{"id":9014,"date":"2012-05-24T16:59:10","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T06:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=9014"},"modified":"2012-06-21T15:56:36","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T05:56:36","slug":"super-best-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2012\/05\/super-best-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Best Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After numerous recent live dates at both the Groovin’ The Moo festival run and their own official HANDSHAKE TOUR<\/strong> through March, April and May\u00a0around the country with shows through ACT, Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia, Canberra’s Super Best Friends are set for a couple more shows in late May on the Emperor’s ‘Stay Frosty Tour’.<\/p>\n

Official press release: “SUPER BEST FRIENDS<\/strong> started making headway after the release of their 2009 EP Ready Aim Fire!<\/em>\u00a0 <\/strong>The release <\/strong>scored consistent airplay on triple j\u2019s SHORT.FAST.LOUD<\/em><\/strong>, a spot on the American Punk Kills<\/em> <\/strong>compilation, college radio play in the USA and community radio play around Australia<\/strong>. The title track won the University of Canberra\u2019s Catapult Comp to play at Stonefest 09<\/em>, putting SUPER BEST FRIENDS<\/strong> on the same bill as The Living End<\/strong>, Children Collide<\/strong>, Art Vs Science<\/strong>, British India<\/strong>, Urthboy<\/strong> and Birds of Tokyo<\/strong>. The Ready Aim Fire!<\/em><\/strong> film clip aired on ABC TV\u2019s<\/em> Rage<\/em> in early 2010, catching the eye of some in the music industry and by the end of that year, SUPER BEST FRIENDS <\/strong>had picked up supports in Canberra and regional NSW with local heavy-weights Children Collide<\/strong> and Violent Soho<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Ready Aim Fire!<\/em><\/strong> picked-up a belated 4\/5 star review in punk rag Blunt Magazine, <\/em><\/strong>and earned <\/em>SUPER BEST FRIENDS <\/strong>the label <\/em><\/strong>\u201coutraged party rock [with] maximum headbangability\u201d.\u00a0 <\/em>With the launch of triple j unearthed digital radio<\/em>, Ready Aim Fire!<\/em> <\/strong>found itself on the airwaves again, and the trio added shows with The Beards<\/strong>, Gay Paris<\/strong>, Young Revelry<\/strong> and 90\u2019s heroes Regurgitator<\/strong> to their support credits.<\/p>\n

Over beers in an old room at the Area Hotel Griffith (NSW), SUPER BEST FRIENDS<\/strong> talked to Children Collide road manager and producer Paul \u201cWoody\u201d Annison from Crucial Music<\/em> about making their next record with him, and in April 2011, Woody began recording the HANDSHAKE<\/em> <\/strong>EP at his Red Door Sounds <\/em>studios in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Fans received their first taste of the HANDSHAKE <\/strong>EP with the release of the single, \u2018Karma Karma\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, which debuted\u00a0 on triple j mornings in November 2011.\u00a0 The track was accompanied by a DIY video – cast after a call-out on the SUPER BEST FRIENDS\u2019<\/strong> Facebook page – and the \u2018Karma Karma\u2019<\/em><\/strong> tour which saw the trio take their show up and down the east coast of Australia throughout November and December.\u00a0 The track has received consistent spins on triple j and community radio around the country,<\/strong> with triple j\u2019s Dan Buhagiar calling it, \u201cA great indie punk song laced with synths n shouts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The bands latest track,\u00a0\u2018No Logo Is A Joke\u2019, has been added to rotation on triple j.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>The track is the second \u00a0single from the HANDSHAKE<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0EP (out March 22), and is available to download for free from the Super Best Friends\u2019<\/strong> Bandcamp and triple j unearthed pages. http:\/\/superbestfriends.bandcamp.com\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and\u00a0http:\/\/triplejunearthed.com\/superbestfriends<\/a>“<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Super Best Friend, Johnny Barrington takes some time to give YOU, our fine readers, more insight into what I am pretty sure is the first Canberra band we have featured so far on May The Rock Be With You!<\/p>\n

