Our new album, Mons Animae Mortuorum (It's latin for 'Mouintain Of The Souls Of The Dead') is out in August.

So we got a couple of shows to begin warming up for proper album launch shows later in Spring.

Slaughterfest w/Blood Duster , Ebolie, Space Bong and more. Friday August 8 - The Basement Belconnen, Canberra ACT

Slaughterfest w/Blood Duster , Ebolie, Looking Glass, LOG, Space Bong and more - Hermans Bar Sydney UNI Saturday August 9th.

The Step Inn Brisbane Friday August 15th w/ A slew of Brisbane goodness.

2008 Megafauna Festival- ANU Bar, Sat 11 October.

Hope you can get the album, hope you dig the stuff as much as we do and hope to see you at some shows.

stoo/m/ forever.

JJ

Doo/m/ed greetings,

The album is now in the can. Post prod work is underway, with mixing and mastering the next task at hand.

To get us warmed up we're doing some shows in late April and early May.

We're playing with Clagg in melbourne ANZAC day weekend, i'll post the date and venue tomorrow.

The next weekend we're in canberra and sydney with alchemist. Should be a brutal couple of shows. Come get a preview of the album live.

JJ

Like sands through the hourglass...

OK, so we've been REAAAALLLY slack on the updating the site thing, what do you expect from a doom band? Fast, regular updates would only serve to point out further that we still haven't got our new record out...BUT

We have a plan of attack and a rough schedule for the rest of the year.

Brad goes into the studio next week to knock over the last of the tracks for the 10 tracks we've recorded. So far weighing in at an hour long it's not yet 100% if we'll hold one or two tunes back for a split or something, we'll decide that once we've had a chance to listen to the mixed and mastered album. That should all happen over the next 4-6 weeks.

The artwork has been complete for a while. I had the concept in mind for a number of years, but without doubt, Glenn Smith who did our Electric Wizard gig posters for us back in 05 has not only met my expectations (which were admitedly unfairly high), but kicked the living snot out them. He presented the work to the band at the recent Devil's Kitchen shows up in Sydney and he absolutley hit the ball out of the park. I can't wait to see it on the CD cover and potentially in a larger and even more exciting format - But more details on that in a later update closer to release.

It will take a while for manufacturing post mixing to be done. So in the interim we're going to be doing some limited runs of shows around the place. We'll be down for a LOOOONG overdue stint in Melbourne in April with our good friends Clagg. That will be the 25th of April weekend so that should be fun.

We're also looking to get back up to Sydney, the Gong and maybe one other show before we plan a more extensive tour in support of the album. I think realistically it will be mid June to early July for the album to be released.

We had a great time on the Devil's Kitchen weekend with our friends Looking Glass, Youngbreeder, Nunchukka Superfly, Clagg and Fatura Della Murte (best Sydney band in a loooooong time) and a few other bands that I'd not had the opportunity to see before. Dread down in Melbourne are also a band we're looking forward to playing with again soon.

We are seriously ramping up to make 08 a big year for Pod. Hope you can check in and see whats going down - Apart from the album, we're looking at a clip and some other pretty cool stuff in the very near future, stay tune and stay doomed.

JJ

Brutal greetings,

Whew! A busy month has flown by, here's where we're at.

The Canberra show was pretty cool, the highlight being a chance to see Ray Ahn's new band wOg which totally ruled. Proper avant-garde fucked up MUSIC. Good times, I strongly recommend checking them out, the drummer Robbie Avaneim was amazing. The next night up in Sydney was just killer, albeit a long night. Fattura De La Morte melted my face with their sludgy goodness, the most New Orleans sounding Sydney band I've ever seen. Of course I mean New Orleans in the regard of bands that have nothing to do with Phil Anselmo - Eyehategod, Crowbar, Acid Bath - You know, good bands from New Orleans. Looking Glass was for me like taking a new kick ass toy no one else has to show and tell. I asked if we played this show that Nunchukka and LG were on the bill, then we'd do it and so Nathan from 666 and killer opening act this night, Van, olbliged and Looking Glass delivered the goods. I think Sydney will be looking forward to a return by my favourite Aussie three piece.

Daredevil played the best show I've ever seen them play this side of the High Voltage gig we did with them down in Melbourne a few years back, just killer, I want them to record again. Nunchukka two nights in a row excites me no end. I love them, and the new material exposed yet more ideas from the evil minds of Black, Ahn and Ellis. Can't wait for the new album! We really want to thank all the people who stayed out late to come see us too, it was great!

The next weekend was off to Melbourne. The Hi Fi saw a late scratching with the loss of Rob Wogs' (of Earth fame) punk band Uncut White Noise couldn't do the show due to Rizzo banging his fingers up smashing them into his buthole the night before, and so he only had the strength to do the one show that night with Duster. Not to worry because that meant we had the pleasure of Dread to slay with their second comeback show with a new singer. VERY heavy.

