M+N Readers Poll Results

According to the Mess+Noise Readers Poll, we are the #6 Best New-ish Act in 2011. And we released the 17th best Album of the Year. Freaking amazing. Couldn't be happier. Thanks to all who voted.

Update: We also came in at #36 on the Critics list.

New Plans!

So, it seems like the next half-a-year is going to be a pretty exciting time.

First of all, next month, we've got three shows lined up. Our first show is at The Espy this Friday night, with Peabody, The Once Overs and Altyan Childs Alkan Zeybek. We're on second, so I imagine that will be somewhere around 10pm. After that, we're doing a last-minute fill-in job on Saturday night at Pony, 2am style. Last gig for the month will be a big Boxing Day in Ballarat; Yard Apes + YIS at Karova Lounge on Monday the 26th.

In addition, Andre and I will once again be backing up Brat Farrar on a few shows, including the Future of the Left support at The Corner on December 16. More Brat Farrar show info up on his Bandcamp.

After that, we'll be doing a couple more Melbourne shows (and maybe one in Geelong) and then putting a big fat line under the Kingdom of Fuzz-era of YIS, as after that, we're heading off to Europe to play a bunch of shows with Brat Farrar. Andre and I will hopefully be doing a few small YIS duo shows along the way, but you'll see us play Brat's songs of equal quality in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium and Germany from March 22 until April 1. I will post the dates here when I've got them, but it looks like a big of shows.

I'm off to the UK and NYC after that, and Andre is going to spend some more months in Europe, while Bronwyn is finishing up study and does some important work type things, so, prior to that, hopefully we'll be able to pin Matt down for long enough to have one final hurrah at a venue that's yet to be decided. Hopefully on the other side we'll have something new, exciting and different to play for everyone.

Speaking of new and exciting, we did some other stuff this weekend; Andre recorded our pals in Bidet Mate, and then I whipped up this video. Enjoy, re-post, download, etc.

So, that's it for now. Hopefully see you at a show over the weekend. We'll be playing the favorites and some oldies from the vault. Until then...

Espy Show

In what most likely will be our last show of the year, we're playing our first ever gig on the other side of the river with Peabody, The Once Overs and Happy New Year at The Espy on Friday, December 2. It's a free show and we're on second, so, that'll probably be around 10pm. More info when I got it.

On the other hand, Andre and I have a heap of shows backing up Brat Farrar, including supporting Future of the Left at The Corner in December. Dates and details on Brat's Bandcamp.

YIS By Request

Gig coming up in a couple of weeks. Two sets. One set of new & old stuff, another set of requests and covers. Details here.

Holidays!

Thanks to everyone who came out to The Retreat last night, and who came to shows over the last 1 and 3/4 years we've been playing out. We're taking a rest from playing live for the next few months so we can take stock and write and record some new stuff. Hopefully some new material will be ready before the end of the year. What that'll sound like, I have no idea. Anyway, thanks again. See you around soon.

Next/Last Shows

Two more Melbourne shows in August; supporting Legends of Motorsport on Saturday the 13th of August at The Tote with Sons of the Ionian Sea and a free headline show on Saturday the 27th of August at The Retreat with dotcoms. These will be our last shows before breaking to write the new album.

Nerdy Guitar Pedal Update

So, as Google Analytics tells me, I get a lot of nerd traffic coming through the blog specifically to do with the gear related posts. So, yeah, here's another rundown of what I've been using lately.

My gain pedal section changes quite often. Never quite satisfied with what I've got, but this all sounded pretty good last gig. After the TC Polytune Tuner is my Foxrox Octron; still on the board because it sounds and tracks brilliantly. The first octave pedal I had was a POG 2 and I just couldn't get along with it because of the lag between playing and the note, and the fact it just sounded crap in a lot of ways. I don't really dig that Jack White-organ-guitar octave sound. It's just a crap sound. The sounds Future Of The Left pull out of the POG are orrite though. Anyway, this is about the Octron. Sounds great. Tracks great. Feels great. Good pedal.

Next up is my brand new Tym Guitars Big Mudd that I picked up in Brisbane a few weeks back. Sounds brilliant. I always end up running an overdrive after any Muff or Muff-type fuzzes because it gives a little more cut and presence. This one is one of the Ramshead series Mudds and they have a little trouble sitting in the mix usually but this sounded pretty good on Friday night so it'll probably stay a while.

The Lovepedal COT50 runs after that. This one is just a great pedal, but not all Lovepedals are the same by any means. The older stuff is great. The newer stuff is hit and miss. I've sold more Lovepedals than I've kept, but the ones I've kept are some of my favourites. Can be a bit tricky to match up with some guitars because of the single knob (sometimes playing guitars with hotter pickups tend to mean that gain pedals can sound quieter than the clean signal) but it always sounds great.

Last is a Fulltone Fat Boost 3. I like this pedal a lot. I click it on for a bit of a boost when I need it. Yep.

