The Monkeywrench
Iconic 90’s super group The Monkeywrech returned to Melbourne back in November 2016 for a show at the Tote on Friday 15 November. Martin Bland also of Lubricated Goat fame spoke to Munster prior to the tour. Onya Lou
Munster: How does it feel getting the band back together?
Martin: Feels great, although it took a few practices just to blow the dust off our fingers and out of our ears. The great thing about only getting together every 8 years or so is that we have yet to tire of playing the songs and we seem to play them with a little more piss & vinegar each time. I guess as we get older, we maybe get more cranky, which kind of suit’s the songs. In fact, I would recommend a regimen of only playing together every 8 years for any young band, although by the time you get back together the 2nd or 3rd time, you might not be so young anymore. But it works for us.
Munster: How hard was it with everyone’s other commitments to arranging a tour?
Martin: Surprisingly easy. I don’t think anyone would have dared say no to playing in Australia. Neither Tim nor Tom had been down there, Mark and Steve love it and I haven’t played down there in 26 years.
Munster: Considering you all have other bands, what is it about the music of The Monkeywrench that pulls you all back in again?
Martin: Apart from the obvious, which is the opportunity to play alongside an amazingly brilliant drummer, I would say that there is an energy level that we often reach that can be pretty exhilarating. It is what the old rockabilly guys called getting gone and we seem to have been hitting it at the recent shows.
Munster: When you first started was it indeed to be a short-term thing? Would you have been surprised if I told you you’d be playing shows in 2016?
Martin: It was supposed to be short term, but, really, everything back then was short term. I personally have never lived with any grand plan in life at all. Not only would I have been surprised at still playing shows in 2016, I would have been surprised that 2016 was even a thing. The thought might have made my blood run cold back then but I sure am glad that we are still around and able to kick up some dust.
Munster: When the band started, it was to record a bunch of Poison 13 songs that had never been reordered, how Important was it to bring those songs to life?
Martin: I think for Tim and Mark it was very Important. I believe TIm’s aim partly was to flush Mike Carroll (Poison 13 singer) out of the weeds after he had gone off the rails a little. And it worked- Tim later worked with him in a couple of pretty cool bands during 1990’s- Lord High Fixers and Jack Of Fire.
Munster: I read a quote from Mike Watt where he said if he messes up just one Stooges show he knows he’s always going to be remembered as the guy who ruined a Stooges show – so what kinda pressure did you feel recording those tracks?
Martin: Well, I personally didn’t feel too much pressure as I wasn’t familiar with Poison 13 at the time- In fact, when Mark asked me to participate, I thought he meant Poison Idea and I thought we were all going to be playing a whole mess of metallic punk tunes. I imagined Tim was going to be a big fat drug-crazed maniac and was relieved that he was this sweet little tattooed dude with a Texas accent you could hang a Stetson on. I kind of had my head in the sand back then and wasn’t too aware of which current bands were doing what at the time.
Munster: What kept the band going and what was it like working on material fresh and from starch as a band?
Martin: The impetus to keep going came from Mark, really. In the late 90’s there was a little uncertainty about Mudhoney’s future so we reactivated the Monkeywrench for a bunch of shows in Europe and Japan. We made an lp called Electric Children which was an experiment in finding our feet as a band. Coming up with songs was no problem as we can all write a bit but it was the last lp, Gabriel’s Horn was where we really found our way and we were able to incorporate a lot of the different interests that we have- Tim was really getting into free jazz, some of the other guys were into soul, some into stoner/space rock and, at the time, I was pretty fascinated with 20th century avantgarde music such as John Cage’s music of chance and aleatorical music. So we were able to include all of that along with the usual blues stuff that is at the basis of everything we do.
Munster: Monkeywrench recorded a Germs song for a 7 inch, please tell us how the Germs influenced you?
Martin: Speakin for myself, not even a bit I’m sorry to say but I know for a fact that that is not the case for the other guys. They are all pretty heavily steeped in the early US hardcore scene and when they throw around names, I’m never quite sure who they are talking about. I don’t know my JFA from my DOA. Speaking personally, by the time the Germs and the other US punk bands had come along, I had pretty much given up on punk and so I I never really gave it much of a chance.
Munster: Any new material in the pipeline?
Martin: Nothing new at the moment. I believe Mudhoney are about to gird their loins and create another epic.
Munster what’s up next for you?