Blacklist were up next and their Motorhead style rock was very well received and I took the opportunity to have a chat to Fuck I'm Dead ahead of their crushing set. Big news for thos lads is the addition of a second guitarist (Xavier from The Day Everything Became Nothing/Roskopp) and even more tantalising, a drummer (!). THAT will be interesting and we'll get to see the line up at the Abducted Fest, but more on that later. Our set was fun for us and then Blood Duster ripped through their new album Lyden Na, culminating in Tony doing the encore on top of a fibre glass full sized horse. Good times.

Of course the main reason we were in town was for recording and record we did in Northcote at Toyland Studios with Adam and Fuller. We got ten songs worth of guitars, bass and drums. We knocked them over in two days and generally speaking the recording is the warmest and fatest sounding one we've done to date in terms of drum tones. This was mostly due to Paul Toth of Dread who works for Yamaha and their drum division. Maggs had a HUGE kit with numerous bits and pieces to choose from. Adam knows his studio very well and got set up and tones down very quickly.

Next up will be vocals whenever Brad gets them to a point he's happy with.

Of course then we had the big show. I have been into Celtic Frost since I heard Morbid Tales back in the day and the thought we'd ever share the stage with them was a surreal one at best. OK, sure, it was a standard international support in that we had to set up in front of the main bands gear, had 8 mikes for our whole band and couldn't really hear one another - But it was still an awesome show for us and well received according to Mark Hebblewhite of the Drum Media, who wrote of us -



Of course the highlight was getting to meet Tom Gabriel Fischer and the lads. Walking off stage, Tom shook our hands and told us it was an honour to play with us. This blew all our minds as he was pretty much saying everything us in our obvious pathetic fan boy way were trying to stutter at him. Anyways, we gave them some Doom Saloons and garbled our appreciation to them for having us on and asked them to come back soon. Patrick took some awesome photo's - Go check em, including some shitty Camera phone shots of us with the Warrior.

It's all been amazing - We're looking forward to playing with our good friends The Day Everything Became Nothing here in Canberra a week ahead of going up to Bris-Vegas for the Abducted Festival with so many awesome bands that it spins my head. Anyways, waffling now - Hope to see you guys soon at a show.

JJ

Brutal greetings,

We're playing some shows soon with some bands to sharpen our tools for the upcoming recording when we hit the Toyland studio in Melbourne on the first weekend of June. Pre-production is pretty much 90% there, we're ready!

We're doing a weekend of shows with Nunchukka Superfly the last weekend of May:

May 25th - ANU Bar Canberra w/Nunchukka Superfly (album launch), wOg, Looking Glass and colourfullracingcaridentity

May 26th The Lansdowne Hotel Sydney w/Nunchukka Superfly, Daredevil, Looking Glass, Van and more.

June 1st Hi Fi Bar Melbourne w/Blood Duster ('Lyden Na' album launch), Jed Whitey, Fuck...I'm Dead and Uncut White Noise

June 13th Venure TBA w/CELTIC FROST!!!!! I dunno who else but we're playn' with em and we're not worthy, but, FROST!

Hope to see you guys at one of these shows.

JJ

Sorry for bailing last minutes Sydney!

Maggs got hurt and then to top it off, Mel found out she was allergic to bee venom and her forearm was like Popeye - Insane. But that's what you get for writing slabs of doom riffs, it attracts the evil it does! We've spoken with 666 Entertainment up in Sydney and we're going to do a show with the same line up on May 27th, we'll finalise the line up shortly. I am hoping to arrange a Canberra show, another mid June Sydney show and a Melbourne run of shows as well for winter. It's been too long and we've got too many riffs to drop on your unsuspecting ears.

Been listening to a bunch of killer new shit like The Hidden Hand, Warning, Accept Death and Laudanum lately. Other than that hanging for the new High on Fire and some other new stuff that's overdue. Middian by one of the guys from Yob being one of those. Anyways, we're writing like mad people and have pencilled some dates, sorting out some pre production guitar tones and the like. Good times.

JJ

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we wont be playing the Sydney show with our friends Nunchukka Superfly and The Pure Evil Trio this week. We're awful sorry but we'll be up there again soon. Album is still going ahead, things are good, but an injury in the band is making it impossible for us to make it there this week, sorry, we'll be back soon!

JJ

We're lazy, whaddya gonna do about it?

Well, following the abuse in my inbox hassling us to put out an album, play a gig or do anything at all for that matter, I can tell you the following -

A) The album is 98% written
B) We're playing Sydney on the 21st of February
C) We'll probably play a couple of times up to/around the recording.


The show in Sydney on the 21st is with our good buddies Nunchukka Superfly and the intriguingly named "Pure Evil Trio" that Blackie tells me is a band equally inspired by Miles Davis and Grindcore. Sounds good to me!

