Nana Mex's Hot Pick - Grumpy Neighbour

Melbourne, Victoria
www.myspace.com/grumpyneighbour

 

 

Grumpy Neighbour have an acoustic sound and a lyrical bent steeped in personal experience. Their songs are a familiar mix of styles that entice the listener to take a stroll up the garden path. Sometimes sparse, sometimes not so but always true to the song if not the style, the emphasis being on creating a focus around the melody and lyric. Wry ditties and witty asides intermingled with contemplative moments. Grumpy Neighbour don't so much have a sound, as have intent.

 

 

Influences are like inspiration, they come and they go.

 

Fat Pizza has used Grumpy Neighbour tunes in The Da Vinci Cup series (2005) and the Pizza World Record series (2006). Grumpy Neighbour were also in the mix for Pizza series 5 in Oct 2007 and are currently in the background of Swift and Shift Couriers. Thanks Pizza!

 

Two old friends have arrived at a shady billabong. They have been singing the road now for the better part of 5 years, and along with their friends, they have travelled to many places and brought their music to many people. There have been good times and sad times and along the route these new experiences have found their way into the journey’s narrative. It is an ever evolving story that reflects the road’s many twists and turns, its beauty, and its sorrow. It is a song of wit and humour, of landscapes and travel, of pioneers and new earth but it is also a song of connection, of relationships to place and people. The narrative is broader now, imbued by the history of places, and sharpened by experience. A story of both loss and fulfillment. As they watch the billy boil they note the subtle changes in their song, and attend to the tea. In 2006 the album debut for Grumpy Neighbour, 'sheep manure $2 a bag, bullshit for free' puts some of these songs on record.

 

The essence of ‘boy sitting on a bag of potatoes’ was conceived even before ‘sheep manure $2 a bag, bullshit for free’ was in the bag. It continues the narrative that began on the debut album and carries it forward into a broad landscape of relationships and connections. Grumpy Neighbour continue their relationship with Dig at Bank Recorders and the album will have the same warm tones that suffused ‘bullshit for free’ but there are some subtle technical differences in the recordings that will become apparent to the listener as well as the introduction of several new themes. The Tasmanian connection also becomes more apparent on this album. ‘boy sitting on a bag of potatoes’ delivers the next chapter in the Grumpy Neighbour story.

 

In January 2008 Grumpy Neighbour bass player Jen Sparkes lost her battle with cystic fibrosis. This new album is dedicated to her.

 

UPDATE: After what seems to have been an eternity, the album is here. We haven't thought about launch and release yet so we've passed a copy of the new album to Nana Mex, a grumpy, grumpy fan, of Internet Indie Radio GTN. Mex will have pretty much free reign on it until we get sorted for the launch and release. Follow the link and tune in.


We anticipate both albums being available for digital retail around the end of August.