Bottom-feeder band, Sewers combine the cunning of the Country Teasers, the wonk of The Fall and a Killdozer scrawl. It’s a stew of Australia’s finest deadly exports like King Snake Roost, Lubricated Goat, and feedtime. Sewers ain’t afraid to piss in the pond, keeping the Tasmanian tradition of inbreeding alive.
Sewers was borne unto this wretched world in two, double ‘O’ eight. The band was originally a two-piece inspired by Uncle Sam’s army of skull music ala Clockcleaner, Homostupids and the local Brisbane scum talent of Kitchen’s Floor and Marl Carx. But the band vamoosed before the water was boiled leaving behind only a demo - Piss Vapours.
Song ‘Lineage’ from said demo was resurrected on Negative Guest List sampler ‘Songs of Negativity 2’ and given the kiss of wax via ‘Wings Over Gabba’ LP (the best songs of Negativity on NGL). Sewers were originally described by RK of Terminal Boredom as “a more feral Pheromoans”.
Although lain dormant, the oil was still bubblin’ away. Eventually it seeped its way up through the soil to the surface. In mid-2011 the band started rehearsing sporadically and expanded to the standard four-piece. Some shows were played and recordings made. Album attempt number one was made in extreme heat that rivalled the Gobi desert. That session was canned, two members left and another two replaced them.
Invited to go on tour by Martyr Privates they cobbled together a demo tape, which made small ripples around the world as far as Spain, USA and the UK. RK weighed in once again, “ some hillbilly-punk shit, like Pogues if they were actually as cool as they looked in 'Straight to Hell' and were actually King Snake Roost and not The Pogues”, ‘Music is surely rooted in the dirt a la feedtime or 3 Toed Sloth, more outback and dusty grime than swamp-n-muck”. “Excellent songs, with good titles even,” and the kicker, “These guys had a track on the NGL comp that wasn't even half as good as any of the songs on this if I remember right”.
Take two. Set in stone, the album was to be recorded in February. However, the singers face met with a slab of sidewalk after being thrown from a moving cab and the plans were, once again, in the cement mixer. Come April and despite the extra brain damage accrued, the LP was finally recorded, accident free, at Alchemix studios in Brisbane by Andrew Mclellan (who has also been responsible for recording Whores, Psy Ants, Ruined Fortune). Sewers finally found their home in Homeless (yeah that’ll never get old) and they called it ‘Hoisted’.
SOME NICE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN SAID ABOUT SEWERS:
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"Hoisted, is dark, dirty and not at all nice. It’s the antithesis of the facile pop that makes music industry executives salivate with excitement and ejaculate with greed. Like Bird Blobs and King Snake Roost, Sewers plumb the festering musical depths of depravity with perverse glee. ‘Drive the Nail’ is less a song than a provocative philosophical statement, backed by a bruising and chaotic attack; close your eyes, and there’s a sea of heads throbbing in perfect unison. ‘Ugly Party’ is, um, just that. If beauty is in the beholder, then ugliness is everywhere you expect to be – and this track is the punk equivalent of 10-hour surgery gone horribly wrong. I mean that in a good way. This isn’t a pretty album but, then again, the world isn’t either. But there’s also a strange, paradoxical beauty to be found in the depths of humanity. And that’s where Sewers are hanging out."
- Patrick Emery (Mess+Noise)
"Dark outback punk rock, they stay away from the swamp for the most part and invest their songs with a drier and dustier sounding presence with post-punk elements. I think feedtime or King Snake Roost are the basic references, but they take it underground with some Fall-via-Country Teasers brand of dumb-smart post-punkitude. They reprise my favorites from the tape ("Grease My Chain" is haggard yobbing about, "Sinkhole" is shambolic Wallers-esque twang. "General Gore" turns into twisted punk-n-country (again very Teasers-eque) that keeps chopping until it turns to pulp. Shan Corrigan's booze-n-cigs vocals gives the tunes a certain drunken affability and keeps the music grounded in the gutter. They close with "Human Spray", which is their most frantic-sounding cut, a rousing song to chase a hog around the pen to. Glad these tunes found a home on vinyl, and Homeless is a most fitting label."
- RK (Terminal-Boredom)
Homeless is a record label based in Melbourne, Australia, dedicated to releasing only the finest garage, punk, trash, r'n'r,
scuzz, noise and interesting sounds around. All presented to you on the most glorious format of all - VINYL !!
Homeless
519 Brunswick St
Fitzroy Nth
VIC 3068
Australia...more
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