Of Someday Shambles
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Release Type: LP
Launch Date: 00-00-0000
Release Date: 01-11-1999
Recorded Date: April-June 1999
Studio: Sing Sing Studios, Melbourne
Total Length: 00:54:02
Producer: Mark Trombino
Mastering: Bernard Grundman Mastering, Hollywood
Artwork: Andrew Christie & Ben Steele
Notes: Includes a bonus track, Big Beer Wall, when you rewind back past the start of track 1. Initially sold as a limited edition (70,000) double CD set containing a multimedia video, and CD-Xtra. The Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra is featured on the track <
Press Release:
THE STORY SO FAR…
Friends since their mutual theatre arts training at Perth's
Leeming High School, Kevin Mitchell (vocals, guitar), Chris Daymond (guitar,
vocals) and Vanessa (bass) hooked up with Kevin's older brother Brett (drums) to
play their first show in Fremantle in August 1995. Legend has it the average
Western Australian jaw dropped 2cm overnight.
Two months later, on their
first gig outside WA and their lucky 13th overall, Jebediah won the annual
National Campus Band Competition in Lismore, New South Wales, 4000 km from home.
The stun factor went national.
Jebediah signed to murmur (home of
silverchair and Something For Kate) in April 96, immediately undertaking the
first of many exhaustive national tours. The 'Twitch' EP was released in August.
Radio rapture kicked in with their January 97 single, "Jerks of Attention" and
escalated in June with "Leaving Home".
In September 97, Jebediah's debut
album Slightly Odway entered the national ARIA chart at #7 and the ARIA
alternative chart at #2. Within four months it was certified Gold. Today, having
spawned five hit singles and one of the most thrilling live sets in Australian
rock, it's a double platinum classic.
CHAPTER TWO…
It can take a
near death experience to get some bands off the road. In Jebediah's case, late
1998 was a litany of personal disasters from car accidents to glandular fever to
busted ribs to appendectomy. Were it not for reflective moments in various
emergency rooms across Australia, this eagerly awaited second coming might still
be on the "later" list.
"We just love playing," Chris Daymond shrugs.
"You're either on the road playing with your band or you're sitting at home
doing nothing. Since the very beginning, we've very rarely said no to a
gig."
It figures. Any rock fan who hasn't caught Jebediah in the
breathtaking act over the past two years just hasn't been trying. From Livid to
Homebake to Mudslinger to the Big Day Out, no Oz road fest was complete without
the Jebs' hyperactive stage presence and grab bag of sterling radio tunes.
Whether in the company of WA indie buddies like Beaverloop, Mach Pelican
or Red Jezebel; national monsters Powderfinger, You Am I or the Living End or
global stars of the Soundgarden-cum-Smashing Pumpkins calibre, life since
Slightly Odway had been a steadily snowballing road marathon.
The pay-off
is all over Of Someday Shambles, the work of a band two years older but with a
whole lifetime more experience. "We're obviously a lot better in our playing and
a lot more confident about our songs," says Brett Mitchell. "We still really
like Odway," his brother adds, "but this one had to be better. That was the only
real aim."
for more info contact murmur or your epic records
representative
After their berth on the 1999 Big Day Out, the band took a
month off to hone an existing array of unrecorded tunes and to coax another half
a dozen "from out of the sky". Some of the album's most striking songs - "Did
You Really", "Congratulations", "In Orbit", "Run of the Company" - all
materialised in this pre-production period.
"No one comes in with written
songs," Chris Daymond stresses. "We all have to be there, writing the song
together. Everything we write, if it's gonna survive, it needs four people to
remember it the next week - which doesn't always happen."
The up side is
that if four people remember a new Jebediah song after one rehearsal, there's a
good chance thousands more will have it in their head for keeps after one spin.
Of Someday Shambles' first single "Animal" is a text book example of the pop
immediacy and blistering rock energy which define Jebediah's reputation as
singlesmiths par excellance.
But it's the scope of Of Someday Shambles
that really impresses. Cracker tunes like "Did you Really",
"Star Machine"
and "Skin" follow where Odway left off, but few could have expected the harmonic
delicacy of "Love At Last", the pedal steel shading of "Happier Sad" or the
hair-raising orchestral finale,
"Run of the Company".
