There’s a tendency in the garage rock world to pay little heed to stylistic specifics or sonic categorizations. And that’s OK: When a band blows minds with hyper-charged live shows and irrepressible energy, who cares what touchstones they referenced for the all-analog recording of their latest limited-edition vinyl?
Such is the case with Australia’s Straight Arrows. A deliciously acid-fried mix of psychedelic skronk, fuzzed-out pop jangle, and beer-soaked basement punk, Owen Penglis, Angie Bermuda, Alex Grigg and Adam Williams clearly owe a debt to Nuggets-style underground ’60s rock. But over the course of two full-length albums and countless 7-inch singles — all recorded by Penglis either at home or in his more recent Goliath Professional Record Studio venture — Straight Arrows have gone dark, jammed hard, and even sprinkled soul, country and power pop into the mix. All while everyone in the band plays in other bands and works other jobs, mind you. Folio Weekly caught up with Penglis just hours after he and the band landed in the United States.
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Folio Weekly: How has Straight Arrows’ first week in the U.S. been?
Owen Penglis: We landed on election night and things were really quiet. Then, the next day everyone was super bummed out. But by the weekend, people seemed a little better. And our first few shows with Thee Oh Sees were sold out.
And now you get to visit Florida for the first time.
Oh, man, we’re so stoked. [Show promoter] Nick [Commoditie] from St. Augustine first got ahold of us five years ago and he’s been working hard — like emailing all the time — to get us down there ever since. And since it’s our first time, the lineups we’re playing with are amazing.
You guys produced a new release just for this tour, right?
Yep, a 7-inch with a couple of new tracks. But those provide a good taste of the new material we’ve been working on, which should be out on a new full-length record next year.
What would you say is the biggest change with this new material?
You can hear everything a little better these days. [Laughs.] And we’ve gotten a little better at playing our instruments. Besides that, sound-wise, I feel like all of our records have been a mixed bag. Even the songs within each album can sound way different than each other. And that’ll be true for the new one as well.
Are you influenced heavily by the music you listen to? Does that seep into the music you write?
Definitely. I love finding weird old bands from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. There are so many strange bands like Shoes and When In Rome who were only around for a short time but whose records we love listening to.
Though this is your first Florida gig, Straight Arrows seem to tour in the U.S. a lot. What’s so special about our country?
The shows are so fun — in Australia, people are pretty chill. But here in America, we can get a couple hundred people out raging at every show, which is awesome. It’s easier to go to the U.S. now that we’ve been around for a while. But coming from Australia, it’s still a lot to line up — we gotta get work visas and put a lot of effort in to make it happen.
Speaking of work, what does everybody in the band do outside of music?
Our drummer Adam’s always been an architect — we’re in New York now and he’s off looking at buildings while we’re going to record stores. Al the guitarist works in booking, and Angie the bassist works in a bookshop half the time. I do some recording and DJing, just trying to hustle and make things happen.
A few years ago, there was a huge surge of garage rock acts coming out of Australia. Are they still around?
Eh, it’s hard to say at the moment. There aren’t a heap of bands like us around.
And probably none of them could match your insane onstage energy. Have things gotten any tamer for Straight Arrows?
We bought a guitar tuner [laughs]! And we can play a bit better now. But the shows are definitely just as raw as they’ve always been. When you ride in the van all day, you’re itching to get onstage and go nuts. That’s what the fans expect.
Noisey.com referenced the Orlando show specifically and said, “We know someone (most likely Owen) will be rolling around in broken glass.”
Yeah — maybe I should have gotten health insurance before I came over this time? Going to the hospital is so damn expensive here in the U.S.
FOLIO
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