“It’s good to be back after everything went to shit,” says Gareth Liddiard, frontman and guitarist of Australian art rock band Tropical Fuck Storm. Since the pandemic the quartet has released a handful of releases, including their third full-length (Deep States), a joint EP with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (Satanic Slumber Party), a feature-length live album film (Goody Goody Gumdrops), and, most recently, Maxi-Single Cassette Moonburn, which dropped this August on Joyful Noise Recordings and features a cover of The Stooges’ “Ann.”
During a recent phone chat, Gareth tells me that all this new material was largely a product of the pandemic and not being able to see each other or tour: “We just had a huge pile of stuff… We have more stuff coming out in January.” The collaboration with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard apparently came about over beers during some downtime recording in Liddiard’s studio: “They came to our studio in our house like three years ago to record Fishing for Fishies, and we had a bit of spare time and came up with that jam.” He also tells me that the experience of writing and recording with them was beyond fun: “Working with them is really cool. They work so fast, like they release 10 albums a week.”
Tropical Fuck Storm are currently on a US tour that will have them headlining Johnny Brenda’s on Thursday, November 3rd. When I ask Gareth what can be expected of the live show, he tells me, “It’s a really weird party vibe,” going on to explain it like something between Black Flag and a disco. He says fans can expect a sampling of the band’s catalogue each night: “It’s a bit of everything really off of our three records.” He also tells me that he’s very happy to have the band back in the US: “The audiences have been great. In the states people just go berserk!” He goes on to say that, in addition to working on and releasing new material, the band plan to be back in the states in the very near future: “This is really a tour of the East Coast, so in January we’re going to come back here and do the West Coast, then Europe… In-between bits we’ll be working on the new album, and maybe drop some singles here and there.”
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