Other than that we've been writing the last few songs of new material, we're gonna play em til they're tight and then gig test them a couple of times ahead of recording. Other than that I've been buying the Massappeal re-issues and loving them, listening to old grind like Napalm, anxiously awaiting the new Hidden Hand record and generally enjoying summertime and the beer involved. Hope to see you Sydneysiders at a gig soon, and we'll be keeping in more regular touch with info now the year is starting to get into gear."

JJ

Welcome to our new doomain (bad web nerd joke there),

First off we'd like to thank Dan at Stonerrock.com for hosting our website for so many years without interruption and doing a sterling job of it. You're a top bloke and anyone interested in heavy psychedelic stoner-fied tunes should go there and rejoice in the joy of stoneriffic music. Thanks heaps Dan, you're a blood top bloke.

Second of all I'd like to personally thank Patrick Cox for his sterling work and blitzkrieg-esque response to moving our site and keeping everything flowing along nicely. Pat - You are a man amongst men and we'd be lost in (cyber) space without your help my friend - We owe you many, many beers for your continued efforts.

It's only three weeks til MFTB, we're polishing our swords (and knobs) and getting ready to drop some new brutal tunes for our slot on the Triple J stage at around 7 pm. We're usually more comfortable in the bar, but we've been elevated to the main stage this year so hopefully you guys will be there to bang your heads along with us as we take the stage for the last time at MFTB. It's a sad day, but it will be a doozy. Check the website for all the details and bands playing the show. It'll be enormous.

Some highlights on the day I'm looking forward too - Clagg, Whitehorse, Schifosi, Captain Cleanoff, The Day Everything Became Nothing, Fuck I'm Dead, Blood Duster and of course the might Alchemist and, well fuck it, nearly bloody everyone! It's a credit to the Alchemist guys that the fest has run this long, it's all over now, the king is dead, long live the king (of all metal festivals)!

We're flat out writing at the moment trying to get our album together, it's coming along nicely.

See ya's at the brain and thanks again to those mentioned...and our hosts at Quadrahosting!

JJ

Winter has set in and writing for the album is coming along nicely. We're still on track for an August recording and to have the album out in time for MFTB this year. We've got no gigs coming up for a while as there is a few things going on in our lives that are keeping us from being able to tour at the moment. We will do a short run of shows around the time of recording to fine tune the new material, but otherwise we're extremely lazy at the moment.

Listening to the Witch self titled, Unearthly Trance's The Trident, the new album from The Day Everything Became Nothing (Invention: Destruction) and of course as I type some St Vitus is keeping inspiration doomed. There is a slight possibility of one show at Sound Underground in early July, details are a little sketchy at the moment, so stay tuned for news.

doo\m/ on.

JJ

doo/m/ed greetings,

We're busily writing in preparation for pre production on our new album which we're hoping to record this winter. We've got a good 7 tunes finished and about 5 that we're ironing out for the recording and all is going well.

We like to play test our new tunes and so we're doing a show to bring a hint of doom to a night of grind for some good mates of ours from Melbourne on their tour.

It's the first show in the national tour for the new Fuck...I'm Dead DVD tour, who are out on the road with label mates The Day Everything Who Became Nothing who are also luanching their new full length album I *think* is called Invention: Destruction.

Fuck I'm Dead are just the most insane grind band, drum machine grind usually leaves me totally cold, but this is different and just fucking awesome. Check their album "Bring On The Dead" if you're into grind at all.

The Day Everything Became Nothing feature Tony of Blood Duster on vokills, but this is total pitch shifted grind gore ala Cock & Ball Torture or Bile. Utterly brutal night of bean bag tearing bottom end.

I think Shigella, a local band here in Canberra are also on the bill.

We're looking to do a couple of shows in winter, but as a few people have been asking me in mails, we're not touring til the album is out save a few shows here and there to try out the arrangements live.

Hope to see some lokills at Pete's Bar and Tavern this Friday, May 12th.

JJ

Pod are in totally writing mode at the moment. Coming up with more and more riffs has been fun, but turning them into workable song structures has turned into an exercise of writing yet more and more riffs. It's good to be in surplus I guess. As our domestic label situation is up in the air at the moment we're mulling over the idea of doing an EP to fill the void before our full length. Of course this involves money too, but we've a bit in the kitty after the Wizard tour we've been saving for recording purposes.

We've arranged a show so large it will likely bludgeon your senses into pure submission. A gig of such brutality that males may tear their ball bags in the light of the sheer brutality that is going to pulse from the PA. Yes, we've nailed down a venue and a date for our next show. Friday May 12th is the launch of the new Fuck I'm Dead DVD and the new full length album from The Day Everything Became Nothing. Without doubt Australia's premiere grind band, Fuck I'm Dead recorded the DVD late last year and the sound has been tweaked to deliver a Colon Comando mission into your digestive tract.

