aaamusic | On 14, Jul 2010

Violent Soho met playing in the Pentecostal church band in their home town of Mansfield, Brisbane, bang in the middle of Australia’s Bible Belt.

Heavy with angst and boredom the boys started thrashing it out in drummer Michael’s parent’s garage while they were at church. They discovered their love for gigantic four chord chain-saw songs written through a bucket bong haze to blast off the suburban blues.

The Church’s loss was rock’s gain. They worked service industry jobs, self released an album and drove themselves round Australia for 5 years after school. On the other side of the world in New York an Alternative Rock Godhead was stirring, ready to change their lives.

A copy of the album they recorded in their garage found its way into Thurston Moore’s hands. He was down the front head banging at their first gig in New York at the legendary Lower East Side hang out Pianos. The buzz around their punishingly hard live show spread to Rick Rubin, who personally invited them to play his condo in Malibu. Rock Godhead no.2 declared his fandom.

Thurston offered them a deal on his Ecstatic Peace! label and chose the most skilful producer in the genre. Gil Norton (Jimmy Eat World, The Distillers) made the record in Rockfields studio in the Welsh countryside, with mixing duties handled by Rich Costey (Mastodon, Muse, Mars Volta, Interpol). That’s the production team behind the crunchy, layered sound of some of the biggest guitar records of all time (The Pretender Foo Fighters)

Violent Soho are a heavy touring band, having passed through every one horse town in the US twice, honing their ferocious live show that explodes with super-tight hardcore power. Right now they are limbering up for Lollapolooza 2010.

Thick, sludgy grunge treacle pours out of the album from every sweaty pore, from mosh pit numbers like ‘Jesus Stole My Girlfriend’, ‘Son of Sam’ and ‘Bombs Over Broadway’ to more introspective balladeering like ‘Outsider’ and ‘Narrow Ways’.

Low-slung and stoned, Violent Soho’s album is an accomplished half hour alienated monster.

VIOLENT SOHO’s new self-titled album will be released on August 2^nd

Tracklisting

1.Here Be Dragons

2.Jesus Stole My Girlfriend

3.Son of Sam

4.Generation

5.Muscle Junkie

6.Outsider

7.Slippery Tongue

8.Love Is A Heavy Word

9.Bombs Over Broadway

10.Narrow Ways

Watch Violent Soho recording their album in Wales:

Part 2

Part 3