IT'S THE SKINK TANK
ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT!
You can find us on bandcamp and spotify.
If you'd like to download any trax for free you can do so from this google drive folder.
Please use the direct link if you want to get back to this page!
Skink Tank are three good mates who make honest, rough and ready rock & roll.
The trio mix punch, jangle, and earnest lyricism to create songs that pass the campfire singalong test with flying colours. They’ve won the hearts of unfamiliar crowds from sticky-carpet pubs to country folk festivals. They’re the kind of band that you discover right when you need them most.
Their self-titled first EP was released during lockdown 2020, and was well received by community radio in Australia and overseas. The single Melbourne Water has become the official anthem of bush crew workers around the city, and conveys a sense of wonder found in unlikely places.
“These are all my secret landscapes
You never see them when you’re sleeping in
Last week I stepped on a brown snake
I coulda died but I kept on living!”
It also found an unlikely home among the surfie crowd after it was used in a Billabong Commercial. The band have since made it clear that they’ll sell out to any surfwear company for a few free t-shirts; “I could never afford those shirts when I was a kid!”.
Their latest offering is the 6 track EP “Livin Under Rock” recorded during weary post-lockdown 2022, when citizens of Melbourne took their first uncertain steps outside after 2 long years of hanging in there. Returning to the abandoned farm of Roseneath in Northern Vic where their first EP was recorded, Skinks took to experimentation with songs they’d been sitting on during iso. These new songs reflect the nervous times they sprung from, but more importantly the defiant optimism the band is loved for.
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Skinktro: The trio chants “1, 2, 3, 4 we are Skink Tank!”, followed by 1 and a half minutes of angular, explosive sounds that leave the listener wanting more.
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Aries Season is a punky lil’ number about holding your own. It’s crunchy and cathartic and most importantly, good fun.
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On the Merri takes a more relaxed turn, in the spirit of their dreampop influences with a distinctly Australian flavour. It conjures memories of childhood set to a backdrop of sleepy suburbs in the golden hour, bike rides lost in thought. The husky voice of singer Maggins McMurray floats in a murmur above melodic bass, washy guitars and glittering autoharp.
“The ants march a path across your worries,
The paperbark weaves the breeze with honey
And on the Merri there are families making merry,
The seeds that you planted have started all at once to sprout
Tune in, Listen
Feel it and let it go again”
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Teaching Song, another song about a job, was made in the wake of Skink Rick’s tumultuous first year working in special schools. This song is for all the idealists who’ve struggled within a broken system, done the job that no one wanted to do, and in doing so discovered a world of adventure, purpose and belonging.
“When you’ve always got your hands full
There’s no time for the big life questions
You just smile and you try to be helpful
There’s no time for your depression”
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Unleaded 91 was hummed into life during a caffeine-panicked car ride out to the family farm on the eve of lockdown 2020. With a chugging rhythm section and cheap delay pedal gaffer taped to a 12 string that refuses to stay in tune, Unleaded 91 is the Skinks own naive adventure into psychedelic blues.
"Thanks to corona I'm finally alone,
I gotta get it into gear and go
Self isolating, always hesitating
Gotta get it into gear and go"
Layers of buzzing MS-20 synthesiser, plus the delay pedal occasionally picking up stray FM radio frequencies will plonk you down somewhere between the rusty past and the sci-fi future; an anxious present day.
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Skoutro: A reprise of the EP’s opening track, Skoutro tells the listener “1, 2, 3, 4 we’ve been Skink Tank”, as if to thank them for their time, and introduce layers of buzzing MS-20 synthesisers at the last minute.
------------------------------------------
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Released as a limited edition 12” double E.P, this is a comprehensive collection of Skinks’ works to date. There’s no filler, no faff, just tight pop gems that’ll get stuck in your head and require you to come to a Skinks gig to get it out of your system.
Purchasing the 12 piece Valu-Pak makes the perfect placemat set for a family christmas party.
- Tremendo Garaje “Everyday life and it’s failures, shouted out with blue collar accents”
- Janglepop Hub “What really sets the band apart is when you look past the lizard jokes and mangled sounds, there’s good songwriting with wit and earnestness. They may be self-deprecating, but it’s also honest. If you’re looking for an existential crisis, local pub rock wimps Skink Tank will give it to you while you’re just trying to have a bloody pint with the old mates”
- Trouble Juice “They’re finding joy in the most mundane of places, finding “something to wake up for” even when the world seems sort of grim.”
