The Mohawk Lodge’s fourth album, Damaged Goods, is out now in Australia/NZ through First Love Records, home to local bands The Endless Party, Brave Face and more. Showcasing  their take on punk, it is their rawest, shortest and visceral record to date. To celebrate their Aussie release they will be heading our way this July for shows.

Grab a copy of the album from First Love Records www.firstloverecordlabel.com and we’re lucky enough a stream of the album with some words about each track from the man himself Ryder Havdale.

HOWLING AT THE MOON
“One of the band members called me on something and I got a contact high through the telephone wires. His girlfriend got on the phones”insert_name” is howling at the moon”. By the time I hung up the phone, that tune was fully formed.

WILD DOGS
This tune was me channeling some Duffy and the Doubters, the solo album from Duffy (of Ladyhawk ­not Ladyhawke). I was listening to that album on repeat at the time.   Every tune is short and sweet and the chords barely repeat

LIGHT YOU UP
The beds for this record came together in my living room in a heat wave. 3 dudes in nothing but boxers standing in pools of our own sweat as we laid down the tunes as fast as we could.

USING YOUR LOVE
Hooking up with your neighbour. Amazing at first, then, when it inevitably goes sideways, completely brutal.   Don’t shit where you eat. Nuff said.

DAMAGED GOODS
The neighbour gets credit on this one too :)  That’s Scott Freeman on the lead guitar and backing vox though.   He didn’t get credit for those bits on the Canadian pressing for this record, but, he slayed it. Like most of the record, in one take.

BELIEVE IN LOVE
Ever think you’re going to end up like Bukowski?   Old and lonely? I think about that all the time.

HARD LOVE
Eamon and I wrote this in my kitchen.  It was the first thing that came out when Eamon showed me a new tuning; “drop D” on both the low, and, the high E strings There’s a Lou Reed reference in there.  “you just keep me hanging on”.   I didn’t even realize it was Lou Reed until Eamon pointed it that it was exactly the same as an existing tune in that part.    I tried to change the lyric and the melody on that line for ages, but, in the end, it’s what fell out when writing the tune, and, it was the only thing that made sense. There’s also a Stones reference in there “I can’t get no satisfaction” That was for purposely for the rhyme :)

VOODOO
In one month I had 2 fairly intense head related injuries.  1) I had a TIA (mini-stroke) after doing backflips on a wakeboard and breaking the carotid artery in my neck.  3 days later after a wild show in Edmonton, I suddenly couldn’t stand up straight, or talk and my arm went numbŠ If these things ever happen to you, go straight to the emergency room!     2)  I was having a nap in a hotel lobby and a large metal beam fell out of the ceiling and onto my head.    I was in the back of a cab on the way to get stitches with blood gushing out, and all I could think was that somebody had a voodoo doll and was fucking around with the head.   How else could these totally random events be happening?      I told the old Portuguese nurse about my Voodoo doll thoughts, and she replied with “actually, you’re totally lucky that neither of these things was more serious than they could’ve been” Phew! I got paid 6 months later for the beam injury too :)

1000 VIOLINS
After a hell tour through a European winter where we ended the tour at Deathrow (Heathrow) airport sleeping on the floor for four nights, I came home exhausted.   The shell of a man with no soul left.     That’s what this tune was about.    It’s also the oldest tune in the bunch.   I’d written the chord changes nearly 10 years ago, but, the only lyric I had at the time was “Don’t walk out on us” and “1000 Violins couldn’t save that song”. It took that tour to give that song it’s purpose to exist.

Listen to Damaged Goods in full here:

Want to purchase the album head to the First Love Records website: http://goo.gl/CUuo7