Vandemonian Lags is an unusual beast.
The two-disc, 19-track compilation explores a peculiar subject matter: Tasmania’s convict history.
The songs, commissioned for the Founders and Survivors Storylines project, has been expertly pulled together by Weddings Parties Anything’s Mick Thomas.
Given one of his band’s best-known songs, “A Tale They Won’t Believe”, tells the story of a Tasmanian cannibal convict, Thomas is an obvious choice to head up this compilation.
And, aside from his own musical contributions, he has also rounded up an impressive cohort of contributors.
Livingstone Daisies’ frontman Van Walker’s piano ballad “Annie Meyers” is haunting and Tim Rogers pops up on the highly-theatrical “Ikey Mo”. Meanwhile Folk wordsmith Darren Hanlon appears on the pretty folk of “The Wildest Dreams Of Samuel”.
The Gin Club’s Ben Salter offers the delicate “For The Life Of Him”, which boasts the telling chorus lyric: “He had trouble, staying out of trouble, couldn’t take a trick for the life of him.”
Aside from The Spazzy’s clunky garage rocker “Sex Hospital” and The Wolfgramm Sisters’ bizarre R&B jam “Jane Gilligan On The Town”, the songs here are mostly folk and country numbers.
And although few of them warrant repeated listens outside of the album’s context, as a whole, Vandemonian Lags is a compelling musical exploration of our convict past.
