In the time since Violent Soho’s last U.S. performances alongside bands like The Bronx, Dinosaur Jr., Built To Spill and Alice in Chains in 2010, the band has all but wholly reinvented itself, starting with their breakout album Hungry Ghost. Released in September of 2014, Hungry Ghost peaked at #6 on the ARIA Album Chart and made a lasting impact here in the States as well, driving champions like Modern Baseball, Mark Hoppus, and members of All Time Low to sing the band’s praises.
Earlier this year, Violent Soho released their latest album called WACO, which shot straight to #1 on the ARIA Chart in its debut week. Named for the small Texas city that was the site of the Koresh-led Branch-Davidian siege in 1993, WACO is like Hungry Ghost’s older sister - while HG dealt primarily with themes of self-destruction, WACO takes many of those themes and reflects them in a way so as to question our surroundings instead.
“To know the story of Violent Soho is to understand the meaning of career peaks and troughs, of feast and famine, of getting it all, losing it all, then clawing it back through sheer determination and grit.” the Huffington Post explains.
After years of playing as a local band in Brisbane, Thurston Moore of iconic indie-rock band Sonic Youth signed Violent Soho to his Ecstatic Peace imprint. Before they knew it, the band’s career was based in Brooklyn, and more black-and-white than they had ever imagined - driving, playing a show, driving, doing an acoustic radio set, repeat. It inevitably broke the band’s spirit, sending them back to Australia for some much-needed reflection. Simply put, things were bleak. Guitarist James Tidswell, needing cash, applied for a job at a local McDonald’s. The day he arrived for his interview was the same day that Violent Soho’s self-titled sophomore album was nominated for an ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock Album. The nomination served as a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel for the band, and it wasn’t long before they wrote and released their breakthrough album Hungry Ghost.
WSG Meat Wave & Broke!!!
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