Ground Components

And you looked like such nice boys on the cover. But they are a rock band, slightly across from the crop of the currently fashionable scruffy boys with guitars, this has a certain Melbourne bluesy flavour and a singer who seems determined to do himself an injury as he argues with the messy rolls of very 60's keyboard racket that keeps trying to howlhim down. For those of you over a certainage, think and adolescent Animals. For those of you with the Oz alternative in your blood, try Harem Scarem. And they could quite happily commit further greivous bodily harm on that organ beside Dalls Crane and others of that ilk. Yeah, pretty damn good. - The Drum

Melbourne's Ground Components are riding the crest of a huge wave and the industry is abuzz with the sentiments that they are the next likely thing to acheive success overseas. The tag is well deserved because they are nothing short of brilliant.
The EP is an interesting revelation because the majority is made up of cover songs. Front man Joe McGuigan has more grunt and howler in his voice than three or four bands put together and is a voice to be reckoned with. There's something so razor sharp about his voice that demands attantion.
"Crying Time" sets the tone of the EP and the scream from McGuigan feels like someone running their fingernails down a blackboard. It's a really good song for jumping around to and the keyboard synthesiser fuels the intensity. Most people would be familiar with the typical garage rock sound of "Sticks & Stones". Still it's only a tempter of what this band on the up can do.
I'm not sure about the "white boy" cover of the reggae hit by Bob Marley's "Soul Rebel" though... sometimes classics should be left well alone. But "Stayin Afloat" and "Burning Out" show how much potential Ground Components have and their future looks very promising indeed. - Rip it Up

Local four- piece the Ground Components sure know how to throw a house party.
With their brand of funkified art-punk and a few slabs, their riotous New Year's Eve bash - held last year in a Fitzroy share house - enthralled Melbourne's underground and helped finance a trip to South By South West festival in Austin, Texas.
Though a hectic touring schedule and a couple of cameos - multi-instrumentalist Dallas Paxton and Indra Adams have played My Morning Jacket and the Microphones - the band have become ubiquitous figures of the local scene.
Their sound is hard to pin down. Lead singer Joe McGuigan - a fresh faced doppelganger for Joy Division's Ian Curtis - sounds primal and deranged, while the rhythm section is smooth, precise and straight outta Motown.
Returning to Australia after an eight-week stint overseas, which included a run of shows in New York and the UK, the Ground Components are back with their second EP, "It All Catches Up To You/One Step Back". Recorded with American producer Casey Rice (Liz Phair, Tortoise), the EP features new singles, a remix by hip hop outfit Curse Ov Dialect and a cover of the cell-block classic "Jackson".
Their performance at the Rob Roy tonight is part of an 18-date national tour. - The Age

Too few bands appreciate the need for balance in their music. The obsession to be the fastest, sparsest and angriest swiftly steers them into a cul-de-sac. Thankfully, on the self-totled debut mini-album by Melbourne's Gound Components, there's much to savour: space and fervour, wide-eyed grace and musical abandon. Expertly marshalled by expatriate American Casey Rice (Tortoise), the six tracks are rich in tone. On the opener, "Crying Time", you catch every note of vocalist Joe McGuigan's guitar, buttressing the rythm section of bassist Indra Adams and drummer Simon McGuigan and bringing out the intent of keyboardist Dallas Paxton, who plays with a cartographer's eye, mapping out the soundscapes. McGuigan is a raw, exciting singer - he's heard the call to testify on vintage sould discs and responded with a rock'n'roll feel. "Sticks and Stones", an (old style) r'n'b cover courtesy of Titus Turner, is reformatted as angular new wave, "It's The Attraction" has backing from Fugazi's Ian MacKaye, while the slow burn of "Staying Afloat" approaches the open range inhabited by the great Jimmy Webb.
- The Age/Entertainment Guide