Martin: I play in a couple of bands around town- a band with Tom (Price, Monkeywrench guitar wizard) called the Tom Price Desert Classic and also a soul/blues band called Bonneville Power. Lately have also really got into the idea of miniature songs, which requires a fair bit of discipline to cut any fat off a tune.
Munster: …and to end, what is your favourite Fall LP please?
Martin: Slates, no question about it. I bought it just for the cover whenever it came out and was just floored by it. An amazing amount of variety despite only having 6 songs on it- something that bands rarely do these days. Leave The Capitol!
The Strays (thanks to Suzi for teeing it up)
I first saw the Strays at the Dogs bar in St Kilda. A wild rockabilly show with a double bass and stand up drummer which saw the band playing on the bar. It was wild. I liked it. Every time I see them play everyone dances and has fun. There are one of the best live acts in Melbourne I have seen in recent times. Dizzy from the group was very kind to give up him time fir a natter to talk why their bringng back rockabilly.
Munster: What music did you grow up with?
Dizzy: My dad had a massive vinyl collection of 50s rock n roll and was brought up on that. Elvis was a favorite of his but I went investigating and found Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly and I loved those guys. At the end of primary school, I brought a mate from school’s drum kit and I was going through, round 1989 was influenced by Motley Crue I wanted to be like Tommy Lee. I was in a few garage bands playing metal but it never went anywhere. I teamed up with my older brother who played a bit of guitar and I was about 14 at this time and we started a 1950’s-rock n roll band. I played drums and that’s how I started.
Munster: How did the Strays start?
Dizzy: The strays is me, my youngest brother Kid, I taught him to play drums and played in a few bands. The most well known one was the runaway Boys which was more punk. About ten years ago we went our separate ways but I guess you always come back to your roots. My brother was living in America and he came home and asked him if he wanted to start a rock n roll band and he was up for that.
Munster: What’s it like playing with your brother?
Dizzy: he’s an awesome performer, he’s a guitarist and singer songwriter in his own right he’s kind of my right-hand man, what he does with the stand-up drums is very rare not too many drummers do that Slim Jim Phantom style, we have that connect we’re going on stage we don’t need to stick to the rules too much we can jam it out stretch out the song. he’s grouse to play with.
Munster: You mentioned going back to your roots in the Strays you got the clothes the haircut and the stand up drums and double bass, so is it like if your gonna do rockabilly you gonna not do a half arse attempt and do it proper?
Dizzy: Yeah well I guess that’s round when I had my first band and I was playing drums and all I was listening too was 50s rock n roll. Then from a mate got introduced to the stray cats and heard their LP which sort of gave me a new insight into a modern band doing these 50s things but in a modern way so was heavily influenced by that Image and sound.
Munster: So playing with SlIm must have been a dream come true?
Dizzy: not too often you get to be onstage with your idols and of course got to play with Glen Matlock, was a wonderful experience and we became close. I became a better musos meeting those guys. Was great and playing with SlI’m in May and this time going to be doing more Rockabilly.
Munster: Tell us about the Strays LP.
Dizzy: we did that at home we have a studio here which we’ve run for years mostly analogue and Kid is trained in the modern art of pro tools and things like that we did it more on a digital board we did it fairly live. Some songs were new others we went back to the vault. Some songs we wrote with our other brother Dee who sadly passed way. We wrote one with Glen Matlock called Pistol in My Pocket. I guess Kid and I played the guitar and drums did a live take then Jake did his bass then the vocals. Came together fairly quickly. It’s a full original LP which some people didn’t expect that. The last couple of bands we recorded a lot of covers so was over doing other songs I wanted to do an original LP to give people some original stuff we do in the set
Munster: Was the Matlock song done on the tour with him?
Dizzy: Yeah, the concept was similar to the Stray Cats songs Gene and Eddie. Taking one liner from Geneon Vincent and Eddie Cochran. I had all these lines in front of me from songs Glen Matlock had written that I had never heard before, we had about a week to learn it and I saw all these great lines and song titles he wrote, and I asked if he was ok about putting a song together about him. I jumped online and saw a few facts on him what year and where he was born. The first line is Paddington London 1956. And a lot of the lyrics and titles of his songs and line liners from his songs. I showed it to him one night and he was really pleased with it we sat down and finished it off and came up with the melody and he liked it. When we recorded, it we sent him the file and he laid down the vocals for the chorus with me so he’s a guest singer on the song to, that was bloody amazing.
