Here’s what Michael Smith had to say about our EP:
“What do five guys who have previously been in bands like Full Fathom Five, The Mercy Bell and Crop Circles do when they still want to play, but not a whole heap? You form an instrumental surf band. In the case of The Five the premise is quite specific – five guys, five songs, five gigs and that’s it!
“Only that’s not quite it. Not only have they found that they’re suddenly in demand for a few gigs outside their hometown Brisbane, but they couldn’t just record five songs and stick it out as a 500 copies only 7″ EP (well EP only in that it’s 7″, since one side is 45 rpm and the other LP speed at 33 1/3 rpm). They actually cut ten songs, so they’ve included a CD album with the 7″, and if that’s not enough, you can download five more tracks, though those are all covers.
“So how do The Five stack up in the surf guitar stakes? They’re certainly more traditionally twangy guitars on tracks like No Sauce than Midnight Oil and Violent Femmes’ The Break, but they’re also more indie rock on tracks like (Musn’t) Grumble than say, The Atlantics, with a far more aggressive and gritty rumble. So perhaps they’re closer to The Ventures, whose 2000lb Bee Pt. 2 they cover on the CD, with an occasional nod to Link Wray on the appropriately spacey Big Bird, the fuzzed-out Theme From Burger Force (The Suffering Bastard) and Miseri Loves Company – probably the best cut on the album – though all of them just that bit more polite than Wray would have done them.
“Still, a sterling effort for all that and a welcome addition to Australia’s surf instrumental canon”.
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