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Frenzal Rhomb
At the
end of 2000, after four albums which had build them into the biggest
selling indie band in Australia, Frenzal Rhomb released their first major
label album, 'Shut Your Mouth'. Their history showed that it was Sony who
had decided to make concessions, not Frenzal Rhomb.
Too easy
to see as a by-product of American punk, Frenzal Rhomb are in fact
spiritual descendants of Australia's
lock-up-your-daughters style Hard-Ons and the hyperactive Meanies. They
live out, on stage and off, the characterture of the rock band. They
believe in that characterture and added to it their own "yobbo"
traits. Frenzal Rhomb's history is littered with legendary stories, perhaps
true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their song
and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at
someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all
the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic.
The
group was formed in 1992 in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney close to the
industrial wasteland of St Peters,
though singer Jason Whalley and bass player Lex Feltham spent their
schooldays together in privileged St Ives. In a breakthrough single they
described themselves as "Middle class white boys trying hard to
annoy". As a band they spent most of their early years describing themselves
as the "punkest band in the world". The name Frenzal Rhomb was
found in a friend's physics textbook. When the group was formed Whalley was
in Sydney Uni, starting a BA in philosophy.
The
cover of the group's debut EP set the tone. 'Dick Sandwich' featured a
graphic drawing of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame
seed bun with lashings of bloody sauce. Similarly decorated posters saw
them banned from related gigs. The track they promoted from 'Dick Sandwich'
was called 'I Wish I Was As Credible As Roger Climpson.' Cameramen with the
everything-but--credible ageing news anchorman happened to see them perform
the song on Big Day Out and believed every word. Climpson was talked into
posing with the band at the news desk, Frenzal Rhomb's first exposure in
the 'straight' press.
On
television they've thrown custard pies at hosts, put them in headlocks, or
tried to cut their clothes off them with scissors. They performed a song
called 'Get Fucked You Fucken Fuckw'it (You Can't Move Into My House)' on one
TV show, and avoided time-delay bleeping out of offending words by bringing
along placards with the expletives to hold up at the many relevant points
in the song. On tour, support acts can find themselves walking around for
hours with crude messages or drawings on their face, put there in their
sleep; or days after the event receive a photograph of where their
toothbrush has been. For a while they signed their names with the private
phone numbers of other more high profile rock stars. Members of Frenzal
Rhomb themselves are not exempt from the hi-jinx. The same irreverence and
fun loving madness runs through the music.
Lindsay
McDougall replaced Ben Costello on guitar in '96, just after the release of
'Not So Tough Now'. The way the band tells it, he left to go to university
at the behest of a father who once tried to have Ben committed to an
institution. When McDougall joined the band, legend has it, he told his Mum
he was going to the movies, disappeared on an interstate tour and arrived
back to find his key no longer fit the door. The story inspired the single
'Mum Changed the Locks.' More recently there's been a change at the drum
kit.
Whatever
they were doing Frenzal Rhomb were doing something right. The third album,
'Meet The Family' sold 30,000 copies. They were invited on innumerable high
profile tours. Their records were released in Japan Europe and the USA,
accompanied by international tours with the likes of Blink 182. They were
offered many spots on surf and skate videos. The next album 'A Man's Not A
Camel' sold 65,000 copies. And then major label Sony came calling for ‘Shut
Your Mouth’.
Two
years later things were back to “normal”, Frenzal Rhomb independently
released with ‘Sans Souci’ (which means "No Worries" in French)
covering the most important topics
such as cooking with balls and dating women 70 years your senior.. The
album was recorded in Los Angeles
by Eddie Ashworth, who has worked on
‘A Man's Not A Camel’. The title for the 2006 album ‘Forever Malcolm
Young’ is a parody of the 2006 Youth Group hit ‘Forever Young’ and AC/DC's rhythm
guitarist Malcolm Young.
Their
fans had to wait another five years for the next album. The band only
played together a few times during that period, importantly taking part in
2010’s No Sleep Til festival. It was then they convinced Descendents
drummer and prolific producer Bill Stevenson to take charge of the next
album. Bill’s Colorado studio operates within the grounds of his other
enterprise identified by the album’s
title – ‘Smoko at The Pet Food Factory.’
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