Ein halbes Jahr nach ihrer letzten EP liefern The Smith Street Band mit THROW ME IN THE RIVER in bester Storytelling-Manier Geschichten, die das Tourleben schreibt. Mal laut, mal leise.
Die erste Minute des Openers „Something I Can Hold in My Hands“ passt hervorragend zum Cover des neuen Longplayers der Australier. Die ruhige Stimme und die zurückhaltende Gitarre versetzen wirklich in Lagerfeuerstimmung. Man könnte fast meinen, John K. Samson säusele einem hier in die Ohren. Mit dem Einsatz des Schlagzeugs und dem Rest der Band wird man allerdings eines Besseren belehrt.
Ein Zusammenspiel, das das dritte Album der Smith Street Band kennzeichnet: Das Quartett aus Melbourne spielt einen gekonnten Mix aus Mitgröl-Punk und tiefgründigerem, technisch ausgefeiltem Songwriter-Folk. Entstanden, sozusagen als Kontrastprogramm zum stressigen Tourleben, in einer Hütte im südaustralischen Otways-Nationalpark. Mit an Bord waren dabei Produzent Jeff Rosenstock und die beiden langjährigen Begleiter Sam Johnson und Matt Voigt.
Eben diese Mischung aus Abgeschiedenheit und monatelangem Tourtrubel auf verschiedenen Kontinenten spiegelt sich auf den verschiedenen Songs des Albums wider. Die ruhigeren, melancholischen Songs wie „Calgary Girls“, „The Arrogance of the Drunk Pedestrian“ oder der Titelsong „Throw Me in the River“ handeln, wie Sänger Will Wagner selber erklärt, von Trennungen, der Ohnmacht, gewisse Dinge einfach nicht verhindern zu können und den Schattenseiten, die das Tourleben eben leider auch mit sich bringt. Man ist Wochen und Monate von seinen Liebsten getrennt und mal eben schnell nach Hause fahren ist nicht möglich, da man sich am anderen Ende des Erdballs befindet.
Im klaren Gegensatz dazu stehen die punkigen Uptempo-Titel wie „I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore“, „It’s Alright, I Understand“ oder „East London Summer“. Der letztgenannte Song entstand laut Wagner auf einer sehr langen US-Tour und beschreibt die Situation auf Tour an viele verschiedene Orte zu gelangen und die unterschiedlichsten Menschen kennen zu lernen und darin Inspiration zu finden.
Eine überzeugende Mischung, die vor allem vom musikalischen Wechselspiel zwischen langsam und schnell und den prägnanten Melodien lebt. Selbst Kollege Frank Turner weiß das schon länger zu schätzen.
Ohr D´Oeuvre: East London Summer / The Arrogance of the Drunk Pedestrian / I Love Life
VÖ: 31.10.2014; Uncle M (Cargo Records)
Tracklist:
01. Something I Can Hold In My Hands
02. Surrender
03. Surrey Drive
04. Calgary Girls
05. East London Summer
06. The Arrogance of the Drunk Pedestrian
07. Get High, See No One
08. I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore
09. It’s Alright, I Understand
10. Throw Me in the River
11. I Love Life
Gesamteindruck: 8/10
Ihr wollt noch mehr Infos? Hier erzählt Will Wagner zu jedem Song ein paar Sätze über Inhalte und Entstehungsgeschichten:
Something I can hold in my hands-
This is one of the older songs on the record and I’d had the „all I ever needed is something I can hold in my hands“ idea for a while. It’s about going out when I was younger and trying to find meaning in getting fucked up with my mates and kind of figuring out how to grow out of that and find meaning in other things. I’ve always wanted to be better with my hands, I’d love to be able to build stuff and fix stuff but I’ve always been clumsy and it’s kind of become a running theme through my life. I can talk about my feelings for hours but wouldn’t know how to screw together a bookcase. It’s also about the first time you hold something you’ve made which is a really special feeling, especially with a record.
