DZ Deathrays - The Man Winter Series 2024

The Man Hotel is proud to present DZ Deathrays! Supported by Sophisticated Dingo and Loopole.

DZ Deathrays

Australian-based guitar-driven music has for the better part of recent memory been quantified globally by jubilant, sun-dappled rhythms with motifs of desire and infatuation - DZ Deathrays make no such promise, nor will they ever. With over a decade long tenure to their name, the group have long cemented their space in contemporary Australian music as a necessity for doing just the opposite, marked by their ability to consistently churn out innovative call to arms riffage as visceral as they are frenetic.

Their mainstay status is marked by an ongoing tally of appearances across every career building pillar: arena tours supporting Foo Fighters and Biffy Clyro to name a few, multiple international appearances at SXSW, Reading and Leeds amongst headline tours, several Splendour In The Grass, Laneway and Falls Festivals, and ARIA Awards is testament to that fact. From every house party that took them to 1000+ capacity venues and beyond, Shane Parsons, Simon Ridley, and more recently joined by Lachlan Ewbank, have never let go of their core objective in doing it because they can.

It’s this ethos, far from the perspective of egoism or fame-driven motivation, but rather their core value to ‘do’, ‘make’, ‘challenge’ and ‘enjoy’ that has stuck with DZ Deathrays at every step. A creative integrity and ambition that maintains their place at the forefront of the national punk frontier with a hungry, enduring and rampant fanbase all these years later. This prevails on their sixth studio album R.I.F.F., arguably their most experimental, enhanced and immediately resonant record yet. Across, DZ spark that same playful joy and anarchy of the rock that doting parents vouch to instill in their children’s musical vernacular: ACDC, INXS, Silverchair, Tame Impala and more.

Wholly collaborative between Shane, Simon, Lachlan, and producer Nathan Sheehy, R.I.F.F. covers a gamut of influences and life-stories that saw the four feverishly passing back demos and mixes between each other while separated across three states. Chipping away bit by bit, canvassing layer after layer in constant communication, each recording snowballing into their own exploratory micro worlds marking the group’s biggest sonic departure yet.

Album highlights ‘Paranoid’ and ‘King B’ speak to DZ’s consistent finesse in R.I.F.F.’s genesis; a radically experimental epic on the latter that balances their carnage-inducing instincts with blazing synths, acoustic guitars and sparse piano; to ‘Paranoid’s forthright display of DZ Deathrays’ indispensable anthemability. ‘Tuff Luck’ scratches the periphery of the record’s unchartered territory, with crashing drums, gruff growling synths that could soundtrack a Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon or Formula 1 grand prix; bound by oscillating percussion and vocals that usher ‘Ramble On’ and Mordor into a contemporary doomsday hymn.

Conversely, ‘My Mind Is Eating Me Alive’ carries an Orwellian weight to its assessment of surveillance and the media, swinging with a sweet-sour lilt that bears resemblance to a similar deceptive simplicity as Royal Blood, twisting with consistently evolving melodies, glitchy triplets and video game like riffage. The closest they’ve ever leant into garage/surf rock lies in ‘Hope For The Best’, boasting the album’s most optimistic chorus with a hint of ‘Baba O’Riley’s wave of euphoria, only to disintegrate at a moment too soon in R.I.F.F.’s prismatic voyage.

Excavate further and you find post-punk revivalist tendencies in ‘Grounded Or Dead’, based in an Arctic Monkeys or Talking Heads styled alt-indie rhythm. Elsewhere existentialism and imposter syndrome find homes in the Britpop-led ‘Eat You Up’ and ‘Love & Destruction’ met with the spirited kick of Bloc Party and Blur. Enhanced by the child-like spirit of Turnstile and FIDLAR most noticeably on ‘Shadow Walk’ and ‘No Talk’, capturing a stadium arcadium likened to the recent reincarnation of global acts like Paramore or Skrillex, standing by their roots just enough while reinvented by a modern high definition sheen.

All while standing by their roots just enough to trigger that same zest as career highlights in ‘Gina Works At Hearts’ or ‘Polyanna’; fateful memories of the once-in-a-life 2015 tour with Violent Soho and Dune Rats that saw DZ Deathrays wreck havoc across the country with some of their best friends - you feel right by their side on R.I.F.F., a release that shows just how the applause on their album Bloodstreams and conceptual releases Positive Rising Parts 1 and 2 came to be.

In full, R.I.F.F. is as parabolic sonically and thematically as formative releases by The Killers and The Dandy Warhols on the nostalgic soundtrack of The OC, to Gossip and Yeah Yeah Yeahs coping-via-rampage on Skins. That is not to suggest that DZ Deathrays feel as if they’ve never left high school, but instead illustrative of their place in the zeitgeist - their music and merch found a place side by side with the recent Heartbreak High reboot, indicative of what sees the group continue to endure across a varied following.

DZ speak to the Freaks and Geeks and the Dewey Finn’s in us all, bringing together Dead Heads, 30somethings and the aspirational next generation all at once, including fans in award winning producer Mark Ronson to rising popstar MAY-A and collaborators in cult-underground rapper NERVE and award-winning vocalists like Ecca Vandal, even a Wiggle. On R.I.F.F. they promise a place to return to whenever, wherever; a forever home just like the classics do. Here they inspire listeners to ignite a passion in themselves to continue to challenge and strive, making sure to always Remember It’s For Fun.

Sophisticated Dingo:

This man is making solid traction both within Australia and internationally, with attention being received from artists such as Marlon Hoffstadt and Interplanetary Criminal, he has become no stranger to the spotlight. Playing all things dubby, speed G and garage, and everything in between, Waxx Off is the hot new member of the underground scene with no signs of slowing down.

Loopole:

Hailing from Adelaide, Loopole are a young five-piece exhibiting an original blend of alternative rock. Support slots for Australian heavyweights such as Ocean Alley, Hockey Dad and Rum Jungle speaks to their electric live show and dynamic sound.