The Quick And The Deaf

VHS-only releases, hallucinogenics on stage, frenetic live shows. Melbourne’s Deaf Wish like to do things their own way, writes TIM SCOTT.

If you’re from Melbourne, you probably know of Mai Tai on Russell and Lonsdale streets in the CBD. As the name suggests it’s a Hawaiian cocktail bar. Typical set up. Bar in the middle with fake bamboo and lurid drinks with high alcohol/sugar content. Restaurant reviewers would describe it as “tropical” or “exotic”. Your friends would describe it as “shithouse”. It’s not a place you’d expect a band like Deaf Wish to write a song about. Or perhaps it is.

“Ever since you went away I’ve been drinking at the Mai Tai/ The cocktails are as big as my head/ They always make me cry,” sings/moans guitarist Jensen Tjhung on the band’s self-titled debut.

“I used to say that for my next bout of depression, I'll cut off my friends and sit at the Mai Tai and drink dodgy cocktails all day and night,” he explains. “It would be a wild place to become a regular in.”

Wild is a good word to describe the Deaf Wish live experience. Shambolic, raw and entertaining are others you could throw in.

Four guys – Jensen, Pete, Twoombs and Nick - blasting out loud, melodic rock that draws its influence as much from early US punk such as Husker Du and Wipers, as it does from classic Aussie rock including X and Lobby Loyde and the Colored Balls.

“In Deaf Wish, we believe that when you get loose, you get real,” says Jensen.

A show at the Tote a few months back had them getting loose on stage with balaclava-clad minders who looked liked the mental step children of TISM and Public Enemy's S1Ws.

“They were the Deaf Wishmen. We had brought a dazzling light show consisting of a couple of blinking fluoros and some rope lighting. Their job was to turn the different lights on and off at different points. But alas, the stage does funny things to a man. They went berserk, threw the rope lights around and stood in front of us and became part of the general chaos onstage.”

Deaf Wish are a band who have been born again. Assembling from bands such as Motor Vehicle Sundown, Tri State Lovers and A Death In the Family, they recorded an album worth of songs, played two quick shows then were left staring at each other when original member Sarah bolted indefinitely to London.

“Well we actually knew Sarah was going away before we started,” says Jensen. “At the time we had this idea of a disposable band. A band that could do something very quickly and have the attitude that we didn’t have to tour.”

“Before the Tote gig, a random punter swapped me a handful of mushrooms for a VB stubby, which … doesn’t make for good playing.”

Mid 2008 saw the band regroup; their second wind coming about when Max Kohane (Agents of Abhorrence/Cut Sick) released a Deaf Wish 7” on his Idjet Child label and helped organise – you guessed it - an interstate tour.

“Max was working with Sarah at the East Brunswick Club,” adds Twoombs. “And when she left, she gave him our CD-R and then it got back to Jensen how he loved it and wanted to put it out.

“Nothing really happened for a while and I was working at a cafe when he came in and I hit him up. He was saying how he liked Deaf Wish and of course I knew him and the bands that he was involved in, so it went from there.”

But how does Death Wish Mach II differ from the original phase?

“It feels different now because Sarah was supposed to come back for three weeks or so and there was quite a bit of interest with the CD-R that was going around, but she never got on the plane. About a week or two before the shows, we got Pete in as we had nine or 10 shows booked.

“As far as recording goes, there’s a big change in approach because first we just went and recorded all the stuff we had which wasn’t much. We recorded the first record in one day, vocals and everything then mixed everything the next day. The last recording wasn’t as gunshot.

“We couldn’t really go with that kind of panic. now our approach is a little more focused. We have another 7” and then a video-only release and then an album at a later date.”

Early reviews of their fiery live show likened them to US indie rock legends Husker Du and the Wipers and while the comparisons are not the most original, the band considers them apt.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] “I personally don’t think that’s a stretch as they are two bands that we like,” says Pete. “I think it just gives people who haven’t heard us a reference point to go by. It could be a lot worse.”

With a name like Deaf Wish, that could mean being compared to a band that shares a similar name: Def Wish Cast, a Penrith group who assert themselves as founders of Australian hip-hop.

“I didn’t know about the other band until I was doing some research, and by doing research I mean Googling our name,” jokes Jensen. “But yeah I think we sound a little more like Husker Du than we do hip-hop.”

The band’s early reputation as loose and shambolic on stage was reinforced earlier this year at Flip Out, an all-day festival at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel, which featured Beaches, Straightjacket Nation and Eddy Current Suppression Ring among others. In a room full of music fans and great rock’n’roll bands, Deaf Wish made an impact.

“That was our first show back from our launch,” says Jensen.

“That was actually after the Tote show, so it was a redemption of sorts,” explains Nick. “Before the Tote gig, a random punter swapped me a handful of mushrooms for a VB stubby, which … doesn’t make for good playing.”

“So at Flip Out a lot of people were walking around getting condition reports by asking, ‘So how’s your bass player?’” Jensen adds.

The next phase in the band’s trajectory sees them launching a video-only single, ‘Strange TV’, that comes across as Max Headroom beamed in through Channel 31. While many would consider a VHS-only single an unorthodox way to release a song, it’s the Deaf Wish way.

“We just keep doing things our way,” says Jensen. “We do it in the Deaf Wish spirit. So far things have seemed to work out. I’m not sure how much longer it will work out but for now its good.”

DEAF WISH 7” LAUNCH

Friday, December 19
The Tote, Melbourne, VIC