I first came across 208L Containers when they supported Pond at the Altar Bar in Hobart back in 2024 and lauded them for their performance – noting that they had:
…a native form of lutruwita punk that has a unique sound – abrasive yet intelligent, laced with humour and a self-deprecating air. (They were) were highly entertaining – an acrobatic and enigmatic lead singer Richie Cuskelly loaded with charisma led the charge supported by a passionate, energetic band. The music was not a homogenous blast of predictable punk – there were moments of pure pop brilliance and an endearing vaguely chaotic approach.
We are therefore inordinately proud to premiere their new video for the single ‘Secret Servers’ which is off their forthcoming album ‘Soft Monstrous Masses!’, released through the über cool Rough Skies Record label and due out on 14 November.
‘Secret Servers’ is a brash attitude laden slice of punk with a funky overlay and a shouty sardonic delivery – an antipodean version of bands like Idles or Fontaines D.C. with an arched brow and a hand on hip. The larrikin humour shines through – I would google anything – but I wouldn’t google that – and the band’s irreverence is captured perfectly in the accompanying video directed by the multitalented artist SPOD.
The band performs in their frenetic style seen through the lens of fuzziness and chaos in beat to the music – a sly nod to the famous Bohemian Rhapsody video in the layered vocal break. Like the song, and indeed the band, the video is laced with anarchy and a glint in the eye, a slightly psychedelic kaleidoscope of aggressive mirth that shines so brightly:
This is band that follows no fashion or trends but rather delivers a brand of punk-infused rock opera that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
The track is off the magnificently titled album ‘Soft Monstrous Masses!’ through Rough Skies Records (a veritable Tasmanian institution run by Julian Teakle from the magnificent Native Cats, who have graced our pages before, and Claire Johnston of local band Slag Queens). You will be able to pre-order here.
The band says enigmatically of the album:
Childhood memories of the circus are of dust, crinkly sounds, farm animal odours, and hard, alien surfaces garish with stripes. The dominant impressions left of terror and extreme flexibility mean you are unlikely to willingly return as an adult. So, this album is a circus for adults that trades the above for fleshy, soft, round things that pad audibly around the house at night so as not to alarm.
‘Soft Monstrous Masses!’ was engineered, recorded and mixed by the multi-talented Jethro Pickett in Glaziers Bay, Southern Lutruwita, on the ancestral lands of the Melukerdee, whose sovereignty was never ceded.
