Rubberbandits – Spastic Hawk

I interviewed Rubberbandits, masks and all, for their up and coming album (due in November) at Reading Festival in the summer. It was one of those weird interviews that was slightly hampered by the fact that I hadn’t actually heard the album at that point (nor was it available to media in general – I wasn’t just being slack, honest!). I must admit the unusual level of interview nerves also had something to do with their previous – a quick scan of their past interviews shows that they’ve been known to make journos ask questions whilst made to look at a wall throughout by their security, or to distract people from actually asking any questions by heading off on a very sarcastic tour of their ‘home town’ (yeah, I’m dubious) of Limerick.

The interview is by far the funniest thing I’ll ever have the pleasure of writing up (it’ll be here and in AU Magazine around the time of album launch), but – funny as it was – bits of it made very little sense to me at the time. Having seen the video for the new single, Spastic Hawk, I suddenly understand why their new album is about (and I quote) ‘Friendship, friendship with hawks… friendship with anyone except Danny Dyer’ (see another fairly new song’s chorus line, “Liar, liar Danny Dyer, get him in a head lock…’ If anyone feels like telling me who Danny Dyer is, by the way, that’d be great).

I love this video – the idea of pitching a children’s book that’s both got one of those sappy little ‘we’re all equal’ storylines and manages to be incredibly politically incorrect is brilliant. Musically, it’s an entirely different direction, but the thing that really makes it is the pronunciation of ‘Hawk’. That’s a lot of sylables squeezed in there! Already a classic. I’ve thrown in Horse Outside below, too, in case you’ve somehow managed to miss it…

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