Frankston garage-rock troublemakers The Gnomes are turning up the volume. The Melbourne four-piece have announced their new EP, With A Gnome, arriving November 4, alongside new single ‘Batteries’ and a run of Australian headline shows this December.
If their Merseybeat-influenced debut suggested a band with one foot in the 1960s, ‘Batteries’ finds them heading somewhere considerably noisier. The track moves from the band’s quietest moments to some of their heaviest, with frontman Jay Millar relying on a cheap fuzz pedal held together with duct tape rather than layers of studio trickery. It’s a rougher, louder direction that suits them.
The accompanying B-side, ‘Anything You Need’, takes another route, delivering two and a half minutes of garage rock indebted to the Rolling Stones and The Stooges. Both tracks appear on the four-song EP, produced by Dec Mehrtens of Amyl and The Sniffers, who has helped capture the grit of The Gnomes’ live performances.
Recording with Mehrtens also provided one particularly memorable encounter. After sleeping on the floor of their managers’ studio, Millar and guitarist Ned Capp were woken and moved along to make room for an Amyl and The Sniffers rehearsal. An unexpected meeting with Amy Taylor followed, before the pair found themselves writing lyrics and harmonies for ‘Batteries’ downstairs while the band rehearsed overhead.
It’s been a busy year for The Gnomes. They’ve toured nationally with Spiderbait, appeared at Wave Rock, Yours & Owls and Valley Fiesta, and made their UK debut at Brighton’s The Great Escape. Shows in London, Glasgow and Manchester followed, including a sold-out appearance at Third Man Records Soho and a lively Moth Club set that ended in crowd surfing.
The band head back to the UK and Europe in November before returning home for three Australian dates. Sydney’s Lansdowne gets them on December 10, followed by Brisbane’s Junk Bar on December 11 and a Melbourne homecoming at The Croxton Bandroom on December 19.
That final show is shaping up to be more than a standard hometown gig. The Gnomes are turning The Croxton into a two-stage mini-festival, bringing along fellow acts from their Frankston scene, with the full lineup still to be announced.
For a band that began with a fascination for vintage guitar sounds, The Gnomes are proving increasingly difficult to pin to one era. With With A Gnome, they’re keeping the hooks but letting the guitars get considerably dirtier.
Australian tour dates
Thursday 10 December – The Lansdowne, Sydney
Friday 11 December – Junk Bar, Brisbane
Saturday 19 December – The Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne (two-stage mini-festival)
Go HERE for tickets.
