The Surgens

About The Malingerers



"Malingerer" - skiver: absentee: shirker: layabout: timewaster



http://www.myspace.com/malingerers



Time wasting is one thing The Malingerers' haven't been doing since the

recent demise of The Surgens (the area's finest purveyors of butt kicking

twisted, electric guitar driven, blues, country and rock and roll!). Three

of The Surgens line up; Kev Murphy, Craig Murphy and Andy Donovan, have now

joined forces with the highly talented Julian Stone to form a new exciting

twisted old time country blues band; The Malingerers.



Since then the band has been busy writing new material and welding together

a fresh exciting sound from a melting pot of old time country, blues and

rock'n'roll influences (Hank Williams, Merle Travis, Leadbelly, Woodie

Guthrie etc.) with a warped sense of tradition and humour!



If you think of lots of twisted harmonies and lyrics, wailing harmonica,

country picking, bouncing bass and shuffly snare and you're almost there!



Although The Malingerers are predominantly an acoustic band, as you would

expect though from former Surgens there will always be a cutting, driving

and slightly dirty edge to the songs they perform.



The Malingerers may only have a handful of gigs under their belt at the

moment but they are already starting to blaze the trail ready to kick up a

storm in the world of Old Time Country Blues. Yahoo !!!



"Surgens Last Ever Gig - Halloween 2008"



Hello Friends



We’re sorry to announce some sad news. The Surgens, everyone’s favourite purveyors of twisted country, blues and surf, have decided to call it a day after four years of performing. We’ve had a grand old time but all good things must come to an end and we feel that the band has reached the end of its natural life. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all you kind souls who’ve supported us over the years and to invite you all to our last ever gig, a Halloween spectacular at Mama Liz's Soul Food Shack, Stamford on Friday 31st October. Support comes from the fantastic Dirty Backbeats. visit http://www.mamaliz.co.uk for more info. Thanks again for all your support - It's been one hell of a ride!



"New 7" single Moon Song & Nappy Brown out 17rd March 08 - Advanced copies available from our website www.thesurgens.co.uk Now!"



"Follow up Album" out 31st March 08 - available from our website now www.thesurgens.co.uk "



Misadventures Of A Broken Man -

Available from our shop click here



7" single Twisted Brain & Reefer Madness available from our website www.thesurgens.co.uk Now!"



7" single Wolfman & Goodbye nadine available from our website www.thesurgens.co.uk Now!"



"Debut Album and 7" single "The Wolfman" - available from our website www.thesurgens.co.uk "



Songs of Sadness, Misery & Abuse - Track Listing

Listen to tracks off of our Debut Album "Songs of Sadness, Misery & Abuse

Available from our shop click here



1 Twisted Brain

2 Mean Cheatin' Man

3 John Hardy

4 Goodbye Nadine

5 The Wolfman

6 Hank and the Blue Legged Dog

7 Death of a Politician

8 The Devil and the Black Cat Skinner

9 Rocky and Sad

10 The Happening

11 Big Fat Calf

12 Drunken Angel

Also available limited edition 7" single The Wolfman/Goodbye Nadine



Get this video and more at MySpace.com



Unfairly depicted as a demented novelty act recently escaped from the country

blues mental ward, the Surgens are in actuality a top-notch rock & roll

combo, enormously popular on the teen-club circuit. Playing primarily twisted

blue rock and roll in a surfing honky tonk style, so popular of the time,

they are of course very much part of the nu plastic hip generation. Pa Pa

Ooh Mow Mow, You betcha!

"A new musical philosophy"

Although we only formed The Surgens in 2004 the metamorphosis to the current band has been a much longer process. Hanky Dog and Black Dixon started off as “Plastic Hip” recording odd songs using doowop, jazz, blues and rock'n'roll samples mixed with twisted vocals, guitars and bass, and were later joined by Scat and Pinky to give a much rawer sound to the band.

Although there was always some interest in Plastic Hip shown by the likes of John Peel and Joe Cushley, plus singles of the month in Record Collector magazine we felt that we really weren't achieving the raw roots sound we were after and were too restrained by the use of samples. So we decided to dump the samples, expand the band, change our name and start again!

Enter brothers The Uncle and Craig Murphy, a completely new set and a new musical philosophy and The Surgens were born. We decided to throw in and mix up everyone's musical loves and influences and what would be produced would be The Surgens' sound.

Fortunately for the Surgens, we all have a love of roots music in general and within the band we have been heavily influenced by artists as diverse as Leadbelly, Little Walter, Hank Williams, Chet Atkins, Woodie Guthrie, Gene Vincent, Link Wray, Dick Dale, Kenny Burrell to Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, The Pixies, The White Stripes, Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey etc.

If you take into consideration these influences then you'll probably understand why our sound is being described as “twisted country surf blues” or “the stuff you would expect to turn up in a Tarantino movie”.

The authenticity and rawness of our sound is achieved through the use of various genuine instruments and valve amplifiers from the 40's, 50's and 60's and also through recording live, in an attempt to achieve the real performance and feel of the songs.

Whatever our sound is described as, people who hear us and see us perform seem to be enjoying it, which is what it's all about, and we're now being asked to play at various venues around the country as well as doing a recent live session on Joe Cushley's nublues show “Balling the Jack” on Resonance FM.

Although there has been a lot of interest in nublues recently we still tend to feel that The Surgens are probably more of a fringe nublues band at the moment as this genre seems to be currently dominated by garage blues bands. You never know this might work in our favour as we've never run with the pack: we prefer to do our own thing! Pa Pa Ooh Mow Mow? You Betcha!

BLUES MATTERS Issue 26

THE SURGENS “a new musical philosophy”