Munster: Me and my lady Lisa saw you on new years and she said I can now say I saw a Doors song played as rockabilly. How much effort goes into the covers?
Dizzy: Not to hard I guess, the three of us we don’t just listen to rockabilly music. We like the Doors and Black Sabbath so our music tastes stretch out. When we play a cover because of the musical limitations, having the double bass and just one guitar and the stand-up drums the sound is rockabilly no matter how you play it. So, it just falls into place but sometimes we just wing songs on stage as we’ve played them before and we know the chords and we just go for it and that’s sort of a punk approach, keep it sImple and because of the musical lImitations it comes out rockabilly.
Munster: You do a lot of covers do you wanna throw more originals in the set?
Dizzy: Yeah, we do break it up, when we do shoes at like festivals or the one setters down in Brunswick we do try and play a full original set. When we play places like Dogs it’s three setters and your payed a bit more to do those gigs and you’re doing 60% covers. We get about four originals a set and hope people like them. When it comes to that sort of crowd we just try and read them sometimes they just wanna hear Good Golly Miss Molly or Be Bop a lula because they know it and can sing along. So in that environment the originals can take a backseat but we enjoy when we can do a full original set and do what we do and we might do a cover in a set of twelve originals.
Munster: You’ve been playing a lot of gigs at the Dogs Bar recently how did that come about?
Dizzy: It’s a funny story, we’ve done a handful of gigs at Luna Park. We did Halloween in 2015 at Luna Park, and the owners of Dogs Gavan and Sonja lived in a apartment near Luna Park and heard us from there balcony and came down and approached us and said we run a bar across the road do you wanna play. It started as a great love affair it started as a one off gig that has turned into a fortnightly residency.
Munster: I saw one night you were doing some mixing for Jack Howards gig?
Dizzy: oh yeah I sort of helped Gav with the sound there trying to help when I can. It’s a new system, just the PA with a desk and when I’m there try and twiddle a few knobs and get it sounding good.
Munster: Do you do much live mixing?
Dizzy: I’m more stuck in the studio, I’m more into getting bands on record. Last year I did a band called the Australian Kingswood Factory I did there LP which came out on vinyl. They were great because they wanted a real garage sound and I like getting those sounds, punk rock style and I’ve done a few rockabilly bands and a lot of my own stuff. I don’t do much live stuff as when I’m out I’m usually playing.
Munster: How Important is it to you to keep rockabilly going?
Dizzy: In my time, I’ve been playing in bands for 26 years. There’s been two waves of sort of rock n roll and rockabilly scene come through Australia. Before I came on board in the mid 80’s, maybe even late 70’s right through the 80’s till the early 90’s the rockabilly scene was very strong, I came in at the end round 91, then bout 94 it died out. Round then pokies came in so a lot of venues closed down, and a lot of places having the dancers closed down. It took about ten years for the scene to come back in a way, I’ve seen the changes over the last ten years I find it a split genre of music what rockabilly is. In America it lasted from 1953 or 54 to 56. It wasn’t a popular music style. What I’ve noticed here is it’s very split between the rock n roll dance clubs and the car scene people and a few rockabilly festivals they have but a lot of it has to do with the cars, tattoos and fashion. Sadly I don’t think people understand what the music was about. Which was sort of young teenagers rebelling, in a lot of ways rock n roll and rockabilly was the first punk. These days it’s whatever you want it to be. here it can we swing or hillbilly, there’s a lot of different genres so it’s broking into sections and relying on the cars and fashion, we try and stick to what our version is which is playing it hard and fast and putting on a show. Some bands see it differently I guess.
Munster: what does 2017 hold?
Dizzy: There’s some big things on the horizon. Another tour with SlIm JIm Phantom, were doing a festival in New Zealand called the Beach Hop in March so up there for three days. Then a few interstaters, going up to Brisbane and Sydney I think late March and April. In August, my brother and I are going to LA to do a few shows, test the waters and see if we can find some international work, and record another LP and maybe a live album, because of the energy sometimes it’s hard to get that in the studio.
Munster: instead of favorite Fall LP please tell us three rockabilly LPs everyone should own?
Dizzy: Stray Cats Runaway Boys album, Eddie Cochran’s first LP Summertime Blues and Elvis’ first record, and all his sun records stuff. A lot of great rockabilly guitar and great songs even though he didn’t write any of the songs.
