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The gentle folk at Laughing Outlaw Records are excited, but slightly nervous, to present to the World the debut full length album by Sydney garage rock legends, Sheek The Shayk. Like TV's Monkey, the nature of Sheek The Shayk is irrepressible and Laughing Outlaw Records cannot take any responsibility for the mental or physical health of anyone coming into direct contact with the soundwaves emitted from spinning Hour Of The Seventh Moon on a CD player. Sheek The Shayk combine the groovy 60's garage beat of the Nuggets Box Sets with mondo distorted guitars set to STUN. The band's secret weapon and spiritual epicentre is frontman Sen?r John who comes off like a psychotic teenage Mexican Mick Jagger... or maybe a demented white James Brown tripping on some weird drug that hasn't yet been invented. No mere band wagon jumpers, Sheek The Shayk have been playing ultra-high energy 60's garage punk inspired rock 'n' roll since 1997 and have released a stack of singles and EPs on various independent labels, including a 7" single on US label "Haveacone Records" and an appearance on the US Radio Birdman tribute album, Flattery (Birdman drummer Ron Keeley's fave track to!). They also released a mini-album Enters The Sandstorm on Brain Salad Surgery Records in 2000. Sheek The Shayk have trodden the boards with numerous choice rock acts over the years including You Am I, the D4, Guitar Wolf (Japan), the New Christs and the Lipstick Killers. The new record is brutal, uncompromising and ... er... fun. It recalls the great 70's Aussie pub rock of AC/DC and Rose Tattoo (Pete Wells actually features on one track) but supercharged with a healthy dose of 60's Nuggets/Pebbles garage punk attitude. Lyrical concerns include TV iconography (Jane Kennedy), the pursuit of romance (I Want That Woman), admiration for the gentler sex (Got It All, Full On Fox), the relevance of historical perspective (Daughters of The Revolution, 69 B.C.) and cautionary tales of over indulgence (Outta My Head, Wig Out, Alone). Many rumours exist as to the backgrounds of the members of Sheek The Shayk. For example, the band's high energy garage sound can be reminiscent of the sonic stylings of legendary 80's Sydney rock action exponents, the Psychotic Turnbuckles. However as the 'Buckles were never spotted without their trademark lime-green and purple hair and dark sunglasses, the real connection (if any) between the two bands may forever remain a dark secret. Whatever the true identities of the enigmatic Sen?r John and his motley crew, the unassailable fact remains that Sheek The Shayk's new album, Hour Of The Seventh Moon, is a 57 minute one-way trip into the blubber-zone. PRESS: "Sheek The Shayk are proof that not all Australian rock has succumbed to the creeping commercialism that throttled the scene in the early nineties. They combine some of the best aspects of the Oz heavy rock tradition in Groups like the Lobby Lloyd and the Coloured Balls and the psych/garage flavors of the Lipstick Killers. Their one shortcoming on record is that singer Senor Johnny comes across a little like a bratty teenage brother with a snotty, nasally whine. But supposedly he's actually a fireball and a major asset live, so we have to let that go. Anyway, these songs have the sort of so-dumb-we're-smart quality to them that makes them work (as opposed to that so-dumb-you'll-wanna-run attitude that's far easier to find). Guitars are fuzzed to the point that when they rip off the signature riff to Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" on their "69 BC" it actually sounds as faithful as a sample. "Outta My Head" and "Wig Out" are the ace tracks here, and they pretty well summarize the proceedings." - The Big Takeover "Rock n' roooollll! VERY reminiscent of early AC/DC and Radio Birdman, these guys rock it out Aussie style. Snotty and fun, with big ass guitar riffs and a swagger that'll knock you over." EDITOR'S PICK! - readmag.com "Sheek The Shayk take the '60s garage of The Stooges and the murky rock meets blues of the early '70s before it morphed into metal, and what pumps out is a tight and loose rocking and rolling revision that has enough variation to come off as spankingly fresh. Daughters Of The Revolution sounds like the devil worshippers themselves suddenly added dirty pop to the mix in between sacrificing assorted virgins and comely