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.

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

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.