DNRC001 | 7″ single | 2002 | DELETED
New teen sensations The Spirit Levels arrived back in Australia after an exhausting eight hour tour of Tasmania in April 2002, having recorded what they hoped would become both sides of a double a-sided single, prospectively entitled “wood chip monks/ girder”. When asked to describe the reaction of local timber millers to the band’s self-confessed “Sylvia Plath-melancholy”, band member J laughed and simply stated: “Well, that’s going to have to be the subject of our next single. But I don’t know what the label is going to think of a song called “You fucking hippies.” The band’s three members all hail from Melbourne, though J is the first to admit the band’s focus is rather split at the moment. “Well, JJ and myself are both musicians, but Davey, who knows what he does the rest of the time. He was the one who actually suggested I pose with my bush-bass in that promo photo. It got me into a lot of trouble in Tasmania, that broom handle.” Possessing no recognisable rhythm section, the Spirit Levels might be said to have been pushing shit uphill, in terms of audience impressions. “Not so,” opinies JJ, the group’s only trained harpist. “We ask the audience to tune in via the stereo in their souls. If they can’t get any reception, that’s not our fault.” Indeed. But if they want to get anywhere, the band will surely need to come up with more than two songs. And as for the instruments – just don’t bother. These guys might turn out to be quite good one day, but then again, they probably won’t. One star.
