Featuring members of Danimals, Whipped Cream Chargers, Domeyko/Gonzalez, Dead China Doll, and others depending on the night you catch them, PING! are a super-group made up of a rotating line-up of local artists, dedicated to creating music on the spot for one off performances never to be repeated.
Formed during Arkestra’s residency at OAF Gallery Bar when, due to The Hoodoo Gurus refusing to let anyone play in the room next door while they were on the mainstage (and just being a bunch of top hat sporting pricks), Arkestra were unable to play and PING! were formed out of the drunken musos left in the crowd. The nucleus being formed around Dead China Doll drummer Jasper Fenton, Jaie Gonzalez and James Domeyko of Domeyko/Gonzalez and Danimals, Felix Navidad of The Whipped Cream Chargers and Roderigo De Lima of Cabaret Callado, each performance brings with it a new list of collaborators, in the past including Mille Hall of Bridezilla and Danimals wunderkind Jonti Danilewitz to name but a few.
For their next performance, this Wednesday the 22nd of September’s mammoth krautrock inspired jam night Deutsch Bag, to be held at The Excelsior in Surry Hills, PING! are enlisting a truly epic list of collaborators. Joining again will be Danimal Jonti, along with Julian Sudek and Moses Macrae. From Warhorse and Arkestra, Jasper Clifford-Smith will be along for the ride as will Warhorse guitarist and Whipped Cream Charger Louis Roach, as well as Jasper’s ivory tickling Arkestra partner Aleesha Dibbs. Aemon Webb from local whack-provising collective Nhomea is also lending his skills, as is Disco Club beat-master Joel Rhys Burrows and others. Pretty much it looks set to be one crazy night of motorik rhythms and Teutonic melodies.
Put together by local industry whore, and Music Feeds writer Mikey Carr, we caught up with the shameless one to get the down-low on what to expect.
Music Feeds: So was it hard getting Music Feeds to give you the interview?
Mikey Carr: Look I know the guys here at Music Feeds pretty well, if you catch my drift. Now I’m not saying they owe me or anything, let’s just say that I have some delicate photographs that would be better for everyone involved, actually everyone in general, if they were kept out of the public eye. I mean no one wants to see a hairy Greek man lubed up with a group of pale internet journalists.
MF: Oh yeah, the Cabin Fever after-party, that was a loose night.
MC: I’m not legally able to discuss this any further.
MF: Moving on then, tell me about Deutsch Bag, where did the idea for the night come from?
MC: Well I was trying to book a Friday in September for some of the other bands I work with, and The Excelsior suggested I take a Wednesday, I’m assuming because they had no faith in my ability to put on a night, and rightfully so. So I then approached the bands and they weren’t having it at all. Some harsh words were thrown around, the honour of mothers and sisters called into question, but after a brief period of intense violence and abortive love-making we reached a consensus that a jam night would be best. I can’t actually remember the process by which we came to this decision, just a lot of flesh, and a lot of blood.
MF: …
MC: Are you there?
MF: Yeah, sorry, got a bit lost in my thoughts there.
MC: I understand.
MF: So yeah is that how you usually deal with bands?
MC: Oh yeah, trying any other method other than violence has only ever led to disappointing results for me in the past.
MF: Fair enough… So do you have any idea what the music is going to sound like on the night?
MC: Well if you go to the facebook event page you can watch some ‘source material’ but really we don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s going to be a very free event, we’re just going to set the instruments up and then people can play them whenever they feel like it. The whole idea is to deconstruct the idea of ‘playing a show.’ Too often you go to a show and there’s this sense of going through the motions. In my mind the best bands still manage to keep a sense of danger and exploration in their shows when they play and this is sort of an extension of that, into a whole show. It’s pretty indulgent I know, but for those of us who’ve gotten tired of going to see the same bands play the same shows over and over again, this is sort of set up to offer a more unique experience of what Sydney’s brilliant music community has to offer.
MF: Do you have any plans to put on anymore shows like this?
MC: PING! will definitely be playing lots more shows in the future, but whether we do another Deutsch Bag night will wait to be seen. Trying to put on a show like this we have to take a lot of the expenses on ourselves so if people don’t come and pay, we won’t really have the funds to put the next one on. Everyone likes to say that the problem with Sydney’s music scene is that the venues are under all this pressure from the council etc but really it comes down to the fact that a lot of people in this city would rather pay to see international acts, even if the tickets are over four times the price as opposed to supporting local bands who they expect to see for free. Obviously I’m not saying everyone, and there is a strong base of people dedicated to supporting local bands, and I commend them for it, but it seems like a lot of people don’t see live music as something that deserves to be paid for.
For more information check out the facebook event here, anyone who RSVP’s will be put on a half-price entry list. All proceeds go towards getting the band really drunk.
