× Two NL shows for Clowns this summer!!

Two NL shows for Clowns this summer!!

07-05-2019

Melbourne punks Clowns have never been ones to conform. The five-piece started life in 2010 as a more-or-less straightforward hardcore punk act, but over the course of their first three albums – 2013’s I’m Not Right, 2015’s Bad Blood and 2017’s Lucid Again – were steadily evolving and mutating their sound in whatever direction they felt like. It was always loud, but it became both more nuanced and more off-kilter.

New record Nature/Nurture, which is released on April 12 through Fat Wreck Chords, sees the band continuing down that snaking path – it’s 11 songs swerving right and left abruptly and unexpectedly, veering from frantic punk to slower, more nuanced and psychedelic-tinged rock. And while it might not always make sense, these songs still sound like Clowns; because when Clowns don’t sound like Clowns, they actually do – a paradox that vocalist Stevie Williams is very much aware of.

Nature/Nurture is an amalgamation of our last three records, which we’ve made over the last 6 or so years,” he says. “Our line-up has been a little bit fluid over the years, but this record is the band really coming to fruition with this line-up and with all the different sounds that we’ve experimented with over the years – everywhere from super-adolescent punk rock to nine-minute long psych jams. Now completed by drummer and founding member Jake Laderman, bassist/vocalist Hanny J and guitarists Rod Goon and Will Robinson, Clowns have become something of a force to be reckoned with in recent years.

It’s perhaps only Clowns that could romanticize that experience to that degree, but that demonstrates perfectly what’s so special about them – and about this record, in particular. This is punk rock with a difference, that uses traditional facets of that genre as a foundation, but then builds upon that to create something that’s both utterly unique and incredibly exciting. That coupled with their intricate musicianship, clever, incisive lyrics and their phenomenally high energy live shows is what convinced Fat Wreck Chords to release this record.

This five-piece melt the faces off of everyone who hears and sees them live. Go see them in July:

25/07: Utrecht (NL) - dBs 
26/07: Haarlem (NL) - Patronaat 

back