Fat Wreck Chords and pioneers of SoCal Punk NOFX, are pleased to announce the release of their new single, “Fuck Euphemism.” The second track is lifted from their upcoming full-length titled Single Album, due out on February 26th.
“We had to make a lyric video for this song because these might be my favourite lyrics I’ve ever written. Oh what fun it is to write a song that’s completely PC, but sure as hell sounds like it isn’t.” Fat Mike addressing sobriety, sexuality, gender, and more.
Watch the music video for “Fuck Euphemism” HERE
Stream the track on all platforms HERE
Nearly 40 years in, what else is there to say about NOFX?
And aside from the occasional negative headline, how can one of the pioneers of SoCal punk—a style hardly known for experimentation—surprise anyone these days?
The answers lie on Single Album (Fat Wreck Chords, Feb. 26), NOFX’s 14th full-length studio album. There’s the nearly six-minute post-hardcore opener (“The Big Drag”). The meta sendoff for the band’s best-known song (“Linewleum”). The reggae-inflected song about a mass shooting (“Fish in a Gun Barrel”). Even a piano ballad (“Your Last Resort”).
It is, as frontman and bassist Fat Mike repeatedly describes, “a dark album.” That wasn’t the original intent. By early 2020, NOFX—which includes guitarist El Hefe, guitarist Eric Melvin, and drummer Smelly—had written and recorded enough songs for a planned double album to be released that fall. Like so much about 2020, those plans changed.
“When you write a double album, you write differently,” Mike says. “I was writing really different songs, and some fun songs, but you have to make a double album interesting enough to listen to the whole way. I wanted to make a perfect double album, and I didn’t accomplish that. So I decided to just make a single album, hence the title.”
Recorded at Motor Studios in San Francisco with Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore (Rise Against, Alkaline Trio, Teenage Bottlerocket), Single Album pares down the roughly 23 songs NOFX tracked. “I just kept adding songs,” Mike says. “I was maybe a little out of my mind.”
How so? “I was pretty high on drugs that year,” he adds. While fans may wonder what else is new, Single Album casts the frontman’s habits in a surprisingly harsh light. While “Grieve Soto” eulogises beloved Adolescents founder Steve Soto, it takes a meta turn when Eric Melvin warns Mike to be “cautious, more respectful, less obnoxious.”“Birmingham” has what people in recovery call “a moment of clarity,” when he realised he was an addict.
“That was a clarity moment in my life when I was by myself, and the sun’s coming up, and I’m scraping cocaine off the floor, like, ‘Eww, gross. I shouldn’t be doing this,’” Mike says. “So what did I do? I ordered more.” After being hospitalised with a bleeding ulcer—a terrifying experience that caused him to vomit blood—Mike entered rehab in fall 2020. He promptly wrote another new album while there and has been sober since.
Unsurprisingly, Single Album represents his most personal work to date. Heartbreak permeates “I Love You More Than I Hate Me” and “Your Last Resort.” “Fuck Euphemism” dives into Mike’s sexuality for a “pronoun bar fight.” “Doors and Fours” is a grim look into the early ’80s LA punk scene, when dozens of people—many of them Mike’s friends—overdosed on a prescription drug combo. “The Big Drag” is a personal vow to make the most of life, even when it undeniably sucks. “It’s one of my favourite NOFX songs ever. I don’t get sick of listening to that song,” Mike says of “The Big Drag.” “No measure is the same length. Every time a new chord change happens, there’s a different rhythm to the guitar. The bass never stays on one note. You’re not sure when the chords are going to change because they always change at a different point.”
In other words, it’s unpredictable—just like NOFX. Turns out there is a lot to say about them, even after all this time.
Fat Wreck Chords will release Single Album on Feb. 26, 2021.
Pre-order Single Album HERE (limited coloured vinyl)
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“I was in tears the whole time writing that song for Chachi, like weeks. I had tears all over my jeans, all over the piano; I just had to push through it. I thought, ‘There’s only one way out of this.’”
