Involuntary Shutdown With LINK From THE MEANIES

Certain things in this world should always be spoken in the same
breath. Be it respect, acceptance or merely just because that's the
way it has always been, some things you just don't mess with. Like
a pie and tomato sauce, a Tim Tam straw, bacon and eggs, and The
Meanies and Australian music.
It seems The Meanies can't ever put a foot wrong, even when it
comes to apathetically releasing a song recorded 25 years ago that
just happens to have worked its way to the surface, although,
admittedly they did hedge their bets somewhat by inviting another
classic Aussie band from that era in Frenzal Rhomb to provide a
cover of Play This Song Every Night on the B Side.
From the late 1980s and into this century, Melbourne pop
punk-meets-hardcore-meets-punk-meets-attitude outfit The Meanies
have crawled and fought their way into the halls of Australian
music royalty, generally not caring either way about the trappings
of success and the money and problems that invariably come with it.
Put simply, The Meanies are the band that keeps on giving, and if
you have no idea about why or how these guys have etched themselves
into the realm of champions, then I suggest you repeat Grade 5. Or
maybe listen to this chat HEAVY recently had with frontman Link
Meanie. We ask him how a song could just be found after 25 years in
captivity, to which he had a strangely semi-serious answer.
"We initially released an EP and a couple of more EPs from that
recording session," he explained. "The more traditional
Meanies-type songs. But I was just a bit confused at the time and
recorded a whole bunch of ridiculous shit. There was a disco song,
there's a fucking country song. I don't know what the fuck I was
thinking, but yeah. So we did release those, and we had a whole
bunch of other stuff that we've gradually done a bunch of singles
with. So we'll have one of those tracks on the A side and a couple
of Aussie bands covering our songs on the other side. So we've been
lucky enough to have some really good bands do that."
In the full interview, Link told us the story behind the suddenly
found music and why it has been drip-fed over the years. We
discussed the song itself, Shutdown, and the funkier direction it
takes, asking if that was a direction The Meanies had contemplated
taking 25 years ago. He told us of the fun he had writing and
recording that sexier number, and the potential for The Meanies to
rebrand themselves as sex symbols.
We chatted about having Frenzal Rhomb and Leeches! feature on the B
Side, each band covering a different song by The Meanies. We also
spoke about the friendship and connection between them and Frenzal,
and some fun times they have had together over the years. The topic
of grunge music and its global invasion was raised, and how The
Meanies started up around the same time, but never conformed to
what was a rapidly expanding genre. He told us about the band's
single launch tour starting on October 31 and what fans can expect,
and more.


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