The Empty Threats Go Deep on 'Monster Truck Mondays'

Adelaide/Kaurna-based post-punk band The Empty Threats have released their debut album, Monster Truck Mondays. Over the last half-dozen years, the quintet has gained a reputation for its politically-motivated post-punk, drawing inspiration from Tropical Fuck Storm, shame and Dry Cleaning.

On Monster Truck Mondays, the band’s collective values take centre stage, with the album spotlighting and interrogating the horrors of capitalism and colonialism, promoting LGBTQIA+ rights and touching on themes of anxiety and existential dread. To coincide with its release, the band break down the album, one track at a time, for Music Feeds.

The Empty Threats: Monster Truck Mondays

1. ATACB

The Empty Threats: Anxiety, ADHD or scattered attention isn’t a reason to discredit or dehumanise anyone, especially young people who display those traits. It is a survival response to current conditions experienced by members in the band as well as many of our peers in and outside of music. This was the inspiration behind ‘ATACB’.

2. Boys in the Gutter

TET: ‘Boys in the Gutter’ outlines the struggle in America at the moment regarding abortion rights and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and how harmful a decision made by a select few can be towards bodily autonomy rights, not just in America, but universally.

3. New Jet Ski

TET: ‘New Jet Ski’ reflects on the frustration of not identifying with some aspects of classic Australian culture. For instance, getting taught about Captain Cook, the monarchy and the First Fleet in schools instead of getting a real education on First Nations history; living the “Australian dream” (a big house, a wife, kids and two cars); celebrating Australia Day on a culturally conflicting/oppressing day for First Nations people; over consumption; money being spent on big sport, big mining and big oil companies instead of the arts, healthcare and education.

Perhaps the bigger picture of the track represents some of the loudmouth bigots we have to put up with: “Enjoying a nice relaxing day at the beach until someone fires up the jet ski / The whole beach’s attention is now on them.”

This song has a very happy/smiley sound to it, while the lyrics are more on the dark political end. We like the contrast, which we have tried to implement with other parts of the album including the artwork.

4. Two Years

TET: This track touches on the feeling of having obsessive tendencies, whether that be in a relationship or with someone that you have glorified in your own imagination. The outro is about breaking free from a two-year relationship where one feels an immense emotional connection for the other person before realising at the end of the two years they have learned, changed and moved on.

5. Monster Truck Mondays

TET: Matt and Stu sat down in the home studio and essentially drew lyrical sentences from a hat. It’s political, but also nothing in the song really makes sense.

The Empty Threats – ‘Boys in the Gutter’

6. Dear Sunshine

TET: ‘Dear Sunshine’ is another song where we wanted to implement contrasting sounds and meaning. The first half is quite beautiful but has some doomsday lyrical content, touching on the way we are mistreating the world and First Nations people while covering up some of these issues with a fake smile.

This all collapses with a boom when the second half of the track rolls in, almost like a tidal wave of fuzz and bass. This implies that the path we are going down will end in chaos if we don’t change the way we live.

7. National Treasure

TET: ‘National Treasure’ is a continuation of ‘Dear Sunshine’. We wanted to take the Australian national anthem as far away as we could from its intended purpose, making it as ugly and loud as we could to stick our fingers up at those traditions.

8. Jason’s Bad Trip

TET: This song reflects on the end of a long-term relationship, when you desperately want to make it work but know that you both need time away from each other to do so. There are plenty of great memories to share but both people need their own time to grow as humans, and you both know it is the end.

9. Evil Eye

TET: ‘Evil Eye’ is the first realisation of one’s own mortality; moving through and outgrowing adolescence and truly committing to being present in the moment. There is no practise run, this is it.

10. Sunday Night

TET: ‘Sunday Night’ was originally about having a BDSM affair with Jesus. We performed it in front of our drummer’s mum at a very low key performance in the southern Flinders Ranges in an old steam train shed. Michael’s mum is a pastor, but we are not remotely religious. Without her knowing exactly what the song was about, she came up to us after and said that it was her favourite song of the night and that she felt a very strong connection to it.

She said, “I just got the feeling that it was about being connected to someone intimately, not necessarily sexually, but connected in a way that both could truly be themselves and feel good together. I felt it was a song not just for lovers or partners but for best friends as well.”

With this in mind, we adapted the song to hold more of this meaning, as what Michael’s mum had taken away from the song had touched us. The end of the song finishes in a chant reflecting on the end of the album and what we have learnt. The last melody is a Gregorian chant that signifies death, tying up everything in the album and signifying that this moment in time has passed and that nothing lasts.