MAM Song of the Week: The Garage Flowers – ‘Red Hot Military Audition’

Camden rock and rollers The Garage Flowers have just dropped ‘Red Hot Military Audition’, the latest single from the band’s forthcoming debut EP.

The four-piece are building notoriety in London with their DIY attitude and self-confessed ‘scumbag swagger’, hosting their own sell-out shows and underground guerrilla gigs. After moving to London from Bristol, founding members Joe Capaldi (lead vocals, guitar) and Jonny Webber (lead guitar) spent their initial months living out of a Peugeot 206 whilst planning their musical rise.

Now with bass player Mike Serapinas, and latest recruit Norea Persson on drums, the band have put forth their most experimental release to date. ‘Red Hot Military Audition’ is explosive, dark and sexy. The band push the boundaries as they venture into more experimental waters, but without losing their trademark intensity and swagger.

Now working with producer Kevin Vanbergen (Paul Weller, The Pixies), The Garage Flowers have found another gear, and frontman Joe Capaldi explains: “It’s definitely the most experimental song we’ve ever put out – there’s no chorus, a speech, a drum solo.”

“I wrote the riff years ago and actually played a demo of it to Jonny one of the first times we met up, careering down Gloucester Road (where we would later live together) en route to Stokes Croft most probably – the playground of all the beautiful drugged weirdos of Bristol.”

“Lyrically it’s a curious lament of the afterlife.  About that messed up thought that flashes through your mind when you’re standing at the edge of a large drop and a twisted part of your reptile brain asks in a whisper ‘what happens if I jumped?’ The speech during the breakdown is a sonic collage of three poems by controversial occultist Aleister Crowley that I pieced together one rainy afternoon.”

The Garage Flowers release their debut five-track EP this September.

Featured image by Aimee Vanweehaege