Frenzal Rhomb blog

2006-06-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

And there you have it. Album finished. 10 days, 27 songs. That's 2.7 songs a day. about 4 hours per song. That rules. Friday was indeed party day, as the photos below will attest. We also did an audio commentary for the DVD that's gonna come out sooner or later. Cheers to Mick and Uncle Bruz for the humourous (and possibly defamatory) assistance. We start mixing in about a coupla weeks.

2006-06-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, about 8 songs left to sing. All good.

2006-06-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s taken us three and a half albums, but we finally got Gordy onto a microphone. Don’t worry, just backing vocals, but he’s there. Worldwide superstardom is only moments away. Won’t it be nice to hear an album not bathed in Aborto-tune for once…

We’re over halfway through the vocals now, so pretty much on the home stretch. So much so that Gordy’s just decided that Friday is officially “Party Day”. So feel free to drop on by. We’re at the Sausage Hotel, on Coo Coo Street.

We had a large Indian dinner, and listened to TOTO IV for inspiration. So far, potential album titles are “Pappadum Preach”, and “Lukather love in all the wrong places”. We’ll keep thinking.

Remember, as Bobby Kimball says “Why don’t we make believe we’re in love again”

2006-06-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

So, two days off, one day on. The doctor’s sick, but he finished his guitar parts yesterday, so that makes him fully sick. Which means that all the musical instruments are done. Drums, Bass and Guitar. That’s right: no pianos, no tubas, not even the farfisa that’s been beckoning to us from the corner. Wait a second, there is one more piece of musical instrumentation left for the album – the vibraslap. Once we work out where it’s going to go.

So halfway through yesterday Jason and Tom started on the vocals. They’re doing them song by song, all the leads, doubles and backing vox. There is even talk of letting the Doctor and maybe even Gordy near the mic. The preferred method thus far is to stand in front of the speakers in the control room and bash it out into some fancy mic. No headphones, no worries.

Tom’s singing some backing vocals right now, and he’s singing, this may give you an exclusive insight into the lyrical depth on this album: “Cool, whoah-oh-oh… Mule whoah-oh-oh-ohh”

Oh, and Nigel Roberts from Ray White Industrial has got a little shed just round the corner for auction. We weren’t interested, but if you want to take a look, here’s his card:

Lesson for today: Don’t fret when your choruses sound more bombastic than Toto, more harmonies than a Stryper song. Don’t feel bad about losing that all important top harmony: That’s why god invented the third chorus. For the specific purpose of overloading with more decadent vocal layers than David Coverdale ever poked a mic stand at. Here endeth the lesson. Amen.

2006-06-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 17

Day off. Phil McKellar prefers to spend his weekends with his two near-newborn twins. Apparently, compared to us, he prefers their mature conversation skills and superior toilet-training. Jets whipped Wests arses, 54-10.

So Tom and Gordy finished their basic tracks on Thursday night. 23:37 to be precise. And that included a time signature change and everything. Aren’t they just wonderful? So we all celebrated, although the Doctor went home, because the next day he had to start laying down the second guitar parts for all of the songs.

And that’s what happened. 22 out of the 27 songs now have all the guitars, bass and drums. This includes all rhythms bits, solos, pickslides, feedbacks and fingertapping. Yes, even a bit of fingertapping. Just a bit.

Here’s some pictures.

Some amp heads:

Some more amps and boxes:

Some more amps and boxes from the other side of the room:

Amps and guitars:

Tom laying down the groove (that means playing his bass):

Gordy, having finished the thing he’s second best at, begins doing what he’s best at:

2006-06-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

15th June

Hey there partygoers. No photos today, we got lazy on the snap front. Been taking a lot of video, so if you like the idea of a camera sitting behind Gordy, shooting his arse, and Tom and the Doctor’s fine licks, then stay tuned. Once we work out how to put em online of course.

Yesterday morning was spent fixing the snare drum: Gordy, in his super-rockness snapped the snare wire and it pierced the bottom skin. That’s punk rock for you. Or ineptitude. Thankfully a dreadlocked ranga who looks like the guy from Killing Heidi has been conscripted to make Gordy’s drums good. He also came back round dinnertime, to make the toms sound nice as well.

The Doctor has used the following guitars so far. Mostly a Gibson SG, but also an Epiphone SG, which has more gain and a little chunkier sound. The green ESP thing also has got a run, for our new metal stylings. A Kasuga Les Paul from the 70s found it’s way onto a track, mostly coz it sounds better than Jason’s Gibson Les Paul. And last, but not least, a big motherfucking pointy red thing, the preferred axe for such people as Dimebag Darrell and Goonbag Gordy.

The Marshall JCM 800 is the amp of choice so far, with a Boss SD-1 to make it sound like murder. There’s also a hot cake pedal being thrown around. And a Fender Deville amp for when we want to sound retro, as is the style of the times. Amps not used so far include the Doctor’s Mesa Boogie Dual Rectalfryer and Peavey 5150, Jason’s JCM 2000 a UniValve and Framus lying around, and some funny looking 10 watt Fender and Orange combo things.

Tom’s using his wings of fire Shadow-Sky bass, into his garden of Eden head. And plugged it through some things. A Sanspants amp thingy, and some MXR other thingy. As you can see, we pay attention.

