After nearly half a century of concerts, the list of bands I still need and want to see is pretty small — but these ultra-prolific Australian psychedelic rangers have been near the top of it for a few years. Given the state of the world right now, that’s obviously not going to change anytime soon. But at least I can tide myself over with their concert film Chunky Shrapnel and its accompanying soundtrack. It cherry-picks more than a dozen highlights and fan favourites from a host of albums in their lengthy and diverse catalogue — including their latest space-rock stoner-thrash opus Infest The Rats’ Nest — while drawing on than 10 shows on their 2019 European tour. Naturally, since the decade-old septet do absolutely everything in a big way, it’s one of four live albums they’ve released so far this year. Speaking of lists.
THE PRESS RELEASE: “This double-LP live album features 13 live performances hand-picked from the band’s 2019 European tour and includes a musical score written by Stu Mackenzie that adds a ‘magical touch of alien melancholy’ throughout the record. Chunky Shrapnel is an adrenaline-fueled psychedelic trip that captures the energy of a live concert while also creating something tailored and unique to King Gizzard. The band has also announced a feature-length motion picture by the same name that follows King Gizzard’s adrenaline-inducing onstage performances from the perspective of the band. “John Stewart (director of Chunky Shrapnel) followed us around for a few weeks through Europe,” says the band’s Stu Mackenzie. “It was fun and funny and wild and weird. Sometimes an inconspicuous fly on the wall, sometimes an intrusive camera man one inch from my face. Always exciting though. Chunky Shrapnel was made for the cinema but as both concerts and films are currently outlawed, it feels poetic to release a concert-film digitally right now.” A musical road movie dipped in turpentine, Chunky Shrapnel is a point of view / on stage experience from the perspective of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Once a song begins, just like the band, you’re stuck in the adrenaline-fueled quicksand that there is no escape from. The film’s contention is clear from the outset, it’s going to be a “journey” not a “lecture”, an incurved experience rather than a linear one.”
https://youtu.be/MtDOSIIDGPM
