ugly by tongues

Via a demo, tongues is chosen as one of 22 out of 280 submissions to play the Oz Music Showcase in Melbourne in February 2003 (all this for a band that has only been together for four weeks...cheeky ha!). Returning to Sydney, the band continues to play what gigs they can find.

The band is spotted playing The Annandale Hotel in Sydney on Sunday 23rd March 2003 by Paul Glover of Laughing Outlaw Records and is offered the prospect of recording... something. Further gigging occurs but the band encounters some difficulty in cementing a rhythm section with a number of bass players and drummers passing through the band's ranks like ships in the night.

Despite the lack of a rhythm section, tongues commences recording their debut album with the three piece line up at Dave and Cate's tiny inner Sydney residence. This is not difficult as Cate, Dave and Kinnon are all multi-instrumentalists and Dave has engineered and produced for others.

The resourceful tongues pay their next door neighbours' rent for two weeks and sends them on holiday. Stripping the house, Kinnon rediscovers a cellar under the house (known as the Dungeon) which makes a perfect room for the loud stuff (drums, guitar & bass speaker boxes) and ... a recording studio magically appears. With a decent recording platform, some hired & borrowed microphones and a drum kit assembled from pieces found under Kinnon's house, recording progresses at a cracking pace.

Laughing Outlaw Records permits the three tongues to self produce & gives them total creative freedom (is this guts, inspiration, naivety or sheer madness?). With ex-Festival Studios engineer, Evan McHugh, handling recording duties, a creative bubble is allowed to grow. For two solid weeks, thirteen songs are recorded, all of the fun being filmed via cheap security cameras mounted in each of the two rooms. The cameras are linked to two VCR's capturing every take, musical moment, argument and fight and creative meltdown and other fruity tidbits. When it all gets too much, happy hour at the local pub or a drive to the water gives respite, such is the freedom of not watching the clock chew away precious cash.

The album is then mixed at Velvet Studios with Aria nominated engineer Adrian Grigorieff at the helm and mastered by Oscar Gaona at Studio 301.

The end result is a raw, uncompromising album full of spazzy rock & dark pop, all of it tied together by a melodic attitude and a gift for a hook without any hint of pretentiousness or preciousness. The songs are of course the key.

Subsequent to recording, Cate, Dave and Kinnon stumble across drummer Brad Kimber. A drum kit is set up, Cate plays guitar while Dave and Kinnon have their ears pressed to the door. Brad plays almost beat for beat what Cate plays on the album. He is instructed to beat the shit out of the kit and does so with glee. He's a tongue.

The now four tongues then discover Martin Carr, a bassplayer with a penchant for surfing, vintage vinyl and original music (love it). Martin, as Brad did, plays almost note for note/ beat for beat what was recorded for the album, mirroring Brad's no frills, just give me what you got and I'll give it right back attitude. Perfect. He's in.

tongues are:

Cate Dahl (the Slinky Sexy Chameleon) - lead vocals, guitar

Dave Reynolds (the Neurotic Pseudo Manager) - guitar, backing vocals

Kinnon Holt (the tattooed $800 Car Driving Guitar Slinger) - guitar

Brad Kimber (the Brains) - drums

Martin Carr (the New Kid) - bass

"tongues are something else again, Cate Dahl as frontperson is a blur. She flails, falls to her knees, scares hell out of the other members of the band, and makes sex dirty again. They have nice sleazy pop songs like "Velveteen" and nice sleazy screams of disgust like "Wannabe", a streaming rant, in similar territory to Magic Dirt's Vulcanella- though angrier and probably pre-dating it. When they lock in, they are fearsomely good. And when they don't, even the mess is bloody lovely. " - Ross Clelland - The Drum Media live review September 2003

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