The Day Everything Became Nothing brings the pitch-shifted vocal gore gurgling into your face like a Mike Tyson left hook. We're talking late 80's Mike as well here - Explosive, concussive and with that air of finality that will ensure you are sent to the canvas for a ten count. Of course we'll be along as well and an as yet unamed support will kick things off and round out the nights entertainment with a slew of riffage from all over the metal spectrum. Brutal.

Hope to see you guys out and about at Pete's Bar and Tavern up the top of Belco there on there on May 12 - For the elderly, it used to be the Town Centre Tavern. See you guys there!

JJ

Well it's Overcranked week! Yes, we're all keen as mustard to get up to Qld for some action with all our friends up there and the other great bands on the bill. Who'd have thought we'd get to play with 2 of our all time favourite bands in under 6 months. Between Wizard and Clutch I don't know what we've been doing, but it's obviously going alright! We're playing at 2.30 pm on Stage 3 (the Faster Louder Stage) and hope to see some of our friends from the Wiz tour at the show to heckle us once again. Can't wait!

To expand our evil influence over the web, we've also infiltrated the myspace family at http://www.myspace.com/doompodpeople - Some American band about 3 years old or something have taken our name in the states, but just quietly, I think we had it first... That aside, check it out and you can see why we let the amazing Patrick Cox design our website and not let me do it when I'm all tired and stuff.

Hope to see some folks on Saturday in Brisbane, brutal!

JJ

Greetings for 2006.

We've all been enjoying a summer holiday around the various beaches in our wide brown land and now it's time to get stuck into the late summer/early autumn batch of gigs that are coming up. First off we have a killer all ages show coming up at Sound Underground on Saturday March 4th in support of the might Alchemist on their Embryonic's tour. Also along for the show is a slew of killer Canberra acts; 4 dead, Young n Restless, A Stab In The Dark, Zero Degrees and Falling, Burning Years and Miss Universe. It's bound to be a huge show and a good one for the young keensters out there now the void of the Church Bar is being felt.

The big upcoming show for us and a hell of a lot of great Aussie bands is the upcoming Overcranked show in Brisbane on March 18th. We're hanging to play this one and have the flights booked. After the awesome reception we got at our Brisbane show on the Wizard tour, we're looking forward to popping up and laying some beef down for the tropo ones. I can't recommend this show enough for anyone in the vicinity of Brisbane or looking for an excuse to go to Brisbane, it's going to be huge and with Clutch, Alchemist, Blood Duster and local talent like Astriaal, it's going to be stupid large.

We're busy writing our album and are all refreshed and keen to get back into it after summer, so keep coming back to keep in the loop.

JJ

Greetings for 2006.

It's so bloody hot right now it feels like we're in stasis. However this is not the case as we are in the midst of writing a bunch of new tunes for our pending album, loosely based on the theme's of Purgatorio, the second chapter of Dante's "The Divine Comedy". We're taking a hiatus from shows for a while as we write some new stuff but I think we're going to try and do a few shows in February ahead of our next confirmed show at the Overcranked Festival in March (the 18th). Of course this is bloody exciting as we get to play with long time favourites of ours, Clutch (Yay!!!). We'll post some more stuff in the coming weeks regarding some other gigs that are in the pipeline for the year as well as info on when we're intending to record/where/who with etc. Have a doom-tastic summer y'all

JJ

WHAT a tour!

I am barely back to normal following the best possible tour you could go on. To kick off the retrospective tour diary, I just want to thank DD and Brad for bringing it all together, Electric Wizard for being so damn cool and down to Earth as well as patient on all those long drives, all the people who put us up around the country, Rod, Nerri and Craig for their work in Brisbane, Jimmy the Boy for his tireless work ethic and all the people who came to multiple shows to see the Wiz kick ass time and time again. You were all integral in making the tour a success and thank to you all.

In brief - Here's a quick tour diary.

JJ

Well, we're a week away from the most anticipated tour of the year, the Electric Wizard tour. We've been getting lots of emails about the shows and again I would direct y'all to the doomnation.com.au site to check out details, however to answer a couple of direct questions – The Boat of Doom show is selling like the proverbial hotcakes and we've only a few left. There is not guest list on this show due to numbers and if you're up in Sydney or the region and want to come along you better book your tickets pronto like. All the other shows tickets are steadily disappearing so if you've not got tickets yet, might be an idea to think about a pre-purchase.

I went and caught the might of Swedish death metal last night with a dose of Dismember at the Church bar. Rob Wog from Aussie death band Earth was on the touring party and I want to thank him for getting Maggs and I in on the door and we both were blown away by the sheer quality and might of the band, especially seeing as they'd only arrived in the country that day and driven a further three hours having flown from Europe. They were tighter than a vacuum and rawer than a still bleeding steak – Brutal.

