Let’s turn our imaginations on for a second and pretend American bands are trying really hard to make it in Australia and this is a faux-English broadcast from 1955: “Lock up your daughters and medicine cabinets mums and dads of Australia because The Growlers have landed!”
After last year’s Gilded Pleasures EPand a sell-out east coast tour, it looks like Australia is finally picking up the scent of singer Brooks Nielsen’s ragtag bunch of surf/psych rockers from California. The lads have been doing quite well for themselves, at home and abroad, and that fact seems to have seeped into their music with the tone of their latest album Chinese Fountain,sounding the most positive of all their releases. Production value has also slowly been increasing since their early-2013 release Hung At The Heart and this is by far their most polished album yet.
Taking some influence from the guitar sound of the early ‘80s English punk scene, opener Big Toe sees lead guitarist Matt Taylor step away from his usual surf licks into more swing/jazz territory. Genre-chewing is continued on disco-infused and phaser-filled Chinese Fountain containing some of the best examples of Nielsen’s notable lyrical wit. Observations like, “Techno is so shitty even disco seems punk,” and, “The internet is bigger than Jesus and John Lennon,” are designed for the working man’s philosopher with big ideas simplified into sneering one-liners.
Dull Boy takes another genre side-step into reggae territory with what can only be assumed is some sort of synth rocking the off-beat rhythm. The song’seasy going pace lulls you into a warm fog making the following track and lead single Good Advice sound as close to aggression as the always laidback band could get. Love Test forgets the layers of effects in Chinese Fountain as the band slow dance their way through the complications of love to the soundtrack of ‘50s era guitar surf rock.
Even though Nielsen’s lyrics and Taylor’s licks are at the forefront of almost every song, when you listen closely, the real melody of each track truly lies in the bass of Anthony Braun Perry. His meandering bass lines drive each song along and without his touch; the songs would probably sound like piddley effects driven nothingness. Many have tried to pinpoint exactly what The Growler’s sound is,with some clever little wordsmith tagging the band as “beach Goth.” An essay could be written about what that genre is as, if we’re taking The Growlers as the prime example, there are really no parameters for it, aside from it being somewhat rooted in surf and psychedelia.
The Growlers have become an almost entirely different beast from their lo-fi recordings of years gone and for long time listeners it’s up to you whether to stick with them or not. Their band wagon is on a war path, with or without you.
BY RHYS MCRAE
Best Track: Chinese Fountain
If You Like This You Will Like: Pulp Fiction OST, Lost In The Dream The War On Drugs
In A Word: Polishing up