Vanessa: "We
contacted (producer) Mark Trombino on the Internet cause we all loved the
Knapsack record and (Blink 182's) Dude Ranch. Because of the types of songs we
were writing, he seemed to make sense. He emailed us back straight away and said
he liked the songs."
"Which was a blessing in itself," says Brett. "He's
a very hard man to impress. He's very methodical. A total perfectionist, in
short. And he's a drummer, so the drums sound fantastic. We averaged about four
days per song. I don't mind saying it was a little gruelling at times but that's
the way he works and the results are so good it was well worth it."
"We
spent a lot more time on harmonies," says Kevin, "but then we spent a lot more
time on everything. We were in the studio twice as long as the last record. I
was more particular about the lyrics, for sure. There's a lot of lyrics on the
first album that make me wince. I guess I'll probably feel the same way about
this record in a year or two, but I thought I'd give myself a better
chance."
Since their April residency at Melbourne's Sing Sing studios,
Jebediah have taken steps into the international market with a showcase tour of
Canada and a second trip to New Zealand. Harder, sweeter, smarter and stronger,
Of Someday Shambles is destined to broaden their horizons in more ways than
one.
"We're a band that likes a lot of variety," Kevin says. "The best
thing about this record compared to Odway is that when a song had a particular
kind of vibe or felt like it was going a particular way, we just went with it.
If a song wants to take you somewhere, you might as well ride with it."
Track by Track
Did You Really
"A good indication of what we sound like
live. It's also very indicative of the way we get in and write our tunes: quite
literally a question of picking up instruments, someone starts
playing, we
all join in and we write a song in three and a half minutes flat. Love those
moments."
Star Machine
"Chris came in with that first progression and
we worked on it from there. It was a really exciting song to write, it kinda
felt good to play. It's about escapism, a relief from over-exposure. There might
be a slight reference to the last two years of our lives in
there."
Congratulations
"Kevin wrote the lyrics kinda late. He was
trying to write a song that told a story. And we namedrop Even. On the first
album we namedropped Archers of Loaf and the Stone Roses so the characters in
this song are going to an Even show."
Trapdoor
"Written just after we
finished the last album; we were playing it live years ago. We tried to make it
the most sonically fucked up song we've ever done. Mark said the demo reminded
him of the Pixies. It's the only song we've ever written where Kevin doesn't
sing a melody."
Please Leave
"The lost song. We played it at Planet
(in Perth) before Odway. Kevin had written out the lyrics and gaffa taped them
to Vanessa's back. After that we totally forgot about it and Chris found the
lyric sheet in a guitar case somewhere."
Love At Last
"Yeah, well,
it's a totally unabashed love song isn't it? When we were writing the chorus it
came out sounding really beautiful: nice, sincere sounding music. Kevin didn't
want to waste that feeling when it came to writing the lyrics."
Animal
"A flat out pop song with all the associated cool energy. What's unusual for
us is that it doesn't have a breakdown section, the rhythm is constant from the
word go to the end. One of the simplest songs we've ever done as far as
arrangements go. It sounds like nasty Ratcat or something."
Happier Sad
"It's an accidental epic. Ed Bates from The Sports played the pedal steel.
He was also on Tim Rogers' Twin Set album, that's where we heard him first. He
makes the song, really. The pedal steel is awesome. We've never played that one
live."
Slot Car Racing
"That started as a joke. Kevin was being
stupid in the rehearsal room and came up with this totally nonsensical cord
progression. Often we'll start playing heavy metal or something just for a laugh
and that's how that one started: full on, loud. The way the rhythm goes is just
fucking funny."
Feet Touch The Ground
"That's another epic. Don't
really want to say what it's about. The intensity of that song far exceeds
anything else we've ever done."
In Orbit
"It's a rock song. What else
can you say? It's the most rock song we've ever recorded and Mark's production
gives it a big boost: the huge Foo Fighters drum sound and all. It's a hell of a
lot of fun to play."
Skin
"That came right after the first album, a
pop number kind of in the vein of "Leaving Home" or "Did You Really". There's
some funky guitar stuff going on there. It's about a girl."
Run of the
Company
"We always wanted to hear strings on it, the big finale arrangement.
The original idea was to have a long
guitar solo but never did any of us
imagine a full 22-piece orchestra. That was
Trombi's initiative. It sounds
nothing like Trapdoor, that's for sure."
