Dodging The Studio

Even by garage standards, The Bonniwells' new album, Sneeze Weed, is noisy, raggedy and crusted over. But what'd you expect? It was mostly recorded live to four-track in the lounge room of singer-guitarist Marck Dean, keeping things super raw despite some choice melodies peeking through the slacker rumpus.

“It's just more fun to record that way,” reckons bassist John Waddell. “We've never really liked the studio. It's always uninspiring and really dry. Nothing like the crackling garage sound of tape and just turning up loud and playing in a living room, as opposed to recording stuff separately in a studio.”

The album also echoes the live show, which was important to Waddell: “That's another thing. I don't like listening to records of bands [where] you go and see them and they sound completely different. It works for some people, but we definitely didn't want to be like that.”

Rounded out by singer-drummer Zac Olsen, the Melbourne-Geelong trio weren't confined to just Dean's house for recording. They tried a few other spots and even went to Sydney to work with Straight Arrows' prolific Owen Penglis (Royal Headache, Palms). But only two of the 14 songs cut with him wound up on Sneeze Weed; the rest can be heard on the tape, Sunny Brick, and the upcoming four-song 7”, Yesterdaisy, both on Geelong's Anti Fade label. Speaking of which, there's another tape on the way, with Sneeze Weed on one side and Sunny Brick on the other.

As scrappy as it is, Sneeze Weed marks an evolution from The Bonniwells' 2010 debut, Unprofitable Servant, simply because it's 11 original songs, whereas that one was just 20 minutes, including several covers. “We don't even play covers live anymore,” says Waddell. “That first album was recorded two days after our first-ever show; hence the covers and not having much original material.”

Although all three members hail from New Zealand originally, they didn't meet until they were all hanging around Melbourne. Olsen moved to Australia at age eight, while Waddell and Dean are both from Wellington but didn't know each other there. They formed The Bonniwells around three years ago, after Olsen had filled in as a drummer for Waddell's previous band, Last Gypsys, and Waddell had started playing bass on some new songs by Dean, also of Bleached.

“Zac tagged along one day and started playing drums,” Waddell recalls. “It just worked, from the first little jam.” Dean now plays in Geelong's Ausmuteants as well, and Olson plays in not just Frowning Clouds but also The Heirophants and what Waddell calls a “politically incorrect surf band” named The Towelheads.

If Waddell doesn't juggle any other bands himself right now, it's because he's busy booking the Grace Darling on Smith Street, where he ran the bar for several years. “I might be having some relaxed jams with some of my old bandmates from Last Gypsys, but I don't know where that will go. It's just for fun.”

Same goes for The Bonniwells, despite an increasingly full dance card that sees them launching Sneeze Weed on successive weekends in Melbourne and Sydney before heading off to Perth for the first time. Their tunes are ramshackle fun in the most enjoyably immediate way, as if nothing could rattle these guys. Check out the amiable I Smiled Yesterday, or the shout-along Ms Anderson. Crack Man almost sounds like an impromptu jam, burbling along to gangly rhythms.

But again, that's garage for you. And there's no questioning The Bonniwells' pedigree, considering they're named for Sean Bonniwell of the classic California garage band The Music Machine. “We just were really stuck for a name,” Waddell admits, but the reference will appeal to garage fans, even if others might be left scratching their heads. “Lots of Australian people pronounce it Bonnie-wells,” he adds. “People call us the Bonnie Doons by accident. It's become Australianised.”