Chachi wasn’t any old dog. She was singer, songwriter, guitarist and now pianist Sarah McLeod’s one constant in a life lived more on the road than off. For fifteen years, Chachi was there on the road with her. When she passed away in July 2020, there really was only one way to deal with her loss – to sit at the piano and find the words to express her feelings.
“I find that playing the piano seems to change the whole mood of things I write,” she admits. “It’s so much more emotive. The guitar for me is more of an upbeat, goodtime rock’n’roll situation, but piano really draws on the heart strings and I love it. It makes me write in a different way. It makes me feel different. I sit at the piano, I light scented candles, I’m emotional.”
Her legion of fans will be seeing and hearing a whole other side of Sarah McLeod when she hits the road in February for her first “electric” tour. Sure, they’ll hear their favourite songs, not only from her last solo album, 2017’s Rocky’s Diner, and even a few from her solo debut, 2005’s Beauty Was a Tiger, but also songs from the band that put her on the international map, The Superjesus – only not how you remember them. “I’ve rewritten The Superjesus songs as beautiful piano pieces, to give them a different edge – or lack of edge.”
Sarah was supposed to go out on her first electric tour of Australia in March 2020 – she’d done the solo sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar thing enough times – but like everything else, that had to be shelved as the nation went into lockdown in order to minimise the impact of COVID-19. Sarah had been doodling around the piano for a little while but with lockdown she finally took the opportunity to get serious about the instrument. Not that she was about to study the books and learn how to play the conventional way. That’s never been her way at all – not even as a guitarist.
“In The Superjesus I play in different tunings and that’s cool,” she explains, “but I don’t know what the chords are called. I’ve never known what any of the chords are called. I just play by ear. So when I got to piano, I have no idea how to read music so I just sit there and tinker until I find sounds, which takes forever, but I’m really committed to the style. I’m finding really interesting voicings these days, like moving the bass around, and it’s making me a better guitar player, strangely.”
It’s also made Sarah a better lyricist. “For some reason, every word counts now. Every time I open my mouth to say something, I feel like it’s high-class real estate and I only have a certain number of lines that I can put in a song. It’s not like a novel, so every line has to count; every line has to help deliver the story in its most imaginative and descriptive way to take the listener on a journey. So, I find myself blabbing less and being more to the point and more colourful.”
Of course, it’s all very well feeling excited about her newfound skills as a pianist, but she’s not about to launch herself on an unsuspecting audience cold. Sarah is still the feisty, powerful, magnetic rock guitarist and performer, and that was the side she’d intended to showcase on that aborted 2020 electric tour. She’d even modified her guitar herself in order to become her own bass player. Adding a second outlet to her guitar that independently picks up the signal of the two bottom strings, she detunes them and put them through a bass amplifier, which provide the bass parts. Meanwhile the other outlet carries the guitar parts from the other six strings to a guitar amplifier – very clever. Throw in a foot pedal by which to control percussion parts and she’s the total one-woman band – One Electric Lady. And joining Sarah McLeod on the tour is – solo pianist Sarah McLeod.
“I thought that perhaps it was a bit brazen of me to come out and do a whole tour on piano while I’m still finding my way, so I thought that perhaps what I would do is do the electric show, which I haven’t ever toured – I’ve only done one show here, one show there – and I’ll put myself on as support playing the piano, ‘cause I know the headliner and she’s been good to me, I think she likes me! Pull some strings so to speak!! And I thought that would be a good way of edging my way into live performance as a pianist.
“The piano song stories are mainly just things in my life, my relationships and my connections with people, so the piano songs are all very personal, so far. With the guitar songs I write a lot of cheeky stuff, I write some fictitious stories, but with piano, I’m writing very vulnerable, direct from the heart songs, which I’ve never actually done before.”
And of course, alongside all those other songs, you’ll hear Chachi’s Theme, Sarah’s tribute to her beloved rock dog and sidekick, sitting somewhere on the other side of the rainbow bridge, tail wagging, where she’ll be listening out for her mummy’s’ voice and hearing the growing confidence in her art, her craft… and her piano playing.
TOUR DATES 2021
Friday, 5 March 2021 – Ballina RSL, Ballina NSW
Ticket Link: www.trybooking.com/BLBWX
Saturday, 6 March 2021 – The Lounge, Nundah QLD
Ticket Link: https://bit.ly/2YieBvw
Sunday, 7 March 2021 – Wallaby Hotel, Mudgeeraba QLD
Ticket Link: N/A – Free Event
Thursday, 11 March 2021 – The Vanguard, Sydney NSW (2 x sessions)
Ticket Link: https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/sarah-mcleod-one-electric-lady-tour-/122064
Friday, 12 March 2021 – Royal Hotel, Queanbeyan NSW
Ticket Link: https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/07197120-234a-46ce-9497-a8bbeb6ba882
Tickets Sold: 16
Saturday, 13 March 2021 – Brass Monkey, Cronulla QLD (2 x sessions)
Ticket Link: https://brassmonkey.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/db8ab600-1601-4dda-a83c-0a0c5b317ab6 (early) / https://brassmonkey.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/4032ae68-c6f6-43a7-aef2-8a72005b0f38 (late)
Friday, 19 March 2021 – Grace Emily, Adelaide SA
Ticket Link: https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/c97205e4-2b2c-4501-b041-11572505d767
Saturday, 20 March 2021 – Soundcity, Port Lincoln SA
Ticket Link: https://www.soundcity.com.au/event-tix/
Thursday, 25 March 2021 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
Ticket Link: https://northcotesocialclub.com/gig/138890417979/
Friday, 26 March 2021 – Sooki Lounge, Belgrave VIC
Ticket Link: https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/00e88cb3-97c1-42c7-b09f-21f75f70402c
Saturday, 27 March 2021 – Meeniyan Town Hall, Meeniyan VIC
Ticket Link: http://lyrebirdartscouncil.com.au/upcoming-events/
Social Links
https://www.facebook.com/sarahmcleodofficial
https://www.facebook.com/sarahmcleodofficial
- Twitter
https://twitter.com/SarahMcLeod1
- Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/mcleodswolfpack
- Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7bIYFyhnGYw8A4kUsGtQl0?si=HywNrCBfTL20CLMjI8EdYg
Spotify Steaming Links
- Chachi’s Theme
https://open.spotify.com/track/6ggVUL34RO06Lr8PP1MFpz
- Bad Valentine
https://open.spotify.com/track/5O0ELGHB0xPnaMXPemqP9L
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TRACKLIST
DIE 4 U
RUN
Sleep on Me
Dicey
Stay connected with Creams:
Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
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SUPPORT FOR PREVIOUS SINGLE ‘MASSIVE CHECKS’
“Ragged and brash stuff from KAI CULT, I’m feeling it in every pore of my body.”
– Declan Byrne – triple j (AUS)
“It’s another masterclass in unhinged, eccentric punk.”
– Hysteria Magazine (AUS)
“Delivering a chaotically warped and colourfully explosive new video that’s a fiery reminder of the debt-riddled dystopian world we’re currently living in.”
– ABC’s Rage (AUS)
Video added to rotation on ABC’s Rage
Following on from his critically praised single ‘Massive Checks’, Melbourne-based DIY post-punk artist KAI CULT has just unveiled his latest idiosyncratic cut ‘Cigarette Burns’ – produced by the artist himself and mixed by Ashwin Rao from the Singaporean Garage Rock band Knightingale.
The track is two and half minutes of frenetic punk rock, opening with uncompromising drums, fierce guitars and KAI CULT’s striking lead vocals. Intense melodies mix with deftly produced instrumentation to build to the song’s anthemic, gung-ho choruses, before careering towards its wholly satisfying ending.
KAI CULT talks about the inspiration behind ‘Cigarette Burns’:
“The track reflects on mixed feelings while going through tough times, sometimes it may seem like things are okay but deep down they may not be. I set out to capture the mental extremes of what society is undergoing currently in the pandemic.”