After that is pretty much the same as a while back: the Moog Freqbox is now the FORBIDDEN PEDAL as Mum said I hurt too many ears when I woosh this one. Note to self: be more considerate towards others re: square-wave. After that is the A/DA Final Phase, Cusack Tap-A-Whirl Trem and Earthquaker Disaster Transport Delay. Finally is a TC Electronic Hall-Of-Fame Reverb. It's a solid reverb that's small and tweakable. Not mindbendingly spectacular but it sounds good enough and it's small. Can't really ask for much more than that. I have an Eventide Space for home and that sounds better, but is the size of my face.

Vocal pedals are now a Line 6 M5 and a Pigtronix Keymaster. The old DL-4 got booted off the board for being too damn big. This M5 goes fine. Keymaster allows me to run XLR in and out of the M5 and there's a bit of a boost stage too. Got that running at 24 volts from the Pedal Power 2. Have got all my old DL-4 patches in the M5 and they sound pretty much the same. Plus now I can do other cool stuff on vocals that's not delay. Like this, maybe.

Any questions? Good.

Special Old Bar Thanks!

A special thanks to everyone who attended our second anniversary show. It was an excellent night; all the bands were on fire and the packed house made us feel very warm and fuzzy indeed. If you missed out, we got it on tape thanks to our awesome pal Kris on the desk and Jacqui behind the camera (who also gave me Animals on vinyl for my birthday), so hopefully we can put those two things together and chuck it up online at some point in the next week or so. But here's the best bit anyway.

Old Bar Tonight, Razorcake Review

So, yep, it's my birthday bash at The Old Bar tonight. Should be fun. Bidet Mate on first at 9. YIS on at midnight. Russian Roulettes then Baptism of Uzi somewhere in the middle. Eight clams to get in.

Also, here's a great 'Kingdom of Fuzz' review from the latest issue of Razorcake.

YIS & Brat Farrar Blowin' Up

(pictured above: my rear tyre that blew up on the Eastern Freeway at around 7pm on Tuesday night)

YIS and Brat Farrar in a pair of Top-5 lists on the web today:

Darren Levin, editor of Mess & Noise included 'Kingdom of Fuzz' in his Top 5 mid-year list, calling us "Melbourne's best pub rock band. Bar none." http://www.messandnoise.com/articles/4295308

Darragh Murray from Collapse Board said "Brat Farrar kicked some serious arse" amongst some other nice things in his Flavours of Skuzz review here: http://www.collapseboard.com/brisbane/five-things-learned-at-flavours-of-skuzz/

For Sale: 1961 Hofner V3 Electric Guitar

The great gear cleanout continues with my 1961-62 Hofner electric. It's a great guitar. Didn't use it on Kingdom of Fuzz (cos I was too lazy to bring in another guitar aside from my Firebird), but I've used live and also to write a few tunes, "Ungreatful Motherfucker" being one of them. It's a great garage guitar but also has a really beautiful clean tone on the neck pickup. Here's me fiddling with it a little to show it works.

You can also hear it on this live Constant Light track.

And also our performance at the infamous Fall tribute evening:

So, yeah, it's on eBay. Starts on 99c.

Brat Farrar Brisbane Tour Report

Brisbane was awesome. Since it's been quite a while since I've written a meatier blogpost, here's a rundown of what we got up to over the weekend.

We had the first QANTAS flight out at 7:05am on Friday morning, which meant the alarm was set for 5am. Didn't get much sleep the night before as I was up late watching In The Loop (hilarious movie), so, for some strange reason, my body actually felt okay with the earlier start. Weird. Anyway, after being we met Sam at the airport at 6 and headed over to oversize baggage to check in our things. Nothing really interesting happened on the airport or the flight. The plane served muesli for breakfast. Andre said it looked like "the food from The Matrix" and refused to eat it. There was also a little packet of apricots and an orange juice, accompanied by a special message from Mr. John Travolta on the screens telling us about how much he cares about our safety and how he loves QANTAS. Nothing about loving Xenu though.

Flight was pretty smooth and we got to Brisbane around 9, and then caught a taxi to the Valley. We had an in-store at Tym Guitars in the evening, so we headed down there in the hopes of being able to dump our stuff so we didn't have to lug it around all day. It wasn't open until 10, and Sam had heard about this great place for sausage rolls which was actually just next door (Flamingos?), so we stopped there for some breakfast that didn't look like "the food from The Matrix". The sausage rolls were pretty great (they had this tasty chutney/relish which was all sorts of delicious). Expensive but a decent size. Washed it down with some sort of watermelon/strawberry juice (tasty but again, expensive). It was a good meal though. Music was Human League followed by Hall & Oates.

