News

Introducing Johnny Kowalski and the Sexy Weirdos

• 9th Apr 2014

After a couple of years feeling out their sound across the UK live circuit, Johnny Kowalski and the Sexy Weirdos took on the task of recording their brass, strings, electric guitar and drums based “carnival punk” sound.

They released the independently recorded Victory for the Monsters in October 2012, gaining BBC6 Music radio airplay and capturing their notorious live energy on a record that they followed up with a tour that took in France, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Reactions across Europe were enthusiastic and the band soon embarked on a second visit in April 2013, this time making additional stops in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. A highlight of their career to date, the band was invited to play in the Czech town of Jaroměř. This was an honour as it meant being able to entertain audiences in a region of the globe whose traditions had influenced their music in the first place.

With summer festival performances that included Boomtown, Y Not, Tramlines, Nozstock, Wychwood and Swingamajig and a third European tour under their belts, the band went into the studio to record their second album, Kill the Beast, with producer by Gavin Monaghan (Editors, The Destroyers, Robert Plant).

Kill the Beast takes its influences from disparate cultures and movements such as rabble rousing two tone on “Tequila Song”,”Raggle Taggle Gypsy”‘s explosive make over for the twenty first century festival scene or the apocalyptic swing of the title track. The result is a surprisingly cohesive set of songs, all infused with the trademark Weirdo energy, successfully captured on record. The band have taken a mains-wired blender to the last fifty years of popular music and dared it to dangle its naughty bits in.

Recorded and produced by Gavin Monaghan (Editors, Carina Round, The Destroyers), Kill the Beast‘s conception was helped along by rock and roll history. The band borrowed The Clash’s tuba player (from Sandinista!), Bowie’s mixing desk, Joy Division’s guitar and even Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s drum kit to add their own voice to rock and roll’s delightful history.

The album will be available for download on May 7th. Johnny Kowalski and the Sexy Weirdos will be playing all over the UK and Europe in May 2014 to promote Kill the Beast.