Happy beer-drinking anthem from the band of Ozzie
Wright and Vaughan Blakey.
It’s fifteen years ago since the Goons of Doom made
their debut at a derelict hotel in Sydney.
I wrote in my notes at the time, “Music sounds like enormous
molar with an abscess as big as a maraschino cherry.”
I wasn’t alone.
The music producer Pauly B, with whom Vaughan Blakey records various songs for
BeachGrit Pictures, “thought we were the worst shit
he’d ever heard and kicked us out of his studio,” says Vaughan.
“Now he’s our manager and record label!”
This song, which is called 24 Bottles of
Beer, is the first from the Goons of Doom’s new
album, Black Skull Bong.
From the presser:
Australians are aggressive beer drinkers with just about
every occasion imaginable yet another excuse to hit the sauce.
Births, deaths, weddings, funerals, sporting events, tough day at
work, team won the game, in a shit mood, in a great mood, made a
sandwich, found five bucks, woke up this morning… they’re all the
excuses we need to rip the scab off a frothie and drain that bitter
amber nectar. Despite excessive alcohol consumption being linked to
an unfathomable number of society’s problems; from health issues to
all manner of violence and to death… we continue to embrace
drinking as a part of our culture.
Do we have a problem?
Probably.
So what’s the deal with a song like 24 Bottles of Beer, a
rousing anthemic scream for the immediate purchase and consumption
of an icy cold slab?
I can imagine people thinking it’s a song that glorifies
drinking,” says Vaughan Dead, “But it’s actually a piss take on
that. I’m always tripping on the manic energy people put into
getting fucked up. I mean, it’s definitely not an anti-drinking
song so I wouldn’t say it’s addressing the matter, it’s just
stepping back and observing the way we rip in, which is pretty
fucken hard.”
24 Bottles of Beer was written and recorded in half a day,
and harks back to other Goons classics that get a room going nuts
while alienating everyone with the slightest penchant for being
easily offended. “We make no apologies for that,” says Deadly.
“Every song we’ve ever written has the potential to be
misinterpreted, mostly cause we like making ourselves laugh, but
our music is never mean and we know what we’re making. Even our
dumbest shit has a conscience and a heartbeat.”
Having first formed in 2003 on Sydney’s Northern Beaches,
the Goons of Doom have since relocated to Byron Bay where they
recorded Black Skull Bong in the aptly named village of
Goonengerry. A little older and none the wiser, the Goons of Doom
have become one of Australian music’s most unlikely
stayers.
