From the depths of Brisbane's conservative right, also known as the one and only suburb of Mansfield, fully encompassed by the holy postcode, 4122, comes Violent Soho. The members of the group include Luke Boerdam (Vocals, Guitars), James Tidswell (Guitars), Luke Henery (Bass) and Michael Richards (Drums).
Violent Soho began a half a decade ago as a means of playing music together for four boys, then in their teens, who wanted to be able to embrace an 80's and 90's punk-grunge impa... (more)
From the depths of Brisbane's conservative right, also known as the one and only suburb of Mansfield, fully encompassed by the holy postcode, 4122, comes Violent Soho. The members of the group include Luke Boerdam (Vocals, Guitars), James Tidswell (Guitars), Luke Henery (Bass) and Michael Richards (Drums).
Violent Soho began a half a decade ago as a means of playing music together for four boys, then in their teens, who wanted to be able to embrace an 80's and 90's punk-grunge impact to their music without disregarding the ethic that ideally follows from such influence. The band has since then gone on its way to creating an energetic live show. From its beginnings, playing shows at outer-suburban pubs and rehearsing and recording demos in their parents' garages; the band has grown not by striving to achieve musical extravagance or stability, but by being a real band, by keeping its own principle and belief and sense of mateship within itself.
In late 2005, the band released locally its first EP "Pigs & TV", which received moderate success. Then, with "Pigs & TV" all but sold out, Violent Soho proudly announced the surfacing of their first long player "We Don't Belong Here"; A collection of dark, honest, guitar driven pop, released on their good friend Magic Dirt's independent in-print Emergency Music.
In between releases Violent Soho has also toured extensively as well as played shows with such bands as The Grates, Grinspoon, The Black Keys, The Bronx, Black Francis, Cosmic Psychos, Celibate Rifles, Hard-Ons, The Mess Hall, and many countless others. Last year alone the band went on a blazing tour of the UK and the US. They also featured on major festival line-ups around Australia including Homebake, Meredith, Falls Festival, Laneway Festival and managed to involve themselves in much more rad rockin' action in between, whilst holding down non-rad rockin' full time jobs.
The band has a heavy work ethic. One which only seems to be able to work by the fact that Violent Soho is really just a unit, one band of mates.
And so 2009 shows the band having just signed an overwhelmingly exciting deal with Ecstatic Peace/Universal US - a totally ace label headed up by none other than Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore (obviously a major hero to VS as the front man to one of the greatest bands ever). This of course is pretty much the band's biggest dream come true, so obviously they are over the moon at the opportunity to be backed by such a man & the prospect of spending a lot of 2009 in the USA recording and touring
The aim at the moment is that a newly recorded album - elaborating on the already Australian released record "We Don't Belong Here" - will be due in early 2010.
We'll still be playing shows all across Australia this year though. Check out our list of tour dates for upcoming shows
We've recorded a couple of tracks by two of our favourite Australian punk bands, that will make up an incredibly limited edition 7". The tracks are "Taskforce" by Brisbane band Razar and "My Pal" by Melbourne's God. Both songs have been included sporadically in our live set over the years. This will be our first official release on Ecstatic Peace, who we signed to early this year, and the first time ever you can own Soho on vinyl. Shit yeah! Check out this picture of the cover below.
