Tracks:
888
Jim Jones
Personnel:
Justin Moore - vocals
Greg Stainsby - guitar, mandolin
Marko Jennings - mandolin, guitar
Alice Green - bass
Michelle Lewit - violin
Travis Demsey - drums
The Currency are a six piece Folk Punk Rock Orchestra from Melbourne Australia. The Currency infuse punk rock music
with Celtic folk music. They boast a talented line up including Travis Demsey, the ex Living End drummer. The
Currency descends proudly from a lineage of convicts, bushrangers, stowaways and scoundrels, they are reviving the
colonial folk ballad tradition. Influences of Midnight Oil and Weddings, Parties, Anything are heard in their
style, ahh maybe oz rock isn't dead after all.
The Single 888 is a folk rockin track, sweet melodic sound, with an infusion of oz rock and punk. 888 has references
to Melbourne street icons and history including Ned Kelly. 888 for those who don't know means 8 hours of labour, 8
hours of recreation and 8 hours of rest. This song poses an interesting question "What would the ghosts of a great
grandparents say?" Yes what would they say? Has the battle of an 8 hour day with a decent wage been won and now
lost? Is it just history? I would like to think not but somehow reality is written otherwise in my diary!
"Sitting on the steps of the 8 hour monument drinking my day away."
The B side track on the single, Jims Jones is a tale of a convict, this song is an old convict folk song believed to
be first sung back in the 1820's when Jack Donahue’s gang was still roaming freely. Jim Jones was a poacher with a
daring spirit and while being inhumanely transported to Australia he becomes bitter and dreams of joining Jack
Donahue’s Bushranger Gang. This song has been recorded by a few different artists over the years, although The
Currency's version of this song would have to be the best version yet for me. As I feel it captures the daring and
defying spirit of Jim Jones. The Currency have recorded their version of song with the feel of Celtic folk music and
have infused rock into it.
"I'll shoot the bastards one and all, I'll shoot the floggers down."
I feel in my blood which descends from my Irish convict ancestors,
that this is only a very tiny taste of what is to
come from The Currency in the future.
Check out The Currency for yourself!
The Currency
"888"
By Sharla Cartner
MusicFanBiz