louis and the honkytonk
Perth, Western Australia, Australia | SELF
Music
Press
Despite a misleading band name that may see many Satchmo fans tear out their catheters in an indignant rage, Louis & The Honkytonk have the rare gift of being able to make contemporary blues rock songs that aren’t mind-numbingly generic. Their newest release, Part Two, provides a follow-up to their release of the creatively named EP of last year, Part One.
The raw, overdriven guitars and vintage drum sound grant the EP a retrophilic dustbowl vibe, the sort of dark, alterna-blues that you might hear from The Dead Weather. Frontman Leigh Gardiner’s vocals are vaguely reminiscent of Nick Cave, complementing the inherent darkness and agitation that characterise Part Two.
Thunders Down My Soul adds some contrast to the EP, showing that the band is capable of more than just writing charismatic rock songs and aren’t afraid to play a slow number.
By the final song Louis & The Honkytonk are well and truly established. The sound is a composite of influences you already know and will probably recognise, and if they were ever to try for a full-length album it may be to their favour to experiment more with their song writing to add that little bit more to their work. However, as it stands Part Two is worth a listen for any local blues fans.
_SHAUN COWE - X-Press Magazine
Discography
Self Titled Debut Album
EP: "Part 1"
EP: "Part 2"
Photos
Bio
Louis and the Honkytonk have never been a band to follow convention. Let’s get it out of the way first: their name is a massive misnomer for a Perth 5-piece playing dirty, genre-bending DIY psych-pop. Consider it part of an unmistakeable willingness to eschew the norm, stemming from their early days selling all kinds of branded merchandise ‘objects’ like kazoos at gigs (today supplanted by personally screen-printed t-shirts and posters), and their proud history of confounding and sometimes even winning over crowds expecting something closer to Satchmo than The Doors.
The band’s do-it-yourself ethic is borne out in how they’ve approached the recording and release of their self-titled debut album, due in August 2013. Much of the album was recorded live to 16-track tape at Couch Studio in Fremantle, Western Australia. It was a blissfully spontaneous process; the band relished the chance to push the tape into the red and use the space to do things like room-mic the kitchen next door to the studio, use the pickups in a guitar to capture a drum sound, and feast on roast lamb slaughtered and butchered by engineer and co-producer James Newhouse (The Novocaines, Ash Grunwald). They successfully crowd-funded the album’s impending independent release on CD and 180gm vinyl, and true to form all 300 vinyl covers will be screen printed by the band members themselves. What’s more, the first 100 vinyls are coloured a limited-edition blood red.
The album’s first single “Hand on her Pride” highlighted frontman Leigh Gardiner’s dark lyrical bent; it was released in a limited number of handmade sleeves made from newspaper personal advertisements (and launched at a packed-out pop-up show held in a converted art space, of course). Second single “I Never Intended” is a soaring indie pop-rock number in the vein of The National and Birds of Tokyo. The band’s live groove is augmented with layers of strings, keys and harmonies as Gardiner half-croons, half cries “He’ll never know” about an illicit romantic encounter.
Considering their idiosyncratic approach, Louis and the Honkytonk’s list of achievements in their short career looks downright conventional – impressive even, for a band about to drop their debut album. They’ve already released two EPs in two years and played national supports for the likes of The Panics, Holly Throsby, Eagle and the Worm, Ash Grunwald and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The polished fury of their live sound can in part be put down to the rhythm section shared with ‘sister act’ The Morning Night and fleshed out by ex-Autumn Isles guitarist Aidan Gordon and all-rounder Matt Parker (The Shallows, Anton Franc).
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