EP BREAKDOWN: Flamingo Blonde's 'Two Trick Pony'
Article by Darcy Goss
Hold onto your horses folks, Meaanjin/Brisbane's greatest stadium-rock showmen Flamingo Blonde have released their long-awaited debut EP Two Trick Pony.
Balmy spring afternoons, sunset valley bus rides, Saturday morning coffee sips and errand dips, this certified all-killer-no-filler EP feels like one, big, warm hug.
Representing a culmination of their musical journey over the past five years, 'Two Trick Pony' is an ode to good memories made with those the Brisbane indie-rockers hold near and dear.
So giddy up and get this EP turned up LOUD as we deep dive into Flamingo Blonde's creation of 'Two Trick Pony'.
♡ Words by James Bartlett, Flamingo Blonde ♡
Eddie
Eddie is my chronically online admission song. Most of the lyrics were pulled from random gronks in Joe Rogans replies on Twitter (it’ll never be X) and were strung into a stream of consciousness of terrible financial advice and privilege. It’s definitely not endorsed advice.
It was one of those Frankenstein songs, where I took some bits from a song that didn’t work previously and threw the kitchen sink into the different layers. When I was sending the demo back and forth with management, the chorus was the only thing not quite sitting right. One of my favourite things to do when replying to emails with my managers was to reply “Lock it in, Eddie” instead of a regular old “Yes”, but I’d copy and paste Eddie McGuire’s entire wikipedia page into the email, which I’m sure they loved. As a joke I wrote the Eddie lyric for the chorus, but it actually worked the best out of everything and I couldn’t shake it. It made sense to, seeing as Eddie McGuire is probably our country’s most premium gronk.
Think You’re Coming Around
One of the songs that has been sitting around in the wings for the longest, TYCA to me encapsulates that feeling of meeting people in your early adulthood. It recalls Friday nights where you’re waiting around for the text confirmation that someone’s free to meet, or whether you should leave your house to catch up at the bar or confirmation that the plus one to a house party is cool. I was listening to a fair bit of Real Estate at the time, so springy guitars and lush synth was on the menu for sure.
On Your Side
On Your Side came from the feeling of living in someone’s pocket and needing to force yourself to get some space. Getting out of your own head when you’re spending most of your waking hours with someone can feel tough, so a little bit of self assurance you’re not a burden or a hindrance can go a long way.
On the flip side, the video for the song was a basketball epic with plenty of friends from the local music scene, so now I just tell people the song’s about basketball. Up the Miami Heat.
Karaoke, Baby!
I threw around the pieces of this song for a while, and when I hit a wall I thought it might be good to work on it with a fresh perspective with someone else. Lyrically and melodically I wanted to step it up, so I reached out to friend and artist Asha Jefferies, who I really believe is one of the country’s best songwriters and voices. When I brought the instrumental to work on with Asha, the working title was ‘Karaoke Lobby’. A misreading of the file name lead to the initial concept of the song taking form, and we worked on it over a beautiful Winter afternoon in Asha’s living room, building this narrative around the feeling of knowing when
your time with someone is up and how you’ve sometimes just got a stick it out for one last song. And I mean I have spent a LOT of time at Blutes in the past few years, so it was bound to find a way into the music somehow. Just for the record, my karaoke go-to is Lips of an Angel by Hinder - but you have to consider if you have a gig in the following 5 business days because it absolutely shreds your vocal cords.
New Casino
In Meaanjin Brisbane they’re building a new casino right next to the old one (perfectly functioning) and it looks pretty stupid, If I’m honest with you. They’re also building a big bridge to funnel tourists from South Bank right into the lobby after dinner like guinea pigs in those tube systems, so that’s really cool too. Anyway the song is about sitting at Streets Beach with someone you love and watching it burn down, bits of it falling into the river below and everything.
I was listening to some of The Pixies, Golden Vessell and Daft Punk around the time of writing - I used to watch the building go up bit by bit as I rode past on the bus to work each day, so I think the idea and the sound started to imprint on each other. Anyway, here we are. Can’t wait to try out the big spinning wheel and lose my entire life savings.
Time Alone
Time Alone was pretty much written for the live set, I never really planned to record it properly. It was just a chance for us to close the set on a high, get out in the crowd for a bit, scream ‘fuck’ in the breakdown - the works. But after a while, it felt right to close out this debut chapter with it, so we hunkered down and really threw all the bells and whistles we could in the mix to hide little surprises and weird sounds in the layers.
As the oldest song on the EP, it’s lived a few lives up to this point. All and all, a song from a friends perspective about another friends low effort and shortcomings has had a pretty good run given the fact it kind of just fell out of my brain in the heat of the moment. It’s the song that reminds me the most of playing music with friends, so I hope it brings something similar to at least like 3 other people listening to it!
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Stream 'Two Trick Pone' and see Flamingo Blonde on tour!
