#16 Wallarula Death Squad

"Where the bloody hell are you?" exclaims the latest expletive-ridden advert attempting to entice us to the land of barbeques and the world's most famous natives. Where? Well to be exact, the wilds of the Australian outback somewhere between Katunganuga and Tijikala in the desert just off Highway 4. The town of Wallarula, population 23.

So it is that we dip into the southern hemisphere for our next band that You Have Not Heard - and I know that you have not heard of Wallarula Death Squad. I am certain. I would go so far as to say that you also haven't heard of front-man Jib Spinnaker whose solo career before joining WDS was a minor success in the Northern Territory and periphery. Yet he never really gained commercial success despite his songs appearing on adverts for many meat-based products.

So, as if conducting some sort of weird scientific experiment we ask 'what type of band forms under such conditions - where the nearest toilet is six days walk and where you have to wring out passing koalas just to get clean water?' The answer, surprisingly, is a traditional four piece indie pop-rock band. No, they haven't re-recorded Waltzing Matilda in comedy or electro-pop fashion. No, they have never dueted with Rolf Harris or Dame Edna Everage (although they did once appear as extras on 'Home and Away' but that's as far as it goes). What they have done is produce some of the finest 3 minute breezy indie pop tunes ever heard this side of Rulatunga. Not bad for a band who are only one EP old.

Wallarula Death Squad are quickly making their name on the Oz-rock scene. Playing the first five years together as 'Son of Chaucer' then 'Herculian Botham' the four-piece have a work hard /play middle of the road indie pop-moderately hard ethic that is incredibly endearing. Spinnaker performs alongside local musicians Lchalan Langridge (drums), Molly Allen (bass) and Jackson B Rockafella (lead guitar). By nature their songs are entrenched in Australian lore and culture. Songs such as 'Lord of the Rings - not in my backyard' and 'Fair Dinkum Freddie' evoke visions of strange bird mammal hybrids, Flying Doctors and that episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air where Carlton beats Geoffrey the butler over the head with a Vegemite sandwich (he knows that Carlton only eats it with the crusts cut off). It didn't all start smoothly though...

Currently based in local Lake Amaroo, the band's name came about when Spinnaker found himself in trouble with loan sharks back in Wallarula: 'I was really in some deep dodo with these guys from the suburbs', he explains. 'I mean, I owed these cats some real money. They sent this bloke out after me with a table knife - they call him the Wallarula Death Squad. Strewth, I saw where this was going, and before we got into the old 'that's not a knife' malarkey I shot him in the face hole'. With the debt repaid, change and receipt in hand, Spinnaker was free to continue with his musical exploits and quickly formed Wallarula Death Squad, naming it so to remind himself never to borrow as much as ten dollars ever again.

WDS's first single is currently number 26 in the Australian music charts, with high hopes that it will reach the top twenty by September '09. It faces stiff competition from fellow antipodeans Air Supply with 'All Out of Love' which holds every spot in the Australian top twenty and has done since its release back in 1980. The track, which appears on their EP 'Death to Wallarula Death Squad', is a moving yet summery and upbeat tale of a boy and his deceased pet toucan on which Jib laments: 'There are no synonyms for death, but there are plenty of antonyms...'. The EP was released in November '08 to critical acclaim. Their album 'The Ballad of Terry Cola' is due to be released in August '09 under Control Alt Deloitte Records, Australia's third biggest aboriginal record label. The album will be produced by US music industry stalwart Vic Biro, famed for his work with both Tepid Lettuce and Monkey Jeff and the PoCo Cops.

Talk of Biro's involvement has had an amazing effect on hyping-up the release of the album. At the time of writing early reviews of their debut album appear promising;

'(The Ballad of Terry Cola)...could make Wallarula Death Squad as big as Men at Work' gushed MTVOz.

'Like drinking six cans of four x and then smashing yourself over the head with a wallaby's uncle' say Australian NME.

High praise indeed. The group have a long way to go before they emulate the likes of Jet and Savage Garden but one thing is certain, and that is Aussie rules!*

Footnote
(*For reference no one is really certain what Aussie Rules is, so that's a poor analogy. But meh, you get the picture).