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Black Word Box

from High Frequencies by The Pet Rocks

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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    A twelve song cd, with an 8 page booklet, featuring band pics and lyrics. The front cover is a seascape by Melbourne artist Dave Burrows, and the back has a landscape by NZ Fine Art photographer Lawrence Aberhart. An Aberhart image graced the cover of our previous album Wayward Ways.

    Includes unlimited streaming of High Frequencies via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 400 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 AUD or more 

     

about

Black Word Box was written when I was 18 (1984). I was in the thrall of the Fire Engines and Television at that time. I had bought my first electric guitar, after playing bass for three years. The guitar was a walnut coloured 74 Fender Telecaster Deluxe, with wide range humbuckers. It was about 10 years old, and quite expensive for a used guitar, but new Fenders were almost non-existent. Fender company was in the toilet in the early 80s, but I had no idea at the time. I kinda wanted a jag or jazzmaster, but the they all tended to be pre CBS, and were too expensive at around $1,500.

I had never seen a tele like the one I bought, and wouldn't see another for years. The neck pickup sounded incredible - rich, warm, glassy, chimey, and with bite, all same time. I came up with a swinging verse riff, couple with really melodic D to A chorus move, which was otherworldly on this tele. I had written a poem the year before about my amp, a piece of home made junk, and how I wished it could speak for me to my girlfriend, Lauren. But neither the amp or my tongue could deliver the goods, so all the words were monosyllabic in the song the poem became, except for 'reverberate' (the lyrics changed some on the updated recording).

I would grind out the riff for hours, and also developed some dissonant parts for the song with feedback. I did these with my acoustic and made overdubs on a small reel to reel machine I had.

I was writing a lot, and wanted to play live. Almost nobody I knew played music. My friend Marcus tried to put a band together around me, of red heads, which he said would be the Orange Roughies. He found two girls and a boy drummer. I took the drummer, then set about teaching a friend to play the bass. I convinced my charismatic goth friend Tim to be the singer, and we went out and played as A Public Execution, named from a Mouse and The Traps song. A key track we played was Black Word Box.
Nick Kreisler.

lyrics

Words like these
So easy to read
Seems the dials
Won’t turn no more
Big black box
So silent there
Make your sounds
That say a lot

Do not stop to hear the break
Nor let the sound reverberate
Reverberate

I cannot talk
I cannot find
The words I need
To speak my mind
Silver notes
With sweet sustain
A distorted amp
Can ease my brain

Do not stop to hear the break
Just let the sound communicate
Communicate

credits

from High Frequencies, released November 12, 2013
Nick Beswick, piano
Gareth Eunson, guitar
Nick Kreisler, vocals and guitar
Steve Shaw, bass
Rory Toomey, drums and percussion

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Pet Rocks image

The Pet Rocks Melbourne, Australia

Gigs coming up in NZ late March 2023, 25th anniversary of PR Nitemare.

We are a Kiwi/Australian rock band, and originally formed in Auckland, NZ, 1994.

Our most recent release, in 2014, was High Frequencies.

Discography:
High Frequencies, 2014
PR Nightmare, 1998
Wayward Ways, 2008. ... more

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