As this will be the first time a lot of our readers may have been introduced to\u00a0Super\u00a0Best\u00a0Friends, let’s start with the basics first, when did the first band get together and what was the inspiration behind the band name\u00a0Super\u00a0Best\u00a0Friends?
\n<\/strong>We met at Uni and by going to gigs in Canberra. \u00a0Matt\u2019s (bass) spent most of his life here but the rest of us grew up in regional NSW. Adam\u2019s (drums) from Cooma and I\u2019m (Johnny\/guitar) from Batemans Bay. \u00a0So we\u2019ve been band mates about as long as we\u2019ve been mates. Most bands in Canberra have some long-standing connection from high school \u2013 a brotherhood or a sisterhood, if you will – but not us. So we called ourselves Super Best Friends to make it seem like we\u2019re more important to each other than we really are. More accurately, the name\u2019s stolen from\u00a0South Park<\/em>. The satire of that show has had a big impact on our lyric style. After several years together, we have become a brotherhood – and we now slap five and do\u00a0Bon Jovi<\/em>\u00a0style huddles before big stadium rock shows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll fact or myth about each?
\n<\/strong>Alright, we\u2019ll do a true or false thing. Facebook us for answers. Apart from bass, Matt also plays accordion and once toured with\u00a0Gogol Bordello<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 his big moment was storming the court during a\u00a0Hunter Pirates<\/em>\u00a0game, to protest the\u00a0Cannons<\/em>\u00a0franchise leaving Canberra. Adam started life as a hardcore metal drummer and his doublekicking once impressed Dave Lombardo from\u00a0Slayer<\/em>\u00a0– it\u2019s almost as good as his kickflipping. He\u2019s also the singer\/guitarist in\u00a0Crash The Curb<\/em>. I (Johnny\/guitar) once had a full Coke bottle hurled at me the same night I blew up a Peavy amp at a rollerskating rink. I played in\u00a0The Mormons<\/em>\u00a0uni cover band at\u00a0Stonefest 2006<\/em>, broke a string at the start of\u00a0RATM<\/em>\u2019s Take The Power Back and replaced it just in time for the face-melting solo.\u00a0Faker<\/em>\u00a0had just finished, the bar was packed and the crowd went wild.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You have twenty seconds in an elevator to try and convince someone to listen to your new EP ‘Handshake\u2019, without resorting to threats or violence, what do you tell them?
\n<\/strong>\u201cDo you still have a CD player? You do, but you don\u2019t play CDs anymore. Yeah, okay. I\u2019ve got a copy of my band\u2019s CD on me actually… you should take it home to see if your CD player still works. Listen to all the songs though, to make sure the needle doesn\u2019t jump.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In terms of song writing, what do you consider to be the most important elements that feature in a\u00a0Super\u00a0Best\u00a0Friends, song?
\n<\/strong>Bass and drums drive the songs. As a guitarist, I want to make the other lads do all the work. This allows me to get stuck into the vocals, so I can hold my guitar off to the side and clap my hands like Billy Ray Cyrus. We like a good shout-a-long. Makes it sound juvenile and laddy. We\u2019ve got a keyboard too for some nice 90s flashbacks, when my mum used to complain about how tinny and annoying Sega music was. We all get into rock\u2019n\u2019roll to rebel against our parents right?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Over the course of the bands evolution, what and\/or who have you found inspires and influences your music the most, in both a lyrical and musical sense?
\n<\/strong>The songs aren\u2019t love songs, except for maybe the love between a boy and his amp turned up really loud. They take a stab at ourselves, our friends and what\u2019s happening around us. Like I said,\u00a0South Park<\/em>\u00a0has been a big influence on our lyric style, also\u00a0The Chaser<\/em>\u00a0and Bill Hicks… Louis C.K more recently. Comedians have a way of making social commentary without getting all preachy about it or trying to change things they can\u2019t change. That\u2019s how we try to write our lyrics. Have a stab at something, but don\u2019t pretend you know better. Musically, it\u2019s all about big bass, drums, guitar, 8-bit keyboard sounds and 2-bit singing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You have a new single and video titled \u2018No Logo Is A Joke\u2019 what do you have to tell us about the concept behind the song and the video?
\n<\/strong>The music came from Adam just doing a beat at practise. I recorded it on my phone and kept humming a riff in my head, until I had a chance to sit down and play with it. The lyrics came next. The title rips of \u201c911 Is A Joke\u201d by\u00a0Public Enemy\u00a0<\/em>(who we hassled for photos at\u00a0Groovin The Moo<\/em>\u00a0the other week, outside their tent) and Naomi Klein\u2019s book \u201cNo Logo\u201d. It takes a stab at ourselves for the amount of clothes we buy with logos on them, even though we should know better. The film clip is basically a compile of heaps of ads I found online. People love watching commercial tele \u2013 there\u2019s even a few new free-to-air digital channels dedicated to advertising – so we thought a music video full of commercials would go down well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a>You hail from the Canberra, Australia.\u00a0\u00a0For the benefit of those in galaxies far, far, away…what do you have to say about the rock scene in Canberra at the moment and\u00a0Super\u00a0Best\u00a0Friends\u00a0place within it?
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s strong \u2013 lots of good bands.\u00a0The Fighting League<\/em>,\u00a0Crash The Curb<\/em>,\u00a0Mornings, Hoodlum Shouts<\/em>\u00a0(who are partially based in Melbourne),\u00a0Shopgirl<\/em>,Voss, Kasha<\/em>,\u00a0Bent Hen<\/em>,\u00a0The Last Prom, Cracked Actor, Tonk,\u00a0<\/em>Yoko Oh No and Los Capitanes<\/em>\u00a0and all the other bands on Canberra\u2019s various local labels –Dream Damage<\/em>,\u00a0Hello Square Recordings\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Birds Love Fighting<\/em>\u00a0(also partially based in Melbourne). We\u2019re not on a label and Super Best Friends are still entirely based in Canberra, but it\u2019s probably only a matter of time until we are partially based in Melbourne. It happens to all Canberra bands.\u00a0Initiate Records<\/em>\u00a0recorded our 2009 EP \u201cReady Aim Fire!\u201d \u2013 but it\u2019s basically just our friend Chris Legge. His bandDining At The White<\/em>\u00a0should have been Canberra\u2019s biggest band and he sings like a Tom Araya\/Thom Yorke duet on a\u00a0Slaydiohead\u00a0<\/em>album. Call us for his contact details. Canberra\u2019s not just about rock either, you\u2019ve got\u00a0Readable Graffiti\u00a0<\/em>and our friend\u00a0MC Stateovmind<\/em>\u00a0is blowing up. Smart hip-hop from the Nation\u2019s Capital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you were a person in the crowd at one of your gigs, what five words would you walk away using to describe the performance you just witnessed?
\n<\/strong>Mind-blowing. Face-melting. Ear-bashing. Ground-breaking. Life-changing. If compound words aren\u2019t acceptable, then I\u2019d probably just say \u201cFuture of the Left<\/em>ripoff.\u201d (Or is it rip-off?)<\/p>\n

