Melbourne based bluesy folk brothers Holy Moses Heartache are on the eve of releasing their latest album Cheers, a pretty strong effort from a group drinking buddies who one day “decided to get together and write songs.”
Cheers will be launched this Saturday the 28th at The Toff in Town, with support from Noriko Tadano, who’ll be melting peoples’ faces with her shamisen playing (google it) and magician Anthony De Masi. In celebration of the release of Cheers, the guys have given us a track by track run down on the new album which you can listen to here:
Grandpa’s Pet
A semi erotic story of a man’s love, lust and passion for the one and only lady in his life. A horse.
Under Blackened Skies
Each band member comes from good stock. This one is for our fathers. Bloody ripping harmonies!
Dancin’ Alone
This is a very bitter break-up song from the perspective of the woman. (Band member) Wade overheard the opening line, late one night on the streets of The Valley in Brisbane.
Isabelle
The story of how one member of the band, (band member) Luke believed his bedroom to be haunted by the previous tenant. He would periodically wake up in the middle of the night, seemingly wide awake but unable to move or speak.
Sure it could have been due to what he had consumed that evening, but he believes it to be true.
All My Friends
For our friends: the good, the bad, the ugly and the dickheads (amongst whom we often count ourselves). And we love them all just the same, in equal measure.
Might As Well Be Dead
This song was written after Wade and Luke had had a couple of beers late one afternoon, and were walking on their way to get more beers when they noticed a very pretty lady across the way. Wade mentioned how when struck by such beauty, his late nonno would remark, “If you can’t look, you might as well be dead.” Luke then mentioned how his late pop, in the same instance, would say, “I’d slip her shoes underneath my bed.” The song then more or less wrote itself.
A Toast/ Dreadful Things
Two separate songs that we stuck together. The former is coloured with nostalgia, while the latter is another story. Needless to say, any man who is responsible for physical or emotional violence towards a woman should be deprived of feminine company for the rest of his days. There is no excuse. It is never justified. And sadly, much more needs to be done to educate young men.
The Weekend
There was once this guy we knew who lived in a bedsit on the outskirts of town. One night he got a little more loose than usual and started in on a lengthy diatribe about the mathematics of the universe. He was seeking a magic that would deliver him everlasting serenity but all he continued to find was the unravelling of mysteries that had once filled his heart with wonder; these unwanted answers sank his soul into state of perpetual melancholy, from which there was no return. This song has nothing to do with that, but where there’s light, there are often shadows.
Tightrope
The tale of a jealous father of a tightrope walker hell bent on not letting his son better him.
His weapon of choice, a sharp pair of scissors.
Two Beating Hearts
Based on a true story but relocated to band member Wade’s hometown, Home Hill. This is strangely pertinent, given the recent debate about euthanasia.
Before The Devil Knows I’m Dead
Make of it what you will. The bridge is about sex, and not of the missionary kind.
Ava Marie
This is a love song of sorts, sung from the perspective of a somewhat complicated character. Any meanings to be deduced ultimately depend on what the listener gleans from what is not being said. And therefore really depends on the imagination of the individual.
Keep It In The Family
A simple song about a not-so-simple family. One of the first songs we wrote together. In many ways, this song pretty much sets the scene in terms of the album’s major themes, and it has one of our favourite opening lines. Wade once read an interview with someone – it might have been Grant McLennan or Robert Forster, talking about Nick Cave – and they spoke about the importance of a strong opening line to a song, and that has been the ambition ever since.
Them Dishes
This is just a sad song, about a sad man, in a sad place. This one is for weeping into your half-empty pint, at 11 o’clock on a rainy, Autumnal Sunday morning. Or for when you wake up, alone and confused and heavily hung-over, and it becomes apparent that at some stage in the wee hours of the morning, you mistook the pot-plant in the corner of the room for the toilet. Or for when you’re caught between the cold-sweats and delirious wanderings of the nostalgic mind in the throes of illness. You get the picture. Fade to black.
Good Times
Self-explanatory. This was a late inclusion on the album, and one which we weren’t sure of until we heard the finished product and realised we’d pretty much nailed it. Good times indeed. Cheers.
Holy Moses Heartache Album Launch
Saturday June 28th
The Toff In Town
Support from Anthony De Masi and Noriko Tadano
Tickets and info
