Caught in the Carousel

Wagons

By Alex Green

Wagons

"Wagons, besides owing major debt to the '70s, have managed to filter and master enough of their influences to make fresh ground for themselves," former Go-Between Robert Forster once wrote of the Melbourne sextet.

It's true.

While the blood of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash all course mightily through frontman Henry Wagons, and his band references everyone from the Old '97s to The Handsome Family, somehow this outfit manages to always sound wholly original. Their fifth effort, Rumble, Shake and Tumble is a ferocious set of spirited roots rock that combines humor, sarcasm, satire and heartbreak better than almost any record in recent memory.

"I Blew It" is filled with stomp, regret and a well-placed cowbell; "Love Is Burning" comes with a libidinous prowl and "Downlow" is a self-effacing, jangly rocker that has one of the most infectious choruses of the year. Elsewhere, "Follow This Leader" is straight-up country that comes with a reggae backbeat; "Willie Nelson" is an inspired homage to the great bearded one and the spry "Life Is Too Short" brings to mind the late, great Country Dick Montana of the Beat Farmers.

Although the band uses humor a great deal in their material, Forster astutely pointed out that they, "...have a heart and skill to their songs that pushes them beyond being a comedy act." Humor is how one arms themselves against the heartbreak of human existence, and though Henry Wagons may be a faster draw on the funny than the poker-faced Cash or Haggard, he knows how to use comedy to make profound points about the world. That being said, Wagons is less of a clown on his band's fifth effort than he has been in the past and he practically announces as much at the beginning of the album: "Everybody's happy if they wanna be/Today I'm in the mood to be sad and lonely."

Mature, moving and calibrated with the perfect balance of jocularity and seriousness, Wagons have made the best album of their career.

A tireless touring band, Wagons have traveled the world and eaten some pretty brilliant meals. Here are ten of them.

Wagons

Henry Wagons' Consummate Top 10 Food Experiences While on Tour

10. Rowboat Full of Oysters at 'The Big Day Out' in Sydney.
My grandma is a big fan of buffets. She is as strategic as she is passionate about them, to the extent where she will yell at me when I get back from a trip to the bain marie with any kind potato-based food. Meat and seafood only will recoup the price of entry! Potatoes are not maximising my value. Needless to say, the rowboat full of fresh oysters on ice, wheeled out in the backstage catering area at Australia's biggest music festival, was the most extravagant buffet item ever. It was full to the brim! I wished my Nan was there to see me totally gorge myself on those pearls of the sea.

9. Korean BBQ Burrito
I got this unlikely fusion from a street vendor in Austin, Texas, during the 2011 SXSW. It had all the benefits of bulgogi beef within the convenient hand-held package of a burrito. It was a refreshing change to engage in this unlikely mixing of foods after my many long days of mixing of alcohol, which SXSW seems to require.

8. Homecoming South Melbourne Market Dim Sim
Eating on the road is not always fun. All too many meals are out of a greasy paper bag on the side of the road. It really makes you appreciate the meals you have at home even more. When I get back to Melbourne I always make sure I reward myself with a homecoming 'dim sim'. The 'dim sim' is an Australian bastardisation of the Chinese shumai dumpling/dim sum, but it's bigger and meatier. The South Melbourne Market makes them at their finest. The humble market stall always has a line around the corner for their renowned 'dimmies'. The service is very much in the style of the Soup Nazi. It's always worth the weeks I spend waiting for another hit. The irony is, it's served in a paper bag and is best eaten with a wide grin on the side of the road.

7. My First Sunday Roast, London
The Sunday Roast is a long-standing British tradition. Though England is not known for its food, I found my first ever English Roast a real delight. It was a plate full of roast pork (with crackling), colourful vegetables and golden potatoes, eaten in the surrounds of a typical London pub called The Slaughtered Lamb. The two delicately flakey Yorkshire Puddings soaked in gravy sent the carb levels sky-rocketing. I had the meal 30 minutes before the show, which was far to close to the show from memory. I pity the person who had to use that microphone after me.

6. The Usual Bacon and Egg Sandwich
For us at Wagons, a bacon and egg sandwich is a tour staple breakfast. If you squint, there are all the ingredients of a high-class brunch, crammed inside stodgy, spongy bread.

In Australia, touring often requires long stints of driving, so being able to get a quick and greasy meal to soak up the sins from the night before is a must. Maitland Cafe has one of the very best: Soft yolk, crispy bacon and two thick (and surprisingly untoasted) pieces of soft white bread. And honourable mention also goes to the Blu Grotto in Brisbane.

5. Breakfast Beef Noodle Soup (Pho) in Vietnam
We had the pleasure of playing a music festival in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in 2010. Along with a good pizza, Vietnamese food is a solid favourite of mine. I arrived in the country with a bib fixed to my neck as I had grand eating plans. My breakfast obsession with all forms of bacon and eggs, along with a healthy respect for a supple and honeyed bowl of porridge made the local delicacy of breakfast beef noodle soup an unlikely choice for me. Well, when in Rome.... I tried the soup, or pho, and did not go back. From Ho Chi Minh to Hoi An, that liquid gold beef broth opened my day.

4. Underground Bacon Choc Chip Cookies in Bellingham, WA
Backstage at a gig in Bellingham, Justin Townes Earle's bass player handed me a sealed plastic bag. "Have one of these," he said. "You'll like it." I didn't know what to expect in that bag. It was handed to me as if it was some serious underground stuff. And it was. After all, it was a fairly serious culinary bombshell: choc-chip and bacon cookies. The combination of chocolate and meat causes shell-shock for most Australians, but I gained quite a taste for their salty sweetness. In fact, I liked them more than anyone else backstage and got to take the unfinished bag back to the hotel to polish off while watching a late-night '80s movie.

3. Sophisticated Toronto Midnight Snack
My usual late night feed on the way home from a gig involves a burger or slice of pizza, washed down with a hefty vanilla shake. Things changed for me when I got hungry after my first ever show in Toronto, Canada earlier this year, when I classed it up a little. I bought the most sophisticated midnight snack I've ever had from a dingy convenience store at 1:15am. It could have been the booze, but the shelves of this Canadian corner store seemed full of hyper-gourmet fine dining packaged snacks. I ended up going home with Dill and Pickle flavoured chips with luscious dark chocolate covered Pomegranate drops (and a Coke).

2. Bacon and Egg Waffle Cone
As you might have guessed already, I love to sample unusual food and always go out of my way to try local specialties when the band rolls into a new town. Getting its second mention in this list, Austin, Texas live by their directive "Keep Austin Weird." The bacon and waffle cone, available from another street vendor in Austin, is a great example of how good 'weird' can get. A bacon chip waffle cone, filled with fluffy scrambled eggs. Bacon and eggs consumed while walking...I was in heaven.

1. The Portland Bacon Donut
Portland, Oregon's Voodoo Donuts is an institution for a reason. A lot of people back home (correctly) think I am a little insane to queue up for half an hour to get a donut with two rashers of bacon on it. Tasting just like pancakes with bacon and syrup, the 'Bacon Maple Bar' is one of my favourite taste sensations in the U.S. I am looking forward to many more weird and amazing tastes eclipsing this in the future, but the bar has been set very high.

Rumble, Shake and Tumble is out now on Spunk Records.

Wagons