Interview With Grant Hunter of Crab Smasher

Crab Smasher are one of the most interesting new bands from Australia that I’ve come accross recently. Based in Newcastle, NSW, Crab Smasher are described as a experimental noise/pop band by Last.FM and lean towards a wide range of styles including post-rock, noise, drone, psychadelic rock and experimental rock (although these aren’t conscious or intentional influences). Playing recently at La Campana, supporting Euguene Chadbourne, was Crab Smasher’s first show in Sydney for about two years, and they certainly put on an excellent show. I caught up recently with Grant Hunter from the band to interview him about things such as Crab Smasher’s history, tour and release schedule, as well as his views on the Newcastle experimental music scene.

I recently saw your set at La Campana supporting Eugene Chadbourne who came out here recently for the NOW now Festival in the Blue Mountains. Not having heard your stuff before I didn’t know what to expect, but you all came across as strong, confident live performers nestling nicely between a Velvet Underground “too cool to care” proto-punk attitude and a totally enjoyable and fun freak-out jam session, with elements of 1960s psychedelic and or progressive rock (stomping on the tambourine by the bassist really gave it that feel and reminded me specifically of Can, Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd), post rock, post-punk, noise, drone and ambience. I found the instrumentation intriguing – electric bass guitar, electric guitar, vocals (in the broad sense of the term), electronics and two drum kits. How did it develop to this point? What’s the story behind Crab Smasher?

In 2002 I started a band called Crab Smasher with my best friends Nicholas French and Chloe Russell. We were living on the Central Coast of NSW and all of the bands were emulating One Dollar Short etc and we wanted to try to shake things up a little so we used Windows Sound Recorder to record about 3 albums worth of really annoying 2 minute novelty song/experiments with lots of pitch shifted vocals and bad poetry and downloaded techno samples and really complicated multi-tracking on a constantly crashing PC. We put all this stuff on the internet and in 2004 with basically zero musical skill we were asked to play live and accidentally became an improv noise band. We added and subtracted members here and there, moved to Newcastle and were most active as a mostly ambient/drone duo with pop aspirations around 2006-7. Last year we added the amazing rhythm section of Nathan Martin, Jeffrey Brown, and Marnie Vaughn, and it all feels brand new again. We’re still trying to shake things up to some extent, but now we sound a bit more like a band, I suppose we want to try and fit in too.

That show with Eugene Chadbourne was really good fun. It was exciting to play in Sydney again, we’d neglected to do so for two years.

Who would you say are your primary influences?

I am influenced by Nicholas French, Nathan Martin, Marnie Vaughn, and Jeffrey Brown.  I try not to be too influenced directly by other bands, even if it is unavoidable sometimes. We’re always going to have bits and pieces of ideas that we’ve picked up from other places, I’m like a big sponge. I don’t know that it is something that I can easily narrow down, and even if I were to try, it would be contradicted by some other influence. You mentioned post rock, punk, noise, drone etc above, so obviously all of that, but I don’t know where it comes from because that’s not necessarily the music that primarily interests me, and the rest of the band have really varied tastes too. I appreciate that you detected such a varied range of styles though. I like being unpredictable, the clash of sensibilities keeps things exciting. We just play what comes out of us, and that’s always going to evolve in unexpected ways.  At shows people often compare us to these obscure bands I’ve never heard of, so it’s always fun to eventually track them down to see who we’re supposed to be ripping off.

Is your music improvised, composed or a bit of both?

Our live performances are 100% improvised. Some of our recorded releases, particularly Impossible Monsters, involved a considerable amount of post-production, processing and manipulation of recorded elements, but I see the studio as a tool to be used as any other instrument. Some of our peers seem to think the more compositional stuff is a bit of a cop-out compared to our live improvisations, whereas other people really prefer the fluffy pop songs. We’ve often toyed with the idea of introducing more structure to our live sets, but improvisation is just so radical when it works. I don’t think we’d ever abandon it, no matter how much we want to be super rich pop stars. With our recent live sets we’ve made a conscious effort to try and keep our ideas short and sweet, more song-like structures. We’re still improvising, but trying to think outside the box of the long-form noise and drone pieces.  I just want to perform quality work, whether it’s playing live or putting out a song. I think we’ll always be willing to explore new ideas, regardless of good taste or what the hipsters might be doing.

