Skybombers

Where to begin? Their skirmish with the law on the way to g their recording contract? The gangland shoot-out on the doorstep of their LA recording studio? Kids sure grow up fast these days. Take Skybombers: four Aussie lads who had a high-rotation hit - "It Goes Off" - on Indie 103 in Los Angeles, then tore the roof off the Roxy on Sunset, all before they were old enough to buy a drink at the bar. Skybombers are all 21 now. But really, they're forever as old as every teenager who ever picked up an electric guitar: the Beatles and Stones, the Easybeats and AC/DC, Oasis and You Am I, the Libertines and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club . those bands are woven through TAKE ME TO TOWN like links in a chain. "My mum bought me an acoustic guitar for $40 off the neighbours when I was about 14 and I was gone," recalls the band's singer-songwriter, Hugh Gurney. "I started working out songs off records: the Beatles, AC/DC, the Clash, Nirvana, Green Day, anything chord-based that didn't involve mega-soloing. "I was always a sucker for a big melody, even as a kid. Then it was the energy and the attitude behind the lyrics in a lot of those songs. The whole package started to really get to me. So I started writing songs myself." Fast forward to the music room of the Melbourne high school he shared with Sam Bethune, Ravi Sharma and Scott McMurtrie (don't ask why they got thrown out of it); on to the spare room of Scott's mum's place; then to their explosive first gig at a hastily-arranged party in his backyard (which his mum needn't know about, OK?). "It was probably a pretty righteous scene but I can't really it that well," says Hugh. "All I is flashing strobe lights and the drums being louder than everything else." The live experience prompted a musical fine-tuning that evolved in to the upbeat and riotous energy of rock's primary sources (see above). The band then recorded their first slap-dash demo and eagerly looked for more shows to play. Those five killer songs became Skybombers' gloriously raucous debut EP, SIRENS. It was originally intended for their mates and anyone who came to a show, until it fell into the hands of Albert Productions, Australia's premier rock'n'roll label, home to the Easybeats and AC/DC. By mid 2007 "It Goes Off" was booming from car radios all over LA and beyond and attracting new fans every day. Here the band picked up international management via Ron Stone at Gold Mountain - the man who managed Nirvana, Beck, The Beastie Boys and Neil Young among many others. "That first show at the Roxy was unbelievable; surreal," says Hugh. "We're on stage, the curtain parts and we see this huge room full of people who had heard us on the radio. That was probably our trial by fire, the moment we realised we're not f---ing around anymore, something's happening here." Skybombers rose to the challenge. The next few trips from Melbourne to LA are a bit of a blur, says Hugh, but it was a gig at the Viper Room where the band made a fateful connection with renowned rock producer, Rick Parker. The respect was mutual when they learned he produced the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Von Bondies and Dandy Warhols. Studio dates were booked for October. "We all really liked the sound of the records he'd worked on so we jumped at it," says Hugh. "Rick helped us get the songs from a level where we thought they were great, to a level where they really were awesome songs." No kidding. "It Goes Off" is just the keynote for an album that kicks all seven kinds of arse, from the twin party starters, "On and On" and "Always Complaining" to the more melancholy, Britpop lilt of the instant classic teenage lament, "My Morning's Gone", and the heartfelt acoustic flashback to rock'n'roll innocence, "Eleanor's Lullaby". From club crawling anthems to hangover cures; the thrill of young love to the darker side of teenage dreams, "Take Me To Town" is an album drenched in the eternal elixir of youth: reckless optimism, arrogant self-belief and the mixture of sky-bound riffs, grooves and melodies tailor-made for teenagers to strum on their first $40 acoustic guitar. Chances are you've heard something like it some other time, felt the thunder in your chest, the simple thrill of the perfect hook in your heart and the blood singing in your ears. The crucial difference is that this time it belongs to Skybombers. And they've got it by the throat. (-via http://www.skybombers.com/biography/home.do)
pic via Last.fm steve92crue