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New LP / CD "Damning With Faint Praise" out October 9th, 2012
European Tour September / October 2012Jeremiah Wontsewitz: Guitar
Sr. (H), jb: Guitar
Defenestrator: Drums
Now touring with the band:
Chris Trull: Guitar (formerly of Grand Ulena)
yowie (you-e), n. Cryptozoology. 1. A large, relict, egg laying hominoid descended from Gigantopithecus, autochthonous to Southern Australia. This lucifugal biped is known for its fulsome effluvium of ordure, and is characterized by its pointed saggital crest and hexadactyly, with an opposable tibial dactyl. Often growing to more than 8 centals, this omnivorous nocturnal anthropoid has been reported to be necrophagous in times of penury. Also Noocoonah, Doolagahl, Gooligah, Quinken, Thoolagal, Yaroma, Yahoo.
POSTER BY ARNULF RODLER
TOUR DATES ARE HERE
HISTORY
It's profound geographical isolation makes Australia an unlikely habitat for a missing link that could exist for millions of years without being documented by science, especially since no primates are indigenous to the continent. Nevertheless, the land down under claims its own version of Bigfoot, the Yowie. The creature's long history can be traced back to aborigine legends. An aborigine folk tale explains that when their people first migrated to Australia thousands of years ago, they encountered on the new continent a savage race of ape-men. The aborigines' ancestors went to war against the ape-men, and in the end the humans triumphed, thanks to their ability to make weapons. - Bigfoot Encounters
SECOND ALBUM: "DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE"
"Yowie sounds like Einstein discovering the theory of relativity while hopped up on meth and psilocybin -- genius ideas of how everything connects spewed raw and uncontained, formulae and fact swirling in broken code, riding between rational thought and complete breakdown."
- Riverfront Times: Best Of St. Louis
"Damning with Faint Praise" is the second full length release from Yowie. This album surpasses the girth and intensity of their debut, "Cryptooology," an album that few have learned to decipher (or pronounce). "Damning with Faint Praise" moves through an array of multidimensional shifting structures, while inexplicably maintaining cohesion, and even, yes, grooves.
YOWIE COME RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE:
King Crimson, Ruins, Cheer Accident, The Flying Luttenbachers, Hella, The Locust, Fantomas, Trio Convulsante, Battles
o Click HERE to read DIANA BENANTI's interview with YOWIE,
conducted after their reformation (JUNE 2011)
SINGLE: "DUNDERDRUCK"
from "SIDES 11-14: YOWIE / COLOSSAMITE PRE / MULE
double 7" & comic book set"
Joe Carduchii wrote in his book "Rock And The Pop Narcotic" that today - "If you cut open young execs, housewives, rappers, house-mixers, salsa fans, hip-hopsters, etc, you're likely to find, 14 rings back, a layer of molten rock spewed by Australia's shaggiest eruption, AC/DC“.
SIDES 11-14 is the latest in SKiN GRAFT Records’ irregularly published series of tribute record and comic book sets published in conjunction with Gasoline Boost Records. This deluxe double 7“ single and comic book set includes:
YOWIE "Dunderdruck“ The newly reformed YOWIE turn AC/DC’s "Thunderstruck” sideways to take the listener on a technically impeccable, hyper-alien-math-rock sugar high - played with spaghetti-strung guitars and stop on a dime drums.
COLOSSAMITE "Anti-Christ Devil Child“ The members of Gorge Trio (John and Ed of Deerhoof) plus Nick Sakes (vocalist of Dazzling Killmen) unite one final time for a maddening metal medley of AC/DC’s greatest hits.
PRE "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap“ London’s No Wave naughties apply their merry-go-round grind to the certified classic “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”.
MULE "Have A Drink On Me“ Vaulted for 10 years and previously unreleased, here is the final recording from this legendary Touch and Go / Quarterstick Recording artist, featuring the restrained redneck blues of PW Long on vocals and guitar.
