What are you intending to do next?

As I mentioned before, we're currently demoing for a release early in the New Year. The tunes are taking a slightly more pop-rock direction, but our Kinksian stylings will be as strong as ever. We'll keep everyone up to date as best we can over the next few months!

Indeed. ‘Cash in Jackson’ from “Lucky Number 9” features some killer guitar chops and a somewhat epic solo. Can we expect this tune on any future evolutions of the Guitar Hero franchise?

Believe it or not, I've thought about Guitar Hero. I got "World Tour" and played it to death. And I will be getting the Beatles one when it comes out in a week's time. Not sure how it all works though. The new record is going to have equally gnarly axe wielding though, don't worry about that. We have a few gigs coming up before the end of the year, and will keep you posted on them for sure.

Blame Ringo are playing a few more gigs in the next few months, the details of which you can discover for yourself on their myspace page.