I came from a world where the unclassifiable sounds were quietly filed away into the Indie genre. While Seafog’s Raise Your Skinny Fist would slide quite nicely into that peg hole, I think the more appropriate label here, and one specific to this country, is the word Dunedin.
The elusive subgenre first became apparent to me after listening to the Robert Burns tribute album Ae Fond Kiss, of which Sea Fog were a part. Maybe it’s a style of reverb that’s in vogue down there, or maybe it’s the accent. Perhaps there is something in the water. Whatever it is, there is an unnamed something that makes Southern Rock unquantifiably different, unique, from its Northern cousins.
Maybe it’s the substance over style approach. Listening to Raise Your Skinny Fist is like sitting there watching a few blokes standing in a room with the express purpose of performing music, as opposed to a highly stylised, oh-so-hip media circus of a band in matching threads wooing you for your hard-earned dough. I don’t have to see the band to know they’re good.
It’s music that conveys moods from morose to mundane. The lyrics; odes to the unseen and observations of the world in, out and in between an individual’s existence.
There is a Sonic Youth, or Mary Timony’s Helium vibe to this album. Not so much in the subversion of what we understand as music. It’s in the noise. In the way they’re taking easy-listening pop rock and messing with it. Fuzzing it up a little. Spacing it out. Making easy-listening all the more listenable for those of us with musical taste beyond the mainstream.
You can find Raise Your Skinny Fist on the Sea Fog Bandcamp, as well as a one-liner for each track (except Clean UFO's) shedding light on the inspiration or purpose for the song.
Seafog are a three piece from Port Chalmers, Dunedin. Their first gig was performed at Circadian Rythm mid 2006 with Robbie Yeats drumming, Nigel Waters on lead guitar and Rob Sharma on vocals and guitar.
Seafog play country crafted rock with intense lyrics and tribal jazz beats. Rob and Nige jam and write on Sundays in Sunny Port at each others place and Robbie joins them for gigs.