Do you think your sound is uniquely Australian?

By virtue of the fact that we’re Australians making it I suppose I would have to say yes. I don’t know if i can pick anything uniquely Australian about the music that we make, but I’d agree that there could be such a thing as an “Australian sound” when talking about noise music or whatever. Surely there is something identifiable that makes us stand out from our international counterparts. Our environment contributes considerably to our music and I’d assume it would be similar for other Australian artists. Maybe it’s just the attitudes and aesthetics of the artists here. We’ve never been spoiled. There is a really healthy underground community of people who are making new music, putting on shows in their houses, burning CDs to trade with some other band from interstate. So maybe I am lumping all of these bands together when I think of an Australian sound, because they’re all my mates. We all play together, and help each other out with shows and gear and beds, and I identify them as being part of a big noisy family. Australia has some of the most interesting bands in the world, and there are definitely people overseas that recognize that.

How many releases to date have you released as Crab Smasher?

Our first three albums Crocodile Box and The Johnny Mars, David Intolerant and The Seventeen Screaming Kids, and Dr. Snake and 200 Bearded Skinnys, are so far removed from what we’re doing now that I hesitate to mention them. However, there’s some really weird stuff to be found if you look. Todd McFarlane Crushes The Tyranny Of Corporate America is really dense noise, abrasive yet melodic, to have ants.. was the first improv jam we put on a CD, Serie Una Di Collaborazione is a CD of seven improvs with various special guests, it’s a bit hit-and-miss. We wanted to do another one of these but still haven’t recorded anything, or secured anybody to play on it. ORCA is a subtle whale song jam with Nick Senger from Castings, it’s one of my favourite live recordings, Impossible Monsters is us trying really hard to be a pop band, it’s really all over the place and scattered, but it is a pretty solid representation of what we were capable of at the time. It’s also a good precursor to what we’re doing now. We recorded some live stuff with the new lineup and released it as an internet download called The Picky Eater. It wasn’t really meant to be an official thing, but people seem to be responding to it nicely. Recordings of most of our live shows are online for free, eliminating the temptation to release hundreds of hard-to-find live albums a year like every other noise band in the universe.

Is there any material in the works?

We are slowly starting work on a new full length “studio” album, and we’ll hopefully have a cassette or something out this year too. We are also contributing a track to a compilation of Nancy Vandal covers to coincide with their reunion tour in March/April.

What about your live performances, what is Crab Smasher up to this year? I know you’re doing some shows in Melbourne this February with Scissor Lock.
We just take things as they come. We’re all involved in a number of different bands, jobs, art projects, so finding the time to play shows is a bit of a juggling act. We made a conscious effort to try and get to Melbourne again this year, and I’m glad it’s come together so soon. Touring with Scissor Lock should be really interesting as Marcus Whale is a genuinely sweet human being. We’re going to be launching the Scissor Lock/Mousetrapreplica collaboration A Tin Teardrop, which I’m putting out on my bedroom record label Monstera Deliciosa. I think the plan is to try and line up a collaborative set with him while we’re there. After that we have a small trip planned to Lismore in April, and anything could happen after that.

What is the experimental music scene in Newcastle like, is there a force there and if so what do you make of it?

We have a few great bands and not enough venues, not enough people coming out to see bands. The usual complaints. It’s starting to seem like some people have this perception of Newcastle as having a bit of a strong emerging experimental music scene, because of the bands that are based here, but it’s not the case. Newcastle is a big scary ghost town. It’s really only generic jock metal and hardcore shows that seem to be sustaining themselves. We tried to run a warehouse performance space for two years here and despite a number of really great shows, it was a real shame to see international acts show up to play to 10-15 people. It’s not like in Brisbane or Sydney where there seems to be more of a culture for going out to see bands in basements and lounge rooms every week. Every now and then something positive will start up, There was a sometimes great weekly night at the Croatian Sports Club, but that’s over now. The Hamilton Station Hotel is sometimes receptive to weirdo music, but the place is seeming increasingly violent lately. Other than that, not much. For the town that is home to the This Is Not Art festival, the support really isn’t here for the other 360 days a year.

