Mushroom Music Publishing

With one foot in the garage and the other in outer space, Gruntbucket are ready to take their heavy slacker psych-blues to the world with new album Songs From An Empty Room.

Built around the impassioned vocals and fluid guitar of Mikey Madden, the sweet n’ sour, smooth yet rocky bass of Tim McCormack and the lyrical heartbeat supplied by drummer Dave Watkins, the three formed the band in late 2007, and after playing solidly around Melbourne, released their debut album Receiving to critical acclaim a few years later.

This is all heart; a loose, unmeasured jam best heard while lying languid in the grass. The result of this heavy, yet slowed-up, sonic adventure is a swaying, reflective, emotional record" – MusicAustraliaGuide

While Receiving was indeed a sonic adventure, a new angle was needed to move on to the next stage, an angle that could reflect the lives of the band and those around them. Gruntbucket soon worked up a new batch of songs, dealing with life and love, home and dislocation, stagnation and progress.

Once again recorded in the Victorian bush by Ryan Nelson (engineer on recent albums from Kim Salmon/guitarist for Dan Kelly, Sub Audible Hum) and mixed by Lindsay Gravina (Magic Dirt, Rowland S. Howard), Songs From An Empty Room captures a band evolving. The tripped-out jams are still present on songs like Anchor but are injected with a fresh intensity and sense of purpose. The strong melodies are as solid as ever on tunes like I Want but now boosted with a harmony and sensitivity previously unheard, but Gruntbucket can still knock out a great three-chord rock stomper, like Regrets or I Could Wait.

This album shows a band with breadth, depth and vision. Songs From An Empty Room takes a few twists and turns, it hits one emotion while you’re still reeling from the other.

“This is rock n' roll as it should be made and played, down, dirty and dangerous." - Beat Magazine