This weekend The Tote will host the Polyester/Bedroom Suck Records showcase featuring Terrible Truths, Angel Eyes and a whole heap more. Brisbane’s Blank Realm are also on the bill and they’re looking forward to their first gig in Melbourne after their recent US tour. Sitting strangely between the categories of obscure and cult-tastic, Blank Realm have on the one hand hidden away, gigging regularly but not notoriously, churning out a dozen releases in five years. On the other hand they’ve garnered the attention of international media and seem to be popping up everywhere with their fuzzed-out, weirdo pop sound, dropping an awesome set, and then disappearing again. The underground really does still exist.
Daniel Spencer – one third of the Spencer siblings that make up the four-piece as well as the self-labelled “skinsman and pipesman” of the band gives a quick film review before getting on with chatting about Blank Realm’s silent climb up the music industry ladder. “Last night we went to see Pacific Rim,” Spencer says. “It was actually not bad. The fight scenes between the robots and the Godzilla-style monsters had a good feel to them, and the kind of pro army/grunt vibe that usually permeates such movies was refreshingly light on. It was better than Superman and the Wikileaks movie.”
Of course for a band that seems to gig constantly and often in some vague places – bars to art galleries to vegan restaurants – their weekend was still filled with music as they enjoyed a home town gig ahead of their Melbourne appearance. “We’re playing soon with Daylight Robbery and a bunch of Brisso bands like Yoghurt Blood. It’s our first show back in Brisbane since our US tour, so hopefully we play well,” he says.
Go Easy, the band’s 2012 mini-LP (at eight tracks) has received some favourable reviews from the Guardian to Mojo and all manner of rarely visited music websites that exist in the hundreds. Has life changed much for the four-piece in this time? “Not too much has changed, maybe more people come to our shows in other cities,” he says. “Whenever we release a new record we are pretty pessimistic about its chances in the current musical landscape, so it was nice that people took the time to write nice, sometimes weird things about it in places we never expected.”
Blank Realm seem to take things all in their stride – working hard at what they do while never taking it too seriously and simply enjoying the tiny rewards that appear along the way. “My long distance girlfriend Sally lives in Melbourne, so I’m really looking forward to seeing her, and of course having a few cold ones with the Melbourne crew,” he says when asked about the upcoming gig. “We’ve played quite a bit with Angel Eyes, and his shows are always pretty epic. I like to imagine his music sound tracking a Ken Burns doco about the end of human life on Earth. I’m a big fan of Terrible Truths too, but I’ve never caught them live, can’t wait for that. Per Purpose are coming down from Brisbane. They are great. I’ve heard a lot of their new record because Luke, the guitarist from Blank Realm, recorded it and has been mixing it. It’s really good; very wordy. I’m kind of impressed by people who can remember a lot of lyrics, it’s something I struggle with. I’ve not really heard the other bands yet, but I’m sure I’ll like ‘em. I trust the people that put this thing together.”
Blank Realm take a non-stop approach to recording music with a new album on the way as well as a peculiar side-project that almost sounded too weird to be true. Time will tell. “We have a new album coming out, it’s called Grassed Inn; it’s being mastered right now,” he says. “Then we are going to Europe to sample wines and cheeses and maybe play a little music. We are also working on this long-term project with the Wynnum-Manly Bagpipe Ensemble where we all sing in unison in this kind of high-choral style. It’s pretty out there, taking forevs. I’m beginning to think it will never be finished.” Of course, a bagpipe ensemble. Well Blank Realm don’t seem to feel the need to colour between the lines so really, it makes perfect sense.
BY KRISSI WEISS