It was a dark and stormy night, and suddenly the care stopped. But this is no campfire ghost story – being stranded on a lonely road outside Wollongong is just one of the less glamorous aspects of being a touring musician.
Ground Components frontman Joe McGuigan enjoys telling the story of how four young Melbourne rockers found themselves recalling every horror film they’d seen while waiting for roadside assistance recently.
“It was crazy. We were in the rain trying to get the car to work and we had to wait for the road patrol people to rock up and we were staying about 40 minutes outside Wollongong at this guy’s property in this little cottage with a recording studio,” McGuigan says.
“We got there at two in the morning after getting through this storm. It was so windy it was scary. We all had to sleep in this little room. The others went out to try and collect some firewood, but it was wet….and the power was out in the morning.”
Thankfully, life has been anything but dark and stormy since McGuigan and bandmates, brother Simon, Dallas Paxton and Indra Adams, first got together.
So far there have been two EPs – the self-titled bluesy introduction to the band and the current release It All Catches Up With You, featuring a remix by Curse Ov Dialect and a Johnny Cash cover – and an overseas tour that included shows in London and New York.
But while the band enjoyed their overseas experience, they’re holding off on a return journey until they’ve finished their debut album.
Expected out early next year, the first Ground Components album will feature the production talents of American Casey Rice, a man whose expertise extends a lot further than just the studio. “He’s amazing at stacking the van,” McGuigan laughs.
“The other day we were standing there going, ‘Whoa, this guy’s a genius’. We’re pretty obsessive about stacking the van….so he’s quite a gem. He keeps us in line basically. He’s the pops. We learn a lot from him,” McGuigan says of Rice.
“When we started recording the first EP, we were interested in experimenting with percussion and he was very much in the frame of mind of just wanting to capture our live sound.”
“We were pulling out percussion instruments and he was like, ‘Just f…ing do it. Do what you do’. And I’d be freaking out at the last minute going, ‘I think I can sing that better’ and he’d be like ‘Sounds fine. Sounds good, rah, rah, rah’.”
"It All Catches Up With You EP (Warner) out now. Ground Components, Rob Roy Hotel, tomorrow- Sat 8:30pm. - Herald Sun

Ground Components guitarist and vocalist Joe McGuigan used to be in a street punk band, drawing influences from the likes of Rancid and The Clash. One would think then this is where he gets his raw and raspy vocal delivery. But Ground Components, essentially a rock band, also draw influences from far and wide, including Elvis Costello/Joe Jackson style punk, reggae and even soul.
"I get into all that soul singers and stuff like that. In rock music I think there's a higher standard of singers, but initially I was getting into The Clash and stuff like that, Then I got into singers and from there I drew on their influences and went back further and further" McGuigan says.
That's why you'll see the band doing a cover of a BOb Marley track on their recently released debut self-titled EP. There is a reggae delivery with the vocals, but a different vibe in the music that isn't your traditional offbeat guitars of the style, done more in a slightly funky, souldful way. McGiogan nominates Marley as a big source of inspiration. He's a huge influence as a musician and also the way he went about things. I've read biographies and interviews and I really liked the way he carried himself and the way he took things very seriously in his approach but very down the line" he says.
So it's not only a musical influence then?
"Thats a big part of where we're coming from as a band, just like influences from Bob Dylan and all the artists we get influences from, we're very interested in researching it and finding out exactly where they're coming from and how they went about getting their career started"
You'll also finda Ray Charles cover on the EP, who McGuigan also nominated as an influence. "I feel because we're quite a young band we're not quite developed anough as songwriters. So I don't want to do anything where I'm jumping the gun and putiing something on there that's not quite at a standard that we're happy with but as fillers for an EP, so using that approach I feel that we've done something on a creative level different from what the original songs sound like" McGuigan says.
It's interesting, from the energetic delivery one would think they would draw influence from more rock but listening to the EP it sounds like they're drawing from various styles including R&B, blues and reggae. "We're getting all different influences, even modern day Eminem. We don't want to set ourselves in one category and go, 'Yeah we get influences from 70's rock' or anything like that because over time, and having a manager like we do, you develop a sense of broad appreciation of periods in rock music that come about and the important artists that come through there" McGuigan says.
This braod appreciation of periods started towards the start of last year in Melbourne when McGuigan joined up with keyboardist Dallas Paxton and bass player Indra Adams and started mucking around on a few covers. When they had some originals written and wanted to put them together, McGuigan found while jamming with his brother Simon he had discovered the band's drummer. Even though Simon didn't have much band experience, or even drum experience for that matter, they rehearsed until he was up to scratch and started playing gigs.
Those gigs are filled with plenty of energy and enthusiasm, with Paxton known for absolutely belting his keyboards (check out the missing bits of ivory on the keys pictured on the inside sleeve of their EP). They also tried to capture some of this by recording live to tape. "What we did with the vocals; I'm doing singing lessons and I've got these scales from my singing teacher that I'm doing, so we went upstairs and did the scales and then went down and did all the songs first take every song. That's got that real live vibe to it" MCGuigan explains.
"There was some sort of bum parts where it was a bit flat or whatever but the producer wasn't that fussy about those sort of things and let them slide, which was really cool. We really liked his approach in that way. When we'd done demoes previously we were very fussy about things and spending a lot of time but he was more taking the approach of do what you do, and not adding heaps of other stuff but still making it an energetic standard. He was not cutting things out. We'd want to cut things out that we did'nt like but he's like, 'Nah thats cool, leave it in', so it brought an interesting element to the group".
Ground Components launch their EP on Wednesday 19 November at Bar Broadway. The EP is out through Love and Mercy/Inertia. - The Drum