Yum Yum Tree Records Launch

Bellyache Ben and the Steamgrass Boys
with The MFW and The Noise, launching Yum Yum Tree Records
@ Caravan, 9th December 2011

Sydney is now one record label the wealthier with beguillingly named Yum Yum Tree being launched at Caravan last week.  Aiming to support the disparate breeds of music cropping around the warehouses of the Inner West, from the jazz-hued pop of the Elana Stone Band to the kitsch retro of The Cope Street Parade, the label seems set to wreak havoc.  Or make a talented group of friends very happy in any case.

Tucked behind the carwash on Addison Road (smokers hurriedly scattering every time a vehicle rolls through), ceilings adorned with spaceman-costume alum, Caravan certainly provided an appropriate atmosphere of roaches (both kinds) 'n rollerdoors for the evening's entertainments.  First up was experimental jazz / alt-rock trio The MFW (an acronym of the artists surnames, or the descriptive phrase 'motherfucking wankers' depending who you ask) launching their album Sus Scrofa.  Aaron Flower (guitar), Evan Mannell (drums) and Ben Waples (bass) seem to have a habit of establishing rather laid-back indie pop song riffs that are then systematically dismantled into strangely funky blues-influenced improvisations.

Less funky though piling on the experimentalism were second support The Noise, a string quartet (tonight trio) refreshingly unreliant on covers of metal songs, instead ultilising their extreme instrumental ability to create a series of shifting textures, elegant but laden with primitive foreboding.  Delivered at all times with immaculate control, this was improvisatory string playing at its unconpromising best.

For the last umpteen months, those in the know have been adjourning to Madame Fling Flongs of a Wednesday eve, to sip booze 'n Bourbon-based cocktails, lounge on the comfortingly mismatched comfortable lounges and listen to the angel-voiced neer-do-wells that form Bellyache Ben and the Steamgrass Boys.  Having completed their case study investigating the "regular gigging is really the only way to really nail a sound" rule (turns out it's totally true), the fellas tonight moved into phase two with the launch of their self-titled debut album, a modest (7 track) selection from the dozens of traditional tunes and James Daley (mandolin) originals under their collective picks.

Highlights included Bellyache Ben's (otherwise known as Ben Daley) curmudgeonly rendition of unofficial theme-tune Willie Dixon's 'You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover', the fatalistic stomp of traditional 'O' Death' as well as the obligatory kazoo solo from bass player John Maddox.  The Steamgrass Boys have come a long way in the year since coming together; aside from the thrashing they give their instruments, the real attraction here is their vocal chutzpah, the five producing harmonies of unwavering tunefulness and genuine soul – expect to see them hitting the folk festival circuit in the coming year.