Music
Press
“You work like a dog/So wag your tail,’ Steven Smith spits while hacking at his guitar, the bass and drums thumping out a racket behind him. ‘Lines In The Dirt’ is the opening statement in this five song set from Brisbane trio Scul Hazzards. The EP follows last years House Of Heads EP and sees a dramatically altered lineup following the poaching by Die! Die! Die! of singer Lachlan Anderson for bass duties, Smith’s move from drums to guitar to replace him and the addition of new drummer Leigh Fischer.
For a relatively new venture, Scul Hazzards sound like they’ve been together much longer than they have. Perhaps it’s their habit of distracting the listener away from the verse-chorus nature of their tunes, often working with a crashing intro and an extended crashing as part of the chorus. It’s an artifice that doesn’t lead away from these being interesting tunes, played in the key of intensity and passion. When Smith repeatedly rants “Don’t take it/Just leave it/You don’t even need it,’ the band shift somewhere between Die! Die! Die! and the murky low end of The Stabs while not giving in to either. If you’re into zombie cats being attacked by birds while assimilating a giant carcass, pick it up for the artwork alone.
by Troy D Colvin - Mess and Noise
Starting off this Saturday night’s set at Sydney’s Hopetoun Hotel was Brisbane band Scul Hazzards. By far one of Australia’s most impressive bands at the moment, their thunderous, animalistic rock was absolutely captivating and entrancing. Their sound conjures up images of the haunting Angus Andrews of New York band Liars. It certainly does not surprise me when i’m told that recently one of the band’s members went on to join New Zealand’s Die! Die! Die! as they are similar in their insistant repetiton and hypnotising tunes such as Lines In The Dirt from their latest ep. However Scul Hazzards do not yelp into the microphone as often as Andrew Wlson, singer of Die! Die! Die! does. Their set was enjoyable and they could easily be headlining a Saturday night at the Hopetoun any one of these days.
Review by Anni, 12th June, 2007 - Faster Louder
Not too much is known about Scul Hazzards except that they've got a weird name and they're bloody awesome scuzzy punk/post punk quartet from Brisvegas consisting of Lachlan Anderson (vocals), Matthew Deasy (drums), Tiffany Milne (bass) and Steven Smith (guitar/vocals). With slightly more disheveled rhythms than your average tight jeans and fringe spaz pop band, this foursome have just released their debut EP, through Regurgitator manager Paul Curtis' label, Valve Records, the EP sounds like a rudimentary Test Icicles with the poise of My Disco, all crazy shouted vocals and angular bass rhythms. We expect to find out more about Scul Hazzards in 2007. - Blunt
While 2006 has not been a bumper year for fans of scum-drenched cerebral noise rock, here comes Brisbanians SCUL HAZZARDs to save the day at the 11th hour. This five-song EP will have you scrubbing your extremities with wire wool and muttering "Unclean" before you know it, and then after that you'll dance yourself into a frenzy (or maybe the other way around). Either way, it roolz hard. - Inpress
Scul Hazzard’s primitive and embittered take on the late 80’s mid west ‘Touch and Go/Pig Fuck’ sound has witnessed importunate references to the forerunners of that era. Whilst comparisons to Jesus Lizard and Big Black are indolently bandied about it is important to view Scul Hazzard’s in the context of Brisbane. The insipid and boorish nature of Brisbane and the dullard nature of working 9-5 are all evoked in the venom and spite that emanates through Scul Hazard’s second e.p. Whilst ‘Count Less Dead’ is the bands first without their former vocalist and drummer, one cannot help but think that the theatrics have been exchanged for a more focused approach to crafting menacing noise. The pulsating thud of Bassist Tiffany Milne recalls Tracy Pew’s finer works in the manner that it interlocks with the polyrhythmic drumming of Leigh Fischer. Whilst Steven Smith’s guttural scream serves to compliment the inherent ugliness of the music. ‘Count Less Dead’ is one of the more important releases in Australia this year for it so perfectly encapsulates the transition of Scul Hazzards from a band that merely emulates the past to a band that has set a precedent for the future. - Scene
Discography
COUNT LESS DEAD (Valve, 2007)
1. Lines in the Dirt - Received Australian nation airplay on JJJ, is played on numerous local radio stations.
2. So Long
3. Junket
4. Copicats
5. Vague Dream
All songs from this release have been played on numerous local and community radio stations throughout Australia, England, and France.
Most songs are available for streaming at www.myspace.com/sculhazzards or http://www.mp3.com.au/artist.asp?id=31326
HOUSE OF HEADS (Valve, 2006)
1. I Choke
2. Kill Those Rangers Now - Received national Australian airplay
3. Somebody isn't Home
4. These Skeleton Keys
5. House of Heads
Most of the songs from this release have received airplay of local/community across Australia, and France.
KNEE DEEP IN BLOOD THAT ISN'T OURS (Self-released, 2006)
1. Knee deep in blood that isn't ours
2. Sinatra
Photos
Bio
SCUL HAZZARDs are a guitar based noise rock band from Brisbane, Australia. They make aggressive deconstructulist rock sometimes within pop structures, but often through deconstructing these sensibilities their most unique work is created. Regardless of what path their arrangements take they always create dense and interesting songs and strive to make them complex yet accessible.
While their early releases (knee deep in blood that isn’t ours single, and House of Heads EP) were for the most part primal in nature their most recent material (Count Less Dead EP), retains much of their primitive aggression but is far more complex and focused. This is in part due to a lineup change - two members leaving (one to join New Zealand’s Die! Die! Die!) - and more importantly because of the remaining and additional members matured approach leading to more intuitive and measured playing, and more complicated arranging.
The Count Less Dead EP is just a taste of what is to come, as you read this SCUL HAZZARDs will be working on demos of more than an album’s worth of material which will completely eclipse any or their previous work. It will be more aggressive, more primal, more focused, more deconstructed, and more accessible. SCUL HAZZARDs also record all their own music and with the post House of Heads addition of another engineer to the band their raw, realistic, yet focused sound is only going to become more unique.
While SCUL HAZZARDs have toured Australia extensively in the past year and a half including shows with Comets on Fire, Die! Die! Die!, The Mint Chicks, Grey Daturas, Shooting at Unarmed Men (ex-Mclusky), Pelican (soon to be added to this list), and a spot at Brisbane’s Valley Fiesta, they aim towards taking their music internationally with a relocation to England and the release of their debut album on the cards for 2008.
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