The Tenants - EverythingYou Know Is Wrong

Thu 16th Feb, 2006 in Music Reviews

The story generally goes like this: local Aussie band scores minor/major triple j hit, local Aussie band tours every flea-bitten town in Australia flogging said single, local Aussie band releases album on indie/major label, ultimately the Australian record buying public has the power to make or break said band via album sales.

Things didn’t work out quite like that for Bathurst’s The Tenants. In 1999 they released a little ska-tinged ditty entitled You Shit Me To Tears. If you listened to the national yoof broadcaster around that time you’d be more than familiar with it; it even reached number three in triple j’s Hottest 100 of that year (in a countdown dominated by Silverchair, Korn, Killing Heidi and eventual cake-takers Powderfinger). The band did a bit of gigging and released the independent You Shit Me To Tears EP which seemed to sell well. The following year they returned with the fantastically titled Caucasian Overbite EP with a couple of radio favourites (most notably the garage rock of Pub Girl) but then they seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.

The band’s much-touted debut, Everything You Know Is Wrong, finally arrives in March 2006 and quite clearly, the main problem faced by the band is proving to the national broadcaster and the gig-going punters that they’re still relevant. Thankfully, for The Tenants, their brand of no-nonsense, no-frills Aussie pub rock is as catchy as it is timeless and the songwriting skills of frontman Jason ‘Jase the Ace’ Rooke have not diminished at all since the days when the lyrics to You Shit Me To Tears were drunkenly bellowed out at pubs across town.

Opener Ready To Rumble is a slice of typical Aussie pub rock, seemingly a call to arms for Friday night action, complete with blokey ‘hey’ chants and a guitar breakdown. New drummer Ant Layton (who took over from former Nancy Vandal skinsman Dean Bakota sometime in the band’s public downtime) holds down the beat nicely, while the production is nice and crisp.

While current radio single Disco Ace proves that The Tenants do simple rock extremely well, a reprise of Caucasian Overbite highlight track Boredom (appearing on Everything You Know Is Wrong as Boredom Final) is full of testosterone and even punchier than before. Still one of the band’s finest moments, Boredom is a straight ahead tune with emotion charged delivery of Rooke of the lyrics

boredom makes me do
the things I do
like hurtin’ you
and cheatin’ you

before song descends into an all-out rock frenzy.

The slightly awkward stop-start intro to Getaway quickly gives way to a cute pop song with snappy backing vocals from bassist (also former Nancy Vandal man) JJ LaMoore. While the guitar-wielding attacks of Goin’ On and Money Back represent the band’s beered-up, classic Oz rock inspired repertoire, the album offers up a few surprises.

The terrific Big Things is a surprisingly jaunty 2.21 minute pop romp, complete with wailing guitar solo, which wouldn’t sound out of place in the back catalogue of Even or Klinger.

The album version of another revisited Caucasian Overbite tune; Black Suede, offers a complete departure from the original EP track, with the beefed up re-recorded version faster and angrier.

Get Started is unfortunately one of the finest Triple M friendly tunes never flogged to death on Triple M. A catchy riff, fist-in-the-air worthy chorus plus the tune’s economic advantage – clocking in at under three minutes, sees it stand as one of the most hit-worthy Oz rock/pop songs of the past couple of years.

The band’s softer side of represented twice; in Your Opinion and closer, the country tinged This Is The Last Song. Your Opinion is a charming acoustic ballad while This Is The Last Song speaks for itself –

this song is in the same key as the last one
the same shit chords.

With Everything You Know Is Wrong, The Tenants have created a confident and assured debut. The Tenants cira-2006 is clearly an outfit that has moved on from the likes of You Shit Me To Tears and Pub Girl, which while well-written tracks, both verged on the border of “novelty tune.” This current incarnation of the band is one brimming with ideas.

It’s a shame then, that they are still without a record deal. The band’s press release makes mention of “the major setback” of the band’s independent status, while Rooke offers “we find strength in the rough and tumble stories we hear about pioneering pub rock bands such as Bardot and Scandal’us.” The band’s indie position may have something to do with the album’s recording; the liner notes reveal that the longplayer’s 13 tracks were recorded at no less than five separate Sydney studios, with two further ‘home demo’ style tracks also included. Whether that can be read into as a sign of the struggles faced by an independent artist to record a long-player in one sitting, or it merely represents the fact that Everything You Know Is Wrong is a ‘grab bag’ of the band’s finest studio cuts over the past few years (hey, it worked for the UK’s Goldie Lookin’ Chain) remains to be seen.

In the long it’s irrelevant. The album is cohesive, catchy and worthy of your attention and hard-earned catch. Sure, it’ll never receive the same media saturation that the likes of Wolfmother or The Living End do, but those prepared to seek out the album will be amply rewarded.

The Tenants will be touring Everything You Know is Wrong throughout regional areas and capital cities in April/May/June. Check out www.thetenants.com.au for tour dates.