The Cops will return to the stage from a 7 year hiatus to play 2 shows focusing on their critically acclaimed 2004 destructo-fuzz-rock debut album ‘Stomp On Tripwires‘, as well as material from live shows and the other release of that era, ‘The Cops‘ EP.
The Cops haven’t played since 2008 O-week Adelaide University. A different stable of musicians has been brought by main visionary/songwriter Simon Carter into The Cops family, including Cec Condon from The Mess Hall, Archi Fires from the Hell City Glamours and Black Ryder, James Roden from The City Lights and Todd Smith from The Cops, as well as guest appearances from original members.
Simon Carter says;
“Back in 2000 I’d written a bunch of songs because I really wanted to front my own band, and I was really bored with everyone that was still trying to rip off OK Computer and be super earnest. What I really wanted was to be in a band that was writing really fun rock that was distinctly Australian, was really fun to play live, consisted of the least amount of chords possible and that people could just jump around to and shout the choruses back at me. Beck found me and sent my songs out to everyone in the industry. To my surprise everyone really liked them (for once not just my mum and dad!). We formed a band by roping in mates from the scene – Nick Kennedy, Jimmy Stacks and Andrew “Tron” Gilbert. Beck’s only condition was we call the band The Cops. Um yes please!
So then we have Stomp On Tripwires. Released on September 20th, 2004 on Love Police Records and Tapes. BT, Andy, Popsy, James and Rusty at Reverberation (and the rest of the gang) really rallied around us and made us feel like family. Greg Wales did a fantastic job of bringing my gonzo vision and recordings into the fore. The album was partly scuzz-rock, partly electronic rock-funk (without the slapping) but really just a whole lot of fun.
The amount of hype that preceded us and the album was honestly stifling, unsettling and just plain weird. People asked if I had false teeth. And if we were rich. When someone called us a fashion band, I choked on my sandwich. I wore two belts for Christ’s sake how is THAT fashionable? Someone distributed hate flyers when we headlined the Newtown Festival. But through all of that nonsense, all we wanted to do was make sure the crowd was having as much fun as we were. We were incredibly lucky at the time to tour with bands like Blondie, The Black Keys, The Von Bondies, The Dirtbombs, The Donnas and The Distillers and to get to fulfil all of our fantasies of playing festivals like Big Day Out, Homebake, Pushover, Come Together, St Kilda Festival, Rockit and Falls Festival. It was also very nice to be championed by Carl from The Libertines, even though I wasn’t into smack or The Libertines for that matter. Chris Stein from Blondie, one of my favourite songwriters took me aside and talked about how much he liked our album and went in depth. Mind = blown!
I’ve missed playing these songs so much. I think it’s time we tried to spread the fun again; to jump up and down to loud sweaty rock music and shout a lot. Hope to see you there??“
THE COPS
MAY
23rd – Northcote Social Club, Northcote [18+] w/ The Suits, The Hovercrafts.
JULY
24th – Newtown Social Club, Newtown [18+]
—> Tickets available now.
—> For more information, visit [Here].
