White Ants. Termites. Satan’s Robotic Horsemen of The Apocalypse whose pale jaws are the personification of Death.
Dear friends, I have looked these Demons in the eye and fled in terror from my studio to the spare room. It was there, in that cold, noiseless front corner of my humble abode that the seeds of this new album were sown. Unable to sing or play acoustic instruments for fear of waking Children or worse still, preventing Wife from acquiring sweet relief from wakefulness, I was forced to work exclusively on headphones.
With this restricted ability to create new music I went searching for old tunes that I could revisit and reimagine. One thing lead to another and before I knew it there were twelve songs in various stages of undress strewn across my hard drive. At this point the Cacodemon termites had been driven back underground and I began to migrate my things back to the homeland.
Rather than taking time to enjoy the spoils of war, my focus turned to these chosen tunes that were fated to re-enter the world and currently had no pants and no bass line.
Now here we are.. Twelve new Stone Cold Super Friends songs that are old songs that have already been released as Simon Kelly songs. A pointless exercise you say? yes, maybe. But it’s my catalogue and i’ll update it if I want to.
Stone Cold Super Friends serve up a hot batch of Ditty Choon Biscuits fresh outta the Covid Kitchen.
It is a mind bending journey through indefinable genres that will leave you feeling like a nun sharing cask wine with a gorilla way past your bedtime.
The follow up to Stone Cold Super Hits Volume 1 was once again constructed in the home studios of the band members. The remote collaboration skills honed during Volume 1 came in handy as the world was sent to their collective bedrooms in 2020.
A compilation of Stone Cold Super Friends greatest and most loved hits. The 8 songs on this album were chosen from their extensive back catalogue of 8 songs.
It is a mind bending journey through indefinable genres that will leave you feeling like a duck staring at the moon.
The album was constructed piece by piece over the course of 12 months in various home studios of the band members, who for reasons beyond their control were rarely able to get together in person to work on ideas. However, the power of hard work and the internet prevailed.
Simon Kelly & The Mighty Jaguar
In 2015 however, a serious bout of existential angst (the terrible malaise that afflicts all those who have too much of anything) saw Kelly disappear from public life. Whereas once he believed a musicians job was to channel the divine poetry of the universe and a gig was a sacred pact in which performer and audience would collectively submit to the will of a holy and benign universe, he began to realise that these delusions were created by the ego to mask the fact that performing was a selfish plot to win the affection of strangers and momentarily silence the incessant howl of the insecure monkey mind. In fact, a musician was actually little more than underpaid and overworked liquor salesperson, hired by pubs to persuade the masses to spend their hard earned dollars over the bar.
This dark night of the soul led Simon to the Peruvian jungles where a local Shaman, in the form of a mighty Jaguar looked him in the eyes and explained to him (telepathically) that the truth, as always, was somewhere in the middle.
Armed with fresh knowledge and the renewed sense of aliveness that often results from a near death experience, Simon returned to his home town of Perth, took a deep breath and pressed the record button one more time.
Ben Gray In Real Life
For Ben Gray, no is not the word to chose when choosing words. No way Hose. No way Ben Gray. Keyboards, guitar, singing, bass… Ben Gray does it all, if you don’t count anything else. His signature move is the ‘Whisky Reggae Chop’, a mean skank with the right hand whilst using a whisky glass as a counterweight on the left.
Ben Gray’s lackadaisical manner and fondness for yacht rock has, on occasion, led some to believe he is a bum. But how many bums do you know that have written, recorded and released 6track EP’s in the last 12 months? Not many. If any. You probably don’t know any bums that could rock a 6 track EP.
Gavin Arnold does Murder To mediocrity
Some know him as The Ageless Man. Some know him as Chillman Fandango. His parents know him as Gavin Arnold.
Gavin brings the ‘super’ to Stone Cold Super Friends. He can do most things… Tennis, trombone, melodica, bass guitar , singing, levitation, illustration, cooking… Gavin does all of these things without breaking a sweat or even getting frustrated. Some say he has the strength of 5 men. Some say he is 5 men.
