Caught in the Carousel

The Little Murders

By Alex Green

The Little Murders

“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm,” Thoreau once said. I’ve never been very good at math, but keeping Thoreau’s formula close at hand, by my calculations, that makes Australia’s The Little Murders the youngest band on the planet. Even though they were formed in 1979 by Englishman Rob Griffiths, the band’s new album Dig For Plenty is a fiery and youthful dose of garage pop that isn’t short on hooks or heart.

One of the mainstays of the Melbourne mod scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, The Little Murders have always been a band that know how to blast their way through a pop song. Singer/guitarist Griffiths is in possession of a lippy snarl that sneaks in between vowels, crashes against consonants and injects every song he writes with urgency and muscle.

In fact, after riffling through the ‘Murders’ back catalog, I can confirm that Griffiths has never written a bad song.

Seriously.

Dig For Plenty ignites immediately on the strength of “For You” a punchy burst of fiery pop that sounds young and tough and loaded with muscle. “Pretty Penny” has one of the catchiest guitar riffs in recent memory; the fast talking “Roxy (I’m Digging Your Scene)” sounds like Billy Bragg fronting the 101ers and “One More Chance” jangles wistfully away. Elsewhere, there’s the rootsy hop of “Girl, What’s On Your Mind?” and “Velvet (Get Out Of Bed)” is nothing short of rousing.

From his home in Melbourne, Griffiths took a look a back and a look forward and gave CITC the inside scoop on The Little Murders.

Caught In The Carousel: Bring us up to date: What is the current state of the Little Murders?

Rob Griffiths: Since we launched the retrospective in August 2009 we've gone back to playing regularly around the Melbourne pubs and clubs. It just took that push from Off the Hip records to get the ball rolling. It also helped getting a gig supporting From The Jam that came out of the blue when we hadn't played for a few years. Although we still fly the Mod flag we've moved towards garage rock/power pop. We've built our own rehearsal room, which is fantastic for the band and recording practice sessions and new songs and it does wonders for the sound. The process of writing and rehearsing gives a more live feel to my work. On the last few albums songs were brought to the studio and the band arranged them there. All our new album has been played at gigs before recording. It makes for a return to the sound on the retrospective. A more pop rock sound.

CITC: What’s the new lineup and how does it compare to those of the past?

RG: The new line-up is Tony Robertson (from The Hitmen) on bass, Bruce Minty (Jonestown) on guitar, Rod Heyward (Dave Graney) on lead guitar and our latest addition Duncan Hamilton (Holoscene) on drums. Brilliant line-up and totally match fit at the moment. We fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Yep, it's a bloody great lineup.

The Little Murders

CITC: Shifting from mod to garage/power pop seems a natural and seamless progression. How has your songwriting changed over the years?

RG: Saying we have a garage sound might not be right. Although its influence is stamped on our newer stuff. In the early days I wrote songs for the band to play live. When the band came back together in the ‘90s my writing was very much solo and I brought in the musicians to play them. This continued up to the We Should Be Home By Now record. When I moved into my new house there was a big garage in the back and we converted it into a rehearsal space. Songs were written for the band, not for me. When we play live now over half the set is from the new album while most the rest is off the retrospective. The only songs from the last two albums we do are “Andy Warhol Retrospective” and “Holiday.”

CITC: How do you rate your writing these days?

RG: My writing is the best ever at the moment, if that's not being too cocky. I've kinda found what I want to write about--which is creating my own musical world. I've started populating this world with characters such as Mrs. Walker and Roxy and Pretty Penny…

CITC: You’ve never written about characters before, have you?

RG: I've never written about characters before…

CITC: So who’s Pretty Penny?

RG: “Pretty Penny” is about firstly a girl I had a crush on back in my middle school days when I first came to Australia. I can't remember ever talking to her but I walked past her house quite a few times. But also it's a reference to “Pretty Green” from the Jam. I like songs to have a multiple meanings so it's also about money and I suppose the music industry.

CITC: And “Mrs. Walker”?

RG: “Mrs. Walker” was one of the first songs I wrote for the new album. Last year in Melbourne we had these dreadful bushfires. Some of the stories were incredibly heart-wrenching. I've never tried writing this way--putting myself into a story--but I felt it was time to try. I'm looking at how others write and I just want to try things out. I've got a band that will tell me if a song doesn't cut it and I respect them. The band can veto my songs. I just wrote a song called “Rivoli Bar” which they deemed far too Beatles because of the chord changes and melody. So now I have to tuck it away and maybe hit them with it in altered form or save it for another project.

The Little Murders

CITC: This type of character-driven writing is very Ray Davies. Was he an influence?

RG: With the release of the retrospective last year and re-examining my roots, so they say, I've gone back to those sixties sounds I was so bound up in. Because I was immersed in the sixties for so long, what with the music I played and spinning the discs at clubs, I kinda lost touch with some of the big ones like the Kinks and the Who. But having a few years listening to nuggets has made my ears fresh again. So to answer your question, Ray Davies is a huge influence on what I do. “Waterloo Sunset” is my favourite song of all time. Like ever.