Tym's was open by the time we finished, so we popped in and had a chat to Geordie (who also plays guitar in Dick Nasty and is a top, top dude), who was more than happy for us to leave our stuff in one of the rehearsal rooms. Despite spending thousands of dollars at the shop via the website, we had never actually been to Tym Guitars before. It's awesome. Easily one of the world's best shops for anything ever. The collection of guitars in stock at the time was good as always; a decent collection of used Fenders and Gibsons with a fair few Japanese and international oddities along with a great collection of boutique effects and amazing amps; easily better than any guitar shop in Australia, but nothing amazing-amazing for sale that made me whip out the CC.

However, the stuff in the back rooms was easily amazing-amazing-amazing. Aside from the 60s Epiphone Crestwood in a glass case, Mosrites, vintage Electro Harmonix effects and rare-as-rare-can-be fuzz pedals next to Ramones vinyl in the cabinets (right next to a selection of the best new and used vinyl that puts the vast majority of record shops to shame for both selection and price), the collection of hire stuff is also awesome.

Sam emerged from rehersal/storage area with a beautiful, road-worn '72 Fender Mustang to play in the evening. Geordie asked if I wanted to use a Fender Precision or a Jazz bass for the in-store. I went with the P, and he strolled out of the private section with an awesome '79 Sunburst. We got to take a peak back there and not only was there some amazing vintage guitars from Tim's personal collection, but a bunch of Tim's custom guitars (which he no longer has time to make) which made me weep tears of both joy and sadness.

I could go on for hours about this place, but it's probably best if you just go up there and hang for a while. And plus we went back twice more over the weekend, so you'll hear about it again in a paragraph or two.

We went for a walk around after that down to (soon-to-be shutdown/relocated) Rockinghorse Records in the hope of picking up some bargains. I was starting to crash hard by this point and had to go sit down. Sam and Andre picked up some good stuff though. Original pressing of Pink Moon for $20 in pretty good condition had me a bit jealous, but I think all of the really good stuff was long gone. We headed up to Egg Records and bumped into some people that Sam knew from other bands up for the weekend. Nothing too special at Egg, but I wasn't really in the mood for crate digging at this point.

After a wander, we met up with our host for the weekend; Pete from The Vegas Kings and Mere Noise Records. Pete is awesome beyond words; not only did he drive us around for the entire weekend, but he gave us his place for the weekend and went and stayed at his girlfriend's flat. Aside from that, he's just a cool guy. He was finishing his shift at the gallery where he works, so we had a coffee and hung around for a little bit. Sam bumped into Dan from Sixfthick/Gentle Ben on the way to the toilet and we had a chat to him for a while. Nice dude. When Pete was ready, we headed back to his pad; a great place near the Sydney St Ferry overlooking the Brisbane River, with the Gabba on the other side.

After a little bit of a rest, we headed back down to Tym's for our in-store with Hoss and The VeeBees. Tim was down there then along with Tony from Sixfthick/guitarnerd.com.au (who also does a lot of the design stuff for Tim's amps/effects/shirts/etc) and a host of other Brisbane folk (including the tall, mysterious "Cowboy" Bob who we'd encounter a few more times over the course of the weekend). The instore was heaps of fun; we played four songs and it all sounded and felt good. Sold a couple of YIS CDs and Brat Farrar 45s. The VeeBees were up next. Highlight was "Drive-Thru Bottle-O". We had an interview at 4ZZZ with Judy Jetson shortly after that, so we had to bail before Hoss.

Tim was manning the desk on the way out, and he stopped us to get us to sign the poster for the in-store (as all bands do at Tym's), and we were brave enough to ask about the new Fuzz Munchkin pedal he was making (which is an exact clone of J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr.'s favourite Big Muff, reverse engineered by Tim). I'd been hanging out to get one of these ever since it was announced he was doing it, and he'd been getting calls from all around the world from some big, big names wanting him to reserve ones for them. However, he's just going to do 300 and put them on the site when they're ready; first-come, first-serve, no matter who you are (except that J gets 50 for himself). Much to my amazement, he just whipped it out the first one from behind the counter. It was probably as excited as I'd been about a new toy since they had Nintendo 64s in Epping Plaza four months before they were released. Freaking amazing. We even got to hold it. He told us all about it and he was almost as excited as we were. However, this one was J's own personal #001; we'd have to wait until they went up on the site to actually get our hands on our own.

We got down to the radio station at about 6:30 and had a chat on the radio. Judy played the three tracks from the Brat Farrar single as well as 'Burning Well' from Kingdom of Fuzz, which was ultra-cool. It's still awesome to hear your own songs on the radio; I don't think that'll ever get old. After that, we headed down to The German Club for dinner. We were told that we must have the Pork Knuckle, or failing that, the Pork Belly. The wait for food was insane (the line just to order took about 45 minutes), and during this time, Andre changed his mind from pork knuckle to pork belly and back again to pork knuckle.

