ScotDrakula
ScotDrakula’s debut album has a wonderful drunken swagger, writes EVERETT TRUE. It’s out late, searching for a good time.
Once, every alternative rock band in Australia wanted to sound like The Birthday Party, or variations thereof. Some did it better than others (hello Venom P. Stinger); some were slavish copyists. (No names. I only have three friends left as it is, and two of those never speak to me.)
Then Blank Realm happened.
This new album from ScotDrakula is rock ?n? roll. Australian rock ?n? roll. You can tell that immediately, from the first belligerent, bellicose note to the last beer-soaked breakdown. Its rhythms are strange and mysterious. Its guitar chords are battered. It sounds like it might have once grooved on down to Marquee Moon. It has that wonderful drunken swagger so beloved of Nic Warnock’s boys (and girls). It’s out late, searching for a good time – any time really, but a good time is best. It eats French bands for breakfast, and washes them down with a side order of hipster. It rocks.
Listen up. I’m from Brisbane and we know how to have a good time up here. We have to know cos sure as fuck no one is going to throw one our way. ScotDrakula are from Melbourne and like to get high in the back seat, a fact they reinforce with insouciant glee on ?Shazon?, the fourth track on their self-titled debut. Good on ?em. We prefer the basements of Queenslanders, but that ol? Melbourne drive-time witching hour – I can dig it. Get your leathers out and crawl along the sidewalk. If this was 1987, ScotDrakula would be wasted wastrels and looking for a few dark sewers to limp out of. It ain’t. It’s 2009, and ScotDrakula are basking in the sunlight and wearing sunglasses after dark, louche lime lizards lapping up the rock goodness.
By way of research for this review, I followed up four leads.
1 – I watched the Gooch Palms video. This is what ScotDrakula may have sounded like if Blank Realm hadn’t happened. I like the Gooch Palms video, but I like this ScotDrakula album a heap more. Their music echoes frustration, not inebriation. (Well, not always.) I bumped into Daniel Spicer in the toilets of a Queen Street shopping mall just before Christmas. He asked me why I was there – I told him I was there for the Myer Christmas Parade. He looked genuinely taken aback, almost the first time I’ve seen him like that. ?O’Clock?, the opening track here, sounds exactly like bumping into Daniel Spicer in a Queen Street shopping mall just before Christmas – except with a musical soundtrack.
?Pig Eyes?, meanwhile, is just unnerving.
2 – I read the reviews of emerging Australian rock critic Jake Cleland.
Jake writes: ?Outside the B.EAST on Lygon St, ScotDrakula’s lead singer, Matt Neumann, once used the term ?catharsis? to describe the desired result for people who come along to ScotDrakula gigs and it seemed particularly apt. ScotDrakula is an acknowledgement that whatever’s your kind of fucked up, it doesn’t have to rule you.? (Collapse Board)
This tallies with much of what I’ve heard. ?Wendago? offers a similar catharsis to Coloured Balls or The Rats, but with a different time signature. Balls-in boogie with no let-up in sight.
Jake writes: ?A teenage riot in a coliseum, colossal drag race round the bend in wicked shapes, mutant contortions, take a chance on me.? (The Vine)
I can’t agree with that. I’ve never witnessed a teenage riot in a coliseum, and I don’t hear the Contortions connection. He’s referring to the fact that some of ScotDrakula could be termed No Wave perhaps? Or the fact singer Matt Neumann sounds a little like U.S. hair hopper Ian Svenonius? Perhaps.
Jake writes: ?The pillars of ScotDrakula’s sound have always been floor-pounding shout-along songs, which made ?em an obvious fit for bills with the likes of your Dune Rats and Drunk Mums and other associated party rock bands.? (The Vine)
Sure. That sounds right. Floor-pounding shout-along songs. Sure. The Birthday Party have ?Falling Down The Stairs? and – Blank Realm, I mean. Of course. Blank Realm. That will be the work of Dove Bailey (bassist/keyboardist) and Evi Camille (drummer) in ScotDrakula then. The inclement, incoming ?Break Me Up? is so wonderfully influenced by McCartney’s early-?70s output it makes me wince for anyone who ever called him dumb.
Jake writes: ?ScotDrakula is a natural step on a path the band were treading with their past EPs. Familiar rhythms, riddled with Evianne Camille’s hi-hats and Dove’s bouncing bass, set the pace for Matt’s screeching guitar.? (The Vine)
Yep. Music criticism that attempts to describe the music – I’m sure I warned Jake away from that years ago. Don’t even try. (Fundamental mistake of Pitchfork, NUMBER ONE.) The greatest song on this album is also the shortest, not a coincidence. Except for that insom-maniacal brawl of a bruiser ?I Ain’t Going to Sleep?, which sounds less like The Birthday Party than even The Birthday Party do, and more like Blank Realm than deadmau5 (say) but not as much like Blank Realm as Blank Realm do.
(There’s more Jake on ScotDrakula – much more – but I figure that’s enough Jake for one review.)
The AU Review, meanwhile, said: ?Rising star Mac DeMarco hit the Zoo in Brisbane supported by ScotDrakula and we sent Andrew Wade along to bring us these photos from the incredible show…?
That’s great. That’s really captured their spirit. Thanks AU Review.
3 – I listened to the album.
The three standout tracks here are ?I Ain’t Going to Sleep?, ?Kill What You Love? and ?I Ain’t Going to Sleep?. The rest is a night good time.
4 – I thought about when I met Poison Ivy and Lux Interior backstage in the granite city of Aberdeen Scotland. I was in a constant state of arousal.
And I thought about the time we recreated the infamous Napa State Mental Hospital gig at London’s ICA, myself dancing in character. I fully expect to reprise that refrain when myself and Scot Drakula meet at last, in some form of alcohol-directed live concert situation.
This album makes me nostalgic for Brisbane circa 2009.
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