Photo by Briony Wright
You know those friends at high school who would constantly rabbit on about some new ‘awesome' band that ‘you just had to check out'? Then when you bothered to do so, they were invariably shit and sounded nothing like you were promised? Well my friends never got over that and when a mate began pontificating about Wolfmother recently, some band from Sydney (home-court of terrible bands) I immediately hated them. Who gives a fuck that they've only been together eight months and were signed to Modular Records at their third gig? Who really cares if they channel the spirit of seventies rock monsters and spew up massive, catchy riffs all over the wet indie-schmindie poofs and garage punk inbreeds? No one gives a shit! Time for these bastards to show us what they've got!Damn…they got it in spades. Killer licks, psychedelic vampire-fuck organs and a brain-beating barrage of bang-up drums. Seeing these guys live is kind of like having Ozzy float around on a blow-up mattress at your high school pool party while Jimmy Page spikes the punch and gets you so blasted that all you can do is smile as your girlfriend gets roasted in the bushes by Randy California and Keith Moon. To top it all off, you lose all your pocket money to Hawkwind in a game of strip poker. Sure, you wake up a mess but you can't wait for next Friday. My hat hasn't been washed in a very long time and it tastes horrible.
VICE: So how many awful school bands were you guys in before you started Wolfmother?
None of us have ever been in a band that didn't disintegrate after one gig. So yeah, I guess we were in a lot of bad school bands. Did you guys expect to come out of the gates so quickly?
No. We put together this little album that was nylon-stringed acoustic guitars, ‘I'm so depressed' sounds. But then all of a sudden these old-school riffs began coming out and we all started nodding and felt that calling us. We recorded a demo and we were like—are we dags? Is this kind of music just wrong? But we played it and it just connected with people. Your live shows are incredible and have been attracting some serious crowds. What's the most important thing you have learnt from it all?
That would definitely be encore etiquette. At the end of one of our biggest gigs we trashed all our gear—smashed the guitar and pushed over the drums. But then people started called out for more, so we had to come back onstage and repair it so we could start playing again. It's a good lesson; best to break instruments after your very last song. They should teach you that at school for sure.
None of us have ever been in a band that didn't disintegrate after one gig. So yeah, I guess we were in a lot of bad school bands. Did you guys expect to come out of the gates so quickly?
No. We put together this little album that was nylon-stringed acoustic guitars, ‘I'm so depressed' sounds. But then all of a sudden these old-school riffs began coming out and we all started nodding and felt that calling us. We recorded a demo and we were like—are we dags? Is this kind of music just wrong? But we played it and it just connected with people. Your live shows are incredible and have been attracting some serious crowds. What's the most important thing you have learnt from it all?
That would definitely be encore etiquette. At the end of one of our biggest gigs we trashed all our gear—smashed the guitar and pushed over the drums. But then people started called out for more, so we had to come back onstage and repair it so we could start playing again. It's a good lesson; best to break instruments after your very last song. They should teach you that at school for sure.