Ahead of Tone Deaf’s annual ‘Two Up’ Anzac Day Eve party on the 25th of April, which last year saw Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne rammed to the gunwhales, we’re back to do it all again bigger and better. Headlining a massive line up is the debut Melbourne show for Machete Moon, a Sydney supergroup featuring Cec Condon (The Mess Hall) and Myles Heskett (Ex Wolfmother). A percussion and rhythm heavy outfit, they’re joined by Millie Hall (Bridezilla) on saxophone, Chris Ross (Ex Wolfmother) on keys and Bree Van Reyk (Holly Throsby) on percussion.
Throw in the psychedelic drones of The Laurels, as well as the garage nuggets of rising stars The Messengers, Dirt Farmer and The Red Aces and you’d have to agree, this is a ripper line up. Ahead of the show, we got Cec Condon of Machete Moon and The Mess Hall to interview Kate Wilson of The Laurels and vice versa. We don’t know what substances they were consuming doing it, but it’s a bloody funny read!
Cec Condon Interviews Kate Wilson
Kate, have you ever rested on your laurels?
No, as a band we tend to shy away from both possessive adjectives and casual intimacy.
This second question has three parts: Have you ever been to Laurel Canyon?
No, but our bass player Conor may have. He’s the worldly one.
If so, how does it compare to the movie “Laurel Canyon”?
I’ve not actually seen that film. It looks pretty amazing though. Lou Barlow and Sparklehorse! Wow! I’m reading a brief synopsis on the internet and it says there was a particular scene where the protagonist has a threesome with her partner’s mum and husband in a swimming pool. I just messaged Conor to enquire if this in any way mirrored his experience and he never wrote back.
And do you think Frances McDormand looks like she always has a mouthful of porridge?
Yes! From now on I will call her “Porridge-face McDormand”! As an aside, I just mentioned this to a friend who immediately chimed in his strong held belief that Lyle Lovett’s face looks like ‘a tired offering of bacon and eggs’. I was entirely unaware that this breakfast food/actor business was a “thing” until just now.
I once lost a toy tank in the roots of a Camphor Laurel tree at Kairi State School; what is the most valuable object that you have lost near a Camphor Laurel tree?
My friends and I spent many lunchtimes building a large village, replete with housing, vehicles, infrastructure, and families of little stick people underneath a Camphor Laurel tree at Epping Primary School. One day we arrived in the midst of a barreling storm to see that the vicious rains had spirited it to oblivion. We learnt the hardship of loss and the furious whimsy of mother nature that day. I guess you could say “a part of my childhood”.
Who is your favourite poet laurelate?
Edgar Allen Pole is great!
Would you ever consider calling your next album …and Hardy?
Yes. A thousand times yes! It’s going to be a rock opera based around Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure”. called “Laurels the Obscure”. We’re working on a sweet track called “I really want to have it off with my cousin”. Burnt copies available through the church!
Kate Wilson Interviews Cec Condon
Wikipedia says “Because the machete is common in many tropical countries, it is often the weapon of choice for uprisings”. What is your favourite revolution or uprising that took place in a tropical latitude?
I would have to go with the Malayan Emergency of 1948, a guerilla war fought between the British Commonwealth and the Malayan National Liberation Army. I like it because it tends to get forgotten compared to the Korean War or the Vietnam War… and it involves machetes! They were used for hacking through the harsh Malaysian Jungles and also to extract sap from the rubber tree, as well as possibly for the slaying of the plantation managers that actually triggered the crisis…
You like the moon enough to name a band after it. What are your thoughts on the sun?
Fuck him. He’s all, “I’m so bright and cheerful!” “Hey everybody! Have some Vitamin D!” When really he’s just giving you cancer and unsightly tan lines.
What about the film “Machete” (2010). Would you recommend it?
Highly! Steven Seagal, hispanic babes, machetes- what more could you want? Cheech as a priest you say? Yep it’s got that too…
Who would win a fight between (a) Machete Moon and Sailor Moon? (b) Because I am also reminded of Echo and the Bunnymen’s brilliant tune, “The Killing moon”, who would come out on top if you and the Bunnymen went head to head?
Frankly Kate, I’m offended you would even ask that. We would never physically fight an underage girl, I find that cyber-bullying is much more effective. Make friends with her on facebook, then convince her that she is fat and that all her friends (Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Tuxedo Mask etc) think she is smelly and useless. This will destroy her self-esteem to the point that she won’t even want to fight. We call this “psy-ops” and is an old warrior principle take from Moon-Tzu.
In regards to the Bunnymen, we would win, because the bunnymen are obviously highly susceptible to myxomatosis, thus we would poison the inside of their anoraks, watch them get sick and die and process their pelts into Akubras to be worn onstage.
I’ve heard you guys described as a “jam band”. With specific reference to toast, what is your favourite type of jam?
I’d like to meet whoever described us as a jam band and cyber-bully them. A jam band is, to my understanding, the Dave Matthews Band, Govt Mule, Ben Harper et al, they play music fuelled by a combination of tolerance, love and a lack of personal hygiene. There is a difference, we are space wizards: we use deodorant and don’t tolerate or love anything except space wizardry.
