Australian deathrock outfit Slug Guts are releasing a new LP ” Playin’ in Time with the Deadbeat” on Sacred Bones records today. “Playin’ in time with the Deadbeat” is the bands most realized work to date, perfectly blending the right amount of fuzz and filth. Think sad sounding but furious guitar, heartfelt howling, commanding vocals and primal drums confronting you from some dark and desperate place. Slug guts will make you want to slash your wrists and do the twist.

I had a chance to correspond with Jimi, Slug Guts’ gutarist via e-mail about the new LP, berserk tours of past and future and their unsatiated desire for guns and burritos.

 JANE PAIN: For your second LP, “Howlin’ Gang”, you switched singers in an effort to not have the releases sound too similar. “Playin’ with the Deadbeat” certainly has a very different feel, what changes have you made within Slug Guts to develop this new sound?

JIMI: I don’t think we made conscious changes although we added Nick Kuceli on saxophone and Cameron hawes on bass. I think the different “feel” is maybe due to the fact we just wanted to make a record that sounded like our lives at that point. It is somewhat ugly with occasional flourishes of beauty.

 JANE PAIN: What is the “Deadbeat”? Does it sound like the Birthday Party? JUST KIDDING! [The poor guys get lazily compared to the Birthday Party a bit too much for either of our liking.]

JIMI: Yeah we actually got the corpses of Rowland, Tracy and Nick to play most of the parts on the record. We dug up Mick Harveys corpse to find a 70 year old woman going through menopause so we kinda just threw the dirt back on the coffin.

The Birthday party were a cartoon that went too far. We are a personal joke with no punchline that hasn’t insulted enough people.

 JANE PAIN: Your music has been described  as “authentic”. In the internet age of mindless genre worship and bullshit blog hype bands, what do you think you guys are doing differently? 

JIMI: I have no idea. We do what we do with no regard for what other people might think. We have more fun than most bands maybe aside from Puffy Areolas and the Chris Lutzko band.

JANE PAIN: There was a lot of talk about your last American tour: “trips to the mental hospital, jail, court trials, death, rehab and bouts of violence”. How are you guys feeling about the approaching north American tour? 

JIMI: Um, Alot has changed in the time since we toured America last year and our last recording coming out. Due to probation rulings Falco can’t leave the state or country so he can’t come on the American tour and has quit the band. But aside from this we have changed our ways a little and are trying to avoid all the stupid shit we got into in the first place which led to a slippery slope downwards I.e hard drugs which led to more stupid shit violence, insanity, arrests and court trials and of course horrible aching stuff like friends dying. We have tried our best to kinda get back on track in our personal lives but looking back it affected the band in a strange way because the three or four years we have been together we have released 3 albums, a live album, two singles and toured America, Japan and Australia but I think this took a toll on all of us. I think this upcoming tour of America will be really wild. You should come.

JANE PAIN: You have stated that the first two records were good reflections of your lives at the time of release, what is going on right now for you guys? Did tour sober you up a bit? 

Right now, I just got back from living in Berlin, in which I mainly focused on doing White Hex with Tara Green. We had a pretty intense/wild winter filled with alot weird times. When I got back to Australia Jd and I decided to move to Melbourne to continue the band and avoid once again getting stuck in the pretty dead end weird existence of living in Brisbane.

JANE PAIN: Do you have any unfinished business with America?

JIMI: “Yeah, i really want to buy a gun and a burrito.”

JANE PAIN: You once said that there “isn’t much to do or reason to get out of bed of us besides being in this band”. Is this still true today?

 JIMI: No, we have evolved into actual men.

You can listen to Slug Guts here: http://soundcloud.com/sacredbones/slug-guts-stranglin-you-too

Purchase Slug Guts “Playin’ in Time with the Deadbeat” at http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com or at a fine record store near you.