The first time I talked to Ferny, he was sitting on a park bench I assumed doubled as his bed. Visiting Melbourne I was of course half-cut but he was all the way there so we got chatting about music before he played me some songs that were really good on a battered and differently tuned guitar. I told him to call me if he ever recorded anything because I was starting something like a label (but definitely much better) but I thought he may well die from exposure and never expected to hear from him again.

And I didn’t but I ran into Ferny this time in a bar and he said, “I met a girl on a tram, we’ve started a band”. I said “Hell, I’m owed a few days in a studio, want to record a demo?” because there were a few days about to no longer be available and I wanted to see if the band existed or were in his mind or if there was actually something in-between. I never thought he’d finish the demo and he didn’t.

There was no demo; there was an album and a whole lot more all recorded in two studio-convenient nights and mixed in half a day by some tough-as-guts engineers run through the ringer who didn’t know what hit them.

So we’re putting this out — this album that sings about youth and loss and life and hope and drugs and booze and a whole lot more. It’s innocent and it’s corrupt and it has moments that will make you shudder and think back and think forward and feel something and in the end isn’t that the point?

Taking inspiration from flophouses, neon signs & pawnshop guitars, Forty Thousand Sisters bring their guitar driven songs about youth, life, punks, and anti-heroes for the first time to the Ding Dong stage.

Helping Forty Thousand Sisters launch their new art-rock epic “Goodbye Broken Sled” will be very special guests Sirens of Venice in their final Australian show (featuring Gersey front-man Craig Jackson) and Warmth Crashes In (Rory Lampitt & Erin Taylor of Priory Dolls fame).

Forty Thousand Sisters

“Goodbye Broken Sled” Album Launch

Supports: Sirens of Venice, Warmth Crashes In

Friday August 3

Doors 8pm

Ding Dong Lounge

Level 1/18 Market Lane, Melbourne

Tickets: $10 +bf/$12 at the door

http://www.dingdong.oztix.com.au/

www.fortythousandsisters.com

www.myspace.com/thesirensofvenice

www.facebook.com/WarmthCrashesIn

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