The Dolphin Show are a band who adapt their sound to suit their environment. The pubs are shut. Live music venues have closed their doors. Some may never open again. A lack of government funding for the arts has left the Australian entertainment industry reeling. With no way of letting loose, the children are riddled with angst and itching to shake some action.
But fear not! The Dolphin Show have recorded their second EP, Thick Black Brain Blood, and it’s full of the abrasive intuition needed to get the lot of us outta this mess with our bodies still attached to our heads. Their new single, Fuck Off Dad, premiered this week and it’s pure raw punk.
The Dolphin Show are notorious on the Northern Beaches for their wild gigs, always managing to haul an uncut crowd of fearless freaks who feel alive.
After undergoing a series of tweaked line-up changes, The Dolphin Show have battled through the turbulence and breached the surface of continuity on their new EP, Thick Black Brain Blood. The first single dropped this week alongside a lo-fi clip. Fuck Off Dad is a one-hundred-second release; an ode to anyone who’s ever been pissed off and let it all out as fast as they possibly can. The accompanying video captures the home divide in true style. With nowhere to run, it features an angry dad yelling in his tool shed and an aggravated boy lifting backyard weights. Fuck Off Dad is a blistering punk number that imitates the tensions of family discord and dysfunction.
Thick Black Brain Blood, recorded at Factory Studios in Mona Vale, is polished while still maintaining a gritty edge. Founding members, James Suttor and Will Badger interchange vocal and soloing roles as they bounce feverishly off each other from track to track with an energy that explains why they’ve been best mates since primary school. Suttor’s fast-paced riffage complements Badger’s echoed groans and screaming feedback. Think fuzzy Dinosaur Jr. guitar tone intertwined with the chaos of an IDLES set and you have The Dolphin Show. Venturing away from their surf-rock roots, the Northern Beaches-based band have shifted into heavier territory and found their thrashy niche on Thick Black Brain Blood.
The Dolphin Show have kept a relatively low profile on Sydney’s live music scene as of late, channelling the majority of their creative muscle and energies into tedious hours in the studio. However, they came out of the cave when they were most needed by the community for a special Bands 4 Bushlands fundraiser event which raised over twenty-thousand bucks for the firies!
The Dolphin Show give Sydney’s music scene the sense of hope and promise that is needed to resurrect it during this critical time. Thick Black Brain Blood is fully recorded and set for release in mid-2020, after being pushed back to fit the unique circumstances of the situation. It’s reverberating substance will soon explode in your brain; then melt, liquefy and flow through your veins. From torsional teens to a terrestrial cockroach, the band have evolved exponentially since their debut release. The Show is back! Not even your dad can stop them.
If you’re fed up with the excesses of family time in isolation, either tell your dad to fuck off or check out the abrasive video to The Dolphin Show’s new single below:
