FIBATTY! - Digital

The first week of January 2020 saw Glenn Richards, on crutches due to a Christmas party cricketing incident, in a Melbourne studio with his Augie March bandmates putting down eleven new basic tracks for what might end up being the sequel to their acclaimed 2000 debut album Sunset Studies.  The plan was for Glenn to complete it at home in Hobart and have it released in time for the bands 20th anniversary of SS, a tour already booked in major theatres throughout the country.  For a couple of months that plan was looking rosy, but we all know the rest.  It played out similarly for most people, big plans or not.

Not being a fan of foetal positioning, Glenn decided make a song and a film clip from scratch - “Hi Gene!” - that might give some people a bit of a cheer up, and at the same time shift gears and direct his energies to something that addressed this new reality.  The result, some months later, is an entirely new album of eleven songs written, recorded and mixed from the ground up in his Dark Satanic Mill home studio. 

"FIBATTY!" is a full blooded album, possibly even more ambitious in its instrumentation and thematic reach than your average Augie record, and very far from a typical solo album by a sensitive bloke with an acoustic guitar.  While it never stops at any station too long it is maybe best described as a deep, crooked pop album, something that would fit nicely on a playlist with the likes of Split Enz, The Kinks, Deerhunter, Guided By Voices, The Go Betweens, Field Music, XTC, Jellyfish, Richard Dawson, or any number of acts past and present who prize vision, quality, humour, genuine feeling and individuality as marks of good music.  But above all it is a Glenn Richards album, DIY ground to sky, and hopefully one of many to be released in this fashion.  It is also very much a pandemic album, hopefully his only one.

"FIBATTY!" is released on December 10, 2020. Available as mp3 and wav files, along with lyric booklet.

Tracklisting:
01 In the Court of the Cat King
02 Alive (Until You're Not)
03 New Songwriter
04 U R
05 Lake Drive
06 FIBATTY!
07 Last Aid Kit
08 Stalker 1986
09 My Midi Life
10 Backyard Arcana
11 Never Be Your Boy