Our first show on the tour is Thursday night at the Excelsior in Sydney with Clagg from Melbourne who have absolutely blown up in the last 12 months with monster doomy riffs. Also along for the ride is 4 Dead who are just fucking awesome and like a car wreck between Iron Monkey and a Hydra Head band like Converge or something. Awesome. We follow up the night after that with the Canberra show with the same two acts and then its off to Melbourne for the doomiest weekend in Melbourne's history.

I'll try and do a tour diary or something, get it up on the web as soon as I find a place for the van to pull over and send it. If you see a Hi-Ace full of long hair and billowing smoke from the windows in the next couple of weeks give us a beep.

JJ

OK!

As you can see, the sensational work of Glen Smith has produced not only the best artwork on any gig poster we've done ever, but it also heralds the most exciting tour we could possibly be a part of on the domestic circuit. Yes, one of the worlds premiere doom bands, Electric Wizard are indeed heading out to Australia thanks to the combined hard work of our bassist DD and vocalist Brad. The boys have been keeping pretty "mum's the word" on the shows til now as we didn't want to jinx the best possible news for fans of doom music.

Now: A bit of rumour control. The flyer that has been circulating is a FIRST DRAFT of dates. What isn't on that list is that we are in fact taking the Wiz up to Brisbane for our first ever Qld journey on November the 5th. That is definite and I believe we're playing at the Brisbane University. Regardless, it will be killer show. The Doomnation gigs that are happening at the Marquee in Sydney and the Green Room in Melbourne have full line up's sorted... however I'm not 100% on them as of yet as I couldn't get onto Brad to find out for sure.

Suffice to say that if you have even a passing interest in stoner/doom music, then you NEED to get along to these shows as they're going to be absolutely killer shows. Damn, even if it was just EW doing the show alone it would be killer!

Keep checking back over the coming weeks for details to emerge from the darkness and fulfil all your doom fantasies as the most essential slow heavy international tour of 2005 will be heading your way October/November.

JJ

Awesome show on Saturday, thanks to all involved and all in attendance, you Melbournites know how its done! The Gong show was also awesome and Peeping Tom get better every time I see them play. Stunning band, just stunning. I want to see them play every day such is the power of their jammed out riffage, lush.

We're going on a hiatus for a while leading up to a very busy October/November and the most brutal woman in metal, grand mistress Melly Mel is off to Hong Kong for a much deserved break from the rigours of touring the last few months. Have a safe trip Melly.

All coming to Canberra in the next couple of months should come and check B-rad's shop out in Belco. It's called Sound Underground and features among other things; shirts, hoodies, music, dvd, jam rooms, strings, skate boards and more. The grand opening is this weekend and you guys in town should all come down.

Our next show is in the Gong on October 15th and that's for a special friend of the bands who's been coming to see us for years. More details closer to the date.

Hail Melbourne, you know how to party.

\m/_jj

Well, a busy couple of weeks coming up for us Pod People with two big shows interstate. This Friday we’re in our second, second home Wollongong for a show at the good ol’ Oxford Tavern. Along for the ride are our dear brothers in doom, Peeping Tom. All of you folks interested in doom rock riffs with the frequency brown and the bottom end rumbling, you best make it on down Friday night as it’s gonna be a killer show. Peeping Tom have really cool merch, and whilst we have new shirts, make sure you bring a few extra bickies along and treat yourself to some of their recorded works. Great band.

My knee is still crap, me and my shitty legs will be requiring a stool for Friday’s show, but that won’t stop the riffs from flowing out forthwith. Recovery is slow and steady and I still am on crutches, which is OK from the point of view that Brad will finally be forced to lug some gear, but a pain in the ass as far as everything else goes.

Hope to see some Gong folk down the Oxford Friday.

Ps: we’re playing the Hi Fi in Melbourne next week, anyone friends with Catwitch that can hook me up a lend of their doom throne, drop me a line at doomtildeath@hotmail.com

Pps: It was our founding member B-rad's birthday this week and so people should ply him with liquor at the show, happy birthday mate!

JJ

Ouch.

So we went down to the Espy to play this massive bill of rock a couple weeks back and there was a slew of great rock bands playing out in the Public and lounge bar as well. One of these bands was Airbourne, who are the second coming of AC/DC Bon Scott era. Whilst it may involve the lawyers from Vanda and Young at some stage, I don't think it will halt these young guns in their all out assault on pedestrian rock groups. Check em.

Out in the Gershwin Room, the scene was well set by Clagg who played an absolutley monstrous show blowing all away who witnessed it. Then came Peeping Tom, who have just gone from stregth to strength since I first played with them a few years ago now. The dynamics were spot on and the band just slayed me. Well I thought they did...I was about to do that to myself.

We were about 2 minutes into our first song when I took a hurried step backwards, as I took the step, I stood on a stray set list from one of the previous acts. My bodyweight all came down on my leg in an awkward collapse and the result was my right knee cap sitting about 6 inches to the right of where it should have been.

