The Wreckery‘s new album ‘Fake Is Forever’ is finally now out on the band’s leader Hugo Race‘s Helixed label, with LP’s and CD’s coming on February 9. The album features the new single and video Smack Me Down. In Australia, the new album is available in Australia only from the band’s Bandcamp and at the live shows; a European release is through Gusstaff Records on March 22nd 2024.
The release of ‘Fake Is Forever’ comes ahead of The Wreckery‘s three-date East Coast co-headlining tour with Brisbane’s Halfway, and a stand-alone headline album launch in Castlemaine.
Hailing from Melbourne, The Wreckery were a major presence in the mid-’80s and featured major Melbourne music figures Hugo Race, Nick Barker, Edward Clayton-Jones, Robin Casinadar and Charles Todd. Scions of the same St Kilda scene that bred Nick Cave, Rowland S Howard and The Birthday Party – indeed Hugo Race was an original member of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds – The Wreckery played dark atmospheric rock with a film-noir swagger and authentic renegade attitude, carving a loyal and true-hearted following. Their early recordings showcased the band’s creative fusion of swamp blues, noir-jazz and deadpan rock but tensions saw the band implode as they were reaching their peak with their 1988 album ‘Laying Down Law’.
‘Fake Is Forever’ reignites The Wreckery‘s signature sound with an unyielding fervour. 35 years on, Todd‘s haunting baritone sax, Race‘s scathing lyrics and mesmerizing vocals, Clayton-Jones‘ distorted angular guitars, Casinader‘s eclectic multi-instrumental prowess, and the rhythm powerhouse of bass player Barker and ‘new’ drummer Frank Trobbiani (formerly of Race‘s pre-Wreckery band Plays With Marionettes), collide to form an iconic lineup.
Each track resonates with The Wreckery‘s unmistakable style, oozing from the deep, dark end of the musical pool. The range of ‘Fake Is Forever’ is as vast as it is intoxicating, conjuring a spell of quiet menace.
“The Wreckery were only together for about four years before we blew ourselves up. As corny and melodramatic as I know this sounds, it was fucking magical being back together after 35 years. As it turns out, this new Wreckery album saved my sanity in ways I still don’t quite understand… it was great to see everyone again and feel some of that old magic in the room, in fact, a lot of it really made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. The songs we brought to this record were very much intended for the Wreckery, or at least for a 21st-century version of the Wreckery staying close to our rock roots and dark sense of humour. It seems to me, that ironically, everything that is plastic and fake will last for all techno eternity. Yet, what is real and valuable is transient and short-lived… like happiness, like us! So Fake Is Forever if you will a protest title swimming against the tide, just like the Wreckery always believed they did!” – Hugo Race
Buy ‘Fake Is Forever’ directly from The Wreckery HERE
THE WRECKERY & HALFWAY, ON TOUR
Sat 17 Feb 2024 – The Great Club, Marrickville, Sydney – Tickets
Sat 24 Feb 2024 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne – Tickets
Sat 2 Mar 2024 – The Old Museum, Brisbane – Tickets
THE WRECKERY ALSO PLAY THEATRE ROYAL IN CASTLEMAINE, FRIDAY FEBRUARY 23 WITH SUPPORT FROM DEAD RODEO – TICKETS
Leicashow Presents are thrilled to announce a co-headlining tour in Feb/March 2024 featuring two legendary Australian groups.
The Wreckery and Halfway – or Halfway and The Wreckery – separated by decades and kilometres though they are, share a fiercely independent and uncompromising spirit and a real dedication to their music. Both are true bands, in it for the long haul and committed to creativity.
Brisbane’s Halfway formed a dozen or so years after The Wreckery originally split, in a different city and climate (sunlit as opposed to overcast), yet they share the same DIY spirit and true musical passion. For nearly a quarter of a century now they have developed a unique style – based around the songwriting of John Busby – of Australian storytelling, combining indie rock, folk and country music. They have released eight studio albums (the latest being 2022’s ‘On the Ghostline, with Hands of Lightning’), all of which have received widespread critical acclaim. The band have received nominations for all major Australian music awards, including ARIAs, APRAs, AIR Awards, and Q Music Awards.
The Australian music family tree is vast, but a particular branch joins Halfway to The Wreckery via John Willsteed, the Halfway mainstay who joined The Go-Betweens in the late ’80s, around the time that The Wreckery were calling it quits. The Australian alternative scene was much smaller in those days and of course members of The Wreckery and The Go-Betweens crossed paths; indeed, Willsteed‘s live first show with The Go-Betweens was on a bill with The Wreckery and The Bad Seeds on Feb 18, 1988, 36 years almost to the day from the first date of this short tour. The Wreckery‘s Nick Barker strengthened the ties after first hearing Halfway early on.
“My connection with Halfway goes back to 2005 when we did a show together in Brisbane. I fell in love with the band and thrust my enthusiasm on them, wanted or not,” says Barker. “I became good friends with John Busby. I have done a whole bunch of stuff with Halfway since then. We’ve played some shows together and I have guested with them on vocals a number of times, most notably at Apollo Bay Music Festival. I also did a version of one of their songs on my Black Water Blues album from 2010.”
Two bands together who paint vastly different landscapes through their music but hold the same values, The Wreckery and Halfway – or Halfway and The Wreckery – join forces in February across three states and three Saturday nights. Who you come to see makes no difference – both bands deliver on a post-punk promise, and these three special shows will compel and inspire.
Thanks to Dave Laing Publicity
