DAVE'S DIARY - 25 NOVEMBER 2003 - T BONES

T-BONES SIZZLE FOR NU COUNTRY TV

Sunraysia reared country band The T-Bones are the epitome of rural rooted country with a hard urban edge.

The band, which hails from Robinvale, followed in the slipstream of punchy predecessors 'Saltbush' and the 'Dead Livers' by writing about life in the Aussie country fast lane.

They launch their sixth album 'Seventeen' (a compilation) on Friday December 5 at the Ding Dong Lounge in Market Lane in the Melbourne CBD.

They have also started recording their new studio album but perform their original tune 'She Starts' from fifth album 'Smartest Kid In Town' in their Nu Country TV debut on Saturday November 29.

The song, one of many car classics from the pens of singer Andrew Pupillo and guitarists Charlie Wilde and James Stewart, is a crowd pleaser.

BREWERY SPONSORSHIP

"We have a sponsorship from Melbourne Bitter to help us with artwork and promotion which is fantastic, not to mention the free piss that comes with it," Pupillo revealed to Nu Country on the eve of the launch.

"We also have finished a brand new album due for release next year.

"It's our best recording yet so we want to get busy and play some more gigs. So it would be much appreciated if you could spread the word about the T Bones new stuff and how we will soon dominate the world."

BEAT REVIEW FROM 2001

The T-Bones fifth album 'Smartest Kid In Town' on Melbourne indie label Corduroy was Beat Magazine album of the week in April of 2001.

Here's the review.

THE T-BONES
SMARTEST KID IN TOWN - (CORDUROY.)

When Sunraysia spawned band The T-Bones recorded their fifth album in 15 years they didn't re-invent themselves for the cyber café latte lilies who wilt after seasonal fashion fries.

The T-Bones play a healthy hybrid of rural and urban country with little concession to the tides of the myopic mainstream and snow depression devotees.

Although the band performs live about as often as punchy predecessors the Dead Livers they have the same hard edge.

They showcased most of the album when they shared a Nu Country FM benefit bill with singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman on August 26, 2000.

It was then that Easy Money - a Charlie Wilde penned crime narrative with the same title as a Todd Snider gem - punched itself into the psyche of even the most casual listener.
There stands the T-Bone strength - an innate ability to embed credible yarns with hooks strong enough to stand the test of time.

The band uses its car songs as more than just a vehicle for nostalgia, awakening, identity, guilt and loss.

Singer Andrew Pupillo injects She Starts and It's Gone with sufficient sardonic stuffing to ensure the audience gets it.

But it's Wilde's title track - the album's entrée - that sets the mood for a journey through the lads' collective country childhood to urban middle age.

The pathos-primed tale of a desolation angel, scarred by paternal tragedy in adolescence, is a salient signpost to the guitarist's escape to the bright lights of the city in Headed Out Of Town.

The journey has many rich poetic pit stops - Pupillo's wry Bass Playin' Man and timely footy metaphor in his heart wrenching Only One Light - companion song of sorts to the desperation of Wild With The World.

Wilde's evocative Learning All About Love is in sharp contrast to the satiric streak of 5 Car Pile Up - the parodic analogy of nocturnal TV news car carnage and horror movie flashbacks.

But it's then that the band reverts to Wilde's biblical bookend - Religion and Smartest Kid reprise, replete with accordion playing by Pupillo pa, Sam, and Ian Collard's harmonica.
That's cream on the country crop of the twin guitars of Wilde and James Stewart, dual drums and percussion of Michael Barclay and James Carden, Hugh Martin on bass and pedal steel from Ed Bates.

This probably surpasses the Dead Livers second disc, 'Reaching To The Western Sky,' as the best fair dinkum roots Aussie country band disc of the new millenium.

The t-Bones have a major advantage over the Shamworth chaff chappies and alt dolts refried rock - they don't preen in trend tarnished mirrors for the sponge finger direction.
They've lived out or soaked up their material from hard riding on the edge without the shallow stimulus or safety of a sales saddle.

The only major criticism - the production was finished by Michael Thomas in September of 1999 but only escaped this month. - DAVID DAWSON.

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