Greetings. We’re back for more punishment. 2017 was a terrible year, most people will acknowledge that and are, or should be, setting their visors appropriately for 2018. Just keep your eyes to the ground and you might find a dollar. Or maybe a discarded copy of our NEW ALBUM! Or, you might be thinking you’ve just bought a copy of Tayla’s new one, or maybe a nice little cake from Brunettis after navigating the prams and the grossly bulging cyclists, but in neither case were you correct because instead you bought a copy of our NEW ALBUM! Which was made in the awful year of 2017. Let that sink in. What a bad year. Full of bad people doing bad things. I’ve been one of them, one of those bad people. If not in my actions then certainly in my thoughts. And in my actions. But in my thoughts I’ve gone beyond what I see myself ever actually doing, which is not unusual, it’s part of having a healthy imagination. If you’re a sociopath. Or, if you’re trying to write a NEW ALBUM! Which, being a sociopath, I went and did, again, even after so many tries at it before, and knowing full well what it would do to everybody involved. Even you. Accidental owner of our NEW ALBUM!
Right there in the swill of 2017 I cranked my four track recorder, lemon spritzed my Caballero, put the metaphorical bull to the knife and asked the questions again. And the answers duly came, they swum up to me and variously oinked, quacked, simpered, barked viciously, different voices but the same language, “make us Glenn, make us into the world, into the year of 2017, we will make you too Glenn, we will lift you and bear you on the swill current back into the premature summer so quick you won’t discern the addled jasmine from the early onset pond rot…and we will become you Glenn, and tell the stories you were too afraid to tell, hahahahahaha, WE ARE BOOTIKINS, WE ARE YOUR…” new album.
Why use Bootikins for a title? Well, apart from its promise of all things brutal and aggressive, which are after all our traditional stylistic weapons of choice, I found that I was writing a lot of songs with a narrative voice that belonged to the more corrupt, venal, ambitious and callous incarnations of my character. Deliberately I was mining the misanthropic and the resigned, the “worn out man” in me next to the ambitious, energetic grafter in me. For better or worse this collection is peopled with angry, uncertain, trapped shades, Manes, from the Ancient Roman - they will become worse the more love they have for inflicting injury. They fear and desire youth because they are not young, they rail against death only because it refuses to claim them entirely. Grown arch and cynical because in truth they cannot cope.
On to the back story to the recording. A fair bit was done piecemeal like the last one, between Melbourne and Hobart and whatever houses and sheds opened their doors in between. Several were begun as four track demos in Hobart, did the rounds in Melbourne, then found themselves back in Hobart for overdubs. But a good chunk we also made like a proper band, in a great, dirty, old fashioned studio, to a gorgeous old 2 inch tape machine, live and kicking. And what made this already rare and special experience a thousand times more special was the unexpected emergence from retirement of the legendary, sadly now passed, Tony Cohen who wanted to make good on a promise to himself that he’d one day do something with our band. This was news, amazing news, to us, and it still amazes me that we got a chance to work with the man. The moments are ours and we will cherish them, it only suffices to say he got us feeling like, and playing like a real band again after a long interim, and we made some very good music together.
G.A.R.
PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM
The album BOOTIKINS will be released on February 23 2018. You can pre-order on CD and LP here. Exclusive to the Augie March shop, all pre-ordered CDs and LPs will be signed by the band. And there is a bonus sticker with the CD and an artwork print with the LP.
BOOTIKINS is the first single - watch the lyric video:
BOOTIKINS LIVE AT THE VELVET ROOM
We'll play the new album in full for the first ever occasion on album release day, Friday 23 February 2018, at the Velvet Room at Thornbury Theatre. The audience will have the opportunity to watch and listen up close as we road test this set of challenging and diverse material, and there's sure to be a good deal of high level tinkering going on. Not to mention low level chat. Limited tickets available here.
- The Good Gardener