Né punk né post punk, mai pretenziosi ma neanche immediati, gli Uranium Club se ne fregano delle definizioni e giocano nel mezzo di queste, la poca immaginazione diventa un cifra stilistica (e ideologica).
Era un po’ che aspettavo questo ritorno, ma devo dire che i quattro da Minneapolis sono riusciti a stupirmi di nuovo, più maturi ma non meno incazzati di cinque anni fa.
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The Toads — In the Wilderness (Upset the Rhythm/Anti Fade)
Photo by Matt Shaw
In The Wilderness by The Toads
The Toads bop gleefully at the end of days, wielding knife edge guitars and bouncing bass lines with antic abandon. The clatter of drums push dystopian narratives onward, and the melodies, though agitated, have the lilt and longing of minor key laments. A product of an entangled, polycollaborating Melbourne garage punk scene, the Toads came into being when guitarist Billy Gardner (Ausmuteants, Cereal Killer) lost his house in the wildfires that raged in late 2019 and early 2020. He moved in with Stella Rennex, the bass player from Parsnip, and her friend Elsie Rettner (now the Toads’ drummer) often visited. They spotted Miles Jansen, the singer from the Shifters, at a local gig, and suddenly, in the smoky aftermath of disaster, a band was formed.
The origin story is important, because In the Wilderness isn’t your standard happy-go-lucky lo-fi rock disc. It’s fun, for sure, in a loopy, sardonic, high-energy way, and putting it on, you can easily imagine a live iteration that involves sweat and joy and hopping up and down. And yet, its brand of absurdity shades away from the playful and towards the darker Kafka-esque variety. The kick-i-est song on the disc tells a nightmarish narrative of trying to get a gig across town, only to find that the venue is on the other side of town and currently inaccessible. “Tale of a Town Split in Two” filters lockdown angst into magic realism. It pogoes violently on the caffeinated seam between manic abandon and despair.
“Nationalsville” is similarly bifurcated, on its surface hyped up, one-two punching guitar rip, underneath a ranting critique of late capitalism. The narrator has done something to dam up all the water, so that his neighbors have to pay him (“Sell it to my mates, sell it to my mates”). The song is so infectious, jittering and bumping and, once, bursting into flames with wailing guitar solo. It’s bliss to bang along with it, but also a form of buying into psychopathy.
You can hear bits of the other bands in these songs, the tactile bass and dreamy sing-alongs of Parsnip, the nattering sarcasm of the Shifters, the futuristic unease of Ausmuteants, but the Toads are their own package. Nervy, tight, cackling with laughter to mask crushing anxiety, they make music that you can equally dance or dread to — and maybe at the same time.
Tell you what – we love hearing from artists when things go right. We equally love hearing from artists when things go dreadfully wrong. A song that was a piece of piss, written in 20 minutes? Or years in the making and a bastard to write?
Whether it’s a song that came together through great duress or one that was smashed out in a short amount of time, we’re getting the lowdown from some of our…
This might be my favorite Parsnip release. It retains all of their pop glory but explores some sweet new trends (listen to the guitar on the cover of Fire’s “Treacle Toffee World”).
Like many earlier releases this can recall the work of The Aislers Set, Girl Ray, Grass Widow, or Eerie Wanda.
Parsnip are from Melbourne, Australia and this release is being co-handled by Anti Fade (Australia) and Episode Sounds (Japan).
In typical lockdown ‘what time/day/month is it?‘ fashion, I got all excited about Vintage Crop when they released the first single from their forthcoming third album. I played it to death for a day or two, we stuck it in our playlist at the time and then I seemingly blacked out for months because that was apparently back in June!
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While this does have a distinct Australian jangle sound (The Stevens as well as The Stroppies), somehow the music feels and sounds better knowing that there is a lifelong friendship intertwined with this batch of songs. The Bandcamp page has its own comparison: “It's the electric twang of Neil Young with the cool swagger of Pavement.“
This LP is being released by ANTI FADE which is based in Geelong.
Second single from Parsnip's forthcoming debut LP, "When The Tree Bears Fruit", out August 9th in AU/NZ through Anti Fade and out worldwide August 30th throu...
Desperately trying to drown out this horrible week with new music from Down Under, Parsnip.
