Somewhere in 1993, fed on a steady diet of Sonic Youth, Afghan Whigs and Dinosaur Jr, as well as classic Australian visionaries like the Church and the Bad Seeds, Bluebottle Kiss was formed. Across five albums, a handful of EPs and singles and hundreds of visceral live shows through Australia and the US, Bluebottle Kiss have carved out a loyal following through their uncompromising, heady and melodic sound. They have been described by Drum Media as 'arguably Australia's most idiosyncratic guitar band' while Rolling Stone gave their fourth album Revenge Is Slow a 4 star review, describing it as 'a storming piece of work beautifully composed'. With a sound that has always been difficult to pigeon hole, Bluebottle Kiss have played with the likes of Sebadoh, Bonnie Prince Billy, Morphine and even silverchair.
Old Biography
Since their noisy beginnings in 1993, Bluebottle Kiss have continued to bravely forge their own musical path, playing all over Australia with everyone from Beck to the 3Ds and Silverchair.
Originally consisting of Jamie Hutchings, Ben Fletcher and Richard Coneliano, 2001 has seen a line-up change for the band. The addition of bass player Ben Grounds and Ben Fletcher's move from bass to guitar, has enriched the Bluebottle sound and added a heightened intensity to the live show already regarded as one of the most exciting in the country.
A hybrid of strong dynamics, subtle experimentation and an ever-present classic sense of melody has seen Bluebottle Kiss attract a highly loyal following in Australia. It has also attracted some influential international fans, such as legendary producer Jack Endino (Mudhoney, Afghan Whigs, Nirvana) who produced a couple of tracks on the recent Gangsterland EP and Zak and Krevis, who worked with the engineering team from At The Drive In's highly respected last album, Relationship of Command and produced the two most recent Bluebottle Kiss singles.
The latest release from Bluebottle Kiss is the Ounce of Your Cruelty single. This release is the final prelude to the eagerly awaited fourth album, Revenge Is Slow, due to be in the stores early 2002 through Nonzero/Longshot and Shock.
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Formed During in Autumn 1993, Bluebottle Kiss spent a large amount of time, handing out crude 4-track cassettes, performing occasional live shows with a floating line-up, and plumbing the depths of obscurity until it was dry. After cementing their line-up in '94 (Ben Fletcher - bass/vocals; Peter Noble - drums; Jamie Hutchings - vocals/guitars) they released a 5 - song cassette entitled 'Sonic Elevator Music For The Masses' and won support slots with acts as disparate as Beck and Crow.
A bunch of great live shows (and subsequent over-the-top reviews) and even more great songs later saw an A&R fire start around them before they squashed it and signed to murmur in late ’94 . Since then the band have released an album (Higher Up The Firetrails) and an EP (Double Yellow Tarred) to universal critical acclaim, but now it’s clear that these have been a mere dress rehearsal for their just completed album Fear of Girls, Produced by Seattle legend Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Afghan Whigs). To date 3 singles have been released, "Rust and the Time", "Autumn Comes to Soon" and "Helping You Hate Me".
As revealed on the album "Fear of Girls", by cross-pollinating genres Bluebottle Kiss created music which deafens the ears but warms the heart. Perhaps we could call it heart/noise. Heart/noise is Alice in Wonderland falling down the dark abyss with the sound turned down, or the colour of blindness, the sensation between sleeping and waking, the confusion between satellite, plane and UFO, the attic in your grandmother’s terrace, the smell of a spent storm, the songs of whales, the chewing gum under your seat, your fathers false teeth, the innards’s of your budgie’s cage, your youngest sisters best friend, the mystery of how cars really work, the question of why guitar salesmen read catalogues all day, the difference between rugby league and rugby union, the correct spelling of zygomorphous, or perhaps it's just another stupid way of defining their music.
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