We’ve done about 12 or 13 songs so far, almost halfway through the first stage of tracking. That's the drum tracks, all the bass, and one guitar track (there's at least two guitar parts for each song, for that stereo vibe).

Tracking live is so much bloody better than laying it all down separate-like. It’s a lot easier to play in time when you can see Gordy’s snare drum, look at Tom’s slappy fingers, and laugh at the Doctor’s terrible emo fringe. Jason has been keeping Phil company in the control room, where all the knobs are; warming his fingers by the whirring 2 inch tape machine and singing guide tracks when the other pricks get lost.

More later, time to eat.

Yours,

Frenzal Rhomb.

2006-06-13T19:09:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 13

Some nice little pictures for you all:

Jay and Phil McKellar playing with all the Shiny things

while gordy and tom look on very interested note TAPE MACHINE (don’t worry we’re still using bro tools as well)

gordy reacts well to us replacing him with a drum machine

whereas tom is not so impressed us replacing him with the foot pedals of a Hammond

and here’s the Doctor, seconds before handing the guitar back to his army of official stringers.

Day 2 is over.

Drums, bass and one guitar - 9 tracks down, about 16 to go. (we're musicians, not mathematicians).

2006-06-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

Monday June 12, 2006.

Day one. 6:40pm. Wow, haven’t we achieved a lot. So far we’ve set up the drums, spent 5 hours tuning them, which is pointless since BANG is not a note. I’ve lined up a dude to root and Gordy’s half drunk on Heineken already. Smooth sailing. More tomorrow.

There’s a conga line of amps set up that could probably circle the earth twice, if they weren’t busy sitting there waiting to have guitars plugged in to them and played loudly. The guitars, well it’s Ebay’s finest: Kalugas, Squires and Auditions, with a couple of Gibsons, Gretchs and Danelectros to lend some credibility to the whole process. There’s enough pedals to replace every unexploded mine in Afghanistan: distortions, overdrives, fuzz, flangers, phasers, choruses, delays, wahs, whammys, and octavers. All this at our feet, and what have we gone with so far? Gibson SG plugged into a Marshall. Fuck you.

Here’s a tip though. Next time someone starts telling you the Boss SD-1 is better than the Tubescreamer or vice versa - they both sound exactly the fucking same. As does every other overdrive pedal from ’75 to ’92. End of story.

Oh yeah, the bass. Tom’s got one. And he plugged it into an amp. Sounds bassy.

Later that night…

We could bang on about all the banging going on in the search for the perfect snare sound, the building of a bass isolation enclosure, and the vintage of the microphones used to mic up the guitar amps, but we feel this photo is a clear indication, on day one, of how the recording is going to go:

One song down, about 20 to go.

2006-06-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday 11^th June.

So we just finished two days of rehearsals, the last before we go in to record tomorrow. Traditionally these last preparations are full of blank stares, wrong chords and lots of infighting over which songs are gonna make it to tape. And the last two days were no different.

We’ve spent about a year on and off writing songs for this album, stealing weekend here and there between talking shit on the radio, playing in hardcore bands, and sailing (try to guess who’s been doing what). So we’ve written a sum total of 63 songs. That’s right. Sixty motherfucking three biatch. Sandinista get fucked. We here at Frenzal Rhomb strongly believe in the quantity over quality theory. It’s the whole put 100 monkeys on 100 typewriters for 100 days and they’ll rewrite Shakespeare kinda thing. Of course that cliché has been disproved conclusively, but put 4 arseholes in front of 4 musical instruments for 4 seasons, and they’ll write sixty motherfucking three songs. All of them good.

Well, no. They’re obviously not all good. Which is why we spent the last two days arguing over which ones we are gonna record. Previous to that we had exchanged emails, phone calls, tabulated votes, tried to coerce each other’s decisions, there was even a spreadsheet or two doing the rounds.

On Saturday our manager, the ever-despotic Christopher Moses was on hand to “help us make the right decision”, much in the way the Indonesian Government “helped the West Papuans make the right decision” in the “act of free choice” of 1969. Except there was less bloodshed all those 37 years ago.

A far more benevolent dictator, our producer Phil McKellar came in to the rehearsal studio today, and humbly put in his 3 cents. Of course, he’s in charge of pushing the buttons, so if we don’t agree with him then tape don’t roll.

What I’m trying to say is, we wrote 63 songs, we’re gonna record about a third of that. If you don’t like em, don’t blame us. Blame the top brassholes. Don’t shoot the messengers.

Tomorrow we put all of our gear on the back of camels, and ship it down to the St George area, to a secret recording location which I have been led to believe is sandwiched between an open sewer and a morgue.

Rock on. Rock off.

Yours ever-faithfully,

Frenzal Rhomb.

Ps – we’re gonna try to do one of these every day, maybe even with photos. Let’s see how far we get.

