Slug Guts

Genuine Brisbane fuck-ups or shameless Beefheart imitators? Slug Guts’ singer Jimi Kritzler tells TIM SCOTT he pays no mind to detractors, but word to the wise if you don’t like them – they’re not averse to putting pigs heads on door steps.

Say what you will about Slug Guts. Challenging and entertaining rabble rousers or plunderers of another’s artistic vision, one thing you definitely can't call them is ordinary. From playing their debut show in dilapidated cinema to their fondness for pig carcass and the guitarists frequent run-ins with the local police, the Brisbane four-piece have no problem courting controversy.

Their debut album Down on the Meat (out now through Stained Circles) is 13 songs of dark swampy squall that reflects the band’s and the city's sweaty claustrophobia and seedy secrets. So what if they are musical kleptos? Any band who plans on recording a live album in an abandoned asylum down the road from Wacol Prison is OK in my books.

Has your vocal style always sounded like that of someone who has just had a tracheotomy?
Yeah, puberty was a real fucker.

What do you say to those people (and there are a few here in Melbourne) who think you guys are nothing but a Bird Blobs rip off?
I mean it’s understandable. [Bird Blobs singer] Tim [Evans] did and I do that throat cancer warble. So did Beefheart, so did the Edgar Broughton Band, so did Howlin’ Wolf, so did Tom Waits. I think the Blobs were a good band but they always struck me as being on a Pop Group/Beefheart tangent, both rhythmically and in the manner in which [Ian] Wadley played guitar in the Blobs. Whereas Slug Guts seem a little more Lubricated Goat, Scientists, Pussy Galore. More pissed off and maybe straightforward in out intent and malevolence.

Musically the bands differ; vocally the bands come from the same lineage. It’s a fairly fucked-up and recognisable vocal style so it’s bound to garner comparisons to the few who have done it before. I don’t lose too much sleep knowing that a few Melburnians, who somehow found time between art gallery openings and drinking soy lattes, are claiming we sound a little bit like a band that sounded a little bit like a few other bands.

What do you say to naysayers in general?
We are four fuck-ups from Brisbane. I don’t know that we need to say anything. We never told anyone that we are an innovative avant-garde band. We do what we do, if you like it fine. If you don’t like it, fine. Believe it or not, but we actually have real things to worry about other than the occasional person mentioning our band is similar to another band. The fact our record got put out by Stained Circles is satisfying. When was the last time anyone gave a shit about anything from Brisbane? We have remarkably little to lose in every sense.

Have you won or lost more friends through this band? Do many people in Brisbane “get” Slug Guts?
Brisbane is a weird place and we have a slight knack for just fucking things up with our friends, not intentionally but you know … I guess lately, we went to take a photo for the LP cover and had all these pigs heads. It was a 35-degree day and we were in a paddock and then in a fuckin’ ugly brown creek. So, after six hours of fucking around and having [guitarist] Falco chew off the pigs ears, we were driving back to the city and have all these kinda rotting pigs heads in the back of the car. So we thought it would be good to drop them all off on a friend’s door step. So we went to our unnamed friends house and lined his verandah with all the pig heads and guts. When he came home, Falco chased him through the house with a pig’s head and chucked it and broke a glass pane. He took it personally, friends turned against friends.

“I don’t lose too much sleep knowing that a few Melburnians, who somehow found time between art gallery openings and drinking soy lattes, are claiming we sound a little bit like a band that sounded a little bit like a few other bands.”

As for Brisbane people “getting” Slug Guts, I’m not really sure. We do most things ourselves as a kinda stand-alone gang. Conversely, we are apparently a Blobs hack band, so what's hard to get?

Is your relationship with the Valley love/hate or more hate/hate?
I don’t really have an opinion. It’s just another neighbourhood.

What was up with the cinema show?
For our first show, we broke into this abandoned cinema near the Valley and snuck 100 or so people in. It was an amazing space but the day before the show we found out the cinema closed because the roof was collapsing. When we went into the cinema the first time, all the builder’s tools and cigs were there from years ago, because they had to suddenly leave because of the roof falling in. We decided to put on the show and risk the roof falling in and getting charged with manslaughter. It worked out fine. The local newspaper said ravers broke into the building and held an illegal rave.

It’s nice to see your promo shots have developed into something less “abattoir” or meat processing plant.
The very first shot was taken at a butcher’s shop. We just got obsessed with meat for a while there.

If you were all to get band tattoos would they be on your ankles?
Falco and I have Slug Guts tattoos. I hand drew a design and then our friend George grabbed his needle and jabbed us both. It turned out OK.

Your songs tend to walk on the darker side of the street: prostitution, gay beats, raging amphetamine use. Is this a typical day for Slug Guts?
For all of Slug Guts? No.

Slug Guts formed from ON/OXX, a band that included two drummers, a saxophone and were described as the most questionable of genres: jazz punk. Besides one less drummer and no sax how different is Slug Guts?
Slug Guts didn’t really form from ON/OXX, I am the only member from that band in Slug Guts. As far as how different? Who forms a band that just sounds like their old band? Worlds apart.

You seem to be the go-to Brisbane band for supports for more interesting acts: Flipper, Clockcleaner. Do you like supporting hyped bands?
Yeah, it’s always a thrill to play with over-the-hill arrogant arseholes. However, there are exceptions. UV Race were humble and sweet men and women, as were Deaf Wish. I am looking forward to Pink Reason a lot as well as the Flip Out tour. It looks like it will get fuckin’ wild.

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Slug Guts’ Down on the Meat tour will include performances at the Flip Out festival in Melbourne and Sydney. Tickets available here.