Rock has turned to sex with the new EP Breed Until Broken from Cockfight Shootout, and bassist Slatts calling the troops to arms (and naked legs) “Fuck until you’re dead!” Fair enough! Luckily, Cockfight Shootout has kindly supplied the perfect soundtrack and in consideration for the men out there, it is just six songs long!
Suspicious of the title of the EP, I asked Slatts if he had been to my hometown [country NSW] and he answered with a laugh: “No, I have been to mine and I’m guessing they are pretty similar! We’re from Warrnambool [Victoria] which has the highest rate of underage pregnancy, underage drinking nationally. All that kind of stuff, at least that was the statistics a few years ago. We got out and moved to Melbourne and have been dragging the city down into the gutter ever since.”
It is always nice to meet a contemporary, as I like to think that I have been lowering the tone of my neighbourhood since I moved in! I asked if that was seriously where the name came from and he repeated the same thing he told a drunk in Sale on the weekend who insisted, and indeed argued, that Slatts was the singer. ”It means fuck until you’re dead”, to which the salubrious drunk replied “Cool”.
Cockfight Shootout consists of Keelan Gallogly on vocals and guitar, Mick Farley on guitar, Al Barber on drums and Slatts on Bass. The name Cockfight Shootout came from a newspaper headline a few years back, reporting of a tall of a cockfight gone awry and gunshots finding flesh. “Some of the guys in the band hate the name but it kind of stuck. It was only supposed to be temporary, someone asked what we were called and I just blurted it out. About 80% of people love the name and think it is cool and the other 20% just complain and say it is the worst name they have ever heard. Oh well, can’t please everyone and I think it is distinctive”.
Breed Until Broken is good, hard, fast, loud rock! The opening strains are reminiscent of Nirvana’s Bleach era but Step In Line quickly launches into a hard-hitting guitar-driven tune that never lets up until the final echo bounces off your still shaking walls. A Question Of Guilt constitutes the ballad of the album, if it was a ballad written by Ozzy Osbourne! With big guitar and sultry rhythm section it doesn’t matter that the song is about guilt! Eat You Own Kind, is the standout track. It is Nirvana-esque like Step In Line but has melody and soul that is completely owned by the band.
“Yeah we probably wear our influences on our sleeve, but I think we bring something that is distinctly ours to it. We have our own take and I think that it sounds uncontrived. We all have different influences, I like Nirvana, Pavement and stuff like that, Mick likes Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes and we just take all our stuff and put it together. We have an idea about what Cockfight is and not everything we right is right, fits with that idea so we just put it to one side. I love Keelan’s vocals and what he does with a melody, I think that is pretty unique.”
The whole EP just pulses with lurid, lewd, irresistible sexuality. As I go out on a limb, I begin to wish that they had the lyrics printed on the sleeve. On the subject of the sleeve, the artwork for the EP is amazing and deserves comment. “The artwork for our first EP to be honest, was pretty fuckin’ shocking so we really looked around to find something that we were happy with. We got the artwork from a friend Erin Neale. She had one of her paintings on the wall and we liked it so she agreed to let us use it. We loaded it in the Photoshop and added some colour and it turned out really well. I liked it because it has like this fucked up family on it which works with the name of the album and we just added a bit to it and it works.”
Breed until Broken is the band’s second EP, the first, Something You Don’t Need was more aptly described as stoner rock. “We were concerned with putting out a really good stoner rock album the first time. Now we are in a different place and we wanted to put out a good album that wasn’t about whether it was stoner rock or classic rock, we just did what sounded right to us. There are many of the same elements and a lot of the same attitude of the first one, this one sounds different for sure.”
The band will be back in the studio in February to record a full-length album, due for release in March/April next year. Whilst the previous EPs were recorded by the band themselves, they are bringing in a producer for the album to help keep them on the right track and, hopefully add a fresh perspective.
On the strength of their EPs plus their growing reputation for their awesome live shows have seen the band opening for some big acts in the past, including The Hellacopters, Blood Duster, Superjesus, Warped, Killing Heidi and most recently, The Bronx.
“Those guys were great. I was really impressed, they actually came out and watched the whole set and came up to us afterwards and told us how impressed they were with Australian music. It was pretty cool, not many bands watch the support acts so I respected them even more for doing that.”
I think what comes across clearly in their music and in talking to them is that this is a group of friends who happen to make really cool music. Vocalist Keelan and Slatts have lived together for the past seven years. I suggested in jest, that maybe it was time to show Keelan in his own special way that the magic was still there. “We haven’t got anything that we are laughing about right now, maybe I should grow an ugly beard?” Slatts laughs.
Head out and get a copy of Cockfight Shootout’s Breed Until Broken, and catch them live when they’re next in your town – you certainly won’t be sorry.
Tour Dates:
November
5th – Warrnambool, Criterion Hotel, Vic
19th – Sydney, Annandale Hotel with Fort
20th – Manly, Fishos with Fort
25th – Geelong, Barwon Club with Fort
26th – Melbourne, Duke Of Windsor with Fort
December
2nd – Geelong, Rebar
3rd – Melbourne, Evelyn Hotel
4th – Ballarat, Kavora Lounge
11th – Arncliffe Hotel (Sydney)
17th – Warnambool, Criterion Hotel
18th – Adelaide, Jade Monkey
21st – Melbourne, Tote (Rock Against Work Xmas BBQ!)
