The Persian Rugs: Guru Are You?

The Persian Rugs play the Troccadero, Surfers Paradise on Friday, The Zoo on Saturday and the Yamba Hotel on Sunday.

For the sake of calling a spade a wooden handled tool for digging dirt, you have to admit The Persian Rugs do bear more than a passing resemblance to much loved Aussie rockers The Hoodoo Gurus. Much more than a passing resemblance. In fact, it’s basically it’s the same guys. Basically.

Musically, however, The Persian Rugs are quite a different beast. Gurus frontman Dave Faulkner relinquishes his venerable six string to spend time locked in behind a keyboard. Sonically you’ll find more of a kinship with psychedelic laced sixties pop rock rather than the amped up guitar overload of old. Guitarist Brad Shepherd takes a good hard look at the subtle difference between the two acts.

“Ummm… I will concede that it’s us in concept, but if you come and see us it’s obvious that it’s a very different band, even though it’s by and large the same people that were in the Hoodoo Gurus. There is some element of crossover, but there are some differences. We had kind of worked ourselves into a corner I think with the Gurus. We were trying to give audiences what they want, and it got to the point where it wasn’t what we wanted to do.”

“We feel that it’s a new band. It wipes the slate clean so we’re under no obligation to play Hoodoo Gurus songs. It’s a wide open road for us now. The hardest part is explaining to people we’re not the Hoodoo Gurus. If you stand up the band it could be anyone.”

The Persian Rugs recently let loose Mr Tripper, their debut release.

“It’s all been recorded for some time now. I think it might have been before Homebake. It was quite some time ago. We had all really put the Persian Rugs on hold while I went out and did some touring with The Monarchs, and right when that was finished we started to do some work in proper. Rick Grossman, who played bass in the Gurus, decided he wanted to pursue other things in his life, so for the last few months we’ve been sizing up a new bass player.”

The Monarchs, as you may recall, are the high octane garage rock outfit brad put together after the Gurus initially called it quits. The Monarchs are now taking a hiatus from the live scene.

“Actually, Sydney Big Day Out was a big part of why we’re taking a break from the band,” Dave admits. “It was kind of a depressing show. All this talk about rock is the new rock… I didn’t see too much of that at the Sydney Big Day Out, I must admit.”

“They were A/Bing the stages, and we were playing on the B stage and the A stage had nobody playing, and it was full. There were people standing in front of an empty stage,” he laughs. “I think they were waiting for the next band, but it was pretty depressing to think people aren’t that into rock and roll. I don’t want to bash my head against a wall, which is curious, because now I’m in a band that is single mindedly firmly set in the rock and roll genre somewhere between 1965 and 1968.”

Mr Tripper and it’s associated tracklisting come from Faulkner’s post Hoodoo Gurus vaults.

“All the songs are Dave’s songs – it was really just a concept of his. He called me up one day and said I realised I have a ton of songs in a sixties punk kind of genre, let’s get a band together and play them. I guess if I write a song sympathetic to that genre, maybe the Persian Rugs can tackle it. I was more in a mindset to write more rock stuff for The Monarchs. It’s kind of fun having no musical responsibility other than having to learn the songs.”

Mr Shepherd it seems has other responsibilities to keep him occupied at present.

“I became a dad a couple of months ago,” he beams. “So I’ve been doing that virtually exclusively, so I’ve been up to my elbows in poo and not getting very much sleep.”

Not to far removed from the rock’n’roll lifestyle, then…

“Actually I made a joke to my wife that I’d been on 18 month world tours with the Hoodoo Gurus and still felt better than after having a baby in the house for three weeks,” he laughs. “Nothing can prepare you for that sleep deprivation. I’d been that tired on the road with the Gurus for a couple days, but you catch up. There’s no catch up with a baby.”