The reason for the confounded looks is that the band has specifically asked for the interview to take place on the corner of Acland and Barley Sts, St Kilda, at the public bench outside a bottle shop where these five bandmates often meet to share a beer. Beat Magazine and Beat TV have caught up with the lads to discuss their third long player Eat Your Young. For the band, all under 30, the album represents maturation in their sound – a tying together of a bunch of strand influences from swamp, no wave, blues, punk, stoner rock, and even elements of jazz, country and soul.
“’Country goth’,” the band members say in consensus apart from the Taranto who states, “country froth” as he holds a longneck up. For relatively young men, ‘The Kicks’, as they’re affectionately known by fans, exhibit a laconic and swashbuckling mentality. It’s charming, to say the least, and definitely in line with their blues-soaked rock’n’roll – since its inception in the slave chant of African-Americans, blues music has always possessed a sardonic outlook.
This amiably bitter attitude is captured by McLeod, the newest member of the band, when he is asked what it was like to become a member of Bitter Sweet Kicks. “I got offered a free plane ticket to Europe so I was like, ‘Okay’ and now I have been stuck gig after gig after gig…” With this pessimism in mind the rest of BSK are asked if they have anything nice to say about McLeod to which Kicks wryly replies, “He’ll never be Gerry [the previous drummer],” laughter ensues.
A song off Eat Your Young that captures this stark contrast between light and dark is Dropped. The song begins with sparse drums, a simple bassline and Davies’ voice with dulcet tinge accenting his husky blues tones. The song builds quickly from there to a soaring chorus reminiscent of Spencer P. Jones, The Cruel Sea and even The Birthday Party.
An excited Charlie discusses making the film clip for this song, one of the band’s favourites. “A couple of weeks ago we got together in an old warehouse area and we set up and we got a lot of different camera angles and just played for a while and did a silly dance.”
Davies adds, “There’s one aspect of it that reminds me of Smells Like Teen film clip in that here is a basketball ring hanging in the background and you look back and it’s like, ‘Huh?’”
Although Bitter Sweet Kicks hark on the bands of yore, they are bolstered by likeminded young bands who are also gigging around Australia like Brisbane band Hits. Hits also share a similar international profile to Bitter Sweet Kicks with both bands being signed to French label Beast Records. The members of BSK are particularly excited about their upcoming east coast tour with Hits, kicking off this Friday at the Prince Bandroom.
“Hits have been called the most important band to come out of Brisbane since The Saints, they love it up there,” enthuses McLeod. Taranto also waxes lyrical about Hits with, “It’s amazing music and I hope that everyone can support them.” Now Charlie humorously closes out the topic with, “We really don’t care if people like them, they’re just fun to drink with,” he laughs.
BY DAN WATT
