Of all the congruent shades of din echoing throughout the modern hotbed of the Australian Underground, the gloomy, pummeling force of The Birthday Party/Moodists/Scientists can never be cleanly scrubbed out, and even as the tentacles of innovation and diversification extend themselves ever-so-effortlessly into new realms of new generations, the soiled stains still remain. The Stabs are part of that contingent, yet not impersonators by any length, they reduce their noise to a reptilian crawl, digging deeper into your psyche with each repetitive, grueling thump, and laying waste to the minions in their wake.
With a string of releases dating as far back as 2003, The Stabs' recent reissues of their albums from 2006 (Dirt) and 2009 (Deadwood) on Homeless Records have once again allowed anyone outside of their arm's reach to finally grasp their insidious thunder, despite their limited runs of only 400 copies each. What lies within those grooves is a blackness combined with a bleakness that when carefully combined with the right amount of anger/tension, result in an ugly growth between your ears in place of what once was your conscience. And as another essential piece of the Noise in My Head: Voices from the Ugly Australian Underground book, it's in your best interest to wallow in their murky waves of negativity and pick up as many of their releases as you can, before the wide-eyed public catches on to your "lifestyle."
So grab all The Stabs records you can, and check out a music video for "Split Lips" off their Stained Circles single, as well as a live clip of "6 Ft Rodent" from their US tour (courtesy of Greg Kerslake) right here, and get ready for the US version of the Noise In My Head: Voices From the Ugly Australian Underground book, out next month on HoZac Books!
