Y O W I E  circa now (photo by Mabel Suen) |
 circa Cryptooology (2004) |
Y O W I E circa now (photo by Mabel Suen) |
circa Cryptooology (2004) |
YOWIE
Jeremiah Wontsewitz: Guitar
Chris Trull: Guitar
Defenestrator: Drums
Off Duty:
Sr. (H), jb: Guitar
YOWIE "Synchromysticism"
Special Edition LP / CD / Ultimate EditionSince 2000, St. Louis’ YOWIE has been perfecting a unique form of progressive rock that incorporates complex polyrhythms and guitar dissonance. Operating within its own unique idiom, YOWIE rejects rock music’s typical foundation of common time signature and standard melodic structures.
For their 3rd album, “Synchromysticism,” the band has used these tools, as well as the drummer’s (a clinical psychologist) understanding of signal detection theory and delusional mood to convey complex phenomenological concepts in a highly visceral form. This album, the first with guitarist Christopher Trull (formerly of Grand Ulena) marks a new level of ambition in terms of conceptual complexity, synthesizing opposing compositional approaches into a distinctive style that simultaneously elicits feelings of euphoria, perplexity, dread... and an inexorable urge to dance.
TRACK LISTING:
1. Ineffable Dolphin Communion
2. Mysterium Tremendum
3. Absurdly Ineffective Barricade
4. The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You
5. The Reason Your House Is Haunted Can Be Found On This Microfiche
Here are links to a few pieces of press:
GHETTOBLASTER
Interview by Timothy Anderl and publication of three illustrated band member cards by cover artist Arnulf Rodler
RIVERFRONT TIMES
Feature story and interview
CLRVYNT
Streaming premiere of "Ineffable Dolphin Communion"
and interview by Brad Cohan
BEARDED GENTLEMEN
Album review
OVERBLOWN UK
“5 Songs We Loved This Week: April 7th” - second only to Feist!
SNUFF FILM COLLECTIVE
Yowie feature / interview
yowie (you-e), n. Cryptozoology. 1. A large, relict, egg laying hominoid descended from Gigantopithecus, autochthonous to Southern Australia. This lucifugal biped is known for its fulsome effluvium of ordure, and is characterized by its pointed saggital crest and hexadactyly, with an opposable tibial dactyl. Often growing to more than 8 centals, this omnivorous nocturnal anthropoid has been reported to be necrophagous in times of penury. Also Noocoonah, Doolagahl, Gooligah, Quinken, Thoolagal, Yaroma, Yahoo.
P R E S S o Q U O T E S ( pre - "Synchromysticism" )
o "In all of my musical listening, I can think of few bands that have had the same baffling effect on me as Yowie...in terms of musicianship, composition, and style- Yowie are incredibly impressive. If you’re open to a more dissonant and twisted shade of rock music, “Damning with Faint Praise” is highly recommended" / Progsphere
o "Yowie are the spastic, elastic-limbed progeny of the forefathers of prog, purveyors of a heady mix of energetic fervor and intelligent complexity." / Dusted
o "Warning: This album is strongly prohibited to persons with cardiovascular diseases, back or spine problems, recent surgical procedures, or pregnant women. Yowie is not for the faint of heart; it is a dazzlingly technical freak-force to be reckoned with...It is a beautiful cooperation of two well-versed guitarists performing sonic brain surgery on their audience, backed by wildly unpredictable drumming, complete with the utter demolition of his cymbals." / Playback STL
o "The climax of rock music. This is outsider music for our entire dimension. No band has had this sort of vision since Beefheart marinaded us with tales of Big Joan's anatomy. In the dozens of times I've listened to this album I've never heard the same album twice." / Loving Peter Cetera
o "In the midst of some of the most virtuosically talented and respected musicians playing today, Yowie is singular...Watching them live is like witnessing a reptile birth a human; utterly perplexing, yet amazing.... Their songs move like symphonies, each one crafted in parts that come together to sound like time-lapses of a day in your life. The dual guitars warp around each other, the necks being bent, the floods of notes sounding at times like your uncle choking, then laughing, then wrecking his car...It is mind-bending music." / kdhx.org
o "To call Yowie an acquired taste would be a flagrant misrepresentation. Yowie is not something you can acquire. Try to understand its sonic mindfuckery, try to follow the preposterous complexity of Yowies' sound, and your dendrites will start to short-circuit. Music like this can't be made by mere people and yet, you couldn't write a computer program capable of producing this kind of brain damage. It's so grand in composition but honed and microperfected until words like "tempo," "rhythm" and "melody" become meaningless abstractions." / Riverfront Times
o "This youngish St. Louis trio of guitar, guitar and drums has upped the 'brutal prog' ante light-years forward with an epic release that successfully mates insane, mathematical non-repetition with a frenzied, dissonant, microtonal attack that has more in common with the grittiness of prime Magic Band rather than the wimpy, uptight sub-Weather Report "pro sound" that so many math-rock dweebs aim for...Yowie is just too vital, aberrant and sick to be understood by cultural dilettantes…The real stuff never is in its own time. / Weasel Walter
I N T E R V I E W o L I N K S
YOWIE INTERVIEW at PROG ARCHIVES
YOWIE INTERVIEW at PROCUREMENT Records
YOWIE INTERVIEW at The RIVERFRONT TIMES
YOWIE archived INTERVIEW at The RIVERFRONT TIMES
YOWIE in CONCERT (Courtesy of LiveGenevaTV)
YOWIE LIVE in Budejovice, Czech Republic
2012 TOUR POSTER BY ARNULF RODLER
CLICK HERE for PDF version
HISTORY
It's profound geographical isolation makes Australia an unlikely habitat for a missing link that could exist for millions of years without being documented by science, especially since no primates are indigenous to the continent. Nevertheless, the land down under claims its own version of Bigfoot, the Yowie. The creature's long history can be traced back to aborigine legends. An aborigine folk tale explains that when their people first migrated to Australia thousands of years ago, they encountered on the new continent a savage race of ape-men. The aborigines' ancestors went to war against the ape-men, and in the end the humans triumphed, thanks to their ability to make weapons. - Bigfoot Encounters
SECOND ALBUM: "DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE"
"Yowie sounds like Einstein discovering the theory of relativity while hopped up on meth and psilocybin -- genius ideas of how everything connects spewed raw and uncontained, formulae and fact swirling in broken code, riding between rational thought and complete breakdown."
