Song of the day – 560: Screaming Match
Sometimes, people ask me if I get starstruck – bearing in mind the stellar quality of people I meet. Yes. Yes, I do.
Someone has already described this Brisbane trio as being… damn it. I really don’t want to bring in parallels. I’m back in the pool room in an Islington pub, hiding from the members of Galaxie 500 because I don’t want to tarnish the varnish. I’m trembling like a leaf backstage at the ICA, about to introduce Daniel Johnston on stage. I’m Wayne and whatever the hell that other guy was called, on my knees in front of J Mascis in 1987, “We are not worthy”. Bands like this make me feel my age, leave me floundering and scarred. So good, so natural. The next band I’m going to form is going to be called The Sarah Byrne Appreciation Society, named for the drummer in Screaming Match. (She’s already featured in this series on a number of occasions – here. And here. And here.) But man, that other singer! I would swoon except I’m worried I’d never get up again.
And of course the guitarist rocks.
I played on stage with Sarah last year, asked her because I loved the scrappy garage feel of her (and bassist Drea’s) band Stag. One song sounded like The Deadnotes’ solid gone bass groove. The other three were far more intriguing. I didn’t know her, just loved the drum sound. She played stand-up drums with me (and Joel and Josh) and frankly man I felt like an utter fraud. So good, so natural.
As I wrote last year:
There’s a whole hidden musical village here that you know nothing about.
As Bek of the mighty Scrabble puts it, “Noisy naivety is one of my favourite things”.