I was playing a house gig in Perth a few weekends back and ended up doing something I rarely do; watching opening bands. Sorry, Ian Mackaye, I’m not a grown-ass nerd who pretends to care. Anyway, I watched this here band I am talking ‘bout named Taco Leg from Perth. I was intrigued by the absurdity and retardation of their name so I made it a point to peep them. I wouldn't expect anything else from Perth. The singer has a moustache and wardrobe indicating that he is no older than 14 years old but apparently is 21, the drummer had a head full of curly locks and a Coroner shirt on and the guitar player was using a Flange pedal. Truly amateur. I can understand that my description of these lads so far has been less than stellar in some respects but please believe me; this band was fucking tits.
They slopped through seven tunes of completely inept, three-chord messes with little interest to the crowd. The tunes ranged from sloppy pop diddies to almost Brainbombs like riffage. I know a description like that can sound crippling especially with todays forced lo-fi wimpery that all ex- Sonic Youth fans seem to be emptying there sacks to, but please believe me, they were not faking this. They were legit and not Times New Viking fans. They had somewhat of a clue as to what they wanted to sound like as indicated by their influence dot-points on their myspace but their aim was quite off and it worked out in their favour. It was a sound of their own for them and their parents to be proud of. The singer Andrew, when not crooning into his mic, would simply pick up his bottle of Gatorade and chug until it was his turn on the floor once again. I had to talk to these guys and see if they had a recording.
Turns out these guys had made two tapes to sell at the gig and three shirts, all of which they were wearing after they played. I procured one of their tapes and drooled feverishly until my plane landed back in Melbourne to listen to it. Once picked up from the airport I popped this bad-boy in the deck on the ride home. It was as suspected; a very shitty sounding demo, as if it were recorded open air with a boom-box. Probably hit the nail on the head but I wouldn't expect much more. There are also TEN songs on this demo, a brave move. Most nerds would save that much material for the big CD-R debut. Of the ten tracks, I would have to say that 4 are of the quality I got from the live experience. Freemason's Hall has all the punch of a timid wigger on a rainy day but seems to be the track that gets across all these fellows want to say with this demo. You almost here the gatorade being swigged down during vocal breaks and they did not spare themselves of mistakes. Simply pressing 'stop' on the boom-box and starting over is clearly not an issue with Taco Leg. Simple single note songs played at a slugs pace is the issue here, which seems normal for Perth life if you can ignore that Rupture and Extortion are from there. I recommend this tape to any fans of boredom, Psychedelic Horseshit and the sound of guitar lessons. It's a good place to start.
If you're bored at your office job have some r+r on me, listen HERE. I'm sure if you like the songs here you can convince one of them to tape you their demo and mail it to you for a few jammers of nitrous. Look for a future release on Richie Records.
review by Uncle Sharkey on the Vice Blog
Fun fact about this interview: Andrew Murray does NOT drink Gatorade, ever.
1 comment:
i luff you clark w.
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