Remember that Sydney Swans guy a few years back banging his knee back into it's socket? Well that's exactly what I had to do - Fuck me if it wasn't the most pain I've experienced since I did a similar injury 9 years ago. I sat there catching my breath and the Pods were looking at me like "What are we going to do?".

Well after I managed to bang the fucker back in, I wasn't in a hurry to move. Someone plonked a chair on the stage. I said "Ahhh fuck it" and gratefully received some hastily fashioned ice packs from the bar and played the rest of the set.

Funnily enough, other than the pain - It was a really good gig. The Gerswhin Room was packed and we genearlly had a good time. Brad was drunk. This was a concern as he had to carry me to the car. All I really remember from that part of the night is begging Brad not to drop me.

Thanks heaps to the Clagg and Peeping Tom boys - It was a good show and we were well mixed by Mick from Abrasion; who has looked after us a few times down in Melbourne, in case any of you are looking for a decent mixer.

We've got a couple more shows in August before a break. The first is on August 13th at the Oxford in Wollongong with Peeping Tom and more and the next show is the 20th of August at the Hi Fi Ballroom in Melbourne on a huge bill that we'll talk more about leading up to the show.

Anyhow, I'm going back to the playstaion and have a pipe to take the edge of my knee, I've had a litre and a half of blood drained from my knee and let me tell you the fucker was massive, but worth it.

JJ

Winter greetings,

We just got back from doing Bloodlust V last weekend and that was a killer show put on out at Blacktown RSL by the legendary Dan Zajc. We played about 6 pm and in between a slew of Australia’s most brutal bands. Highlights I got to see on the day - Portal, Stone Wings, Gospel of the Horns and a couple of others I saw bits and pieces off. I felt sorry for Kriss Hades when his DVD backdrop broke down for the second time (it happened at the recent Sunn o))) shows too), because otherwise he was putting on another fine display. See the metalshop forum for the photos.

This weekend we’re making the opposite journey down the Hume. It’s another Melbourne jaunt, and seeing all the Melbourne keensters up the front in Sydney last weekend makes me feel glad I can say that we are playing for FREE this week.

Yes friends, a free gig, the best kind! But the selling point is not the economics of the decision, it’s the line up! Peeping Tom and Clagg are two bands all our international visitors should check out, they slay. Peeping Tom are an encyclopaedic tone library from the 70’s with the kind of bowel loosening riffage that is sure to get toes tapping and heads snapping back and forth to their molten metronomes.

Clagg have forged their evil reign of doomed destruction in a short history that has been earmarked by the kind of challenges that would make lesser bands fold like an accordion. Only the most stern and sturdy doom riffs could survive the Clagg treatment, come get glued.

This frivolity, this intricate web of rock will be spun at the Esplandade Hotel in St Kilda, Saturday July 16th in the most luxurious of rooms, the Gershwin room and again, you’re ALL on the door, it’s free!

I just hope we can find a floor to crash on as I have forgotten to organise somewhere to stay and my usual Blood Duster connections are in bloody Europe... Damn. Anyone got room for 5 doomsters from Canberra in their flat?

JJ

Howdy,

We've had a busy couple of weeks playing around the traps and the shows have been really quite good. Sydney and Canberra both were big nights and the turn outs were much better than we expected, so thanks for coming along and buying a bunch of stuff off of us, it actually makes playing in the band kinda worthwhile! So this week we're off to our home away from home, Melbourne, for a couple of shows. It's not so much our home away from home cause we're there all the time, it's just what we wished all the cities in Australia were like for live music...and food. Maggs and I have a major Nando's fetish.

Anyways, this week on Friday night (28/5th) you can catch us at The Ding Dong lounge in the city there. It's an upstairs venue that positively reeks of rock and roll havoc and I am very excited about playing with Sleeping Giant and Whitehorse, whom are by far more bleak and evil than any other doom band in Australia at this time. That's a good thing. They’re off to play with Corrupted in Japan (bastards) and we are very excited about forging some new alliances in the world of frequencies low.

Saturday 19th we're playing at the Pony bar which I usually associate with as the place you go to after the Cherry Bar has kicked us out back in the Blood Duster days. The Pony will be cosy and made all the more cosy with grind fiends Pisschrist and Roskopp (formerly Bonehead) getting ready to rip the roof off the place. We're also being treated to a special late night show with Agents of Abhorrence ripping the place up around 2.30 in the am.

We're climbing into the Tarago Friday morning and heading down so if you're ready for doom than come along to one or both the shows. Hope to see some of you there!

JJ

Hails and harrowing wails,

We've been busy Pod People's of late getting together a bunch of new material for our follow up to Doom Saloon. I reckon we've got 11 tunes so far, plus a bunch of half written songs and riffs with promise but this month it's all about our impending split 7" release with our "big dumb rock" friends from Sydney, Daredevil.