Plus: a densely illustrated 20 page wraparound comic book sleeve written and drawn by Skin Graft founder Mark Fischer
FIRST ALBUM: "CRYPTOOOLOGY"
Three years in the making, Cryptooology, Yowie's debut album, is an album at war. Yowie, a dual-guitar and drums trio from St. Louis, have been stunning audiences with their incomparable barrage of sonic kung fu, accelerating the progressive-rock rhythmic sensibilities of RUINS and MAGMA and mutating them with the shriekier side of BIG BLACK and SLAYER. The band incorporates many variations in time signature, tempo, and tuning, to create a virtual audio maze, but no matter how complex things get their compositions remain cohesive and compelling.
With their debut album still being recorded, the strength of Yowie's live show alone garnered them a nomination in The Riverfront Times' 2004 St. Louis Music Awards, alongside local acts as diverse as Nelly and Chuck Berry to Jay Farrar and Chingy. The Yowie has yet to be found in Australia, but has been found touring the U.S. performing with the likes of: CHEER-ACCIDENT, THE FROGS, WESLEY WILLIS, THE CHINESE STARS, THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, and X27, to name a few.
PRESS QUOTES:
o "The climax of rock music. This is outsider music for our entire dimension. No band has had this sort of vision since Beefheart marinaded us with tales of Big Joan's anatomy. In the dozens of times I've listened to this album I've never heard the same album twice." - Loving Peter Cetera
o "Watching them live is like witnessing a reptile birth a human; utterly perplexing, yet amazing." - KDHX Radio
o "Yowie are the spastic, elastic-limbed progeny of the forefathers of prog, purveyors of a heady mix of energetic fervor and intelligent complexity." - Dusted Magazine
o "Like watching the capuchin monkeys of Saskatchewan beating a piñata with lengths of the province's indigenous bamboo. Imagine the glee with which they anticipate delicious banana taffy melting in their mouths. Imagine their screams of terror when the papier-mâché bursts and releases millions of giant, hissing cockroaches that devour them all. Who's the taffy now, monkeys?" - RFT Weekly
"Yowie seems to have done everything in its reach to make things as difficult on itself as possible. It is in this constant self-challenge that one can see a sort of intellectual nobility shining through songs that often sound as if they'll spin out of control and whiz off into the ether. O'Connor's drumming is a befuddling barrage of 32nd notes, jarring stops and cymbal splashes that defies simple description, often calling to mind the rhythmic mayhem of the music of Raymond Scott, the composer of scores for countless cartoons from the 1940s. And the dueling, microtonally tuned guitars of Wonsewitz and Hagerty engage in sonic relationships that don't seem to want to exist, often creating dissonance that's oddly compelling. It's high-velocity music of intense discipline, rigid structure and focused force; Yowie's kung fu is very good. The aural ass-whupping they so effortlessly throw down energizes, excites and amazes further with every listen. It's an ululating tribute to human potential through music, a testament to the fact that we as humans have much further to go. If music is the history of the human spirit, Yowie proves that musicians could start being a little more honest with themselves by seeking out every remote nook and cranny in the mind and bathing the darkness in an unrelenting light If it's possible to explain Yowie in one sentence, Hagerty has at least come close, if not nailed it beautifully: 'The point is to free the material and the given tools from each other."
- The Riverfront Times
"An incomprehensible blend of tightly wound math rock composition, but played with 'expressive' guitars, making them sound more like blood brothers to bands like U.S. Maple or Arab On Radar rather than Don Caballero. Each song packs more composition than an entire album from most (bands)... I've heard the future of music and my ears are still bleeding.
- Crackle Pop Journal
"Yowie is the best band St. Louis has ever seen."
- stlpunk.com
YOWIE
RELEASES
FROM
SKiN
GRAFT:
GR#74 CD
YOWIE / PRE / COLOSSAMITE / MULE
GR#28-7
GR#109 LP /CD
