Another Race: Tag Team.

Another Race play the Rose’n’Crown, Surfers Paradise on Wednesday, the Gabba Hotel on Thursday, the Waterloo Hotel on Friday and the Sands Tavern, Maroochydore on Saturday.

Victorian rockers Another Race are ready to make their third visit to Brisbane in a matter of months. This time they’ve got their long overdue new album Tag & Release out on display. Formed in the mid nineties, Another Race got the ball rolling by putting out a couple of releases as Biscuit before adopting their current moniker on their Processor release. Since then we’ve had two singles, Jumpin' and I Lied to test the waters before Tag & Release hits the shelves.

“We’ve had it in the bag for quite a while. Over a year, anyway. The songs don’t really feel that old to us, even though we’ve been playing them for a while. They get a new lease on life when we see new people at gigs,” bassist Jake explains. “When things do sit around for that long, bands can get over it if it’s kind of flavour of the month type stuff. I don’t think our music is like that. You see it all the time with people playing for the masses, doing what’s commercial at the time. I think it’s sad people aren’t just writing songs for themselves, just looking for commercial success.”

“We’re not really nailed to a certain genre like that. We’re not paddling on the edge of a waterfall or anything like that. There’s lots of flavours. There’s an acoustic track (Know Me) next to something else that drives along with an electronic kind of verse. It’s pretty mixed up.”

Is there anything on the album that stretches back to the Biscuit days?

“Oh yeah, there’s a couple of tracks that have been in the set for years, and now they’re on the album.”

One thing that has changed in for the band since their last visit is has been their line up. Long time guitarist Chris recently departed the band, and new six stringer Cal stepping up to the plate.

“We’ve just got a new guitarist. These will be some of his first performances with us. It was tough for the band, because Chris had been with us for seven years. We just got to a point where we were going different ways. We tried to make it work. It wasn’t about him stopping us from what we wanted to do, because we were probably doing that to him, you know. It wasn’t easy.”

“Cal’s actually (drummer) Matt’s cousin. He’s a good guy, and it’s all working well. We’ve known him for a while, so hopefully there’s no demons in the cupboard… you know, I meant to tell you I was a chronic bed wetter and I always take the top bunk… there’s always stuff that you don’t know about.”

The Another Race website features a section of photos of life members. Basically you get yourself tattooed with the band’s logo, and you’re in. Much like a similar deal posed by Rocket From The Crypt, it gets you free lifetime admission to gigs, and more. In fact, some of the tattoo sported by one member, Shane, graces the insides of the Tag & Release slick.

“You thinking of joining,” Jake laughs. “The first one I was the Shane, who has it from his neck to his waist. It freaked me out. I’ve got a tattoo on my back about the same size, and it was a really big step for me to get that, and it’s not an Another Race one, and I’m in the band. To me, that’s a big step. Wesz (vocals) has got one, but he’s in the band. That’s a bit different. Do you want to take the plunge? We’re always looking for new life members.”