The wait for the food was eased by Andrew; a sixty-year old one-man band playing at insane volume in the main dining hall. He was like of a cross between Colonal Landa from Inglorious Bastards, the German cannibal from The I.T. Crowd and Jandek, but with lederhosen. He had a big laminated sign saying "ANDREW" on his keyboard, as well as a flashing LED display that said "MUSIC BY ANDREW" in different colours and animations. Sam described it as "one of the most bizarre experiences" he's ever had on tour, and that's saying something. He did "Happy Birthday" at least seven different times. He had an amazing catalogue of MIDI backing tracks on his laptop, and along with singing in his thick german accent, he played keyboard, guitar, trombone and trumpet. We walked in to an amazing version of The Vengaboys' eternal classic "Boom Boom Boom Boom (I Want You In My Room), followed by "Sweet Caroline", "Bad Romance", a German folk tune, a German drinking tune, and then "Khe Sanh" into "I'm Too Sexy" (apologies to Andrew if the setlist is incorrect).

The place was going mental. In between sets people were chanting for Andrew to come back. His second set was nothing short of mindblowing. I was slightly disappointed he couldn't fulfill my request of Shout To The Top, but he more than made up for it with my highlight of the entire tour: Smells Like Teen Spirit followed by Du Hast. Nothing more needs to be said.

The wait between lining up to order food and recieving food was roughly the same time it took us to get from Melbourne to Brisbane, but it was pretty good when it came. The pork knuckle was indeed impressive. The pork belly wasn't bad. We headed off around 11, and managed to flag down a cab and headed back to Pete's for a well earned sleep. Good day.

We woke up on Saturday morning and did the regular thing; hung around and watched The Simpsons and did lazy stuff. We headed down to Tym's again to grab our gear and Tim was working in the shop. We had a play around for a little bit when he yelled for us to "plug in whatever we want". I did had my eye on one of his Lemon amps (but with the state of my bank account, I'd have to be content with the Lemon t-shirt). Then he said the magic words: "do you want to try out the J Mascis pedal?". Fuck yes. There was no Jazzmasters on the walls, so we grabbed a Jag and a Greco Strat. Being the hog that I am, I had to have the first go. It's freaking awesome. There's one set of regular controls and two channels. The rhythm channel is great. The boost channel is something else. Freaking amazing sounding thing. Would have loved to have cranked that Lemon up past 12'o'clock...

Tim strolled up the stairs grinning. He's just a great, friendly dude and a massive music fan who is genuinely stoked to be making gear for bands that he loves. He offered to make Sam his own signature duel-channel OD/Fuzz (which we've been planning ever since). He then offered me a go of his Big Bottom/Big Mudd hybrid pedal that he'd cooked up for Witch (and now is making one for Earthless; possibly the best live band on the planet). After playing the Fuzz Munchkin I wasn't quite as pumped to try this one out (and I already had a regular Big Bottom) but we had a couple of minutes so I thought I might as well. I plugged a regular P-Bass into a Bassman and kicked the thing on. Holy mother of God. Incredible bass fuzz. I ended up walking out with one of his Ramhead Big Mudds pedal. He fixed us up with some shirts as well. That, combined with an awesome big breakfast at Pete's mate's cafe and the weather made for a great morning.

We capped off the morning by visiting the lookout pictured above and checking out some other shops. Another guitar shop that was pretty ordinary (but anything would probably seem ordinary in comparison to Tym's). Went to a couple of second hand clothes shops. Vinnies. Nothing much was there apart from a weird Melbourne Knights scarf and a Chet Atkins record with dogs on the cover. Went back for a snooze before the main event; Flavours of Skuzz.

The venue was pretty weird; The Woodland Bar is a multi-room, band and sports bar in the middle of the Valley, not far from all the other main venues to play in Brisbane. There were three stages spread over two rooms upstairs; the main room which had the "Main Stage" and a smaller stage on the floor with a basic P.A. called "Floor Stage", and the "Function Room", which was in the "Mustang Bar" next door, where we were playing. There was also a two hour break about a third of the way through as a condition of the venue; apparently Rugby related. Weird.

We walked up the stairs to the around 5:30 to see the last few notes of Jonny Romeo, which was a shame. They sounded good from the stairs. Had a wander around while The Royal Family were playing on the Floor Stage and figured out where to stash our stuff until we played until 10pm. Sat down to watch Feathers after that; four local girls playing good-psych who enjoy using reverb pedals. They were good. Should have got one of the black t-shirts. I skipped off for a bit to watch Geordie from Tym's play in Dick Nasty. Metal. Opened with a Giants of Science riff which seemed to amuse/embarrass Ben Salter (in a funny way), who organised the event and was standing up the front. The place was starting to fill up even though there was only about 30 minutes of music before the 7-9pm break. Swapped back and forth for a bit between The Narwhals and The Boondall Boys (featuring Macka from The Onyas on vocals) who were tearing up the Function Room. Would have liked to have seen all of both but only got to see bits.

