ECSR
–P.Sutton
Inserted 151208
Mikey from ARIA nominated Eddie Current Suppression Ring (ECSR) was excited to be performing at The Big Day Out. Already in a number of bands, the young fella has just returned from a tour of the US in his other band The Ooga Boogas. It was time to concentrate on The Eddie Current Suppression Ring.
Their recent Cd was released in May and they intend to release a new seven inch single ‘That Time of Day’ in January in time for The Big Day Out.
Mikey writes most of the tunes and the singer writes the lyrics. We get together and play and usually in about ten minutes we know if it is going to be a good song or not.
I usually bring the songs from home. Sometimes I have a fill idea and sometimes I have a fragment of a tune. The other guys definitely change it. Without their input and they way they play, it wouldn’t come out anything like it. Sometimes we make something up on the spot. But like I said if we don’t like it straight away we don’t use it. Our songs aren’t usually that complex, so its easy to tell if it going to be a good song.’
Inspiration comes from Mikey’s huge Cd collection. ‘I listen to a lot of music, that’s where my inspiration comes from. Old records.’
Records of the 1980’s?
‘I collect anything from 1940’s onwards.‘
The band sort of spontaneously formed. Mikey had a mate (not a singer), there was a Christmas party, alcohol was involved, Brendan had girl troubles, they got up and played, Brendan took the mike, someone made a tape. They listened to it the next day and decided it was really good and Eddie Current Suppression ring was born.
‘Being in a band is a fun way of expressing yourself. Brendan our singer is hooked. For the past four years he just writes page after page of lyrics. He’s totally changed from the nervous start he made in the beginning. I can’t keep up I can’t write enough songs for him.’
In the early days Singer Brendan overcame his stage fright by wearing black gloves. Are they put away? Mikey tells me his mate is still very much attached to his good luck charms.’
Whenever you read anything about Eddie Current Suppression Ring, you read about’ Australian culture,’ does Mikey see himself and the band as promoters of Aussie imagery?
‘I‘m a big fan of the late 70s and early 80’s bands. We’re just making ourselves happy and I don’t think there’s any conscious approach to making our music Australian. It’s probably the way Brendan sings. His accent is pretty thick and suburban.’
I used the word ‘Tambourine.’
‘That’s about as experimental as we get,’ explains Mikey. ‘We experiment within our limitations. We don’t change our sound. We do as much with the limitations we have and the skill we’ve got. I wouldn’t say we’re an experimental band at all. We’re pretty basic Aussie garage type rock and roll.
PONYFACE
–P.Sutton
Inserted 151208
Ponyface playa very bluesy, almost folksy, definitely Melbourne sound. They have recently released an album that they describe as a ‘culmination of all the demos that have scratched up pretty good.’
‘We put them on a disc never thinking of an Ep. They all started to appear in order and in the end we ended up with this longish Ep. We didn’t think about making an album, really it’s a long Ep!’
‘Bearded Little Girls’ is their first release, and Simon admits the band didn’t want to dive into the first ‘road album,’ and liked the half hour length of the release.
The Cd is not structured. There’s not a narrative story running through it. Simon writes the lyrics and is motivated by personal stories, though he admits a lot of the time he makes it up.
‘I like fiction stuff and a lot of the time I like getting into other people’s heads. I find I can get a lot more freer with ideas if I can place myself in someone else. It all comes from a single inspiration.’
He pauses. ‘That’s not true for the second song ‘Sheelong.’
‘That’s true, word for word. It’s about one of my first girlfriends from Geelong. It’s the exception to the rule on the Ep.’
There are a few Geelong references on the Ep. I wondered why he likes the place so much?
‘It‘s so abused from Melbourne. I feel sorry for it in a way.’
Simon admits that Melbourne weather can play part in writing. He likes to write songs on wet, cloudy, cold winter’s days. In summer he’s too much into sitting in the berr garden of his local pub.
Brunswick is home and he doesn’t often venture outside it’s boundaries. ‘All our last twenty gigs have been in Brunswick,’ he muses. ‘We haven’t crossed the river yet to play in St. Kilda.
I advised it was a nice area and that trams did go there.
‘It’s lazy I agree. It’s just because there are some really great venues around here. Why leave at all?’
Collectively the band racks up some fifty years of playing. The experience shows with the release. It’s relaxed, self assured and suited to Brunswick.
All the guys work in Brunswick.

MR BEN
P.Sutton
Inserted 151108
Mr. Ben brought back memories of Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, or Gentle Ben, both iconic cinematic time pieces for generations of long lost children. So what was it?
I was correct, it was something to do with children and it came from young Ben’s childhood, where his dad always called him ‘Mr. Ben.’
‘He calls me Mr Ben and I call him Mr. Og.’
It made the same sort of sense as Bill and Ben The Flowerpot Men. But we pressed on.
‘The early stages of Mr Ben was meant to be an acoustic project, but turned into a three piece band.’
With Ben was bass guitarist Leiton. ‘He’s the cutie in the band.’