2006-01-27T02:57:00.000-08:00

G'day all you tight black jeans-wearing, Parkway Drive loving weirdos. Thought I'd drop a line just to let you all know we're not dead. . .yet. This may or may not read coherent, as, it IS a Friday evening, and I HAVE had a beer or nine. Anyways, as you all no doubt know, Jay and Lindsay are continuing on with their radio shenanigans this year, and are in the process of signing a multi-million dollar deal to broadcast live from the vagina of Nicole Kidman. Christ I hope they don't ask me to be a boom mike operator on that day. Seriously though, we've been getting together as much as possible lately, and so far, we've managed to demo around 30-odd new songs. We're as happy as a paedo in a kindy with them so far, but I'm hardly gonna sit here like every other self-important fuckhead from just about every other band ever, and tell you how great we are, or bang on about how, "Oh, this new stuff is the best stuff we've ever done, we really tried to branch out", blah blah. Fucken whatever. We're gonna put out a record when we collectively have the time, it's gonna sound like us, you might like it, you might wanna neck yourself to it. Either way, I'm right into it, I'm having a ball writing/demoing it, and I reckon that's about all that matters. If you're with me, thumbs up, if you're not, piss off and put on your Grinspoon records. Cheers cunts,
gordy

2004-12-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

Gday there everyone. Just a quick update on the movements of your four favourite Frenzal fuckwits, and I’m not talking bowel movements. We comfirmed the BDO a coupla days ago, sorry for keeping a lid on it, but we wanted to be sure we were doing it. Christ knows why they asked us, we haven’t released anything this year, I guess we were on the list of filler – along with Slipknot and the Beastie Boys. Unlike those last two headliners, we’ll be playing reeeeeeeeeeal early, first on the main stage, so you’re all gonna have to get up a little earlier that day. Of course after we play you can go and get some sleep until Dallas Crane play, and then go watch Tom ejaculating into his panties over Slipknot.

It’s gonna be pretty fun too, coz Jason and I will have just started our silly Triple J breakfast thing, so we’ll be doing that and playing at the BDO some days. I think we’ve agreed that sleep is for the weak for the first coupla months of 2005…

Other than that, we wrote a bunch of songs the other weekend, and hopefully we’ll write a bunch more pretty soon, so we can get back out on the road again sometime in the first half of next year. To all the scaredy people scared that JJJ will be the ruin of Frenzal Rhomb, just remember, our Breakfast Show shift finishes at 9am, rock doesn’t start til midday.

Cheers and isinglass-free beers,

Lindsay.

ps - here's a picture of Jay, Gordy and me with and Ian "Turps" Turpie. Need I say more?

2004-11-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

Hey there gang. And cheers to everyone in Rural victoria for making our trip to Camperdown last weekend so tops. Cheers to Blueline Medic for rocking, and for the local band before them, who obviously I've forgotten the name of. A special thankyou to the guys from Siphon, who we well and truly missed, due to our essential stop at Vegetarian Orgasm once we got to Melbourne, but found it in their hearts to take a coupla pictures of us for the record. And here they are:

I had the rare priviledge of getting up onstage with The Drugs the other day at Newtown Festival, for a rousing rendition of their Rock Against Howard track "I was a teenage voter". Cheers to Ian Baddley and the gents for that honour, and to Fiona for the snapping:

And Jason and I, as well as the extended Whalley family, a stray Israeli and many others, headed down to Canberra last monday to yell at the cunts inside the big building with grass on the top of it about their continued fucking around of the refugees. Much fun was had by all:

Including our good mate Merlin from Big Brother:

And this gentleman, almost certainly straight out of Police Academy 2:

but maybe not my good friend Senator Bartlett:

Cheers to you all. See you at our next gig, at the Palais in Newcastle, on the 10th of December.

Good Bloody Onyas,

Lindsay.

2004-10-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

Hey there. We've been a bit quiet lately, in case you haven't noticed. Well, quiet on this website anyway. Jason and I have been lowering the radio bar significantly on JJJ for the last few weeks in the arvos, and we're gonna be doing saturday afternoons from this weekend too. So tune in to hear bad songs and worse banter. Gordy's been as busy as a one-armed paper boy with crabs, or more accurately, a two-armed drummer in Mindsnare. Touring around the traps, Tasmania was the last one, lucky cunt. And Tom, well, Tom's been sailing. And working on his side-project, which I for one can't wait to hear.

And yes, we lost the election. So now the initial impulse of moving to New Zealand has passed, we get to work on making sure the cunt or his Treasurer mate don't get in in 2007. I predict some pretty fucked times economically for this country over the next 3 or so years, not to mention some pretty bad times for the other people our government has fucked over.

The Self-Righteous Brothers have been pretty busy of late. By that I mean we played two shows, in a different state! There's pictures of that little outing on the high seas at http://photobucket.com/albums/v48/DoctorLindemans/The%20Self-Righteous%20Brothers/. We've got a little 3-song sampler you can get your grubby little hands on by emailing srbinfo@hotmail.com, and we'll have an album out real soon too.

Other than that, local bands are good, including Unpaid Debt, The Optionals, Dick Nasty, Peabody, Godnose, Gazoonga Attack, The Nation Blue, Ebola Goldfish, The Disables and Cosima. See you at the Peabody single launch this Friday at the Annandale.

Cheers, your illicit girlfriend,

Lindsay.

2004-08-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Hey there gang. We got so many letters of support over the Austereo debacle, I've started a new Blog to paste them all. You can read all the letters at http://frenzalvsaustereo.blogspot.com/ .