- Austin Town Hall JANGLE POP HUB REVIEW OF THE SKINK TANK EP TROUBLE JUICE REVIEW OF THE SKINK TANK EP TROUBLE JUICE REVIEW OF ARIES SEASON/CLOWN TOWN SPLIT SINGLE
- Hum Zine HUM INTERVIEW
Their self-titled first EP was released during lockdown 2020, and was well received by community radio in Australia and overseas. The single Melbourne Water has become the official anthem of bush crew workers around the city, and conveys a sense of wonder found in unlikely places.
“These are all my secret landscapes
You never see them when you’re sleeping in
Last week I stepped on a brown snake
I coulda died but I kept on living!”
It also found an unlikely home among the surfie crowd after it was used in a Billabong Commercial. The band have since made it clear that they’ll sell out to any surfwear company for a few free t-shirts; “I could never afford those shirts when I was a kid!”.
Their latest offering is the 6 track EP “Livin Under Rock” recorded during weary post-lockdown 2022, when citizens of Melbourne took their first uncertain steps outside after 2 long years of hanging in there. Returning to the abandoned farm of Roseneath in Northern Vic where their first EP was recorded, Skinks took to experimentation with songs they’d been sitting on during iso. These new songs reflect the nervous times they sprung from, but more importantly the defiant optimism the band is loved for.
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Skinktro: The trio chants “1, 2, 3, 4 we are Skink Tank!”, followed by 1 and a half minutes of angular, explosive sounds that leave the listener wanting more.
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Aries Season is a punky lil’ number about holding your own. It’s crunchy and cathartic and most importantly, good fun.
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
On the Merri takes a more relaxed turn, in the spirit of their dreampop influences with a distinctly Australian flavour. It conjures memories of childhood set to a backdrop of sleepy suburbs in the golden hour, bike rides lost in thought. The husky voice of singer Maggins McMurray floats in a murmur above melodic bass, washy guitars and glittering autoharp.
“The ants march a path across your worries,
The paperbark weaves the breeze with honey
And on the Merri there are families making merry,
The seeds that you planted have started all at once to sprout
Tune in, Listen
Feel it and let it go again”
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Teaching Song, another song about a job, was made in the wake of Skink Rick’s tumultuous first year working in special schools. This song is for all the idealists who’ve struggled within a broken system, done the job that no one wanted to do, and in doing so discovered a world of adventure, purpose and belonging.
“When you’ve always got your hands full
There’s no time for the big life questions
You just smile and you try to be helpful
There’s no time for your depression”
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Unleaded 91 was hummed into life during a caffeine-panicked car ride out to the family farm on the eve of lockdown 2020. With a chugging rhythm section and cheap delay pedal gaffer taped to a 12 string that refuses to stay in tune, Unleaded 91 is the Skinks own naive adventure into psychedelic blues.
"Thanks to corona I'm finally alone,
I gotta get it into gear and go
Self isolating, always hesitating
Gotta get it into gear and go"
Layers of buzzing MS-20 synthesiser, plus the delay pedal occasionally picking up stray FM radio frequencies will plonk you down somewhere between the rusty past and the sci-fi future; an anxious present day.
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Skoutro: A reprise of the EP’s opening track, Skoutro tells the listener “1, 2, 3, 4 we’ve been Skink Tank”, as if to thank them for their time, and introduce layers of buzzing MS-20 synthesisers at the last minute.
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Released as a limited edition 12” double E.P, this is a comprehensive collection of Skinks’ works to date. There’s no filler, no faff, just tight pop gems that’ll get stuck in your head and require you to come to a Skinks gig to get it out of your system.
Purchasing the 12 piece Valu-Pak makes the perfect placemat set for a family christmas party.
Reviews
“You need no more than 15 seconds to fall in love with this band. If like us you are obsessed with The Clean and the 80s Flying Nun catalogue, this glorious pop is going to blow your brains out”- Tremendo Garaje “Everyday life and it’s failures, shouted out with blue collar accents”
- Janglepop Hub “What really sets the band apart is when you look past the lizard jokes and mangled sounds, there’s good songwriting with wit and earnestness. They may be self-deprecating, but it’s also honest. If you’re looking for an existential crisis, local pub rock wimps Skink Tank will give it to you while you’re just trying to have a bloody pint with the old mates”
- Trouble Juice “They’re finding joy in the most mundane of places, finding “something to wake up for” even when the world seems sort of grim.”
- Austin Town Hall JANGLE POP HUB REVIEW OF THE SKINK TANK EP TROUBLE JUICE REVIEW OF THE SKINK TANK EP TROUBLE JUICE REVIEW OF ARIES SEASON/CLOWN TOWN SPLIT SINGLE
Interviews
"Skink Tank manages to muster a room of strangers into a unified collective"- Hum Zine HUM INTERVIEW