Went off for some Chinese with some awesome friends of Sam's during the break. We ordered heaps. It was pretty good. Szechuan-anything is always good in my book. Walked up the street checking the footy scores, thinking that Richmond might actually get up this week. (They didn't).

Got back to the bar in time for HITS and Blank Realm; two of the best bands of the night who were on at the same time. Damn. HITS started great and pulled a good crowd which grew to a massive crowd by the end of the set. And we had to follow them. Goddamnit. Blank Realm also sounded great in the main room. I missed out on Dick from HITS' poem to The Meatbeaters, which apparently was hilarious. Something about "I shouldn't have called you ________, because I should have called you gay, but gay in the cool way, because you're electric".

Our set felt pretty good; we probably played better at Tym's the night before but the crowd was great, even though the sound was like "playing in a tiled bathroom" (probably because the floor was tiled). Got to have a go at my new Big Mudd, which sounded great.

Wandered around patching myself up and getting my shit back together after the set and missed out on a lot of other stuff. Watched a bit of Hoss, who played Cheap Trick and Dead Boys covers. The VeeBees played another good set. Saw a bit of Straight Arrows, who had a big crowd. Velociraptor had an even bigger crowd at the same time, and their band was massive. Ten people, two stages massive. Only got to see a little bit of Undead Apes after that, which was sad, as we had to bail after Pastel Blaze's set. Hopefully can catch those guys in Melbourne sometime soon. Overall, this was a great night and hopefully it runs again next year. Would love to come up and play it again.

Had to walk out of the Valley to get a cab, as the line was massive. Nobody would pick us up for a few kilometers, but we eventually got one. Ate some bread back at Pete's, set the alarm and hit the sack.

So, back in Melbourne now; weather is shit and people are grumpy. All the people we met in Brisbane were just awesome; we had a great time and hopefully we can come back up with YIS in a few months. Time for pie and sleep, I think.

Here's the next gig poster and details.

Guitar Cab For Sale, Brat Stuff, Bidet Mate

Selling up an old Eminar 2x12 guitar cab on eBay. Open to offers!

In other news; plenty of Brat Farrar stuff in this week's issue of Beat with the launch this Saturday night at The Tote. Click here to skip right to the interview.

As for the gig on Saturday night, Brat Farrar will be on at midnight. Doors at 9pm. $10 to get in.

Next weekend, Brat Farrar will be in Brisbane, playing a free instore at Tym Guitars early on Friday evening with Hoss and The VeeBees, followed by an interview on 4ZZZ, and playing Flavours of Skuzz at The Woodland Bar on Saturday.

Also, our pals in Bidet Mate (featuring Andre on drums) are now on Facebook. Like them.

Home from Adelaide, Brat Launch

My brain is finally back to full functionality after our Adelaide roadtrip. Thanks to Fluffy and The Molting Vultures for having us out, and everyone who came to the Squatters Arms for the show. Good fun.

Next YIS show isn't until July 22, but we have a few shows as the rhythm section for Brat Farrar coming up; one in Melbourne on Saturday, July 2 at The Tote, and two in Brisbane on Friday July 8th (afternoon/evening instore) at Tym Guitars and Saturday July 9th at Jubilee Hotel for Flavours of Skuzz.

Grace Darling Photos + Adelaide This Weekend

Cool gallery of photos from Friday night's show up at Faster Louder.

And a reminder, this Saturday night in Adelaide..

Also, Andre and I are playing at The Tote on Saturday July 2nd in Brat Farrar. More details here.

Weekend Playing Times

Playing times for this weekend's shows are as follows...

Friday 3rd June at The Grace Darling, Collingwood

OUCH MY FACE (11:30) + IN TONGUES (10:50) + YIS (10:10) + HIGH TEA (9:30).

Doors 8:00pm, cost is $10.

Sunday 5th June at The Old Bar, Fitzroy

THE TOOT TOOT TOOTS (10:00) + YIS (9:00) + MESA COSA (8:00).

Doors 7:00pm, cost is $5.

Mess + Noise Review by Andy Ramadge

"On the first half of Kingdom of Fuzz, YIS play the sort of dumb boy rock I've heard a million times before, but still like getting pissed and bouncing along to. Sometimes it's balls out, sometimes it's boring."

YIS + Brat Farrar Adelaide Show

SATURDAY JUNE 11TH. SQUATTERS ARMS HOTEL, THEBARTON, SA.

THE MOLTING VULTURES (12.15pm) + BRAT FARRAR (11.15pm) + FLUFFY (10.15.pm) + YIS (9.15pm).

Amazing Posters For Next Weekend's Gigs

Some fantastic poster art from Celeste from Ouch My Face (above) and Steve from The Toot Toot Toots (below)...

Radio Spots + Leetle Reviews

Two very different radio spots for this Friday's Cherry gig running on Triple R and PBSFM.

Also some nice reviews by the JJJ crew up on our Unearthed.

