Frenzal Rhomb

Frenzal Rhomb is an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992, based in the city of Sydney. The band's current lineup is Jason Whalley (vocals), Lindsay McDougall (guitar), Tom Crease (bass) and Gordy Foreman (drums). McDougall is also responsible for Rock Against Howard, a compilation by Australian musicians against John Howard's government.

History

After touring as the support act while American punk rock bands Bad Religion, The Offspring and Blink-182 were in Australia, the group released their first album, 1995's Coughing Up a Storm (although their first release had been 1994's Dick Sandwich EP). Retitled Once a Jolly Swagman Always a Jolly Swagman, the album was issued on America's Liberation Records label two years later. Fat Mike, owner of Fat Wreck Chords and member of NOFX, signed the band to Fat Wreck and released the 4 Litres EP and Not So Tough Now. In September 1997, the band released the album Meet The Family, with new guitarist Lindsay McDougall after original guitarist Ben Costello left to become a full time animal rights activist. The album was the first Frenzal LP to be certified gold in Australia. Frenzal Rhomb were also the headliners for the Australian leg of the 1998 Vans Warped Tour (they were recruited for the American edition as well).

The LP A Man's Not A Camel was released in Australia in March 1999 and was supported by a nationwide tour. It remains Frenzal Rhombs' highest placing album to date, reaching 11 on the ARIA charts (it also spawned Frenzal's highest placing single, "You Are Not My Friend", which reached No. 48). Overseas gigs in the USA were dropped after singer Jason Whalley suffered a heart attack in late 1999 and Frenzal Rhomb spent the first few months of 2000 lying low. They returned with the album Shut Your Mouth in November 2000, originally released on Epic Records in Australia, an off-shoot of Sony. After poor sales and reviews and an awkward few months, Sony dropped the band in mid 2001 and they then signed with Epitaph Records in Australia.

Lex Feltham left Frenzal Rhomb without warning in April 2002. The band claimed many stories about why he left, including one that he was fired after thinking that Frenzal Rhomb should incorporate synth and keyboard work. The last song he recorded with the band was a cover of Midnight Oil's "The Dead Heart" for a tribute album. After holding auditions in Sydney, Tom Crease was announced as the new Frenzal Rhomb bass player. In April 2003, the band released Sans Souci.

The band released Forever Malcolm Young in 2006 with a minor radio hit in the title track and some controversy over the song "Johnny Ramone was in a Fucking Good Band, but He Was A Cunt". National touring followed, along with the announcement that Jay would be leaving both Frenzal and his job at Triple J to go on a world travel with his girlfriend.

Frenzal Rhombs' last headlining tour was in March 2009 as "The Boys are Back in Brown" tour. They are playing some new dates in September and October, 2009 in Australia.

Banned from Triple J

Prior to their employment at the station, their music was banned for a time by Triple J after Frenzal Rhomb criticised the station on air for playing the "same 40 songs".

Jackie O controversy
The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2007)

In July 2004, 2Day FM presenter Jackie O was to MC at the Bass in the Grass festival in Darwin. Jackie reportedly arrived late and while attempting to speak with the audience, Frenzal Rhomb began playing over the top of her.

Jackie O and her co-presenter, Kyle Sandilands subsequently called Jay while on air to demand an apology. They threatened to have 2Day FM bury the band, with Kyle also threatening violence and commercial penalties. Jay responded to Jackie O, asking why she was "so precious that she couldn't handle a little bit of heckling".

ABC Television's Media Watch covered the exchange and raised concerns about the conduct of Kyle and Jackie O. The entire conversation was streamed by bombshellzine.com and transcribed by Craig New on the 'OutwiththeNew' website and also on Frenzal Rhomb's myspace but it is no longer accessible from these sources. The conversation is currently on Youtube and for download. The entire incident resulted in Frenzal Rhomb being removed from the playlist of all Austereo radio stations, including the 2DayFM network and Triple M.

Current involvements

Jason Whalley and Lindsay McDougall work on radio as Jay and the Doctor, and as Triple J breakfast show hosts from 2005 through 2007. Drummer Gordy Forman also plays in the Melbourne hardcore band Mindsnare.

Jay and Lindsay also have a musical side project with Bow Campbell from Front End Loader, called the Self Righteous Brothers. Based on the American band, The Frogs, the Self Righteous Brothers are an acoustic act with explicit lyrics covering topics such as pregnant junkies and incest.

In 2006 Forever Malcolm Young was released which included, for a limited time, a special edition DVD covering the band's tours from 2002 up until 2005. It is titled Sucking All Over the World. Jay stated at one of their last performances at the Metro Theater in Sydney, "don't expect to see us around for a while cunts".

On Friday 26 September 2008 a bulletin was posted on Frenzal Rhomb's myspace stating the possibility of touring again:

"So it looks like Jay is coming home from his year-long overseas jaunt sometime in Feb, and there's a 95% chance we're gonna do a Capital City tour in March. I say 95% because there's every possibility, being that Jay's been to some fucked up, out of the way places, that he'll come back as a dreadlocked, pot-smoking hippy who's pretty much resigned from society and won't even remember that he's in a band. . .oh, wait a minute. . . Anyway, we're going to tour, and as soon as we have more info, you'll fucken know about it. Up ya bum, and GO HAWKS. gordy"

Members

Jason Whalley (1992 - present) (lead vocals, guitar)
Lindsay McDougall (1996 - present) (backing lead guitar)
Tom Crease (2002 - present) (bass)
Gordy Foreman (1998 - present) (drums)
Former
Lex Feltham (1992 - 2002) (bass)
Ben Costello (1992 - 1996) (guitar)
Bruce Braybrooke (1992) (drums)
Karl Perske (1992-1995) (drums)
Nat Nykyruj (1995 - 1998) (drums)
Michael Crafter (vocals)

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Frenzal Rhomb; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenzal Rhomb