Celebrate the relaunch of Adelaide recording studios GhostNote, formerly known as Capitalsound, with a wild party in the style of Kurt Vonnegut.
Monkey House is an event hosted by the studio and local label Swirl Records and is part of Umbrella: Winter City Sounds. Taking its name from Vonnegut’s short story series, ‘Welcome To The Monkey House’, it’s a night of punk set in an industrial area of the CBD.
Director and manager for Swirl Records, Gerry Bain explains why Capitalsound have decided to undergo this transition to GhostNote as well as the studio’s relevance in the local music scene over the past 15 years.
"They run a great little space with some beautiful digital and analogue ware, and they’ve had bands like Luca Brasi and High Tension come through and a bunch of others,” Gerry says.
“Now they’re going through a stage where they’re realising the musical scene is changing in Adelaide and it’s their time and opportunity to adapt to this change.”
Monkey House takes place at the Gunson Street Carpark, which Gerry says will be transformed into a punk-industrial party zone styled after the themes of worldwide governmental oppression in Vonnegut’s stories. “We started with the idea of the venue,” he explains.
“It’s a really cool ground-level carpark and there’s a circus school, the music studio, a big arts warehouse; it’s an industrial site that’s in a transformative stage of becoming a haven for creatives.
“It’s surrounded by concrete, brick and besser block and has a sort of industrial beauty. We’ve curated a gig around the idea of garage, punk and industrial.
“The name is a friendly nod to Kurt Vonnegut. It’s not going to be a political statement as such; it’s our friendly appreciation of the novel and its effect on our culture.”
The line-up for Monkey House includes Melbourne surf punks Dumb Punts and Perth psych-punk act Hideous Sun Demon, along with local Adelaide bands Goon Wizarrd and Siamese. But wait, there’s more.
A secret act has also been announced for the night and although Gerry doesn’t want to give away the surprise to soon, he says audiences will certainly not be disappointed. “This band are a staple of the Adelaide punk scene right now,” he says.
“They’ve worked in the past with Capitalsound and they’re making headway with their own punk flavour… and they are a really good Australian national band.” The band Gerry was talking about is Horror My Friend, who have been announced since this interview was conducted.
Monkey House takes place at Gunson Street Carpark (Adelaide) 29 July.