To coincide with the release, KAI CULT will also reveal an accompanying music video, directed and edited by the artist himself and shot by friend Sam Van Munnen. The clip was shot across various Melbourne locations, including cobblestone side-streets, beautiful parks and a rooftop carpark in the heart of Brunswick. Taking inspiration from alternative rap artists Death Grips, Yung Lean and Clams Casino, the video features hazy film grain, VHS layers, and bold RBG colour inverts. KAI CULT adds “with the clip, my drummer Darcy and I wanted to show how much fun we have hanging out and playing music with each other, and also show viewers that you don’t need a huge budget to make a fun video, just a keen eye and also to exhibit some colourful personality!”
Previous single ‘Massive Checks’ was embraced by triple j Unearthed and Australian community radio stations 2SER, 4ZZZ, Radio Adelaide and 2XX FM. The track also received support from Australian blogs Hysteria Magazine, Heavy Mag and The Soundcheck, and the accompanying video clip was added to Rage and featured as their esteemed Wild One of the week.
‘Cigarette Burns’ is available worldwide now
FOLLOW KAI CULT
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | SOUNDCLOUD | SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC
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Juan Wauters – Real Life Situations
1. A JPW Headspace 2020
2. Monsoon (with Homeshake)
3. Sentimiento Queens
4. Locura
5. Ventana
6. Presentation (with Nick Hakim & Benamin)
7. Unity (with Cola Boyy)
8. Real (with Mac DeMarco)
9. Keep Cool
10. Carmina Pensá
11. A Peter Pan Donuts Conversation
12. Lion Dome (with Air Waves)
13. JPW Talking
14. Acordes (with Tall Juan)
15. Bailando
16. Estás Escuchando (with El David Aguilar)
17. Crack Dabbling
18. A JPW Theme Song
19. Yendo
20. Powder
21. NY Weaz
Where are you currently based?
Gold Coast, Australia.
How did you first start playing music?
I first picked up a guitar in grade 4. I had just moved schools and pretty much everyone I wanted to be friends with played in a band together. I actually started playing bass first because they needed one for the band – but before long migrated to a 6 string. I began writing songs for the band and it pretty much went from there.
What’s been happening recently and how has your Covid experience been so far?
I feel pretty guilty about this answer, but it has literally been an excuse for me to hermit in my studio and make music all day every day. It sucks that live shows had a massive break, but we’re getting back into it now.
You’ve teamed up with Namaste with your new single ‘OneNotTwo’; how did you come to work together?
Namaste reached out to me after hearing one of my tracks on TripleJ Unearthed and sent me a few beats. They were obviously talented producers so I started sending them every song I would write. They heard the chords for OneNotTwo and instantly jumped on board.
What influenced the sound and songwriting for this track?
I’d be lying if I said anything other than my fiance. The song is pretty much the story of how we met, and a sticky situation that came up super early in our relationship.
How did the creative/songwriting process take place?
I wrote the full story out one night, then spent probably the next 2 months going back and forth with Namaste tweaking lyrics. We added instruments, took them out again, fiddled with structure, changed melodies etc. but we finally decided to keep it as simple as possible, and let the story of the song do the talking.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who with?
Hahah, I recorded the vocals in my closet with a mattress flipped up against the wall, in an attempt to mute out all the cars that were driving by. Guitars were literally just plugged straight into a Scarlett Solo that I bought from a Cash Converters for $80. Quality investment.
What programs/instruments did you use?
FL Studio till death. Not 100% sure on what Namaste uses, but they definitely have secret sauce that they dribble on everything to make it sound fucking mint. They pretty much took my ratchet demo and converted into what it is now.
What did you find most challenging and rewarding throughout the process of creating
OneNotTwo?
Honestly, getting everything ready in time. I set a ridiculous timeframe to get it sorted by and it was an absolute miracle it worked out.
Please tell us about your goal to release a new track each month of this year?
