Monday, April 15, 2024

Spilt Milk

ORIGINS: Mt Druitt, NSW
GENRE: Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1994-1999
 
MEMBERS:
RELEASES: 
  • Justin Time (1995) - Download Here.
    • 1. The Simpsons
    • 2. Sandwich
    • 3. Kissing Cousins (Incest)

  • It Would Suck to Be a Duck (1996) - Download Here.
    • 1. Service Station Food
    • 2. Nah, Fuck It
    • 3. Exploit Me
    • 4. Wanker
  • Damien Gerard's Grow Your Own Volume 2 (1996)
    • Sex Me Hard

  • The Lost Sessions (1997) - Download Here.
    • 1. The Simpsons (Radio Version)
    • 2. 30 Seconds
    • 3. Millionaire
    • 4. Whore (Radio Version)

  •  What For Do You Look At Me? (1999) - Download Here.
    • 1. Square Peg Round Hole
    • 2. Lucky Dip
    • 3. Sex Me Hard
SUMMARY: 
 
1994: Matty Albert forms Spilt Milk after leaving his previous band Hatetrip.
 
1995: Spilt Milk plays their first show in support of Nitocris. They also play a band comp at Windsor and win the first place prize of $500, which they use to record the Justin Time demo at Zen Studios. Patterson and McGee-Wright both leave the band after around 6 months or so. Dan Wright from CFBP joins on bass briefly before Marty Durkan joins the band.

 
1996: Stephen Kitney leaves and is replaced by Lee Graham on drums. The second demo, It Would Suck to Be a Duck is recorded. Graham leaves after about 6 months and is replaced by Hatetrip drummer Damien Elliott. Spilt Milk records songs for the Bust a Move '96 and Grow Your Own comps.

1997: Durkan starts managing the band, organising a series of Blacktown Youth Services Association shows. Several unreleased demo tracks are recorded, including a radio version of 'The Simpsons'. Spilt Milk undertakes their first interstate tour, going to Melbourne with the band Groin.
 
1998: Adam Check joins the band as a second guitarist. Spilt Milk tours Melbourne again, this time with Turtle Slime and Dropzone.

1999: Check leaves Spilt Milk and the band goes back to being a three-piece. A promo demo What For Do You Look At Me? is recorded around this time. Spilt Milk decide to call it a day - Durkan moves up north to Queensland and Matty Albert and Damien Elliott form Sucker Punch (later to be called Unpaid Debt). 
 
2024: Matty Albert, Damien Elliott and Stephen Kitney reform the band for a reunion show. 


SHOWS: 
ORAL HISTORY:
MATT: It was pretty well agreed that I should leave Hatetrip... a common theme, drinking too much, and I was just a lout in Mt Druitt at the time. I was 17. Anyway, I decided to start a band for myself and I had a mate, Warwick, who lived down the road... I really liked You Am I at the time and I was kind of looking at something kind of like that, and I'd written a couple of songs in that style. And my mate Patto (Daniel Patterson) said we're going to a show, some band called Frenzal Rhomb, and I was like, "Never heard of them, don't know what you're on about" and I was a metalhead at this stage. So Frenzal Rhomb played and that just changed everything... I went home and those two songs became fast. I sped them right up.
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
WOKK: I was pretty much in between bands. I just finished with a band called Lestat. Prior to that I was with a band from Riverstone called Insayne. Matt Albert and I had been good friends for a while playing on the same bill in different bands. Matt approached me and asked if I'd be interested in joining him. I remember he mentioned a guy he knew as a potential drummer that turned out to be Steve Kitney - one of the nicest guys on the planet.
Warwick Mckee-Wright (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
STEPHEN: I'd bought a cheap $200 drumkit off a mate about 6 months before and Daniel (Patterson) rang me up and said "Do you want to come join a band?" and I was like, "Yeah, sure"... so we got together, I think our personalities kind of matched, as well as our inexperience. Except for Matt, he was very mature as far as his business savvy went, he was the one who entered us into a band comp and got us recording Justin Time. He was always very forward-thinking in that aspect.
Stephen Kitney (Drums), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
MATT: I was working for Nitocris, I was their roadie for quite a while, and I was seeing a lot of new and different bands... I did the UTS Stomp, which was the album launch for Frogstomp (Silverchair's first album), so I got to see a lot of really cool bands, y'know? And once I heard NOFX, I was with Nitocris when I heard NOFX, I thought 'Wow, I want to do that'... it was kind of like Frenzal Rhomb, they were a little cleaner and a little more polished.
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
 
