What's That Smell?

Rip It Up, Issue 232, 1 December 1996, Page 11

What's That Smell?

It was obvious the Siqueira brothers, Alan and Lyle, were possessed with a classic sense of humour when they toured here in 1991, with Sydney hardcore band SUX. It’s not often you see two Indian blokes wearing ‘Speak English or Die’ T-shirts.

Five years on, the duo are now employed as two thirds of Crank, alongside former Toe to Toe drummer Colin Bible (Bibs). Happily, their quaint brand of humour remains intact. A note that accompanies their debut record, Picking Up the Pieces, informs that Crank, ‘talk about doing shits a lot’. And it’s true!

“A couple of years ago”, begins Lyle, “we stopped over in Bangkok for three days. The morning we had to leave for the airport, we got our bags packed and we’re sitting in our rooms waiting for the cab to come along. I felt like doing a big shit, so I go in, drop my pants and make up what we call the poo nest, where you chuck bits of toilet paper inside so it doesn’t splash. Then I dropped the biggest log you’ve ever fucking seen, and then a few more logs. I flush the toilet, and as I’m pulling my pants up I see the water level rising, and rising... and rising, and it didn’t stop. So, there’s all these turds all over the floor, so we did a bolt, but then the cleaning lady walks in and sees all this shit all over the floor. That’s my best story, but one that came pretty close to

that was, Bibs did a crap in his pants, unfortunately, while doing a piss. It didn’t touch the sides, and he’s wearing these baggy shorts, so it went straight out and landed on his foot. So, he walked back into the pub with a block of shit on his shoe, wiped it off and then spilt a bit of beer on it to mask the smell, then picked up a chick.”

Different wheels were in motion when Crank formed in 1994, pumping out powerful, melodysoaked punk rock — a sound that falls well wide of the thrash-by-numbers of SUX. and Toe to Toe, and has drawn comparisons with Green Day and NOFX. Most punters don’t realise, says Lyle, that the members of Crank have been playing the punk game equally as long as their US counterparts. “I think we get those comparisons because that’s what’s happening at the moment, but we’ve been doing this shit for a long time. When a band first comes on the scene, the first thing

the audience tends to do is go, ‘They sound like...’ That’s natural, but we know where we come from, our backgrounds go back to the early 80s.”

Crank have done a lot of business in a short time. Their early self-released recordings were in hot demand,, and constant gigging and touring has secured the trio a sizeable following in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. All the spadework paid off when Crank inked with punk label Onefoot, for the release of Picking Up the Pieces:' •; < “The reason we’ve come as far as we have is because we don’t make any rules, we just go with the flow. Signing with Onefoot has been a huge help, that is our greatest achievement so far, being signed to a good independent label that is doing things for us. So, as far as that goes we have achieved almost everything we wanted to being in this band. The one last thing we’ve got to do, that we’re doing next year, is go to Europe. That doesn’t mean that’s the end of the band, it just means once we get to that stage, maybe there’ll be something else we’d like to do.” In the short term, Crank will play several dates in the North Island of New Zealand this month, including support to Fugazi in Auckland. And although Crank are an unknown quantity to local audiences, Lyle wants punters to get up so nothing gets them down. “It’s happy music, music we like, music we hope will make people jump.”

JOHN RUSSELL