We recorded the song "In The End" for the split late last year here in Canberra at our rehearsal studio's with the awesome Gordo and we're pretty darn pleased with the result. Plus it's cool to finally have something on good ol' vinyl, a first for Pod People. These singles have absolutely KILLER artwork thanks to Ben Brown for Daredevils half and the amazing Ray Ahn that captured my pathetic "brief" that I sent him and turned it into something we're all proud of.

Fittingly, Ray's band, the freakin' awesome Nunchukka Superfly will be in Canberra May 29th with us at the ANU bar along with our co-conspirators in this release Daredevil and the ever dangerous Epic Flagon will also be gracing us with a performance. If you've not checked out Nunchukka's "III" record yet, you best take yourself out and get a copy as it's a bloody awesome record.

The following week we hit Sydney for a show at the infamous Landsdowne hotel. Well it's infamous for Maggs anyway cause last time he was there for a gig in about '92 I think he coasted one of the rooms there in that much vomit that he was banned for life. This wouldn't be an issue with other people, but the thing is, Magg's looks EXACTLY like he did in 92, maybe a little cuddlier, but much the same. Assuming there's no hard feelings, we'll be playing with Daredevil and another band TBA on Saturday the 7th of May. There's a few good shows on in town that night, but none with more pound for pound muscle in every riff. Wolfmother are a poor man's Pod People anyway ;o)

Continuing in our month of shows we have two shows in Melbourne. 27th of May will see us join one of Australia's most exciting new acts, Whitehorse, on stage at the Ding Dong lounge in Melbourne along with Sleeping Giant. I've been stinging to play with Whitehorse for a while now. These guys are more your Boris/Sunn/Earth style of doom, utterly mesmerising and their killer live EP is out now which you should defiantly go and snavel up.

The 28th we'll be somehow cramming ourselves into the Pony Bar for a late show with such grin luminaries as Roskopp (formerly Bonehead) and Agents of Abhorrence. We're tyring to con Peeping Tom to play with us on this night as well as we love them and wish to enjoy a mutual doom masturbation session with them, if you haven't heard their debut album yet, s/t with the fat bloke on the bike on the cover - You better start making a list of records and going down to the store to buy some of this awesome fresh local produce.

We hope to see you at these shows and we'll be getting some more together soon to spread the gospel of doom. Our singles are an extremely limited run, if you don't get one at these shows, you'll be lucky to get one at all, so you best come along!

JJ

Hey folks.

HUGE Metal for the Brain and stoner fest shows in the last month were just jaw dropping humbling for us. We were all blown away by the response and keeness of the crowd at both events and we feel all special as a result. Big thanks to Skye and the Melbourne Stoner brigade for going all out in putting together such a huge bill at the Tote and the Peeping Tom record should all be on your list of "To Buy's" - It's a great album, great band and a great performance by them to kick the night off. Seeing how many quality bands around playing heavy riff based rock stuff is very encouraging and I hope we can take part in one of the other "When the Bong Breaks" festivals in the future.

Metal for the Brain just blew us away. It's always a great day, that's a given. But to have such a responsive crowd down in the bar really topped it off for us and a big thanks has to go to Lachlan Payne of LOG and about a thousand other Canberra acts for throwing together our costumes which you will be able to check out as we'll be putting some pics up over the coming weeks (ie, when I get out of my financial embarrassment enough to develop the photos).

In other news the art work for out split single with Daredevil has been pressed and the test pressing from the vinyl company is expected in the next couple of weeks. We'll be looking at an approximate April release date at this stage. Ray Ahn and Ben Brown did the artwork (Ray for us, Ben for Daredevil) and the covers will be worth the price of admission alone.

We're planning a tour to support the launch of the single and we'll be letting you guys know when where and what time when we've solidified things.

Thanks again to all the keensters at our recent shows! Awesome!

JJ

OK!

Well we had a great show at the ANU bar a couple of weeks back. It was good to be thoroughly blown away by Bonehead from Melbourne, a new grind band who's mix of pitch shifted and normal vocals made for great variety and as intense a show as I have seen in a long time.

The video clip for "Filling the Void" has hit the airwaves, it aired on Rage last Friday night and we all were too drunk from Xmas parties to watch it though Magg's saw the video listed at 3.30 am on Friday the 17th. We'd just like to again thank Andrew Hogan from Adrenalin Body Piercing for his sterling work, mucho appreciation!

We're nearly done writing a new album, but the single to tide you over in the meantime went to mastering this week, though it nearly didn't make it as I had accidentally sent it to Fuller like some kind of idiot. Well that's because I am one as DD pointed out at rehearsal last week when I told them.

The single has awesome art work, I considered giving it to Pat to put up this week but it's better if we wait until it's ready and done, suffice to say Ray Ahn, we love you. The Daredevil boys are also ready to rock as well so it will be all go early February, in all hope to have it ready for this year's Metal for the Brain, which you can now visit to find out the line up for this years show.