For Sale: Bron's 1982 Gibson SG

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230622785330

More Dates

Friday 20th May at Cherry Bar - YIS + Death Valley Band + The Stiffys

8pm doors. $13. YIS on at 10:30pm.

Sunday 5th June at The Old Bar - The Toot Toot Toots + YIS + Mesa Cosa

8pm doors. $5. YIS on at 10pm.

Friday 22nd July at The Old Bar - YIS + Baptism of Uzi + Russian Roulettes + Bidet Mate

8pm doors. $8. YIS on at midnight. Simon's birthday party!

Also, Brat Farrar dates...

Saturday July 2nd at The Tote - Brat Farrar (7" launch)

Saturday July 9th at The Jubilee Hotel, QLD - Flavours of Skuzz Festival

Bits + Pieces

A few small things.

Andre and I are heading up to Brisbane with Brat Farrar in the second weekend of July to play 'Flavours of Skuzz'; a one day festival put together by Ben Salter. We'll be doing a few other Brat shows around that. No YIS stuff planned as yet, but it'll still be good.

Additionally, Brat Farrar and YIS should be heading over to Adelaide on Saturday June 11th to launch our warez. More details soon.

As far as Melbourne goes, YIS are playing this Thursday night/Friday morning at Pony. We've also organised a headline show at Cherry on Friday May 20. The Stiffys are also playing, along with one other band. Brat Farrar will also be having a 7-inch launch at The Tote in July.

Our pals The Summervilles are heading down to Melbourne this weekend for two shows; Thursday night at The Blue Tile Lounge on Smith St (a couple of doors down from Yah Yahs, and a couple of doors up from Andre's beloved 'Fitzroy Kebabs'), and a party in Richmond that Bron's put together on Good Friday with Baptism of Uzi, Kids of Zoo and Mesa Cosa. Get in touch via yis@yisyisyis.com if you want location details.

Finally, Andre got a mention for his work behind the kit in this review for Constant Light's 'Mag-Amplitude' on Mess & Noise.

Poison Sockets, Live At The Workers Club, 14/04/11

Part 1: Dreams of Dreams Denied (Constant Light cover)

Part 2: Untitled (song that "sounds like The Cult")

Two Watts Trailer

Andre Fazio (YIS/Brat Farrar) and Al Matcott (The Thod) are TWO WATTS.

Appearing live at the following locations:

Saturday 16th April, The Great Britain Hotel, Richmond (supporting Chigwell Sharp)

Monday 25th April, Pony, Melbourne (late show)

Badges, Badges, Badges.

We've got some badges on the way for people who like badges. For $2.50 (plus the cost of a postage stamp), you get a three badge set featuring the above artwork. Badges are 1.25 inches in diameter. Whoever can work out the circumference gets a gold star. No gold star for radius. Limited to 75 sets. Should arrive at YIS Manor about this time next week, and shipping out whenever we get them. Order now to avoid disappointment.

Poison Sockets, Two Watts

Poison Sockets (Bron + James Dean + Krzysztof Derwinski) are making their live debut this Thursday night at The Workers Club, Fitzroy, playing with The Gruntled and Mystic Eyes. Poison Sockets are on first. 8:30pm.

Two Watts (Andre + Alastair Matcott) are making their live debut this Saturday night at The Great Britain, Richmond, playing with Chigwell Sharp. Two Watts are on first. 8:30pm.

Easter Weekend at Pony Poster

Depressing art by Andre Fazio. Click poster to enlarge.

Shirts Shipping

Picked up the next batch of shirts this morning. Orders will be shipped today. Thanks!

For new orders, click here.

Good Friday Eve/Good Friday Morn at Pony

We've been to play the 2am slot at Pony on Thursday night/Friday morning, 21st/22nd of April, which is Good Friday Eve/Good Friday Morning. So, we're doing it. It's free. We'll try to throw in a G.G. Allin cover.

More Shirts, More Sizes, More Awesome

(with thanks to Michael Lippmann for the tip-off)

More shirts headed to YIS Manor; we've put in a new order which should be in within the fortnight, so we can now offer new sizes in both Mens and Ladies cuts over at our Bandcamp. You can purchase anything from Mens Small up to Extra EXTRA Large, and Ladies Medium and Large over at Bandcamp now. Limited quantities at the very small and larger ends of the scale though, so order sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment. As we've ordered a few more this time, we got a bit of a discount, so shirts are now $1-2 less depending on what option you choose. $25 for the shirt + compact disc + signed poster + download, or just $20 for the shirt + poster + download (and no CD). Click here to order.

Also, here's a cool write-up over at the Australian Independant Music Charts' blog about the album.

We're currently sketching out some new ideas and have penciled in a few shows in June and July to road-test the new tunes. Details soon.

YIS + Kids of Zoo at The Retreat Poster

Next weekend, night after B'Uzi launch. Drawing by Andre.

