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So what do you want to know?
Bored small-town kids move to the big city seeking fame, fortune and a new
drummer. The latter they find at gig number one. The fame and fortune thing is
a work in progress.
The first EP (2001) has enough charm to earn them ?ones to watch? status,
and some spectacularly average Tuesday night headline gigs. EP number 2 makes a
surprise impression (although detractors claimed it WAS an impression), and our
naïve young heroes join a national tour as the opening support, earning $100
per gig (not $100 each, by the way). In a logic-defying display of t-shirt
sales, the band amazingly makes the tour profitable and celebrates with a
Bloody Mary. Perhaps there is something afoot.
2004. Next logical step: full-length album. By now the band are hitting their
strides, honing their craft, cutting their teeth, finding their feet and tiring
of the clichés. The self-titled debut is embraced by the Australian kids and
broadcasters. And so continues the quest to find the best roadhouse food in the
country, catering for vegans and omnivores alike. They forget the merch in
Brisbane, lose a hi-hat stand in Newcastle, leave an amp in Sydney, have a
guitar stolen in Melbourne, lose track of time in Perth, forget their troubles
in Hobart and lose sleep in Adelaide, but along the way our protagonists play
some blinding gigs. The one night they are chosen by the hand above to be the
greatest band on earth is unfortunately the night AFTER the live-to -radio,
home-crowd, documentary-crew album launch. That one was a shocker.
Oh well.
So here we are at album number 2, titled LONGING WAS A SAFE PLACE TO HIDE.
It?s a suitably indulgent affair, featuring chanting monks, tubular bells, a
children?s choir, a flaming gong and a 21 gun salute.
Perhaps not, but the Casio keyboard does get a good workout.
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