Cheers to you all,

Lindsay

2004-07-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

G'day everyone. Thanks for the words of support over the last week, I had no idea TodayFM had so many enemies - well, I may have suspected it. Still, if even one person in a Hoobastank hoodie comes after us, I'll know to blame Kyle.

In other tops news, the ROCK AGAINST HOWARD cd will be in stores on the 16th of August - that's bloody great news to me and all the bands involved, and hopefully will make a coupla Liberal MPs shit their pants even more than they do every time Alexander Downer speaks. Check out www.rockagainsthoward.com - the tracklisting and stuff will be updated soon to list in full the 34 Tracks in all their glory. There'll also be launches all around the country in August, so be prepared for them (and a few surprises too)...

Also, our merch site's just been crapped on from above with a bunch more Frenzal T-shirts, we now have a shirt for pretty much every single person you could wish to offend. Check out http://vs67874.server-store.com/store/products/category103.inetstore for all the gory details.

Other than that, the Self-Righteous Brothers album - "Love Songs for the Wrong at Heart" has been mastered (did somebody whisper something about polishing a turd?) and with any luck, or complete lack thereof, should be getting released in a coupla months.

Cheers to you all, I'm off to watch some doco about some shit country with some shit president or something...

2004-07-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the MP3 of the entire interview, graciously hosted by bombshellzine.com at

http://www.bombshell.live.com.au/Frenzal_Fox_FM_Interview.mp3

Good bloody on them.

And it's even already been transcribed, by the wonderful Craig New, at:

http://www.outwiththenew.com/html/news.html

Top stuff!

2004-07-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

Hey there gang. Well, what a crazy last coupla days it’s been for us. Seems we can’t go anywhere in this fair land without whipping up a storm of controversy. If anyone reading this doesn’t already know, this time it’s between us and the lovely Jackie O, star of Today FM, the badly rating popstars and also the judge behind the selecting of the band Bardot, who have since broken up.

The basics of it is that Jackie O was supposed to be hosting the festival, she missed her plane, was 9 hours late, when she finally arrived they were already running behind time, and they asked us to cut some songs out. When we were about to go on suddenly she appears out on stage to say her bit or whatever. The crowd were already chanting for us, and they'd already had to put up with some MP trying to talk to them, So we decided we weren't gonna wait anymore and just went out on stage, with me playing the intro to Thunderstruck (badly). As we started our set Jason and I were saying things like "Sorry bout Jackie O, Jackie O what the fuck?" and "Fuck Popstars, Fuck Big Brother, Fuck the lot of them"... and then proceeded into our set.

Later in the night Jackie O's bodyguard came up to our guitar tech (I thought this was during the set but it may have been at the after party) and told him "You're lucky we didn't come on stage and make something of it", threatening violence against us.

I also "apologised" to jackie at the after party, purely for a photo opportunity.

And yesterday John Zucco at Shock recieved a call from Ryan Wellington, the Producer of the Jackie and Kyle show threatening to "Bury the band" and "Destroy Frenzal Rhomb" if we didn't come on and be interviewed by them. He threatened that Austereo would never play Frenzal Rhomb again (we did wonder whether they'd have to amend their playlist at all to achieve this goal...)

So we decided to go on their show, not to apologise, but because we couldn't believe they'd give us another forum to air our views on the Australian Music industry (The gig was to about 4000 people, how many people listen to Today FM?), and to ask them why they threatened to destroy the band.

They prerecorded the interview, but broadcast it as if it were live, pretending they had demanded their producer get Jason on the line, in a display of high-drama. To their credit they broadcast the interview in its entirety, just bleeping out the swear words (well, most of them – Jackie can be heard saying “fuck”). And, as I'm sure you'll hear in the interview, the results speak for themselves.

In addition to this, Jason and I also DJ on JJJ sometimes, so we'll be sure to play the whole interview again, to make sure Jackie feels she hasn't been misrepresented. Friday morning between 6 and 9 we're doing breakfast with Adam Spencer, so we might give it a spin then.

And Steve Cannane from the Hack program on JJJ, which runs at 5:30 every weeknight, is going to look into the whole "Austereo banning bands it doesn't like" phenomenom.

So, looks like a great time ahead for Australian music.

Please feel free to head over to www.kyleandjackieo.com and promise them your undying support and adoration in their brave fight, or email Jackie O your words of support to jackieo@kyleandjackieo.com.

You can also let the whole Today Fm crew know how much they mean to you at http://www.2dayfm.com.au/contact.php

Cheers,
Lindsay.

2004-05-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Gday there people, welcome to the doctor's diary for May. I haven't written for a while, but that's coz there's been fuck all going on worth talking about. Well, nothing that you'd be interested in anyway.

You may be interested to know that I've rounded up about 20 hours of digital video footage from Frenzal tours dating back to about two years ago, and I'm slowly filling up our manager's hard drive with them. So with any luck, sometime before the end of the year we might even get a little Frenzal DVD on our hands. I've uncovered some pretty funny stuff so far, from BB gun action in Taiwan, monkey spotting in South Africa, General drunkeness and debauchery all over the world, and the fun to be had with a one dollar coin at a 24hr laundromat. As well as a bunch of live shows from us, with varying degrees of shitness.