The chick magnet?
‘He likes to think so.’
The Sydney based band has been together for several years. Like most bands in Australia, there has been three years of hard work before someone took notice and Ben talks of how hard the music industry is for a band to get national exposure,
‘It’s very hard to stand out from the crowd. It’s very hard to get noticed when every one is becoming independent. Take Sydney for example, there’s probably about 5,000 bands all trying to have their song played on the radio and get a gig to get noticed,’
Leiton spoke about venues. ‘Many venues have stopped booking bands. Soultek, the first venue we ever played at don’t book bands anymore, they just go with DJ’s.
Think of Grinspoon, Magic Dirt, Powderfinger and Silverchair. Those four bands were born in an age where major record companies were spending lots of dollars on marketing, pay for play etc. If you have enough finance behind a project you can flog it for recognition. As soon as there is some acknowledgement in the industry people follow the trend.’
‘What we’re trying to do is stick to our guns and say
‘’We know how hard it is,” If the songs are bad you won’t get noticed anywhere. We work with our songs to get noticed.’
Mr. Ben have just released their debut eleven track album ‘Night and Day’ and they will be heading down south to Melbourne at the end of the year or early next year.
Lyrics are either based around a personal diary, biography or telling a story in the third person.
Ben explains them in terms of life experiences. ‘Either your own or someone close to you. The whole night and day concept of the album is summed up in the music is written. You have to listen to the album from the beginning to the end,’ says Leiton. ‘It’s full of emotion and feelings. The whole album is a roller coaster of emotion. There’s love songs, ballads and rock songs that all fit together to produce a journey for the listener.’
Visit them at www.myspace.com/mrbenwever
DEADLY ARE THE NAKED
Inserted 151108
Deadly are The Naked don’t play naked, but was Dion deadly when naked?
He paused and thought.
‘I am only deadly when I play naked from the waist up. ‘It depends just how crazy we feel,’ he explains. ‘We’re not going to do a Chilli Peppers. Not that game!’
At twenty-nine Dion has experienced a few bands. What had the other bands tought him?
‘To listen to what the other members of the band are saying to me. Find your space and not overplay! It’s all about the experience playing with other musicians,’ that’s really all I can say!
The four piece band has been together for some five years. All from Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs, they describe their music as ‘funk rock,’ and point to a Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s style.
’We all bring our own little things to it. I am a blues player, Adam (singer) is into ninties grunge and brings that to the table, while the bass player is into funk and brings that and the drummer is the same. Funk rock is our starting point.’
Last year they released an Ep ‘Live At The East,’ which is now out of production. They have just come out of the studio have recorded an album.
‘We’ve recorded nine songs and we’re really happy with the result. ‘We needed to get them down so we could move forward.’ The album will be out next February/ March.
‘A lot of the songs have been kicking around for a while in our set. Some are partying songs, some are good times, there’s a couple of ballads in there, the old love story about heart broken lovee, there’s also a couple of songs about life (things that we feel personally), and while Adam writes most of the songs, Dion is hoping that one of his acoustic songs to his fiancé Hailey makes the cut. He isn’t sure though that while they won’t make the Cd, one might make it into the set. I guess time will tell.
I asked about performance?
‘Adam is very animated and jumps around a lot. I usually play with my eyes shut, playing away, the other guys just play hard.’
Tracks on the Myspace site include ‘Nudity In The Nineties,’ which Adam wrote around the fact he never really recovered from having to take his tee shirt off and go for a swim. He’s pretty self conscious and always wears a tee shirt at the beach. He really gets moved by these personal issues.’
I asked about how the album was funded? ‘It’s self funded, People may want to invest in the stock market, but we want to invest in our band!’ All the guys in the band have regular jobs. Dion is a draftsperson, Tim (drums) accounts, Jase is a finance broker and Adam works for Optus.
LAME EXCUSE
–P.Sutton
Lame Excuse are a young Canberra punk outfit who are currently embarking on a national tour in support of their new album ‘Life Like Wild.’ Today they were driving after work from Canberra to Newcastle to play all ages venue The Loft. It will be the same for the next six weekends. Each weekend seeing them leaving Canberra Friday afternoon for weekend gigs somewhere on the east coast within driving range of Canberra.
‘Financially it was pretty hard to get it all together for the new record,’ says Donny. ‘We were lucky to find a studio that could put out a recording for a decent price. It was all self funded.’ The guys work at various jobs including graphic artist, car detailer and metal smelting. It was through these jobs that the guys tithed a portion of their weekly wage into funding the release. In today’s society a band has to be so much more self sufficient.
‘We work full time and drive up to where the gigs are after work.’
‘These days you have to call being in a band an expensive hobby. But we really enjoy it.’
Perhaps Donny is a little modest in the amount of $$ placed into getting a good sound. The album was mastered by Jason Livermore at the Blasting Room Studios (No FX).’When the opportunity came up and they were prepared to master it, the deal turned out to be better than anything we could have achieved here in Australia. It was all done over the internet. They had a server we uploaded our songs to, then we had access to a site where we could download the raw files and see how things were progressing.‘
Lame Excuse’s songs are written by Donald (guitar), who will write the basic song on acoustic guitar, bring it to the jam, where the rest of the guys will work at refining the track until they are happy with it. They try it out live, see what other people think. ‘Sometimes they make it to recordings and sometimes they don’t.’
Lyrics deal with issues the guys in the band have experienced. ‘It’s a great way of expressing how you feel about issues and the people around you. We have a song about food poisoning, a song about a chest wig, about hanging out for the weekend, Don’s crazy ex girlfriend and avocados. (He recommends eating them fresh with salt). Sadly no one in the band can cook, hence the simple approach to avocados. Touring schedules can mean a packet of hot chips as a meal unless the pub throws something in!’
Visit them at www.myspace.com/lamexcuse
BACKYARD SURGEONS

Peter Sutton
Inserted 91008
Backyard Surgeons cite influences including 90’s bands Strung Out, Lagwagon, Cretin’s Puddle, Bodyjar and Game Over. ‘We write our music revolving around bands we grew up with as kids.
A five piece band they get together a few times each week to nut out the songs, practice and just catch up. They have a 5 track Ep out at present and fans can listen to a couple of tracks online at their Myspace page. At no 2 on the JJJ ‘Punk Unearthed Charts, with ‘Bad Intent,’ the guys from Backyard Surgeons are doing well.
The guys from Backyard Surgeons like to think about the makeup of their lyrics. Take the tack ‘Plant A Seed.’ dealing with the idea of the government creating soldiers for war and it backfires on them. ;Bad Intent’ is about the lead singer always getting himself in trouble when the band goes out. The newer songs are based about what the guys do with their lives.
‘We’re really not one of those bands that want to be a political band, we just write about the events that go on around us and what we have on our minds at the time.’
An energetic outfit offstage, the guys from Backyard Surgeons describe their stage show as never standing still for long. ‘We rock out a bit harder than we should. The boys definitely jump around a fair bit.’
‘Backyard Surgeons’ is an interesting name for a band. Apparently it all comes from a David Boone book, that the band took on board.
The new Ep will be recorded in November under the direction of Dave Carr, who recently worked on the last Antiskeptic and Hot Lies albums.
Songs are basically crafted by guitarist Ryan, who works out how he wants the songs to structured. He plays the songs out to the band in rehearsal, then the guys sit down and nut out how they want the song structured.’ The writing process happens with Ryan and he brings it into us and either change parts or keep it as it is. Morgan our singer then tries to fit in the vocals that he has fitted into the songs. If the demos aren’t working the way we want them, we change the songs a little bit until we start getting what we are looking for. We really like dissecting our songs.’ Very medical but unintentioned.
Ask them what keeps the band together?
The answer: ‘We are all really close friends who happen to play music.’
Backyard Surgeons are: Ryan : Guitar, Matt: Guitar, Morgan: Vocals, Trent: Bass, Andy: drumsThe guys will be performing October 3rd at The Arthouse with Magenta Line who will be doing their Ep launch.

SEPARATIST
–Marcus Colla
Inserted11908
Hobart outfit Separatist have amassed an impressive history: commencing as a teenage garage band intent on emulating Fear Factory, in advanced age the group’s past is cluttered with momentous support slots and now, after five years, a full LP, the Motionless Apocalypse. And vocalist Sam Dishington, who, despite asserting his band as being ‘difficult to classify’, throws the terms ‘dark, brutal, technical death metal towards the steaming Leviathan that is Separatist, couldn’t be more excited.
‘So far the album has received nothing but good reviews, which is always a confidence booster, and it definitely makes it a great deal easier to get yourself noticed when you have an album on the go. Everyone seems to love it, except maybe the select few but that’s always going to be the case, the general consensus is really great! Looking back at the recording process there’s probably things we could have done better, and in retrospect I can see that we have grown from the experience, both musically and as a band in general. With any luck we will be able to apply what we’ve learned this time around to any future projects so we can work a bit more efficiently!’
Obviously, then, Separatist are a band of tremendous air-punching energy, and no doubt this assisted them put on successful support slots for such high profile acts as I Killed the Prom Queen and Skinless; shows fondly remembered by Dishington:
‘We supported I Killed the Prom Queen when they came down to Hobart in 2006. That was a killer show, we had a great time and it was the biggest crowd we have played in front of to date, as you would expect with a band like that. Then the following month we played with Skinless, which was an awesome experience, even though no one was there when we played because we had the opening slot. It was still awesome to play with a band that’s traveled here from the U.S. and has such a reputation for just being flat out brutal and intense in regards to their performance and their music.’
This brings us to 2008; a huge year for the band. The next day to stamp ‘Separatist’ in block capital red letters on your calendars is the 17th July, where the band will support Death Metal kings Dismember. Following this, shows in Melbourne and Adelaide should see the band bring their raucous, energetic, unclassifiable sound to new unsuspecting ears.