Brisbane indie-rock darlings, Screamfeeder, have been around for a while, but they’re not done yet.
The music nostalgists among you will no doubt be dusting off your styluses with the news Screamfeeder have/ and will re-release all of their back catalogue on limited-edition vinyl. The first four albums (‘Flour’, ‘Burn Out Your Name’, ‘Fill Yourself With Music’ and ‘Kitten Licks’) were released earlier this year, with the rest set to follow in 2015.
After a Sydney show at the start of the month, Screamfeeder have further dates in Adelaide and Melbourne this weekend before returning to their hometown, Brisbane, next month. Punters and fans alike can expect plenty of trips down memory lane. "I guess it is influenced by the fact that people are buying vinyl again and people are enjoying listening to music in a format other than digital,” frontman Tim Steward says about the reaction to the re-issues, “so it's enabled us to do it knowing that, yeah, we'll be able to get rid of the copies basically.
“It's been really touching for us. This stuff's like 20-years old and people still care about it, it still means something to them."
Tim and cohort Screamfeeder songwriter Kellie Lloyd will also be performing a sideshow of some of their own material alongside the gigs. “With Kellie it's good because what we do is we mix a little bit of our post-Screamfeeder material with the old-Screamfeeder favourites that we did together. It's kind of a sneaky way of introducing people to our other musical work from the last ten years.”
Since their inception in 1991, Screamfeeder have seen a tremendous amount of change with their career — from playing local, DIY venues to sharing the stage with the likes of Sonic Youth. Steward, however, cites his favourite venue as Brisbane live music institution, Ric's. "It’s a tiny, little place and it's fairly restrictive, but I've never had a bad gig there."
Tim has seen his fair share of Brisbane's venues come and go. With the recent 'agent of change' principle being implemented in Victoria, (shifting the responsibility of soundproofing to developers or residents who move within earshot of an already established venue), Tim couldn’t agree more with the move. "People should just fucking get over it, I reckon … everything's fucking politically-correct this, government-approval that and there's a department for everything. It gets a bit boring after a while. When people are moving in next door to a live music venue and have a problem with noise, it just doesn't make sense … people have a stick up their arses about everything."
As well as a whole new set of lovely-looking records, Screamfeeder have been doing something Tim admits they haven't done in a long, long time. "We've also been getting together in the rehearsal rooms for the first time in, God, years … We've just been jamming and coming up with new stuff."
But have they just been mucking around, or are they going to release any new material? "We've had a few sessions where we've just set-up all the mics and recorded it. There's heaps of ideas there so I'd say we'll probably actually look at writing and recording some new stuff in the next year or so."
Screamfeeder Tour Dates
Fri 17 Oct - The Jade Monkey (Adelaide)Sat 18 Oct - John Curtin Hotel (Melbourne)
Sun 19 Oct - Hit The Hi Cs Boat Cruise (Melbourne)
Sat 13 Dec - The Underdog (Brisbane)
Tim and Kellie Tour Dates
Thu 16 Oct - The Grace Emily (Adelaide)Sun 19 Oct - Bar 303 (Melbourne)
