Flatstick – Omnicore

Flatstick was a studio project between 2 guitar teachers, Doug Steele and Gary McKay. They’ve released one album (Omnicore) and were about 80% done with album number 2 when Gary was diagnosed with cancer. Gary died in March, 2006. He is deeply missed.

Flatstick are one of those bands -- you know the sort; packed full of talented musicians who decide that they don’t want to release just another album catering to modern tastes, or trying to fit in with modern trends and so they make an album that comes straight out of left field and smacks you quite literally between your frontal lobes. Or to put it another way….

Look, Flatstick are just a couple of guys who think that most of the music being made at the moment bites balls. In a day and age where originality and creativeness is fuckin’ frowned upon, we’ve decided we’re gonna do whatever we feel like doing

An admirable sentiment and unlike so many other bands who declare their mission statement and then go on to create exactly the sort of thing they frown upon, Flatstick made an album that sounds quite unlike 99% of the bands around today.  No, I’m not just blowing smoke up someones ass here…I really do believe that this deserves to get heard by a wider audience for many equally valid reasons….the musicianship, the groove, the attitude, the chops, the originality and ultimately because any loss is tragic and the loss of a talent like Gary McKay could have bought the whole project to a halt….but it didn’t…and I’m damn glad about that.

So..who are they?

Gary McKay played on all the original material and he deserves a special mention here. Responsible for  “lead and rhythm guitars, drums and keys programming, producer, reality gauge, studio owner” (the CD was recorded at Gary’s house in Heidelberg, Melbourne) taking a listen to his playing on Omnicore reveals a seriously talented musician…take “The Perfect Day“. The main body of the song is a delicate Bossa Nova feel played on acoustic with a beautiful solo and a great feel for accompanimen. You’d have to be sensitive to lay down a backing for vocals like.

“It was the perfect night (to fuck you on the beach)
Ecstasy… And! We laughed until we cried (You’re fucking good to me) Can’t you see?

On songs like “Not fit to Breath” he reveals a fusion-esque flair, brutal rhythms, and a lyrical touch….and guitar playing aside he was clearly a very funny individual with a sense of humour that fit alongside Doug’s perfectly..and a strong stance on censorship that a lot of the honesty must have come from…R.I.P Gary.

The inimitable John Sanders (a.k.a. Doug Steele) is a self-taught guitar player with masses of playing experience who moved from the US to Austrailia and has done clinics for Ibanez, Line6, Peavey….worked as an MC…had a long-term job in Austereo stations Triple M and 2Day/Foxfm, works as a guitar tutor (link below) and while he can certainly sing, he can’t dance.  Clearly all these ecclectic skills and being able to play the first four Van Halen albums note for note have paid off because on Omnicore he’s clearly found a project he’s totally at home with.

On “Twilight Dementia” the mood segues from a delicate balladic start, to a crushing guitar riff with distorted, ranting vocals and back again almost schizophrenically before two back-to-back 8 bar trade-off solos melt your face. Add some absolutely huge sounding guitars and keyboard parts, off-the-wall and great clean vocals (it all works together, I swear..) and you start to get a real feel for the depth of these guy’s connection to a brutally forthright source of inspiration.

That sense of unrestrained honesty and the duality of aggressive, groovin’ guitars/harmonic & rhythmic sophistication really appeals…along with quirky lyrics and vocals that really do remind me at times of Zappa and Devin Townsend meeting Meshuggah and a couple of guitar heroes in a lift, getting absolutely pished and deciding to make some music….then grabbing Mike Patton on the way to the studio. Ok ok, enough name-checking…any good band is more than the sum of their influences and that’s very true here.

Now of course Flatstick aren’t going to be to everyone’s taste (and wouldn’t the world be fucking boring if we were all the same!) but certainly the massively heavy drum and guitar grooves, prog edge, fusion influences, shred moments and strongly thematic vocals all tie together in unexpected and excellent ways. Varying from tongue-in-cheek Punk rock moments (“Tony!!”) to lounge-style Latin Jazz and Power Metal rhythms (“Bend Over”) with the omnipresent fretboard Dexterity of Doug and Gary Omnicore should be heard by more people -- a point of view clearly shared by plenty of other musicians including Eddie Head from Haji’s Kitchen and;

Extra special thanks to Chris Adler from Lamb of God, who liked the CD so much he tried to get us signed. LOG also played the CD before they performed onstage.

Go download this CD and enjoy the great production whilst marvelling at a band who’s most brutal practical joke involved their drummer being impaled through the anus with his own drumsticks…..

Track Listing:

Rating:

http://www.flatstick.byethost4.com/content/framesetnews.html

http://www.myspace.com/flatstick

http://www.learnshredguitar.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/DougFCKNSteele

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