Beat Album of the Week

Contrary to the flaccid protestations of contemporary royalists - who see the House of Windsor as some sort of perpetually stable institution, forever providing a moral, social and political crucible for a population yearning for stability - the English monarchy has itself been in a state of regular re-invention for its entire thousand-odd year history. With the monarchy currently struggling under the weight of the cult of celebrity, now is the time for Chuck, Bill and Harry to think seriously about where to from here.

That direction could, if only a bit of lateral thought was applied, be toward aKingdom Of Fuzz. Sure, the English monarchy has about as much empathy with fuzzed-out guitars and gut-busting garage riffs as Sarah Ferguson has with the mushy tinned peas and tepid mashed potato served up in the average council estate residence, but hope can still spring eternal.

And where better to start that process of re-invention than YIS's debut long-player, Kingdom Of Fuzz? Kingdom Of Fuzz has got everything a contemporary monarchical institution needs to stay relevant: Message offers up plundering riffs tougher than a western suburbs back pocket player working off an insult to the sanctity of his fledgling marriage, Stop-Go smears the angular college punk of Devo with a thick dose of industrial strength garage attitude, Lizardman is cartoon framed Digger And The Pussycats rock 'n' roll writ large and Trevor Block Rocking Beats affords Melbourne's iconic man-about-town the slick rock treatment and popular song status he's spent 30 years acquiring.

(I Feel) Repulsed is a new wave fly in the album's prevailing garage rock ointment, replete with dazzling synthesiser melody and emphatic pop vocals; by way of radical contrast, the succeeding Baby Come On is down, dirty and depraved, a viscous mix of polluted rock licks and defensive emotional pleadings, before Burning Well takes us down the bruising and painful path of introspection, with nothing but the ghost of Sonic's Rendezvous and early Asteroid B-612 to ease the pain.

By the time Injin locks into its vice-like instrumental groove, YIS' Kingdom Of Fuzz is looking better than a Tennessee distillery to Keith Richards; I Wanna Go Home is the proverbial icing on the cake, a rough and ready blend of powerpop spiced with Ramones philosophical underpinnings.

Kingdom Of Fuzz actually has bugger all to do with the future of the House of Windsor. But the fact that it doesn't says everything about the irrelevance of the monarch, and even more about just how fucking good this record is.

If you like this: Superfuzz Bigmuff MUDHONEY, Funhouse THE STOOGES

JEFF HAMMOND

Bron + Andre on new Constant Light album

Constant Light have just put up their new album on Bandcamp. Bron plays bass on some tracks, Andre plays drums on track 5. They're launching it at The Empress this Friday. Details on FB.

Also, Poison Sockets (Bron + Jim from Constant Light) will be making their live debut at the International Noise Conference in Melbourne on Saturday May 21. More details soon.

last melbourne shows for a bit.

hey everyone,

so, thanks to everyone who made it out for our launch the other night. we were overwhelmed by the amount of people there... it was a really special evening, so, honestly, thanks heaps for coming out.

so, we've got some more shows coming up this month, which will probably be our last in town for a good few months while we start working on some stuff that isn't the same stuff we've played for the last year and a half... we're trying to tee up some interstate stuff for april/may (but may/june/july seems a bit more likely), so hopefully we'll have something confirmed soon. sydney + nsw/act for sure, adelaide hopefully, brisbane maaaaybe...

but, anyway, as far as melbourne stuff goes, here's what you can look forward to... as we played the whole album at the tote, we're gonna try to pull out some different stuff for this show, so, kingdom of fuzz material by request only... or if you have any other requests...

***

Thursday 17th of March at The Johnston, Fitzroy for Pon De Thursday with The Dark Globes. $5/$10. http://www.pondethursday.com

this is a cheap drinks, say YIS to get half-priced entry type deal. we'll be on last.

***

Friday 25th of March at The Tote, Collingwood for Baptism of Uzi Cassette Launch with High Tea, Buried Feather. $10. http://www.thetotehotel.com

we're amazingly happy to be on this amazing bill; baptism and buried feather are two of the best bands going around and high tea are a new band featuring the dudes who used to be in baseball. we're on second last.

***

Saturday 26th of March at The Retreat, Brunswick. Free.

and, yeah, the following night, a free show at The Retreat. should be a blast. again on last, one other band to be confirmed.

***

hopefully we'll have this new album written and released by, i dunno, november? who knows. it'll be different.

also, we've got about five of the shirts in medium and large left, three extra larges and one small that was hiding at the bottom of the box. http://yisyisyis.bandcamp.com

thanks again,

simon

http://www.yisyisyis.com

YIS in Beat

by Bruce Laird.

