vanLUSTbader...brisbane

What do you say to a group of raffish rock n roll heroes returning home?



You say, "who the hell are Vanlustbader?" Actually you are better off getting on your knees and thanking these rock n roll saviours! If you have been asleep for the last year, Vanlustbader are a motley crew (not the band) from Queensland who have been busy playing their collective arses off around the UK to an amazing reception.



Now they have returned home to Australia to officially receive the attention they so rightly and richly deserve and to launch their debut album, The People Vs Vanlustbader.



Since meeting in Brisbane butchers in 2002 Vanlustbader discovered they were united by their desire to play in a band that draws from diverse sources dipping into everything from glam rock to Italia house to the really unexpected. Some obvious influences are easily spotted and on most songs they have pilfered from everywhere. This "musical magpie" approach makes for a diverse live set with an emphasis on high energy, testosterone-enhancing, booty-shaking musical magic.



Australian radio - and in turn the music-loving public - embraced the band when they burst onto the scene in 2004 with their Triple J hit single "Its All About". Their follow up single "All You People" attracted even broader radio support and was picked up by key regional networks.



Touring with Jet and having three of the five tracks from their debut EP thrown onto high rotation on triple J helped the band sell-out pressings to the tune of 5000 copies - of their independent Power Makes Sense EP. That caught the ear of Brit producer Jim Abiss (Kasabian, Placebo, The Music, Editors, Ladytron, Artic Monkeys and DJ Shadow) who hot-footed it to Australia determined to work his magic on the The People Vs Vanlustbader and teach them how to play soccer.



We have extremely varied tastes in music and our music goes everywhere because of it, says guitarist Terry D. We like to throw a bit of everything into a song and people think they recognise it because of that. We used to use, and still do to an extent, proper hip-hop break beats with big guitars over the top - kind of AC/DC meets Run DMC.



At the same time I never like to tell people our influences because I dont want to give them a ruler to measure us by. I want people to work it out for themselves rather than us giving it to them on a platter. From my own experience thats half the fun. You figure it out for yourself and then it really becomes yours and yours alone. Basically the hunt is far better than the kill.



Vanlustbader have spent the last year in the UK touring extensively with underground outfits and high profile bands like Baby Shambles and The Paddingtons. All along the way they garnered rave reviews from the UK media.



The critics at NME call the single Here We Go Again an almighty synth-rock todgeshake: all Dandy Warhols boho dazzle and Timbuk 3 80s squelch!



Vanlustbader make Jet look like Girls Aloud, trumpets NME Magazine while The Fly opts for with killer cock-rock lunges and stadium-sized, pop-stomping choruses, this is enough to make the Darkness genitals and egos shrink simultaneously!



There were plenty more where that came from, including one scribe who enthusiastically said the album track Rock & Roll Part 3 has as much wide eyed testosterone as the devil on a booze-fuelled rampage. Listening to this makes me feel filthy and I like it!



Just as some band called The Vines initially managed to slip past music media and industry types alike in Australia to first make their name overseas, Terry D (guitar/vocals), Shane B (vocals/guitar), Paul C (bass) and Jonny R (drums) are now back on home turf to (re)launch themselves.



The People Vs Vanlustbder is a beast of an album; ten tracks of rock meets punk and indie revelry which combines the shambolic fever of the Pixies, the Brit-pop drawl of Oasis and even throws in a cheeky nod to Bob Dylan for good measure (check out Lets Roll Em) but remember, no rulers! Think glammed-up electro-punk trash-rocknroll and youre getting there, but not even close to describing the sound of The People Vs Vanlustbader.



Live we are really rock and chaotic, warns Terry D who says they are one of the loudest bands around. But the record has a few more moods on it. Vanlustbader Disco is an epic song, but when we went into the studio it became this trip-hop epic instead. It became far better than the way I envisaged it.



We dont fit in any scene and weve always been left to ourselves, which is why we called the album The People Vs Vanlustbader. Everyone is against us. We are musical pariahs and we like it that way. We do this because we want to and we don’t give a monkey’s what others think of it.



All up, it points to sleazy, dirty, stompy and disgracefully loud rocknroll.



Go on, you know you want it!