WOKK: Our whole thought process was to practice, practice, practice. No gigs for at least 6 months or so. Then this band comp came up and we were like, why not? It was at Richmond Park. There were some really talented bands that played. I remember we started with Steve on guitar and Matt drumming for the first song, then switching back to Matty singing on guitar for the rest of the set. We were pretty loose but our energy was high. We never expected to win it. 
Warwick Mckee-Wright (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MATT: The Windsor Band Comp... we only had 3 songs and the sets were ten minutes each, and I remember being really hungover, I was nearly throwing up on the grass. We won it because the three judges were young and hip, you could tell they liked Frenzal and stuff like that. We beat some pretty good bands that probably should have won it, like Heifer. So we won this comp and then got really drunk again and went to a Nitocris show at Narrabeen Sands. We got smashed and were like "Yeah, we won a band comp!" It was cool. Then we recorded our demo with the money. The prize was $500 and Zen had their old ads in the back of the Drum Media and it was a deal where you got a hundred cassettes printed with the recording and posters.  
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
WOKK: We got $500 and a place supporting Nitocris at the night club in Richmond. I remember it was funny because the gig was: Spilt Milk (opener), another band called Milk (I don't think they liked us very much) and Nitocris.
Warwick Mckee-Wright (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
STEPHEN: I remember we played Samantha's, we opened for Nitocris. Matt was a roadie for Nitocris at that point and he managed to get us in, playing with them. 
Stephen Kitney (Drums), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
WOKK: The recording is a bit of a blur. If I recall correctly, we recorded just the rhythm first with vocals and lead separately. The experience was great. I'd recorded previously with Insayne where it was a little more complex. I enjoyed the straightforward raw sound of Spilt Milk.
Warwick Mckee-Wright (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MARTY: I think they'd been together about 6 months and then I joined. They needed a new bassplayer and there I was there at the right time so it worked out pretty well. 
Marty Durkan (Bass), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024


WOKK: I was in the band for around 12 months. Daniel was the first to leave. I can't recall the reason why. I've run into him through mutual friends a couple of times after but I don't think we ever talked about it. I had a lot of time for Daniel. After Daniel left, it was a strange period. Steve was also looking to move. For me, I just felt like I needed to mvoe on also. Mind you, I'd continue to support the band and show up at their gigs. Even driving Matty to some of them.
Warwick Mckee-Wright (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MATT: Wokk and Steve went off to do something by themselves, they were doing more gothic type of stuff. Patto was just Patto... we'd go to pick him up and he just wouldn't be there. So we just stopped picking him up. So he kind of disappeared and we got Dan in from CFBP. He did one show with us, left his bass at my place, and then I never saw him again. So I'd already lined up Marty because we'd played in Lestat together. 
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

STEPHEN: I was once at Matty's house and had a jam with Marty and Matty and I left not long after that. For no reason, really, I just kind of wanted to do something else. I used to go see the band after, when they had Marty and Damien. I used to see Damien in Hatetrip and far out, what a drummer. He's just so solid, his playing, he's brilliant. So I left the band but became a fan, so to speak.  
Stephen Kitney (Drums), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

MATT: We had a mate called Lee who was working in a Sanity store in Plumpton. He played in a death metal band called Cenotaph... he came over and that's when It Would Suck To Be a Duck was recorded.
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

LEE: I had known Matt from Hatetrip. And he would come to Plumpton Shopping Centre and I used to work there. I guess he needed to replace the last drummer quickly and I was willing to do it.
Lee Graham (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MARTY: We'd play anywhere we could. I ended up managing the band and getting all the gigs for us. When we started we were kind of tied in with BYSA (Blacktown Youth Services Asssociation) and I was helping, I was volunteering there as well. There were a lot of young people there into music so we set up a gig every month, just to get people to form bands and come play. We played there a few times to get the ball rolling.
Marty Durkan (Bass), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024


LEE: I wasn't a punk guy. I respected Matt cause he was a guitar guy that played bass like it was a guitar. No one did that. But it wasn't one of my favourite bands at the time cause I didn't understand or fit in with the crowds they drew in. Looking back, the DIY gigs and artwork was iconic to the Aussie scene at the time and I should have enjoyed it more but I didn't. I was only in the band for maybe 4-6 months... just enough to record the second demo then bounce. 
Lee Graham (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MARTY: I wasn't into the punk rock as much as the other guys... I was more into Mr Bungle, Primus, Faith No More, Chili Peppers.  
Marty Durkan (Bass), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

DAMIEN: I came to be in the band because me and Matty had been in Hatetrip together. He went off to start Spilt Milk and I was still doing Hatetrip and that band kind of fizzled out in '95, maybe at the beginning of '96. I think we played our last show at the Axolotl. So I was just hanging out and going to Spilt Milk shows. Lee dropped out and I started filling in. I was only 'filling in' because Hatetrip was kind of still going at that time.  
Damien Elliott (Drum), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024


MARTY: Matt wrote 95-99% of the music. He'd just bring in a guitar riff and some lyrics and that's just how it was. Then we'd add our stuff and there was a song. It was a really good chemistry. It worked. And we'd improve on each song, if we weren't drunk. There was a lot of drinking back in those days. 
Marty Durkan (Bass), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