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Gigs, gigs, gigs\u2026 do you have any coming up that you wanted to tell us all about?
\n<\/strong>Supporting\u00a0Emperors<\/em>\u00a0from Perth\u00a0on Friday May 25\u00a0at The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle and\u00a0on Saturday May 26\u00a0at FBi Social, Kings X Hotel Sydney. Very excitement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With 2012 already four months down, here’s a chance to gaze into your crystal ball.\u00a0\u00a0By the end of 2012,\u00a0Super\u00a0Best\u00a0Friends, will have<\/strong>:
\n1. …had a quick break while I went to America.
\n2. …written new songs and played more shows.
\n3. …all had birthdays (just in the nick of time too – Adam\u2019s is\u00a0December 20)<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Canberra, Australia<\/p>\n

Sounds like:<\/strong> “Outraged party rock”<\/p>\n

Band members:\u00a0<\/strong>Johnny Barrington \u2013 vocals\/guitar\/keys Matt Roberts \u2013 bass\/vocals Adam Bridges \u2013 drums\/vocals<\/p>\n

Website:\u00a0<\/strong>www.superbestfriends.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release: Handshake EP (22 March 2012)<\/p>\n

Tour dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

SUPPORTING THE EMPERORS STAY FROSTY TOUR (NSW SHOWS):<\/strong>
\nFriday May 25 – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle w\/ Long Island Sound & The Owls<\/p>\n

Saturday May 26 – FBi Socail Kings X Hotel, Sydney w\/ Skull Squadron & Matt Banham<\/p>\n\n

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