The first question in an interview is often the most obvious, and frequently the most revealing. So tonight’s interview with Simon Fazio and Bronwyn Liroudia-Rands, two-thirds of local garage band YIS begins with the obvious inquiry: where does the band’s name come from? Judging by the reaction, it’s a question that’s come up plenty of times previously. Fazio’s initial response refers to truncated New Zealand vowels in Flight Of The Conchords, supplemented by a few alternative acronym-based explanations (one of which apparently translates to ‘enlightened vagina’). But it’s Liroudia-Rands’ observation that provokes the best reaction. “My dad said ‘that Rick Wakeman prick is going to sue you!’,” she laughs.

Thankfully the prog-happy Mr Wakeman hasn’t so far issued
any legal writs, leaving YIS to its merry evolution. Fazio
(guitar, vocals, and the band’s principal song-writer) formed
YIS with his girlfriend (and ‘non-blood relative’) Liroudia-
Rands and younger brother Andre Fazio on drums a couple
of years ago. The brothers Fazio had played in a number
of short-lived local bands; notwithstanding a lack of band
history, Liroudia-Rands was commissioned to play bass in
the fledgling three-piece outfit. “It was a case of me being
handed the bass and told ‘here, play!’” she laughs. “We
jammed on some Dead Moon, and it sounded pretty good,
and then we ended up being offered a show, then we had
a big enough set for a show and it blossomed from there,”
Fazio explains.

Despite the occasional bout of fraternal friction (“I’m the
mediator,” quips Liroudia-Rands), the YIS dynamic, sound
and set evolved to see the band playing regularly around
Melbourne (the Fazio brothers have also been enlisted
recently to provide the rhythm section for Kamikaze Trio
and Digger & The Pussycats guitarist Sam Agostino’s new
band, Brat Farrar). YIS remains, however, Fazio the elder’s
band. “YIS is very much Simon’s band,” comments Liroudia-
Rands. “The last band I played in had about five different
opinions, and it didn’t really work that well,” Fazio nods. “I
think this time around the dynamic is better. You can trust
the other members of the band, because they’re people
you care about.”

Last year YIS teamed up with former Rocket Science
guitarist Paul Maybury to record YIS’s debut album,
Kingdom Of Fuzz, at Maybury’s A Secret Location studio
in Fairfield. “We went to the Big Day Out years ago, and
Rocket Science were the first band on the bill that we both
really liked, so it was great to be able to work with Paul,”
Fazio relates.

There are a few tracks on Kingdom Of Fuzz worth particular
attention, including Trevor Block Rocking Beats, a song
inspired by events at the 2009 Flipout! festival in Sydney.
“When we were at Flipout! I wrote Trevor Block Rocking
Beats on a bit of paper and stuck it on the ATM, and then
later on when we got back [home] I wrote that song,” Fazio
laughs.

And then there’s the opening track, Message, a thundering
garage track somewhere between X and The Stooges.
“Some people have said that there’s no actual message
mentioned in the song, but there is, if you count the
screaming part,” Fazio grins. In contrast, there’s the new
wave-esque I Feel Repulsed, which, according to Fazio is
actually a love song. “I sent it to Bronwyn when she was
in Sydney, and she said ‘that’s disgusting’, and I said ‘no, it’s
actually a love song!’” Fazio smiles. “I’m not good at word
play!” he laughs.

Fazio’s approach to distributing Kingdom Of Fuzz has
been decidedly laissez-faire. The record is available for
download from the band’s website, and the retail version
is priced well below the standard album cost. As for career
aspirations, it’s all about the music, and a healthy dose of
fun. “I know that what we’ve recorded is pretty good, so
I guess our aspiration is continue to make better albums,”
Fazio says. “I like to play shows to people, and for people to
like what they’re hearing,” he nods.

YIS launch Kingdom Of Fuzz with Ouch My Face, Telecom
and Trjaeu at The Tote this Saturday February 26.

Shirts and CDs in stock!

...and they both turned out great!

(although the shirts look a little pinker in the photo than they are.)

Grab one (or both) now at Bandcamp.

Grand Sale! Grand Sale! MIGALO MIGALO MIGALO!

GEAR FOR SALE.

T-SHIRTS + CDs FOR SALE.

Album Launch Details

Described by our friend Sheamus as "an Australian classic" and almost universally acclaimed by our parents and relatives; "Kingdom of Fuzz" is the debut album by Melbourne psych-rock band YIS. The album was recorded by Paul Maybury (Rocket Science) at A Secret Location in Fairfield mid-to-late in 2010, and was mastered by Joe Lambert (Cheap Trick/DIO/Deerhunter/Animal Collective) at JLM Sound in New York about a month afterwards. It also features cover artwork by Rick Froberg (Obits/Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu).

YIS launch "Kingdom of Fuzz” on Saturday 26th of February at The Tote Hotel in Collingwood. Supporting will be Ouch My Face (performing not one, but two sides of their newly recorded 7-inch single), Telecom (playing all the hits from their amazing 2010 album “Prepare to Die”) and TRJEAU (straight off the plane from a short trans-Tasman tour).

$10 entry, 8pm doors.