What current bands, musicians and/or artists are doing stuff that interest you?

Go Genre Everything, Taste Of Teeth, McClane, Young Lions, Francis Plagne, Sarah Humphreys, Mart Brennan, Kitchens Floor, Grannyfist, Sam Buckingham, Polyfox and The Union Of The Most Ghosts, The (temperamental) Pocket.

And lastly why the name “Crab Smasher”?

We wanted to be an awesome-dumb band like Bolt Thrower but couldn’t play death metal with computers.

Upcoming shows:

Place: Old Bar – Melbourne, Victoria
Date: Thursday 19^th February 2009
Time: 8 PM

Place: TBA – Melbourne, Victoria
Date: Friday 20^th February 2009
Time: 8 PM

Place: TBA – Melbourne, Victoria
Date: Saturday 21^st February 2009
Time: 8 PM

Place: The Italo Club – Lismore, New South Wales
Date: Friday 3^rd April 2009
Time: 8 PM

Place: TBA – Mullumbimby, New South Wales
Date: Saturday 4^th April 2009
Time: 8 PM

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/crabsmasher
http://www.last.fm/music/Crab+Smasher
http://www.myspace.com/monsteradeliciosa
http://skyhut.blogspot.com

Filed under: Crab Smasher, Interviews, Special Features

Tomorrow Night: Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne Promotional Poster

Sourced from Screaming Bloody Mess forums:

Dualplover presents the legendary Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne will be performing
in sydney for the first time since the 80′s along with Special guests
SUZANNE GRAE & THE KATIES and Crab Smasher.

14th January, $10, 8pm start, La Campana, 53-55 Liverpool St, Sydney.

Eugene Chadbourne (USA)
A seemingly endless — and endlessly eclectic — series of releases
made the innovative guitarist Eugene Chadbourne one of the underground
community’s most well-known and well-regarded eccentrics. Born January
4, 1954 in Mount Vernon, NY, Chadbourne was raised in Boulder, CO, by
his mother, a refugee of the Nazi death camps. At the age of 11, the
Beatles inspired him to learn guitar; later exposure to Jimi Hendrix
prompted him to begin experimenting with distortion pedals and
fuzzboxes. Ultimately, however, he became dissatisfied with the
conventions of rock and pop, and traded in his electric guitar for an
acoustic one, on which he began to learn to play bottleneck blues.

Perhaps Chadbourne’s most significant formative discovery was jazz;
initially drawn to John Coltrane and Roland Kirk, he later became an
acolyte of the avant excursions of Derek Bailey and Anthony Braxton.
Despite the huge influence music exerted over his life, however,
Chadbourne first studied to become a journalist, but his career was
derailed when he fled to Canada rather than fight in Vietnam; only
President Jimmy Carter’s declaration of amnesty for conscientious
objectors allowed the vociferously left-wing Chadbourne to return to
the U.S. in 1976, at which time he plunged headlong into the New York
downtown music scene. After releasing his 1976 debut, Solo Acoustic
Guitar, he began collaborating on purely improvisational music with
the visionary saxophonist John Zorn and the acclaimed guitarist Henry
Kaiser.

Quickly, Chadbourne carved out a singular style, comprised of equal
parts protest music, free improvisation, and avant-garde jazz, topped
off with his absurd, squeaky vocals. A complete list of Chadbourne’s
countless subsequent collaborations and genre workouts is far too
lengthy and detailed to exhaustively document, although in the early
’80s he garnered some of his first significant attention as the
frontman of Shockabilly, a demented rockabilly revisionist outfit
which also featured the well-known producer Kramer. Following the
group’s breakup, Chadbourne turned to his own idiosyncratic brand of
country and folk, accurately dubbed LSD C&W on a 1987 release, the
same year he joined the members of Camper Van Beethoven for a one-off
covers project. In addition, he recorded with artists ranging from
Fred Frith and Elliott Sharp to Evan Johns and Jimmy Carl Black, the
original drummer in the Mothers of Invention; in between, he continued
exploring unique styles inspired by music from the four corners of the
globe, all the while issuing a seemingly innumerable string of
records, most of them on his own Parachute label.

