As grim as the current state of the world is, any such pain is alleviated by news of a Kim Salmon and Smoked Salmon album on the way to shine a little light when all else is dark. ‘Totally Sick’ is set for release later this year (no exact date yet) but to assuage any intermediate anxiety, a single amusingly entitled ‘Freudian Slippers’ has been released today with news of a mini solo tour on the way too.
‘Freudian Slippers’ blasts off with a percussive blast before Salmon’s sardonic delivery enters above wildly oscillating guitars and an underlying drone and fuzz. Salmon says of the track:
‘Freudian Slippers’, like all of the songs from the upcoming Totally Sick album from Smoked Salmon is another of those songs that got lost on the way ‘upstream’! It first appeared on the 2014 release from Kim and Leanne, True West. Kim and Leanne was conceived by Kim with Michael Stranges as a project to feature Leanne Cowie the Scientists drummer alongside Kim.
Kim and Michael had been working under the guise of Precious Jules and this is essentially a PJs (as they liked to call themselves) production.
Michael had the riff and Kim spontaneously sang ‘went to see my shrink and she said what do you think’ as a melody place holder over it. He joked that that it was a Freudian slip to sing such a line and Stranges, in true Stranges form, touchéd with the phrase ‘Freudian slippers’, and voilà! They went to work, nèe play, on it. K&L’s rendering tends toward the heavy Led Zep side of things whereas Smoked Salmon bring out some of the Prince style pop funk that was always hidden in the song.
Speaking of hidden, the B-side ‘Seein’ Spots’ is another Precious Jules’ hidden gem dug up and polished by Smoked Salmon.
It’s wild and untamed: Salmon moving from a falsetto to a Las Vegas Lounge tenor then to an excoriating yelp, with a radio feedback blizzard spluttering in the ether. It’s a wild and crazy ride that is utterly cathartic:
Out through the inimitable Cheersquad records & Tapes, it will be available on limited edition translucent purple 7″ vinyl (100 only), black 7″ vinyl and digitally through the link above. The single is accompanied by the more (relatively) restrained brilliant track ‘Seein’ Spots’ which won’t be on the album but is a vital addition to Salmon’s oeuvre: an almost poppy track replete with hand claps and soaring choruses that channel the Stones on a bed of seedy fuzz.
The new single is the first Smoked Salmon material to feature new drummer Michael Stranges, who previously worked with Kim in Precious Jules. Claire Birchall on guitar and keyboards and Jeff Hooker on bass complete the line-up. The two sides of the new single are both Salmon/Stranges co-writes
The single will coincide with a Kim Salmon solo mini-tour taking in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney:
March 7 Perth – Lyric’s Underground (matinee) – tickets here
March 14 Melbourne – Cactus Room (with support from Harpo Wah) – tickets here
March 15 Sydney – Lazy Thinking Records (3-5 pm with support from Richie Weed) – tickets here
Kim Salmon of course needs no introduction, but, as is always the way, I will anyway: leader of the legendary swamp pioneers The Scientists (who reformed last year for a series of gigs) and The Beasts of Bourbon, he has been at the very beating heart of indie music in Australia and leading the world with the paisley-tinged grunge that emanated from Western Australia in the eighties: a true pioneer and often labelled as the ‘Godfather of Grunge’.
Smoked Salmon is an international collective of musicians serving the great genius.
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