You may notice that our gig schedule for the rest of this year is looking a little empty. That's coz we're about to start writing a nice shiny new album for y'all to dig your rotting teeth into. We've dusted off the reel to reel 4-track and the squeezebox and the demos are sure to start anyday now... anyday...

Apart from that I've been kept busy with a little compilation I'm working on. A few months ago I realised that pretty much all of my mates in bands had one thing in common - we all hated John Howard. So I figured why not put out a compilation album to tell all of Australia just how much we hate the little man with the big eyebrows, and maybe convince people to NOT VOTE FOR HIM in the next election. Of course this coincides quite nicely with Fat Wreck's Rock Against Bush (I promise I thought of it first...), so I thought I'd call it ROCK AGAINST HOWARD, and it's gonna have all your favourite aussie musos rocking out against the liberal party. I won't spoil the surprise by naming which bands, but it's gonna rock, I can tell you that. It'll be out by the end of June I hope, so make sure you keep an eye out for it - and I'll make sure I remind you all.

Apart from that, Jason and I have been busy putting the final orchestral flourishes on the Self-Righteous Brothers album, which should be ready real soon, as soon as the bassoonist finished his licks. It's sounding real nice too, real purty...

And that's about it. Right now I'm listening to Gentle Ben and His Sensitive Side's new album, it's a little cold, and my breath smells like Baked Beans and green capsicum.

Cheers to you all,
Lindsay.

2004-04-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

G’day there everyone, and thanks heaps for a wonderful little Oz tour. We had ourselves a ball, and with a few exceptions, noted in previous entries, everything was just tops. I would write some form of tour diary, but I haven’t even finished the one from Europe, so you’ll have to make do with this: Played shows, everyone got drunk, had an ovary, had a ball.

Our hearty congratulations go to the organisers of last weeks Wildeloo Festival in Cummins, regional South Australia. In fact, Fucking Regional South Australia. Still, 4000 punters in a town with a population of 900 is pretty fucking amazing. And of those 4000, only one punched our Merch girl, and only one spat at her. Quite a good ratio if you ask me. Cheers to Spiderbait for the rock and for drag racing the charter planes with us, and to the Testeagles for playing their first gig in a year 800 kilometres from their houses. And to all the other bands we were too lazy to watch.

Just this weekend past we trekked down to Melbourne for the celebration of the marriage of our good friend and sometime soundguy Clem and our good friend and most time stinking pom Moth. Clem defected to London about a year ago, and already had his visa-approval wedding over their, so this one was the “let’s watch the parents get pissed and embarrass themselves” one. On Friday night Clem’s band, the mighty ResHeads took the stage at the Public Bar for their traditional “Clem’s in town so let’s book a show” show and it fucken rocked. A year between rehearsals was hardly noticeable, except for the regularly forgotten vocals and all-round shoddy nature of the performance. Nevertheless, they all the hits were there: Principal’s Dirty Finger, If Only I Could Touch You On The Front, and their ode to the scouting movement, 101 Boys. After they were done Gordy dragged us to the Corner Hotel where the Von Bondies were just finishing their set and Charney, our sometime TM and Corner Hotel employee plied us with cheap booze until Gordy started to look attractive, then I knew it was time to go back to the hotel.

The next day only had one mission, to drive to High Street Preston, to La Panella Vego Bakery. It looks just like any other bakery, but it’s all vego, and mostly vegan! I filled two bags full of meat pies, sausage rolls, jam doughnuts, cinnamon doughnuts, apple muffins, chocolate muffins and apple coconut scrolls and it only came to 7 fucking bucks! A bloody bargain!

That night, my stomach bursting with baked delights we went out to see a couple of rock bands, the City Lights and Rocket Science. Unfortunately before the gig started, Roman from Rocket Science fell over and banged his head real hard. Once we stopped laughing we realised that he’d knocked himself unconscious, and had to go to hospital. And that’s where he is, in a coma, right bloody now. He hit his head so hard that they gotta keep him in a coma until the swelling goes down, or else he’ll get some form of brain damage. Terrible news, and we do wish him the speediest recovery. But it does teach us a very important lesson: There’s no place for keyboards in rock n roll...

The City Lights still played though, and it was tops. As the night dragged on, a bunch of guys from the The Suits turned up, all dressed up like robots and superheroes, just to make an already night seem weirder. Of course by the end of the night we ended up wearing most of these clothes, there’s some pretty good photos if I knew how to upload them into this diary thingy...

Sunday arvo was the wedding, and as far as weddings go, it was pretty alright. No religious nonsense, just “I do”, “I do”, and now let’s get pissed. The group Even played, Wally from Even Djd, and we got them a lovely pair of bathrobes, embroidered with Cock and Cunt respectively. Then they were off to Port Douglas to look at things, and I got to drive back to Sydney. Tops.

Next up for us arseholes is the Regen festival in Broken Hill, this saturday. Our manager, true to form, hasn’t given us much info on it, and I can’t find any information on the net, except that a group called Problematic are playing, and I’m sure they’re tops. In fact I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of awesome local bands playing, and at least one hotdog stand providing the food for the weekend. After that we got ourselves a whole bunch of time off! Maybe we’ll even write some songs. I guess we should. Okay then, we’ll write some new tracks and maybe even release a new album this year - then everyone will be happy.