CITC: Speaking of Mr. Davies, is it true that you handed him some Little Murders music?

RG: The Kinks were touring Melbourne in the early eighties. I hung out with a guy called Jimmy the Greek. He had some front on him. He'd somehow get in touch with visiting rock stars and start hanging out with them. When we saw Neil Young at the Jump Club while other people held back or just paid compliments, Jimmy would be in there with real conversation. Neil gave us tickets to his concert and gave a shout out to Jimmy on stage. Anyway, same thing with Ray. I get a call from Jimmy. I'm having a drink with Ray Davies. Fancy meeting him. So I go alone. I take all the Murders singles, including the new one "She Lets Me Know". I say, "I've got every Kinks record ever made and now you've got every Little Murders record ever made!" This was followed by light discussion of pop music that I can't remember much about. His next single "Come Dancing" did open very similar to "She Lets Me Know" though, so maybe he did have a listen!

CITC: During the 'Murders time of inactivity, were you still writing songs?

RG: Yeah. I've always been writing songs. However, if you don't play them to anyone they don't mean much. I think Springsteen said something like that. Without a band or a label to release stuff, nothing was really finished. It takes activity to get the juices going. I've already written half the next album. I can't say I was ever inactive. I deejayed for lot of the time and also played a lot of solo gigs. The songs on We Should Be Home By Now mostly come from the solo gigs.

CITC: We Should Be Home By Now and First Light are two of the finest albums released in recent memory. But they were decidedly different--First Light was vintage 'Murders, but the former was a quieter effort. Can you talk about that record a bit? In your opinion, where does it stand in the band's catalog?

RG: Home I think is some of my best writing ever. But it's almost a solo record in that it was written with me in mind and given to the band as demos before going into the studio. Consequently few of the songs get played much live. “Holiday” does but that was an old song. "Keys To Your Heart" sometimes gets a play. We're bringing "There Is No One Like Her" back into the live set ‘cos it's quite good. It is a quieter effort and sounded a bit Paul Kelly. But at the time the band played after the recording, as opposed to nowadays.

CITC: When you went back to England for a visit and saw bands like The Jam, did it ever tempt you to move back home and have a go at the scene there?

RG: Didn't get to see the Jam. Saw the Purple Hearts. And the Modettes (or was it Dolly Mixture?). Anyway, it was the band that sang backing vocals on Captain Sensible’s "Happy Talk.” Dolly Mixture. I went to see them and the support band was U2 playing one of their first gigs in London. Because I was reviewing stuff for a Mod fanzine at the time, I wrote reviews of these two gigs. Somewhere I refer to U2 as trying too hard--as if they couldn't wait to call out "Hello London!!". I also didn't think they had any good tunes. I did remember seeing a lot of industry type people at the bar, however. I loved the scene in England but I wasn't tempted to go there at the time. I was thinking about how to reconfigure my band, which I did as soon as I got home; losing guitarist Clint Small because I didn't think he fit in with the Mod image I wanted to explore. In truth, the Melbourne scene was far more exciting. And a lot friendlier. London was cold and most bands were quite shit. It was the aftermath of punk. The only great gig I saw was the Clash although I did rate the Purple Hearts. I think also to move to another country you need a whole band commitment. I didn't have that until much later. In retrospect, I should have gone.

The Little Murders

CITC: The Australian scene in the ‘70s and ‘80s was so diverse—The Saints, The Go-Betweens, The Birthday Party, etc. Where did the 'Murders fit in? Was there a brotherhood among bands?

RG: The Saints were out of Australia before you could blink. I saw them at Martinis in Carlton and Chris Bailey hid behind the speakers all night. At the time their first album wasn't all that well received. The Go-Betweens were loved but no one went to their gigs and they took off, too. Same with The Birthday Party. We played a lot of gigs with Boys Next Door—their bassist Tracey was very friendly. So was Phil Calvert but he was always hustling. Nick Cave accepted an award last year—Hall of Fame or whatever—and I think he mentioned all his fellow bandmates over the years but didn't mention Phil. Somewhere they must have fallen out. But I remember Phil in the early days, pushing that band along and getting them gigs. I only remember ever one conversation with Nick. When I got back from the U.K. we were in Missing Link records and he pumped me for information. The Boys Next Door were my favourite Melbourne band. I told them the scene was flat and his band would make a killing. In the end he did. Nick was pure charisma. It was obvious he was gonna make it from the start. Little Murders were a power pop band in a sea of post-punk bands. We formed friendships with guitar bands. The Riptides, Sunny Boys and members of the Church (not Steve Kilbey) which were bands we played a lot with. Other mod bands like 5:15. Paul Kelly who ended up taking our drummer Mick. When I started with The Fiction it was more of a brotherhood in a sense that there were maybe five punk bands in Melbourne in late ’77, early ‘78. We played together because there was no one else to play with. Friendly, but I wouldn't call it a brotherhood. I didn't make anybody cups of tea after the gigs.

Further Reading:
http://littlemurders.wetpaint.com
Little Murders on Facebook

The Little Murders

Dig For Plenty is out now.