TEX PERKINS and THE FAT RUBBER BAND (vinyl)

Description

The latest exciting incarnation from rock'n'roll's master storyteller Tex Perkins and the Fat Rubber Band began with a Link Wray record. - - Perkins and his respected musician, songwriter, producer and bandmate Matt Walker share a mutual admiration for the American electric guitar innovator, whose iconic power chords in his seminal '50s rock'n'roll instrumentals had a profound influence on the evolution of rock guitar. The pair have had countless musical conversations over the decade while hanging out backstage and on the road with Perkins' award-winning The Man In Black - The Johnny Cash Story, with Walker playing guitar in the Tennessee Four band for the theatrical production. - - When Perkins enthused about his partner finding him a rare vinyl copy of Link Wray's 1971 recorded album Beans and Fatback, Walker's response sparked a creative outpouring which would eventually lead to the formation of The Fat Rubber Band. 'There are a couple of albums he recorded in a chicken shack on his brother Vernon's farm, known as the Three Track Shack Recordings - one was a self-titled album and the next one called Beans and Fatback, which is a bit rarer.' 'My partner Kristyna knew I was a fan of this record and she's an ebay ninja and she found a vinyl copy. After immediately hugging her and thanking her for it, I took a picture and sent it to Matt Walker. And the fateful words came back: 'Great, let's make an album like that.' And that was it. We were on! - - Throughout his four-decade career as a captivating performer, compelling songwriter and adroit vocalist, Perkins has sought collaborators who both shared his passion for music and challenged his creativity. - - From his first band Tex Deadly and the Dum Dums, through the fertile tension of the Beasts of Bourbon and The Cruel Sea, his musical bromances with Tex, Don and Charlie and the TnT side project with Tim Rogers, and a myriad of bands - Thug, Dark Horses, The Band of Gold, The Ape and yes, the Ladyboyz - Perkins' extraordinary adaptability has allowed him to explore and push the boundaries of traditional musical forms from hard rock and heavy noise to country folk balladry and blues grooves. All with his unmistakable baritone and cunning sense of humour. But the Fat Rubber Band was clearly destined, with Perkins and Walker rapidly exchanging songs for the project, like a perpetual songwriting tennis match returning two and fro. Walker offered the album opener for the debut record, the widescreen drama of Pay The Devil's Due; Perkins countered with the plaintive blues of My Philosophy. Walker responded with the album's fuzz-driven first single Danger Has Been Kind, and Perkins retorted with the chilling and intimate paced Poor Simple Minded Fool. The duo road-tested their works in progress as a duo before enlisting bassist Steve Hadley, drummer Roger Bergodaz and Evan Richards on percussion to complete the Fat Rubber Band line-up and record the album's ten tracks at Walker's Stovepipe Studios in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges. 'At Matt's studio, you open the door to the studio and nature just leaks into it,' Perkins explains. 'We wanted it to sound rural, to smell like dirt, grass and leaves.' Even after all these decades, when you think you know that gravelly baritone inside out, Perkins finds new emotional tonalities in service of the Fat Rubber Band songs, vivid narratives, with their characters wrestling, but at times dancing, with the harsher, darker qualities of the human condition. It truly is existential blues. Beneath those direct vocals and raw harmonies bubble intricately entwined guitar conversations and unexpected percussive flourishes. 'Another aspect we wanted was the sound to be at times a collision and at times a marriage of acoustic and electric instruments. We wanted that tension between mandolins and bouzoukis meeting fuzz guitars.' 'We also thought of percussion as being an essential part of the sound we were going for; we noticed in those recordings we loved from the 50s and 60s that often the tamborine hit, or the maracas, or whatever percussion, was just right there in the mix, right next to the vocal,' Perkins says. 'The final characteristic of the music that we wanted to pursue was the harmonies, the vocal harmonies. Not only did Matt and I discover that we could weave instinctively around each other's vocals, very well, but we also have three other great vocalists in the band, so five-part harmonies are what we get on songs like Love Long Gone and Trouble Goodbye, it can be mind-blowing...literally. It's end-of-days, existential electric country funk folk rock swamp witch blues, way out there, but it's here right now. --- Kathy McCabe ---