And that’s it for me. Make sure you go and see Anthrax, Hoodoo Gurus, Peabody and all the other tops bands on tour, and we’ll see you very soon.

Yours forever,

Lindsay Frenzal.

2004-03-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

Oh, and I almost forgot. If, somewhere around Newcastle, you see a slightly tall, kinda tough looking guy with a number 2 buzz cut riding a DogTown skateboard, could you politely beat the fuck outta him and send the skateboard our way. It belongs to Bob, the Bouncing Souls sound guy, and this cunt stole it from the dressing room after I told him that it was Bob's and not to touch it. Cheers fuckears.

2004-03-21T17:02:00.000-08:00

Hey there ladies and gentlemen. Firstly may I thank everyone who’s come along to our little rock n roll shows over the last coupla weeks. They’ve been going off a treat and it’s all down to you people. And of course our sheer professionalism and talent, and that of the Bouncing Souls, the Quickening, Steve Towson, The Disables, The Optionals, Unpaid Debt, HBlock 101 and Ebola Goldfish.

But I would also like to offer my sincerest apology to the people manhandled by the security at the Arena last saturday night. When we booked the show we were vaguely aware that they had a reputation, but at the Waterloo we had experienced similar rubbish, so we opted for the club that allowed us to do a combined all-ages show. I don’t think we’ll be making that mistake again. I noticed the bouncers up the front being a little heavy handed with the crowd surfers, and we tried to calm them down, but it was only after the show that we found out that they were headlocking them, dragging them out the door, and slamming the heads of the larger audience members against the brick wall of the venue before chucking them out. Now I know there were warnings that crowdsurfing would result in being thrown out, but nowhere did it advise that “Crowdsurfers will be grabbed by knucklehead security guards, put in a tight headlock to cut off the circulation to their brain, dragged out through the crowd, slammed against a brick wall and unceremoniously thrown out into the street. Thank you, enjoy the show.” That would have been a more appropriate warning.

I would also like to thank the lovely manageress off the club for grabbing me, scratching me and trying to throw me over the balcony for walking in the wrong direction. My mistake, and it’ll never happen again, at least not in your club. Because I for one will never be going there again.

Please tell me, good people of Brisbane, where the fuck is a good place to play? The Waterloo’s fucked, the Arena’s fucked, the Gabba’s closed, the Chardon’s Corner is bloody awesome, but too small for us stadium-style rock bands. I hear the Chelsea has reopened, but then reclosed just as quickly. What’s going on there? We used to love playing there. C’mon, there’s got to be somewhere.

I guess in the meantime, everyone should support Club Sabotage’s roving rock ‘n’ roll rooms,The Chardon’s Corner hotel, Rick’s, the Racehorse Hotel in Ipswitch, and any other smaller venue that doesn’t believe in mindless violence. Or you could just go to the Depot and listen to mindless drunk cunts such as Gordy and Myself Djing a bunch of bad metal and Toto superhits whilst drinking the cheapest Coopers Longnecks in town.

Cheers, Brisvegans, and a big fuck you to the Arenarseholes,

Lindsay.

2004-03-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

Hey there Gang. Just got an email from the wonderful Evan from French webzine visual music, letting me know the interview was up for me to look at. Of course I can't speak the French lingo, so I ran it through one of those internet translator pages. Well, the hilarity to ensue was of such a standard that I just had to share it with you, below. I'm sure it's not the way they intended for it to read. If you speak Frog, click the link below. If not, read on for a rare glimpse into multi-cultural Frenzal Rhomb...

http://www.visual-music.org/articles/index.htm

This immediately following their concert gave to the Trabendo, in company of Roger Murray and Dropkick Murphys that Lindsay of the Frenzal Rhomb welcomes us in the lodgings. Surrounded by beers and other alcohols (to believe that they emptied the fridge of the Dropkicks...) that an interview more or less disconnected to place. History of better connaitre this group that does a true box in his country, australia.

Philloux: Then, you foresee what after this concert?
Lindsay: immediately following? One will stuff oneself the mouth until an hour in the morning, and...[] will drive us to the ferry in buses. But there inside, one will not succeed in well to sleep because of the cold one, and at last, one oneself réveillera tomorrow morning on the ferry. Nan, indeed, one goes just to go to bed, as brave people. And in the future, one will leave in turned for a week and one will return at last to Sydney to celebrate my 26 years.
Evans: Oh, anniversary joyous.
Lindsay: Thank-you (in French).

Between times, small meeting photo where stretched Lindsay to suffocate us to blow of well fatty pet.

Philloux: And how one feels after such a concert?
Lindsay: Very well! I feel better than before the concert, because one went to Amsterdam harms it last. Suddenly, one did not be really net... I do not smoke any marijuana but there always is a lot of things that one can buy over there... But ouais, there after the concert, one drank oneself some beers.

Philloux: THIS IS the first time that you come in France?
Lindsay: No, one is passed in company of The Than Jake to the Black Ball. One also played in the same room in company of Useless ID, the following year, it was with NOFX.

Philloux: On your site internet, there is a section photos where one can see Lindsay in the process of kissing with the tower Eiffel...
Lindsay: (laugh) Ouais ouais, fuck the Tower Eiffel. Fuck germany, Fuck Holland, etc...

