IT SEEMS everywhere you look these days, there’s something else to whinge about: P-plater tailgaters, exorbitant power prices, dog owners who bag their pet’s faeces and hang it in a tree branch – the list goes on and on.
Brisbane trio The Disgruntled Taxpayers, brothers Jake and Paul Donehue with bassist Mark Heady, aren’t here to convince you that everything’s going to be all fine and dandy, they just want to nullify the stench for a little while with their biting wit and bruising songs.
Their albums are an amalgam of music genres: you might hear bluesy post-punk one minute, and forays into jazz, ska, and grunge the next; nothing is off limits.
“We tried ‘serious’ and it just didn’t work for us,” guitarist and songwriter Jake Donehue said.
“Of course, there’s some really very serious musicians out there – those types who get offended by us, but we don’t care what they think.
“The best thing any band can do is to be themselves. An audience will suss out a fake in the first 10 seconds.
“Some individuals will look down on you if you don’t meet their expectations, haven’t got a mohawk or aren’t dressed in a certain way, and that is fine with us.
“What I’ve learned is to just have the balls to be yourself, that’s a goal in itself.
“Our music is about the silliness of humanity, the crazy conventions we follow, all the hypocrisy and greed we see every day.
“It’s a world of KPIs, a bunch of stuff made up by bosses who have never done the job before, most likely just so they can reach their own KPIs.
“We need KPIs for common sense.”
The Disgruntled Taxpayers are currently on tour with acclaimed new album I Do Everything Better When I’m Really Smashed.
The album reached the top of the 4ZZZ charts and has garnered them more fans and rave reviews.
“I peppered about 40 radio shows with our CDS, and then I wrote individual letters for each one,” Donehue said.
“4ZZZ is the local station, and we love them. If you are going to go to the expense of recording, you must follow it through with promotion, or what’s the point?
“It’s really satisfying getting on the radio, even a bit of success when you have no backing or management makes it all worthwhile.”
New album songs feature Recession, a biting invective about white collar greed and their prey. And then there’s Poo Jogger – a eulogy to corporate boss Andrew McIntosh and his fetish some years ago for relieving himself in other people’s gardens. And check out The Road Safety Song, an expletive-filled diatribe about road etiquette, and the lack thereof.
Sixteen years together as a band and time shows no hint of mellowing them, this album yet further embracing Donehue’s muscular power chords and grouchy vocals, brother Paul’s punky drums, and Heady’s chunky bass lines.
Donehue said The Disgruntled Taxpayers don’t wave a flag for any specific issues: they only document what they see.
“There’s so much to write about,” Donehue said.
“I’ve got plenty of songs in the bank.
“The human race hasn’t caught up with the digital age, we’re still adapting to it, I think that’s the problem.
“You only need look at how the internet changes behaviour with all these big loops of information that wipe out common sense very quickly.
“Humanity is losing its sociability.”
Next in the pipeline is an EP, being financed with a keen eye on the budget.
“We’re paying for it with recycled cans, copper, steel and whatever else we can lay our hands on that is recyclable. It has already paid for two days of recording,” Donehue said.
Donehue said his passion for writing and playing music remained as vital to him now as when he learned jazz guitar as a child.
“We love playing gigs because it’s about getting back to what we should be doing and what we love,” he said.
“Seeing new faces in the crowd, getting lots of good energy back from the crowd, there’s nothing better.
“I did 10 years in Sydney and gigged around down there but I found the atmosphere particularly unfriendly.
“Up here, it’s like one big family.
“Everyone’s so friendly and you meet so many nice people; musicians and punters become friends outside of music.
“I cannot speak highly enough of the local music scene.”
The Disgruntled Taxpayers with The Cassingles, and Kathleen Turner Overdrive, Banshees Bar, March 25.