Deja Voodoo

BOGANS CALLING: Auckland-based band Deja Voodoo performs in Nelson on Saturday.

The bogans are about to hit town for a bash at the Phat Club on Saturday night. Alice Cowdrey reports

Playing at the Phat Club's annual Bogan Ball in Nelson is right up the alley of Auckland-based band Deja Voodoo. The band's four self-proclaimed bogans, known for their raw grungy rock'n'roll style, will use the gig as an opportunity to promote their latest album, The Shape of Grunge to Come.

"We are bogans. Every gig we play is pretty much a bogan ball," says lead guitarist Gerald "The General" Stewart.

"I think we just wear black anyway so we will just stick with that. I think we will do our normal thing, it ties in."

The ball is the band's last gig on its promotional lap of the country, and Stewart promises to deliver more of that "beer-soaked adrenaline-firing" energy the band is well-known for.

With tracks like Average Guy Pose, F**k the Neighbours, and Grungewolf, The Shape of Grunge to Come has been labelled by Deja Voodoo as their alternative debut or a "reignition of the hard rock/punk attitude". Punisher was the first single released from the new album, and is about an annoying fan who was "really really drunk, loud and obnoxious".

"The song is dedicated to a drunk fan in Dunedin who slightly annoyed us backstage on a 2005 national tour.

"He wouldn't let anyone get a word in edgeways," says Stewart.

The four musicians hail from small South Island towns and met in Dunedin about 15 years ago. The band includes the celebrated film-makers, Chris Stapp and Matt Heath who included Deja Voodoo's music on the soundtrack of their acclaimed feature film The Devil Dared Me To.

Most believe the group was conceived to provide musical interludes for Back Of The Y – Masterpiece Television, but there is actually a long and separate history behind the rock'n'roll act that has absolutely nothing to do with cameras. This means the band gets a bit sick of being labelled a "joke band".

"Just remember that if history had allowed only bands who weren't considered a joke by the cognoscenti to be heard, we'd only have cocktail jazz," the band's press release says.

In the early 90s, the teenaged Stapp got together with Heath. After jamming around together for years, Deja Voodoo came under the spotlight in 2001 as the house band of Back Of The Y. The band has released two other albums, Brown Sabbath (2004), which includes what is arguably their most catchy song to date, Today, Tomorrow Timaru – an ode to Stewart's hometown, and Back in Brown (2006).

The point of difference with the band's latest album, however, is that it has been released without a record label in the background, which means they get to do things the way they want.

The band has now formed its own record company and has Rhythm Method distributing the album.

The musicians agree their new album's lyrics are still "a bit s--t", but they are an "honest expression of the everyday life that Deja Voodoo and their audience experience".

• Deja Voodoo play at The Phat Club's Bogan Ball on Saturday night with support from Motueka metallers Nizarm, Nelson heavy grungers Basura Blanca, Cheek-E, Auditive Carnage and DJ Miz Blackheart. Ballgoers are encouraged to dress up bogan-style and tickets are $20 at the door from 9pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News