Philloux: During the recording of the last album, you were in the same state of mind that beforehand?
Lindsa: Absolutely! And leave in turned in company of the Dropkick Murphys and of Roger Murray, that does us good, because one knows now that one is well punker than them.

Philloux: How you met the Dropkick Murphys?
Lindsay: IT WAS to the bed, one has ren...
Evans: You have well says to the bed?
Lindsay ( replying very seriously) : Yes, absolutely! One went to the bed an evening and one awakened with Al Barr side issue that said us (while taking the typical accent d'Al Barr) : "Hey, how that goes? J'suis Al Barr of the Dropkick Murphys! ". One said "Yes, this is cool", one will leave in turned with you. " And it said "Ah, ok".

Philloux: You currently linked to a lot d' associations. You can talk about us some a?
Lindsay: Ouais, one bump with the legalization association of homosexual marriages, with the associations of big mamelles and big couilles, big mamelles and small couilles, limitless couilles, liberations of animals, right of animals refugees....
Philloux: And you are also in cooperation with the PETA.
Lindsay: Yes, one did some advertisings for them.

Evans: HAS matters of the marriages homos, you knew that arnorld Schwarzenegger tried to forbid these marriages and other relations against natures?
Lindsay: Ouaipe, of course. Georges Bush is in this very moment in the process of clearing a passage through the American congress, in the process of trying to change the constitution.

Evans: And that does you what?
Lindsay: Ca gives me envies to butt it. But the thing that appears for me strange, this is that Georges Bush spends his time to the bed with all these whores of america businessman. It kisses all the people to the States and it wants to forbid the marriages homos... Etrange. You knew that him and Arnold screwed themselves for a number of years. This is a terrible thing. The thing, this is that our country (NDR: australia) wants to resemble the USA. Our whore of fool of prime minister there holds absolutely. And your whore of fool of Jacques Chirac that sold iradium for these whole years... When it did its atomic tests in the Peaceful ocean, one was furious against the French. But one was those that sold you all this iradium to make these bombs. This is does not import what. But at least, Jacques Chirac did not want to leave at war, this that is a good thing.

Philloux: Otherwise, you listen what in turned?
Lindsay: The last disc that I typed was myself the one of Neil Hamburger. Ca comes from San Francisco...[]. This is not poorly of the all. There is also The Anyones, the group of Melvin. And there is also groups it Soforos Brothers: a group does by me and Jesse (singer and scratches Frenzal Rhomb) and that talks about put to bed with homos. On the other hand, there is a thing that I do not listen, this is the sideproject of Tom (while pointing finger the bass player of Frenzal Rhomb). This is really horrible. Horrible, horrible. But it there nonetheless two persons in his town that are fans.

Philloux: You are in conflicts with Burning Flag.
Lindsay: Yes, it is true. This is because of an Australian festival that one did, and one wondered this that could be More australian than to have a whore of [winch?]. Then one has brulé the national flag to say that australia was going to dump us over. But they did not appreciate! The people always think that the flag of a country represents the military side, the culture, the tradition... I TROUBLE all that! Flag whore Australian...

Philloux: Nevertheless, Anti-anti-flag does is more or less in the same trip than you.
Lindsay: Ouais, it is true, but they do it a lot better. They write better texts. Holds, besides, they turn in France soon?
Evans: Ouais, I believe, soon. To the elysée Montmartre (NDevans: For my defense, the date back to the Destruction Turn again had not fallen).
Lindsay: Ah yes, Montmartre, this is there also as one played with Nofx. The last year, I there have besides taggué a destined message to Anti-anti-flag on the wall. Their music is really good, a very voucher groups. All that they done very good east.

Philloux: And about your relations with the others group Fatwreck Records?
Lindsay: Sexual. Sexual...relations
Philloux ... : and with Conceited Mike of Nofx...
Evans ... : use you of the collapse, vaseline or poppers with him?

... Some melts, "Rhythm To Arms" Dropkick Murphys is started while the group suddenly begins whistling and to yell. A type between announcing in French "These songs are magnificent... " Lindsay repeats...

Lindsay: Ouais, of course. Besides, I tried the poppers it ya some days for the first time. I completely forgot that I was. I tried it in the bottom of a pal... Ouais, I was completely broken and nevertheless, I do not smoke any marijuana. Stupidly broken even.

Philloux: Your artworks show inventiveness, a small word there over?
Lindsay: Yes, one saw looked at an album photo and one has well laughed. One has also a pal that draws... It slaves over on the pochette of "Without Concerns..." [] but not the one of"has Man I's Not HAS Truck". This type is very funny, it is obese and has the red hair. A true winner. What do one can well to want of more? All that was perfect. On the other hand, it did not do the pochette of "Dick Sandwich", this is someone of other.

Philloux: In France, one not connait that 4 or 5 groups that come from australia: ac/dc, Silverchair, Brody Dales of the Distill and Midnight Oil... If puts one aside Midnight Oil, one knows that you began playing the punk one very young one as Silverchair had done it. One knows also as you are also sexy as Brody Dale... Then now, are you ready to play the rock one also a long time qu' ac/dc?
Lindsay: Oh Brody is rather well screwed-up... thank-you a lot (laugh)! Yes, evidently that I would like to play the rock n' roll also a long time qu ' ac/dc didit. But I would have just as well liked be as beautiful as the singer of Midnight Oil, with his bald skull when I was younger. It is so old, but nevertheless seems really well. I venère ac/dc! I have them besides seen two years ago and this are really the better ones. Angus Young did not stop budging for two hours to play the gratt'!

