12 Bar Bruise

Recorded at The Mill in Fairfield, Melbourne, during 2011 and 2012, 12 Bar Bruise was produced by King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard and released by Flightless Records on 7 September 2012. The band’s debut album followed the Anglesea and Willoughby’s Beach EPs, featuring Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Skinner, Michael Cavanagh and Eric Moore. Its homemade character is clearest on the title track, whose vocals were recorded through four iPhones placed around the room, leaving Mackenzie’s voice clipped and compressed.

The album’s garage rock and psychedelic rock framework runs on fuzz-heavy guitars, bursts of harmonica and loose rhythms shared between two drummers. “Bloody Ripper” and “Muckraker” were released as singles, while “Elbow,” “Nein” and the football-themed closer “Footy Footy” became established parts of the band’s early catalogue. The original release contains 12 tracks. It belongs in collections tracing the group’s development from Melbourne garage rock into the broader experiments of their later records.