Super Wild Horses
The Tote, Melbourne
by René Schaefer
Saturday November 08, 2008
We live in exciting times. It seems like every other day another new band appears out of nowhere to get audiences frothing at the mouth about their ability to inject new youthful vigour into such hoary old forms
as garage and punk rock. Indeed, such is the case with Super Wild Horses, a duo made up of Amy Franz and Hayley McKee, who gleefully prove that all it takes to be a kick-arse band is to get up there and do it. If there is a game plan it’s to have fun – loud, primitive fun.This is the perfect soundtrack to a Saturday afternoon down the boozer. On this first date of their November residency at The Tote’s front bar, Super Wild Horses pull no punches, keeping the set short and raw. It’s like being transported to some perfect alternate universe where Times New Viking and Bratmobile are chart toppers.
Guitar riffs are reduced to a couple of perfectly wayward and obnoxious chords, Hayley pounds out a steady teen-beat stomp and both musicians shout their choppy, truncated lyrics in unison. It should be dumb, but it’s actually incredibly clever in its deliberate minimalism.
Using garage-rock as the starting point, the band boils the music down to its most basic components: the beat, the shout, the chord. This becomes even more apparent as they jettison the guitar in favour of a vintage electric organ which is played with all the reductivist fervour of Martin Rev’s work in Suicide. Then they go one step further and simply sing over a drum beat. Perfect.The enthusiastic crowd is swelled by many local musicians craning their necks to admire Super Wild Horses’ effortless cool – and maybe cop a few licks in the process. It’s almost a foregone conclusion that most of the audience will be back next week for another dose of raucous
fun.