Evans: And would you like to do a day of the concerts as big as those d ' ac/dc?With gigantic planets, a lot of firework, in big stadiums?
Lindsay: (laugh) Ouais, if one could fill the rooms, ouais! Because there, to the basis, this that one does this is recreation.. Then that would be not really well to do that. But one played in an Australian festival with about 12 000 persons. But never inside a stadium. One has just does a concert also in Arizona for the Warp Turn. It was inside a big théatre that turned! It was really inspired! But good, person did not look at us, but one some screwed oneself, it was too good (laugh).

Philloux: You played with a ton of groups of punk one. A memory of them? And which was your favorite group?
Lindsay: Reel Big Fish... IT WAS merde. And there is also Fenix*Tx, you know?
Evans: Ouais, they have splitté the last...year
Lindsay: Ouais, again happy. It is bad, really. And there is the Dropkick Murphys, I hate them. As for Roger Murray, they are really weak...

Evans: Now, question traditionelle: you have a question to put you to yourself?
Lindsay: Ouais... (excessive moment of reflection of 30 seconds). No, indeed, no. Indeed, I have especially a thing to ask you you: there is French words that I do not arrive to comprehend. What wants to say "This song is magnificent"?
Evans: "This song i's magnificiant".
Lindsay: And you eat thighs of frogs?
Evans: Euh, not me.
Philloux: Me, once, it was frank dégueu.
Lindsay: And you devour snails?
Evans: Ouais, I love.
Lindsay: (overbidding) And couilles of bulls?
Evans: Hmm, not really...
Lindsay: because we to the United States, one some eats, this is besides of that that one speaks in "Bullshief" ("Without Concerns"). I think that this is really bad to eat that...

2004-03-10T17:18:00.000-08:00

Hey there my good ladies and gentlemen. Tis Lindsay here, freshly returned from that cold wet place full of weird accents and jackboots. We survived the 25 hour flight and got back yesterday afternoon, on my 26th fucking birthday. But enough talk of the past, I'm putting together a tour diary of those shenanigans that I'm sure shall make it into some below-par teen music mag at some stage.

Right now I wanna talk about the future, the immediate future in fact. Coz tomorrow is the Start of our Aussie tour. The Anchors Aweigh Ye Arseholes Tour 2004, to be precise (at least I think it's called that, I've only seen it written on the bill posters). The Bouncing Souls get in tomorrow morning, probably less Jet-lagged than us, and tomorrow night, thursday the 11th we kick things off in fine style at the Metro, George St, Sydney. First up is Ebola Goldfish, who rape the stage at around 8, followed by the Souls and then us, followed by some partytime Djing in the front bar by our good friends the Pash DJs until the wee hours. There's all the makings of a bloody tops night out right there. Of course, we've only been allowed to do 25 minute sets throughout Europe so the Dropkicks could do their 15 minute bagpipe / tin whistle duels and the like, so whether we're matchfit enough for a full headline set remains to be seen, but surely you've come to expect nothing less from us half-arsed cunts.

Following that, and a long snooze, we're heading way out west, Blacktown to be precise, to play the RSL club on Friday night, with Unpaid Debt and of course the Bouncing Souls. The Souls are from NYC, so none of you tough westside homies better try anything on us, we'll set the New Yorkers onto you, tell 'em you're mates with the 9/11 hijackers or something.

Saturday sees us heading down to a place almost as cold and wet as Europe - Melbourne. Two giant nights at the Corner hotel. Saturday is for the big boys and girls, so we can all get drunk and finger each other in the arse. H-Block are supporting, gonna be awesome to see those dudes again, and DJ Goldfoot is gonna make you swing your pants post - rock show. Sunday is for the little dudes, so any drinking and fingering is gonna have to be done behind the railroad tracks before the show, okay? Same lineup I believe, though DJ Goldfoot may take a leave of absence to hock his foot for some chips at the Crown Casino.

Righto, I've noticed I've been talking shit, please excuse my jetlag, I'm off to eat some more of my monkey face-shaped birthday cake and rock back and forth.

Happy birthday to meeee, happy birthday toooo meeeeee...

2004-03-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Welcome to FrenzalBlog, you pack of cunts! It's Lindsay here, live from Dublin, the city The Dropkick Murphy's wish they were from, in Ireland, the only country civilised enough to not squeeze pig fat into the Guinness. So this new blog thingy makes it far too easy for us drunk arseholes to talk to you lovely people at any time at all, and it will be published instantly, so everything we say you're gonna see. So get prepared for some drunken whinging and stoned paranoid ramblings from your favourite pseudo-punk poseurs, Frenzal Rhomb.

First things first though, Ireland's the only country where Guinness is vegan, so I'm taking my hippy arse off to a pub. Happy Fuckday, Arsemouths!

Love forever, Lindsay.

2004-03-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

I hearby announce the official Friends of Ron blog to be opened.

Commence profanity and defamation procedures now

Fox