Our next show is in Melbourne in late January. At this point the confirmed show is Saturday January 22nd at the Tote in Collingwood, Melbourne, Australia and we're looking at doing a couple of shows leading up to that on the Thursday and Friday before. Thursday is looking pretty good, we just need a Friday brutal metal bill to strap onto as the 22nd is a big ass stoner fest, we're quite excited! I got a copy of Bob Sledge's poster they did up for the show which you can check out.

Otherwise we're strapping in for a hot summers writing with lots of songs finished and a fair few more in embryonic stages it'll be time to run a few newy's in our Melbourne shows, which short of anything truly exciting in the meantime will be our last shows til the Metal for the Brain's.

Make sure you check our the Rage website to see when our video is next playing, take care of yourselves over the break and we look forward to working out some brutal shows and new tunes to unleash upon you in 05.

Special thanks to Andrew Hogan, Gordy and the boys at Redsun Studios in Fyshwick, Ray Ahn, Sanigav, Lee and Will and Rise Above folks, McKenzie, all you bad asses for coming out and stoomin' with us this year and last and most - Pat for making us web savy again, love your work champ.

JJ

OK!

First off - Huge thanks to Pat Cox for brewing us up a far easier to update website which not only looks great but will be updated on a REGULAR BASIS!!!!

Yes, we're selling out and deciding to actually tell you guys what the hell is going on, and there's a veritable shitload for us to tell you about!

We've had the album come out on Rise Above in Europe, UK and Japan and had wonderful feedback from all the magazines and the reviews, in particular the Terrorizer review which had us all really chuffed. Great big thanks to all of those who have been emailing us with your kind words and support.

Maggs is away over in Europe with Alchemist on their first international tour and we hope they're having as wonderful a time as I keep hearing they're having. Most amusingly, Maggs rang me from France last weekend and was going on about French girls being "Ooo-la-la". God help any Frenchie he gets his mits on...

The amazing talents of our dear friend Morbid from Adrenalin Body Piercing made us a great live clip for the first song on "Doom Saloon", 'Filling the Void'. He did such a wonderful job that not only can you catch it on Rage and stuff, but we're hoping to compress it and put it onto the web for your viewing pleasure.

Shortly before Maggs went away we recorded a tune for a split 7" vinyl release we are doing with Sydney band and former High Beam label mates Daredevil. It's called "In the End" and it's in various states of mixing and mastering. We're looking at an early '05 release.

We're about 7 and a bit songs into our follow up to "Doom Saloon" and we'll be bringing you all the info on a bunch of shows we're doing in the near future. This includes a long overdue visit to Melbourne in December to help our doom brothers in Melbourne, Peeping Tom, launch their EP.

OK, so please check out our forum and the rest of our fine new site and come back as we actually will update it from now on!!!!!

PROMISE!

JJ

Crikey we're doom! We're so doom it's taken us about a year to write an update for our site. Ok, so we're not particularly doom, we're bloody lazy. What can I say but at least we're aware of it. We've had a year marred by a few large events, mostly Brad getting his hernia operated on, which has kept us out of the live scene for a good part of the year as Brad was on the ol' public waiting list for like ever waiting to have his roving intestines shoved back into where they should be.

We did a few shows before that, but we also had to vacate our jam place of many years down in the leafy suburb of Farrer. We can only thank the Walker family for putting up with our dirty stoom riffs for so many years and we'll always be indebted and eternally grateful to them.

We took up residence in a jam room out in the north side industrial suburb of Mitchell, that was a bit small and now we've moved out to Fyshwyck. We've been steadily compiling songs and riffs for what will make our next album. We're hoping to record in Autumn/Winter next year and so far we have four complete songs as well as a slew of riffs we're arranging into the next album.

Rise Above Records have unbelievably picked up our album Doom Saloon and the latest word from the label was that it was going to be released in the UK, Europe and Japan in April 2004. We can't tell you what an honour or how surprised/amazed we were when we found out about this. Even to have a loose association with such a reputable label can only signal good things for our band and it really has inspired us to knuckle down and try come up with an even better record next time, and so far the first few complete songs we've done have left us all confident we'll be able to pull it off.

To visit our new international home - click here

Metal for the Brain was really huge for us and we got a LOT of great mails and feedback from that show. Prepare for a much busier year from us in 2004. First up is a trip out to Sydney on Anzac weekend for a couple of shows, including a jaunt around the harbour on Sunday the 25th.

We're down in Melbourne for a weekend in May as well as a couple of festivally type things that are happening in June/July - So we just have to hook up a Queensland connection and we'll come and play up there! Adelaide is on the agenda as well. We'll be updating WAY more regularly and we may even put the rest of the site up when we pull our fingers out.

JJ