I just want to give more music to the people who have been supporting me. I think albums are the ideal way to consume music, and it’s definitely my preferred way to listen – but I just don’t feel I have the resources to properly promote an entire album of songs. When, say Drake, drops an album, he can tour the world for 6 months to a year promoting it. I cannot! Also, at this point in my career, I’m still figuring out my sound (and my life) and can’t pinpoint a musical sonic that I can stick to for an entire album. I want to just put out my favourite songs month by month, and see what happens.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
I listen to a lot of different music, but Anderson .Paak, Frank Ocean, J.Cole, Kendrick, James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire, Doja Cat, Dua Lipa, JK-47, Dave; are all in my recently played.
What do you like to do away from music?
I fucking love cooking, I find it very similar to making music – in a weird way. Making handmade pasta, pizza, bao buns etc; I just love making dough ahah. I also love skateboarding and have been doing that since I was like 14 too.
What’s planned for 2021?
I’m fully independent and plan on staying that way, so this year I want to make as much music as I can, and learn as much as I can from every release. I’m bound to make mistakes but that’s all part of it.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
I make a pretty skitz pizza? So I would probably just want to eat that in my little apartment with my girl.
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With their debut EP last year, The Lazy Eyes went on to sell out headline shows, amass over a combined 1.5 million streams and receive praise from the BBC’s Jack Saunders, Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson, Bandcamp, NME, DIY Mag, The Line of Best Fit, i-D, Clash and many more. Locally they secured the #17 Most Played Artist of 2020 on triple j Unearthed following their Feature Artist spotlight, alongside playlist additions from FBi Radio, SYN and 2SER, with praise from Pilerats, Monster Children, Life Without Andy, Frankie Magazine and more. EP2 follows what under traditional circumstances would have been a breakout year for the band spent showcasing at a would-be SXSW, The Great Escape and Splendour In The Grass. Instead they regrouped to their creative hub, ‘Lindfield Studios’, revitalised and focused on bringing more recordings to life with their new lineup.
Now with new music under their belt, if their position in the coveted NME 100 is any indication of the year ahead, The Lazy Eyes promise to hold nothing back.
‘Where’s My Brain???‘ is out now via The Orchard, buy/stream it here.
TOUR DATES
Sat 20 Feb – Workers Club, Melbourne – Tickets
Fri 26 Feb – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane – Tickets
Stay connected with The Lazy Eyes:
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | triple j Unearthed
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CASH SAVAGE AND THE LAST DRINKS Plus The Meanies At Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, 1st Feb, 2021
PHOTOGRAPHY: Nate Hill https://www.natehillphotography.com.au/
An amazing performance by both Cash Savage and The Last Drinks + The Meanines at Melbourne’s very special Sidney Myer Music Bowl. What a treat it was to be blow away with two thunderous LIVE performances in such an idyllic setting.
Thanks to The Old Bar, The Tote, Melbourne Music Week and Arts Centre Melbourne for making the show possible.
In a shorter 10-day format spanning March 5-14 (taking in the Labour Day long weekend), Brunswick will be abuzz for Brunswick Music Festival 2021, with a bursting program that sets the stage for people to gather and connect IRL after the year that was, all across the expansive suburb, in beloved parks, music venues, bars and pizza parlours.
As we feel the music returning to greater Melbourne and the Inner Northern nook of Brunswick, and going to gigs slowly starts to feel normal again, so too the festival stirs from its slumber. After the pause mid-dance in 2020, BMF is pleased to hit play on live music again, shaking it off by putting on a stunning array of live music offerings for just $10 or under.
That’s right, in 2021 not a single BMF ticket will be over $10 + booking fee, an unbelievable coming back gift to the community from the festival and Moreland City Council to support social solidarity and togetherness through high vibe live music experiences for all.
GRAND SALE! GRAND SALE! GRAND SALE!
BMF’s dreamy new outdoor venue at Gilpin Park will host a swathe of performances. Tastemakers including Crown Ruler with Waving at Trains, Milk! Records and Our Golden Friend will each curate shows featuring DJ JNETT, East Brunswick All Girls Choir, Elizabeth, Good Morning, Kee’ahn, Loose Tooth, RVG and more.
