The Feckers – “Never Too Old To Rock” – Out Now!!!!

The second single from the forthcoming album “Live To Fight Another Day” (due later in 2020), a fun look at rock n roll being a lifestyle, dedicated to ultimate rocker, Mr Jim Gillbanks, who has been showing them how it’s done since 1936!! CHEERS TO YOU MATE!!

This was a song Chris had sitting around not being used anywhere, and once he and Richard started collaborating on the lyrics, all these gags and references to artists we love started making their way into the song – it very quickly turned into a classic Feckers song, and one that we knew very quickly would be a single.

Raphael Gazal – Lead Vocals
Reese Morin – Bass
Pat Valley – Lead Guitar (0.02 – 0.15, 2.56 – 3.38)
Dennis Leeflang – Drums and Mix
Chris Szkup – Guitars and Backing Vocals Richard Anderson – Backing Vocals

Written by Chris Szkup and Richard Anderson. Mixed by Dennis Leeflang @ Livelong Productions, Mastered by Thomas “Plec” Johannson @ The Panic Room, Artwork by Dan Verkys.

Thanks to everyone for appearing in the video and making it even more fun for us to do. Cameos: 0.37 – Yohei Eto (Japan), 1.45 – Dan Verkys (Australia), 2.28 – Ponch Satrio (Indonesia), 2.34 – Chris Hickling (UK), 3.05 – Gorilla Elvis (New Zealand), 3.10 – Rob Smith (New Zealand), 3.20 – Anne Milne and Spider Anderson (New Zealand), 3.46 – Mathew Szkup and Jake Long (Australia), 5.08 – Jim Gillbanks (UK).

“Cheers Jimbo” cameo’s (in order of appearance): Chris Hickling (UK), Paula Gonzalez (USA), Dave Mather (New Zealand), Shannon Gillbanks (UK), Johnno “King AWOL” Troulis (USA), Jordy Gibson (New Zealand), Paul Taylor (UK), Aaron Edwards (Australia), Ponch “Bugger” Satrio (Indonesia), Raewyn Anderson (New Zealand), Richard Anderson (New Zealand), Chris Szkup (Australia).

Free David Bowie Cover – Roy Bratbakken and Chris Szkup – “Moonage Daydream”!!

Moonage Daydream cover artwork by Dan Verkys
Moonage Daydream cover artwork by Dan Verkys

A cover of the great David Bowie song, written of course by him, originally appearing on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars from 1972.

This release is dedicated to Dan Verkys’ father, who is currently recovering from a stroke. It came about when Dan was starting to get the itch for a new exhibition of his amazing works, and mentioned the idea of having some music tied in with it, and this song quickly came up being a favourite of his. He mentioned that as great as the original version is, he could hear a heavier version of it in his head. No blast beats or death metal grunts, but just an overall bigger amount of “grunt”. Neither Chris nor Roy were familiar with the song unfortunately at that time, but definitely up for the challenge, and adding grunt is pretty much what they do in their “Dungeon Sessions” songs, so it was a goer!!

Vocals – Roy Bratbakken
Guitar, Bass, “Drums” – Chris Szkup
“Mixed” by Chris Szkup
“Mastered” by Roy Bratbakken
Artwork by Dan Verkys

Roys vocals recorded at The Dungeon, Skedsmokorset, Norway.
Chris’ guitars, bass and “drums” recorded at CS-Songs, Melbourne, Australia.

Grab it for free right now from The Bandcamp Store (or stream it below, but we reckon you should download it damn ya!!), and make sure if you’re in Victoria you get along to see Dan Verkys’ newest Exhibition “Archipelago”, launching at The Mad Gallery on Sunday June 10th. More info at his site, and the Facebook event is here.

We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it!!

Free Deep Purple cover – Roy Bratbakken and Chris Szkup – “Stormbringer”

Stormbringer Artwork by Dan Verkys
Stormbringer Artwork by Dan Verkys

Cover version of the great Deep Purple mkiii song, written by Richie Blackmore and David Coverdale.

When looking for the next track for their “Dungeon Sessions”, Roy had mentioned that he always had wanted to attempt to sing the song, but he wasn’t sure if it could be done. Afterall, he’s singing the parts of both Coverdale AND Hughes – no easy task, but it sounded like a good reason to make this the next song in those sessions.

Chris liked the challenge of being able to build a track for him to attempt his vocals on, and got to work on things when this came up, while he was probably having some of the same thoughts Roy had along the lines of “holy shit, can I do this”? The results are obviously a new take on things that hopefully pay respects to the original as well. We’re certainly happy with it.

Visit the Bandcamp store from here, or click the embedded link below to listen / download!!

Free Soundgarden cover – Roy Bratbakken and Chris Szkup – “Fresh Tendrils”

Roy and Chris had discussed this song going all the way back to the making of The Feckers “It’d Be Rude Not To” album from 2013, both sharing a love for the album, and great band, being Soundgarden’s “SuperUnknown” album from 1994.

The guys had kept in touch since that album’s release, and in late 2016 had revisited the idea and started tracking the song, not really sure what the end result may bring, but being driven purely by their feelings for the album, and track in particular. A full “band” version was tracked during this time, with Chris playing guitar tracks, then building the “band” around those, adding bass and bad drums, that were tweaked a little bit, hence the quotation marks around “Drums” in the credits.

Fast forward a few months, all instruments, and Roy’s vocals had all been recorded, and the guys were talking about throwing the track out there when the tragic news of Chris Cornell’s passing broke all around the world. Devastated, the guys didn’t feel it was the right time to put their version of “Tendrils” out there at that time, although Chris did do their song “Spoonman” a bit with his duo partner Dylan Beast at live appearances as a nod to the amazing talent that was Chris Cornell.

Fast forward again to early 2018, and it’s time!!! It felt right to keep this version raw and “demo like” in some ways rather than hiring drummers, mix and mastering engineers etc – Music purely for the fun of it. We hope you enjoy it!!

Listen and / or download for free at the Bandcamp store here.

Tribute to The Godz Vol 1 – Out May 13th!!

godzLast year, The Feckers recorded a medley of songs for an upcoming tribute album to legendary Ohio rockers The Godz!

The line up for our track (known as “N.I.S. medley”) is as follows:

Roy Bratbakken – Lead Vocals
Rob Smith – Backing Vocals
Paul Jolley – Piano
Ponch Satrio – Lead Guitars
Chris Szkup – Electric, Acoustic and Bass Guitars, Backing Vocals
Dennis Leeflang – Drums / Mixing

I’m stoked to say that it’s coming out on May 13th, and available for pre-order now at http://www.thegodzofficial.com/ !!