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Frenzal Rhomb
At the end of 2000,
after four albums which had build them into the biggest selling indie band in Australia, Frenzal
Rhomb released their first major label album, 'Shut Your Mouth'. Their
history showed that it was Sony who had decided to make concessions, not Frenzal Rhomb.
Too easy to see as a
by-product of American punk, Frenzal Rhomb are in fact spiritual descendants of Australia's lock-up-your-daughters style
Hard-Ons and the hyperactive Meanies. They live out, on stage and off, the characterture of the rock band. They believe in that characterture and added to it their own
"yobbo" traits. Frenzal Rhomb's history is littered with legendary stories,
perhaps true, perhaps exaggerations, but stories which fuel and match their
song and album titles. Their songs are often profane, likely to poke fun at
someone including themselves, hint at a social conscience, and inside all
the tough talk and body jokes be hopelessly romantic.
The group was formed in
1992 in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney close to the industrial
wasteland of St Peters, though singer Jason Whalley and bass player Lex Feltham spent their schooldays
together in privileged St Ives. In a breakthrough single they described
themselves as "Middle class white boys trying hard to annoy". As
a band they spent most of their early years describing themselves as the
"punkest band in the world". The name Frenzal Rhomb was found in a friend's physics textbook.
When the group was formed Whalley was in Sydney
Uni, starting a BA in philosophy.
The cover of the
group's debut EP set the tone. 'Dick Sandwich' featured a graphic drawing
of the offending flaccid appendage draped over a sesame seed bun with
lashings of bloody sauce. Similarly decorated posters saw them banned from
related gigs. The track they promoted from 'Dick Sandwich' was called 'I
Wish I Was As Credible As Roger Climpson.'
Cameramen with the everything-but--credible ageing
news anchorman happened to see them perform the song on Big Day Out and
believed every word. Climpson was talked into
posing with the band at the news desk, Frenzal Rhomb's first exposure in the 'straight' press.
On television they've
thrown custard pies at hosts, put them in headlocks, or tried to cut their
clothes off them with scissors. They performed a song called 'Get Fucked
You Fucken Fuckw'it
(You Can't Move Into My House)' on one TV show, and avoided time-delay bleeping
out of offending words by bringing along placards with the expletives to
hold up at the many relevant points in the song. On tour, support acts can
find themselves walking around for hours with crude messages or drawings on
their face, put there in their sleep; or days after the event receive a
photograph of where their toothbrush has been. For a while they signed
their names with the private phone numbers of other more high profile rock
stars. Members of Frenzal Rhomb themselves are
not exempt from the hi-jinx. The same irreverence and fun loving madness
runs through the music.
Lindsay McDougall
replaced Ben Costello on guitar in '96, just after the release of 'Not So
Tough Now'. The way the band tells it, he left to go to university at the
behest of a father who once tried to have Ben committed to an institution.
When McDougall joined the band, legend has it, he told his Mum he was going
to the movies, disappeared on an interstate tour and arrived back to find
his key no longer fit the door. The story inspired the single 'Mum Changed
the Locks.' More recently there's been a change at the drum kit.
Whatever they were
doing Frenzal Rhomb were doing something right.
The third album, 'Meet The Family' sold 30,000 copies. They were invited on
innumerable high profile tours. Their records were released in Japan Europe
and the USA, accompanied by international
tours with the likes of Blink 182. They were offered many spots on surf and
skate videos. The next album 'A Man's Not A Camel' sold 65,000 copies. And then
major label Sony came calling for ‘Shut Your
Mouth’.
Two
years later things were back to “normal”, Frenzal
Rhomb independently released with ‘Sans Souci’ (which means
"No Worries" in French) covering
the most important topics such as cooking with balls and dating
women 70 years your senior.. The album was recorded in Los Angeles by Eddie Ashworth, who has worked on
‘A Man's Not A Camel’. The title for the 2006 album ‘Forever
Malcolm Young’ is a parody of the 2006 Youth Group hit ‘Forever Young’ and AC/DC's
rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young.
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