Possibly a robot sent back from the future. Gavin is an enigma wrapped up in secret sauce.
Gavin released his debut album ‘Chinchilla’ under the moniker Littlehawk in 2018. Chinchilla traverses pop, rock, electronic and folk vibes.
Wasting no time, Gav followed this up with the single “Say It Twice”, described by Happy Mag as “incredibly infectious”. Being incredible infectious is considered a very good thing when you are referring to music.
Still Life With Fernades and Ferns
Jonny Fandando, Bobby Lala, Jonny Twohats, Jon. A man known by many names is also a man of many talents.
The recent departure of our trumpet player left some space in the sound for someone new. The criteria was strict, they must be Super and they must be Friends. The choice was obviously Jon Fernandes. And so it was decided… but us. By Fate. By The Old Gods and New. But not yet by himself. Some nervous ‘would you like to join our group’ phone calls were exchanged. He said yes. Fantastic!
Nandes has been a housemate, a teacher, an old friend and a fellow Mighty Boosh fan.
Jon plays the keyboards better then Don Cheadle plays Miles Davis. He knows more about music than the rest of us combined but doesn’t judge when one of us play accidental jazz.
John Brown.
John Brown is the newest addition to Stone Cold Super Friends but has been in the band from the start. Partly because John Brown is in every Perth band but also because he has played in The Lonely Wives, who became the Big Bamboo who eventually became Stone Cold Super Friends.
Simon and John literally met on stage and been firm friends and musical partners ever since.
John is currently sat upon the drum throne but can just as easily pick up a bass and smash it out of the park with four strings.
John is a man of many talents. Well organised, well dressed and well funky.
Once A Friend Always A Friend.
In a band of pretty decent musicians, Michael Boase stands out as being a very decent musician. Dude plays guitar, sings, writes and records his own songs. Stone Cold Super Friends would probably perform them if they weren’t so damn complicated. He also plays drums. Holy Crap! Can he play the drums? Yes. Yes he can.
He also runs a Samba school and is an accomplished visual artist. Jesus Christ! Is there anything this asshole cannot do? Probably. We just haven’t worked out what it is yet.
Humble. Talented. Handsome. Michael Boase has all these things.
Does he have a vision for his future? Not really. His creative muse might lead him to Brazil. It might lead him to Melbourne, it might lead him to Timbuktu. It might cuddle up to him right here in lonely old Perth. Whatever happens, you shouldn’t take any risks.
*Postscript- Since writing this Mikey has relocated to Melbourne. But once a Stone Cold Super Friend always a Stone Cold Super Friend, so he sit in on percussion whenever he is in Perth town. These gigs are particularly worth your while if you get the chance.
An in-depth tutorial on Stone Cold Super Friends classic hit …And Equality For All (Just Like Me)
Stone Cold Super Friends are a West Australian band of brothers (other mothers) that play Psychedelic Percussive Roots music.
Their music has been described (by themselves) as “a bunch of Bonobos in a studio playing calypso music with nothing but wine and ashtanga juice in the fridge , cheese in the cupboard and Howard Moon in the producers chair”. Pretty bewildering, but then again, a review on Triple J Unearthed likened their sound to a “duck staring at bread” so maybe it is not far off the mark.
Stone Cold Super Friends have received the kind of praise from critics that is usually reserved for bands with the means to offer cash and cocaine or to threaten physical violence. Street Press Australia once stated their album contains “some of the best tracks we’ve heard from any Aussie artist this year”. Granted, this was a few years ago, back when street press still existed in Western Australia. Xpress Magazine stated they were “unlike any artist Australia (at least) has seen” and Global Thunda Network claimed they were “Australia’s best kept secret in music”.
They have been playing and recording music together for well over a decade now. Previously known as Simon Kelly & The Big Bamboo, the band started as a solo project of Simon Kelly but has evolved into a much more collaborative collective and Simon wanted a new name to reflect this. For a couple of precarious weeks it looked like The Kokomo Liberation Army was the best they could come up with. Spice Thyme Continuum was considered, Uncle Billy’s Milking Table was ignored but in the end Stone Cold Super Friends got the nod.