livestock. Very Sabbath. Full-On Fox really brings out The Stooges distorted twang that is the template that Sheek The Shayk build their sound on. Add the surf feel of the bridge mixed with the aforementioned dirty blues in I Want That Woman, the washed out falling apart of Wig Out, and the psychedelia in Don't Bug The Shayk - and this is where Hour of the Seventh Moon is and where Sheek the Shayk has and always will be." - Drum Media "Laughing Outlaw is fast becoming Australia's most diverse label outside of the majors, with a yin and yang spirit that's a reflection of its owners' Catholic tastes. From alt.country to balls-out rock and back to clever pop, they're covering most of the bases. But even on a label so diverse, Sheek the Shayk are a different bag of fish and chips. They sit at the axis of fuzzed-out acid punk, proto-metal Black Sab rifforama and the high-energy rock of a swag of leather-clad bands we don't have to name, but with tongue firmly lodged in cheek. Theatricality has always been a close colleague of rock, ever since Screaming Jay Hawkins shook a rubber skull and hopped down out of his coffin at an Alan Freed show. Sheek the Shayk (can't anyone spell these days?) hang around the same novelty shops. They're a five-piece fronted by the Sheek (or Senor Johnny as he's calling himself this week), an enigmatic and well-travelled figure whose face is alternately obscured by Middle Eastern headress and sunglasses or wrestling mask and hat. Band members' names, if not their identities, change daily so we won't bother enunciating them, though at one stage they were collectively known as the Royal Camels. They do have extensive histories in the Sydney music scene, dating back to the Psychotic Turnbuckles, Sweet Ride (I think) and Minuteman to name a few, so the term "journeymen" is applicable. Together, they crank out a more than respectable mix of guitar-encrusted mania. Like Sam the Sham on steroids. The Sheek presumably spent a lot of his misspent youth in front of Saturday morning TV, as his vocals sit that side of cartoonish. Nothing wrong with sounding like the world's oldest frustrated teenager when you're singing tunes with titles like "Full On Fox", "I Want That Woman" and "Don't Bug the Shayk". If you hadn't guessed already, lyrically we're not talking post-grad PHD dissertation, but on this level dumbness is definitely a virtue. One of these songs has already surfaced (the driving "I Want That Woman" on the disc that accompanies "Off the Hip" magazine) and it's the best thing here. "Got It All" is an almost-as-good, simplistic stomp about a girl who "needs to make the scene". "Jane Kennedy" is an ode to an Aussie TV star, and you have to love lyrics as base as: "That Rob Stitch - time to ditch". Some of the songs merge a little but most definitely grow after a listen or three. If you've caught the Sheek live you'll know exactly what to expect. The album does occasionally break the mould (whatever that is). "The Promised Planet" borrows from the Visitors' "Disperse". The six-and-a-half-minute heavy psych trip of the title track takes on an Eastern flavour, while "Wig Out" has an obvious Rose Tattoo feel with guest player Pete Wells contributing nice and loud slide guitar. The album's produced with lots of punch in the guitars and no concessions in favour of the unattainable (like airplay). To my mind, Sheek the Shayk have the Dictators Dilemma, in that they're too jokey for the Curled Lip-and-Leathers Brigade and not authentically 1965 enough for those who'd hang out on the Bomp mailing list and bemoan the lack of anything listenable since the Sonics called it a day and The Litter turned heavy metal. Their failure to get the joke shouldn't hamper yours. Live, the schtick might not have many other places to go, but on this offering there's enough happening to overcome the stictures of Rock and Roll Fundamentalism. See ya at the casbah and make mine a double." - 3.75 / 5 - I94 Bar Website Check out the artist's website: http://www.laughingoutlaw.com.au Track List: 1. I Move It 2. Got It All 3. Jane Kennedy 4. She Gives The Sign 5. Makin' Love 6. Daughters Of The Revolution 7. Full On Fox 8. I Want That Woman 9. Outta My Head 10. Planet Gamma 11. Wig Out 12. Don't Bug The Shayk 13. 69 B.C. 14. Alone 15. Hour Of The Seventh Moon Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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