MATT: We played Melrose Hall a couple of times... one night, we left early and there was a fight with some homeboys. And I remember the guy from Below the Belt, he told me he picked up a piece of the drums and he bashed one of the guys with the drums... but then the second night we played there they all apparently came back and that was the shotgun night, we were still there, I remember playing and our instruments cut out.
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
DAMIEN: Our sound kind of evolved. It started out as a pop band, but then seeing Frenzal Rhomb and speeding it up. Then there was the Suck to Be A Duck era which had more of a metal influence mixed into punk rock. So each recording, you know, had a different kind of flavour. The ones that were never released, recorded at Troy Horse, has a song on it called 'Millionaire', which is really mid-paced, kind of poppier song. The stuff on What For Do You Look At Me?, you could tell we were listening to Frenzal and Propagandhi. 
Damien Elliott (Drum), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

MATT: We played the Arthouse with Walsh Street Copkillers and it was great... it was a learning experience for all of us. We were learning this craft as we went, there's no book on it. Sometimes we'd play two shows in one night. We'd play the Green Square with Heifer and then we'd pack our gear up and go play the Iron Duke on the same night.  
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
MARTY: We were young and restless and we just didn't care. We were going strong, we were doing pretty well. I always wanted to put out a CD and we never got around to it. At the time of 'Sex Me Hard' we were on fire... we could do it blindfolded. We did some demos at Troy Horse, some recordings at Damien Gerard's, we did two songs at Zen as a four piece with Checky. 
Marty Durkan (Bass), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

MATT: We saw Checky playing and he was an amazing live performer, he had a lot of energy, and he's a talented prick. We watched him and he was awesome so we got him to join the band. It was only shortlived but it was a good fun. We played a band comp at Tattersalls, we nearly won that.
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

ADAM: I would have been 17 or 18 I think. I was in Detox Unit and we ended up doing a show at Blacktown Youth Centre and we finished playing and Matt came up and saying that he loved our cover of Descendants' 'Coffee Mug'. Then Spilt Milk playing and they were like... wow. I remember Marty on the bass, he had a Music Man and it was covered in denim. 
Adam Check (Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024


MATT: We did try out singers and we did have that singer for one day and then he disappeared. Fish was one of the Party Pig boys, now he's a tattooist at Death or Glory, a tattoo shop in St Marys on Queen Street. Anyway, he came in and he did 'I'm So Happy I Could Shit'. He sung it and I said, "Man, you did alright", and he said, "I just wanted to sing that song" and he dropped the microphone and walked out. He had no interest in being in the band. He could've been the singer. You gotta remember, I had no vocal training, I can't remember lyrics for the life of me, so you've gotta thank the drunken Maori scene for that because I learnt to sing sitting around the fire... I come from a heavily Maori background, singing's always been part of it, I've just never really been good at it. But I did it. It was punk rock... the work that me and Damien did together... Damien taught me how to harmonise, he taught me how to sing. At the start I was just a young kid yelling shit into a microphone but it was Damien who taught us how to do harmonies... A lot of credit's gotta go to Damien, especially in that later stuff that started sounding more professional. He wrote 'So Happy I Could Shit', he wrote 'Comfortably Dumb'.
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024

ADAM: I left the band and I was gonna get Detox Unit back together... at that time I was really good friends with Tim Flaherty and Scotty Woods from One Dollar Short, and I got the phonecall from Tim Flaherty. It was funny, at that time, I still had a massive connection with Matt and Damo, I still spoke to them heaps and was lucky enough to play shows with them a lot during the early days of Unpaid Debt. It was good that after Spilt Milk did end they transitioned into Unpaid Debt, it was phenomenal.
Adam Check (Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024 

MATT: Checky decided to move on... and the band kind of died pretty quickly after that. 
Matty Albert (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
DAMIEN: There wasn't much time between Spilt Milk and Unpaid Debt. We recorded that first Unpaid Debt EP in the same year as Spilt Milk finishing. 
Damien Elliott (Drum), Noise Levels Podcast Episode 2, 2024
 
ADDITIONAL CREDITS: Special thanks to Todd Rhind for the pics and Chris Duckworth for uncovering some of the demos. 
 
RELATED BANDS: Mystro, Sinus, Lestat, Hatetrip, Lost Souls, Barney, Danakil, Cenotaph, Carnage Flail, Scratch Habbit, Detox Unit, Twilight of Effigy, Theme Park, Shadowkill, My Volcanic Mind, CFBP, Playground, Headcage, Insayne, Speedball, Groin, The Last Hemeroids, Beaver, Staunch, Unpaid Debt, Badanga, One Dollar Short, Columbia's Pain, Insult to Injury, Horrible Men, Toe to Toe, Between the Devil and the Deep, Pandora's Theory, Blackjaw, Crude Heat, Revenge Body, Headbutt, Two-Faced
 
BAND TREE:
 

 
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