Surrender-
This song is about me having shitty habits and watching someone I was dating developing the same shitty habits and feeling shitty about it. I’m pretty sad and anxious most of the time and the worst thing about it is when it effects other people. It’s about trying to break that cycle and start feeling better. Another thing about being bummed out is not really wanting to party and trying to avoid getting too fucked up and sometimes at shows people want to get drunk with me but I just want to sit down quietly by myself and I hope they don’t think I’m a jerk.
Surrey Dive-
Surrey Dive is a shitty man-made lake in the shadows of an abandoned factory across the road from the street i grew up on. I wrote this song after going to my parents house and being reminded of the relative safety of the suburbs. It’s also about being yelled at and hit by people I’ve never met at shows and just generally feeling unsafe and unwelcome in places that used to feel like home.
Calgary Girls-
This is s break up song, the lyrics are all pretty obvious! It’s about feeling like nothing will ever be okay again unless you get back with the person you broke up with and sooking about it in Canada. The start bit about the actual Calgary girls is about playing on support tours when all the audience is thinking is „I wish you would fuck off“ and trying to win them over. Sometimes you feel like it went down okay and sometimes not so much! This is more about the times it doesn’t go well!
East London Summer-
I wrote this song over a few walks on a really long US tour we did that went absolutely all over the place, it’s a pretty self explanatory tour song about being inspired by different places and people I never thought I’d be able see or meet. It’s also about this really desperate feeling I get when there’s someone back home that I want to see and know it’ll be a few weeks or months until I see them again.
The Arrogance of the Drunk Pedestrian-
This is about feeling really uncomfortable being around sleazy guys and wanting to protect the person I was seeing at the time from that kind of nasty bullshit but also realising that the person I was seeing didn’t like me. One of the most sickening things I’ve witnessed is girls getting grabbed on by guys at shows, music is supposed to be a safe environment and an escape from the cruelty of others and I hate when people bring that fucking disgusting attitude to shows. I’ve had quite a few girls come up to me and say that dudes in the crowd grabbed on them while I was playing and it’s the most horrible feeling, it’s about the only thing that ever makes me want to quit music, I always feel so responsible and like I should be creating an environment where you just know that’s unacceptable. It’s all kind of a big metaphor for looking at something you really love, be it going to shows or a partner and losing it through what feels like no fault of your own.
Get High See No One-
Another song about missing people! This one is more specifically about being on tour in Perth while the person I was seeing was in Melbourne and then vice versa. It’s frustrating sometimes spending such little time at home, I’ll be home for a week and everyone’s at work and then my girlfriend has uni and then I have to leave again and I don’t get to see anyone for another few months. But this time was even worse, I think we actually passed each other in the air when we swapped cities.
I Don’t Want To Die Anymore-
This song is about how I don’t want to die anymore.
It’s Alright, I Understand-
I wrote this song walking around San Francisco the first time we went to America and being overwhelmed and lonely but also just kind of marveling in the sprawling chaos of everything. It’s easy to feel small and insignificant in big foreign cities which is equal parts terrifying and liberating I think. It’s also about how despite how hard and dejecting touring can be its still the only job I’ll ever have!
Throw Me In The River-
This is about a break up I went through basically as we left for an overseas tour and getting off the plane on the other side of the world wanting to just go home again and fix my life. It’s always the way that leading to the demise of a relationship you only notice the things that annoy or upset you about the other person and as soon as their gone all you remember is the great things you did together and how you used to feel. This is all compounded because no matter how badly I want to see someone or to sort out that relationship it was months til I was home again and its easy to feel helpless.
I Love Life-
Last year we did a 90-something date tour of Australia, Europe, America and Canada that culminated in us playing Meredith for the first time. It was the best welcome home present, not only to play a festival we’d all dreamed of playing forever but to get back home and immediately be involved in something that is so Australian (in a really great way) was just perfect. I really enjoyed yelling the „Am I enough, am I trying to much?“ lines in the chorus, those two questions are never far from the forefront of my mind and it was so satisfying to just yell those insecurities over gang vocals and like 20 guitar tracks.