Ten bucks? Ten bucks.
Taking advantage of the autumn weather, other excellent festival collaborators Bad Apples, Flightless Records, HopeStreet Recordings with College of Knowledge, Mistletone Records and Port Fairy Folk Festival will each bring a collection of artists outdoors to Gilpin’s leafy surrounds. The impressive line ups include Alice Skye, BARKAA, Cash Savage and The Last Drinks, Emma Donovan and The Putbacks, HEXDEBT, Kutcha Edwards, Leah Senior, Spike Fcuk and more. Plus Gilpin Park will play host to special headline shows from Angie McMahon and Mo’Ju.
A tenner or free? Yep, a tenner or free.
COME AND GET THE BARGAIN!
Bar Oussou, the newly re-opened Brunswick Ballroom, Cross Street Music Hall, Noisy Ritual, Ollie’s Pizza Parlour, Rubix Warehouse, Small Time, Tempo Rubato, The B. East, The Charles Weston Hotel, The Edinburgh Castle Hotel, The Jazzlab, The Moldy Fig and The Retreat Hotel are all contributing curators offering line ups across the 10 days for the expanded Venues 3056 program. This year Venues 3056 runs the duration of the festival, broadening its footprint to encompass more of the Inner North than ever. As part of the program, The Retreat Hotel will host a Beatles tribute evening as well as an unmissable all Femme/GNC International Women’s Day line up of Slush, V, Zig Zag and more.
Many shows are free, none are more than $10.
The shelves of Brunswick’s iconic art deco library will be shaken by Pinch Points and indie dream-pop band Tender Buttons, who promise to bring the bops between the books for Live at The Library. Plus for those music-minded, studious and sociable Small Time will host three live and live-streamed professional development sessions on DIY branding, management, live-streaming and production during BMF’s jam-packed mini-conference Sound Sessions in partnership with Milk! Records, Small Time and funded by Creative Victoria.
All free!
Howler will bring three extraordinary album launches to life on their celebrated stage, featuring Hachiku’s ‘I’ll Probably Be Asleep’, June Jones’ ‘Leafcutter’ and ‘Film School’ an exciting new collaborative project from Joelistics.
Guess how much?
And finally, keep an eye out for BMF’s Pop Ups featuring Ausecuma Beats, Petal Lake (Mindy Meng Wang & Daniel Jenatsch), Zoë Fox and the Pocket Rockets and more. Fun and free for all along Sydney Road.
Have your tenner handy? Get the complete low down on who, where and when at brunswickmusicfestival.com.au.
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Today, Perth alternative rock band Those Who Dream release their new single Tension Headache. The DIY Perth duo have also dropped a killer video for the single, which was produced, filmed and directed by the guys themselves. The result being one of the best DIY videos you’ll see come out of Australia this year.
Tension Headache follows on from the bands previous singles Monster, Coward and Violet which have amassed just shy of 900,000 streams on Spotify.
The new single continues along the path of DIY ethos the band is becoming known for, with brothers Josh and Cooper Meyer handling all the song-writing and production duties with their skills becoming sharper than ever.
Tension Headache sees the brothers channeling their own struggles and emotional turmoil and turning it into their most creative and catchiest song to date. The song is bold, dynamic and explosive, and is sure to become an anthem for a new generation.
“It’s hard to trust your own thoughts when you’re depressed. The same brain capable of thinking rationally and wanting to get better, is also capable of extreme self-sabotage. Trying to balance this constant tug-of-war can leave you exhausted, confused and even rationalising the bad thoughts. The soundscape is very much a representation of the lyrics; chaotic, uncertain and torn between light and dark” – Josh and Cooper Meyer
The band have also announced 2 shows in Perth to promote Tension Headache with a full Australian tour to be announced shortly. Show details below.
Friday Feb 12 – Badlands Bar, Perth – Tickets here
Saturday Feb 27 – Vision Studios, Perth – Tickets Here
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