The Murlocs, led by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard multi-instrumentalist Ambrose Kenny-Smith alongside bassist Cook Craig, have revealed plans for a new countrified psych-rock album, Calm Ya Farm. Out on May 19th via ATO Records, the album announcement arrives alongside the lead single, “Initiative”.
On Calm Ya Farm, The Murlocs step out of the garage and back in time to the heyday of cosmic country cross-pollination. Taking inspiration from albums like The Byrds‘ Sweetheart of the Rodeo and combining it with influences from the ’70s pub-rock scene, The Murlocs put their fuzzy stamp on the Americanized psychedelic twang.
“With this record we tried to steer away from all the distortion and dirt and grit, or at least let the grit come off a bit more clean-sounding,” Kenny-Smith said, adding that the album’s title is “something my partner always says to me when I’m feeling stressed-out or anxious. It made sense with the whole country theme of the record, but it’s generally a good reminder for day-to-day life. Now whenever I look down, I can remember to just chill out and take everything a little easier.”
“Initiative” leaves little question as to the band’s Western influences, from the soaring slide guitar intro to Kenny-Smith’s Smoky and the Bandit-inspired getup. Lyrically, the song takes The Murlocs’ youthful exuberance and stares down the diverging path of post-adolescent chaos versus resigning to the humdrum monotony of adulthood.
“It’s about recognizing the need to start taking responsibility for your life instead of always living in the now and killing all your brain cells along the way,” Kenny-Smith said. “Not everyone wants the big family and the big house with the white picket fence. Everything happens for a reason and sometimes you need to take things more seriously and make a few power moves in life to find out what comes next in the crystal ball.”
Though The Murlocs may not be as prodigiously productive as Ambrose and Cook’s other outfit King Gizzard, Calm Ya Farm does come on the heels of the band’s garage rock LP Rapscallaion, which arrived last September. In addition to Kenny-Smith and Craig, The Murlocs consists of guitarist Callum Shortal (Orb and Tim is in Crepes), drummer Matt Blach (Beans), and keyboardist Tim Karmouche.
Check out “Initiative”, the lead single from The Murlocs’ forthcoming album Calm Ya Farm, available here for pre-order. Scroll down for the full tracklist and album artwork.
The Murlocs – “Initiative” (Official Video)