http://www.eugenechadbourne.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Chadbourne

SUZANNE GRAE & THE KATIES (MELB)
Inspired by their namesake fashion icons responsible for bringing
shoulder padded style and geometric glamour to the suburbs of eighties
Australia, Suzanne Grae and the Katies are a 6 piece all gal sleaze
rock band based in Melbourne, Australia.

It was just this spring season of 2008 that Suzanne Grae met the
Katies at a discount outlet over the 50% off rack. The Katies all had
their nails into the one peach power suit, and things were getting
hairier than a Poison after party. However Suzanne stepped in to
suggest the divvying up of the garment between the ladies, shoulder
pad by pleat by precious polka dot, and the Katies could not help but
come to their fashion senses. They offered to Suzanne both the peach
power suit and a promise – To together form a band that would let no
obstacle, not broken heels nor lack of musical ability, stand in the
way.

Suzanne Grae and the Katies are…
Texta as Suzanne Grae: `singer’, tamborinist, stylist
Lou as Katie Tutti Frutti Pan Flutti: keys, back up vocals
Anna as Katie Ramone Bomb: guitar, back up vocals
Marian as Katie G: saxophone, drums, guitar, back up vocals
Bec as Katie Kaos: bass, trianglist, back up vocals
Alex as Katie uber Alles: drums, bass

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group … 7836002939

Crab Smasher (NEWCASTLE)
“Crab Smasher’s music isn’t as gleefully violent as their name might
suggest. Based in Newcastle, the duo released two documents of their
pop-inflected experimentalism last year: a Trapdoor Tapes cassette
vividly entitled Doom+Doom=OMG! as well as this twenty minute EP.
Despite its brevity, Impossible Monsters – their tenth release to date
- manages to cram at least eight largely contrasting styles across
twenty minutes, with a sense of wistfulness permeating most of the
proceedings. Wistful, because despite Crab Smasher’s noise-orientated
means their music is ultimately approachable and illustrative. While
it’s common for bands of Crab Smasher’s ilk to extend their
abstractions over a longer period of time, to give ideas the
opportunity to crystallize, these guys don’t stuff around. The two
opening tracks start the EP on harsh terrain – clinical white noise
bursts puncture through barely-audible hum on `I Am Error’, while
`Killing With Kindness’ wields scraps of noise in a more
confrontational and less ominous way. Pleasantly enough, `The Moon
Rattled Inside Her’ takes a complete left turn into bedroom pop cum
science fiction soundtrack, while `A Sad Day For Everybody’ recalls
Italian instrumentalists Larsen in the way the slowly paced rhythm
breathes starkly and threateningly, mapping the ascendancy of noise
and murk in the mix. Indeed, it’s these colourful contrasts that make
Impossible Monsters a compelling, if slightly puzzling listen. There
doesn’t appear to be any common thread running through these tracks,
and often the brevity of the tracks can be frustrating. Still, Crab
Smasher get it right most of the time because they have the audacity
to do what isn’t expected of them, and if that means sometimes they
lose a bit of focus, that’s a worthwhile compromise.” – Shaun Prescott
@ Mess&Noise

http://www.myspace.com/crabsmasher

+ DJ Smallcock will play other peoples music between sets
the dual plover family of business
postal address
pobox 983 darlinghurst nsw australia 1300
www.dualplover.com
http://www.myspace.com/dualplover
http://www.facebook.com/pages/dualpLOVER/15118930769
http://www.myspace.com/bambiandthebambis666

Filed under: Crab Smasher, DJ Smallcock, Dualplover, Eugene Chadbourne, La Campana, Screaming Bloody Mess Forums, Suzanne Grae & The Katies