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This album serves somewhat as an unofficial album of the week.
This week has seen me blasting out the one and only live album by Queensland swamp rockers Six Foot Hick entitled "Train Crash".
Six Foot Hick have existed for a bit over 15 years now and they continue to inflict their unique brand of calamitous and riotous rock on the unsuspecting as well as the faithful. They mine a sound not unlike The Beasts of Bourbon or the Scientists at their peak, or even Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. They existed in a kind of Brisbane-based mini-scene with bands like Blowhard and The Onyas. What stands the 'Hick apart somewhat is they lack the Onyas' blatant crudity.
The album was recorded in both Sydney and Melbourne during 2005 and it serves as a potent reminder of what an unstable tinderbox of a band they are.
Slamming through 14 songs in around 40 minutes, the band are full of fire and brimstone. This a non stop display of energy coupled with high octane songs played at ear splitting volume.
The stars of this, well, train crash if you will, are the Corbett brothers, Ben and Gregory, who are completely off the chain on this record. They sing scream and howl their way through the set of rudimentary garage rockers like men possessed; no doubt exorcising the horrors of a bogan farm upbringing behind the Banana curtain.* If this is anything to go by, life in Queensland under Sir Joh's iron fist was really horrible!
Turning this album up loud you can almost feel the sweat and spit of the experience. It is completely wild and unhinged. You can't help but feel alive and invigorated from investing your time into this record. This is music that is raw, real and lived in. The kind of stuff that makes Independent music worthwhile.
Check it out below. Enjoy!
* The term "Behind the Banana Curtain" refers to the culture shock that a traveller from New South Wales heading north into Queensland sometimes experienced, especially from the 1960s through to the 1980s. It inferred that Queensland was a cultural and social backwater, substantially behind the times compared to the rest of the nation.
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