- Riverfront Times: Best Of St. Louis
"Damning with Faint Praise" is the second full length release from Yowie. This album surpasses the girth and intensity of their debut, "Cryptooology," an album that few have learned to decipher (or pronounce). "Damning with Faint Praise" moves through an array of multidimensional shifting structures, while inexplicably maintaining cohesion, and even, yes, grooves.
YOWIE COME RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE:
King Crimson, Ruins, Cheer Accident, The Flying Luttenbachers, Hella, The Locust, Fantomas, Trio Convulsante, Battles
o Click HERE to read DIANA BENANTI's interview with YOWIE,
conducted after their reformation (JUNE 2011)
SINGLE: "DUNDERDRUCK"
from "SIDES 11-14: YOWIE / COLOSSAMITE PRE / MULE
double 7" & comic book set"
Joe Carduchii wrote in his book "Rock And The Pop Narcotic" that today - "If you cut open young execs, housewives, rappers, house-mixers, salsa fans, hip-hopsters, etc, you're likely to find, 14 rings back, a layer of molten rock spewed by Australia's shaggiest eruption, AC/DC“.
SIDES 11-14 is the latest in SKiN GRAFT Records’ irregularly published series of tribute record and comic book sets published in conjunction with Gasoline Boost Records. This deluxe double 7“ single and comic book set includes:
YOWIE "Dunderdruck“ The newly reformed YOWIE turn AC/DC’s "Thunderstruck” sideways to take the listener on a technically impeccable, hyper-alien-math-rock sugar high - played with spaghetti-strung guitars and stop on a dime drums.
COLOSSAMITE "Anti-Christ Devil Child“ The members of Gorge Trio (John and Ed of Deerhoof) plus Nick Sakes (vocalist of Dazzling Killmen) unite one final time for a maddening metal medley of AC/DC’s greatest hits.
PRE "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap“ London’s No Wave naughties apply their merry-go-round grind to the certified classic “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”.
MULE "Have A Drink On Me“ Vaulted for 10 years and previously unreleased, here is the final recording from this legendary Touch and Go / Quarterstick Recording artist, featuring the restrained redneck blues of PW Long on vocals and guitar.
Plus: a densely illustrated 20 page wraparound comic book sleeve written and drawn by Skin Graft founder Mark Fischer
FIRST ALBUM: "CRYPTOOOLOGY"
Three years in the making, Cryptooology, Yowie's debut album, is an album at war. Yowie, a dual-guitar and drums trio from St. Louis, have been stunning audiences with their incomparable barrage of sonic kung fu, accelerating the progressive-rock rhythmic sensibilities of RUINS and MAGMA and mutating them with the shriekier side of BIG BLACK and SLAYER. The band incorporates many variations in time signature, tempo, and tuning, to create a virtual audio maze, but no matter how complex things get their compositions remain cohesive and compelling.
With their debut album still being recorded, the strength of Yowie's live show alone garnered them a nomination in The Riverfront Times' 2004 St. Louis Music Awards, alongside local acts as diverse as Nelly and Chuck Berry to Jay Farrar and Chingy. The Yowie has yet to be found in Australia, but has been found touring the U.S. performing with the likes of: CHEER-ACCIDENT, THE FROGS, WESLEY WILLIS, THE CHINESE STARS, THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, and X27, to name a few.
YOWIE releases from SKiN GRAFT Records:
GR#122 LP /CD
GR#109 LP /CD
YOWIE / PRE / COLOSSAMITE / MULE
GR#28-7
GR#74 CD
