THE BAND PLAYS ITS FIRST SHOW AS ‘THE GNOMES’ FRI SEPT 12 AT THE CURTIN, AND ARE ALSO PLAYING THE CROXTON’S BLOCK PARTY IN NOVEMBER, AND NEW ZEALAND’S NEW GRRUNKFESTIVAL IN DECEMBER
“Great rockin’ band! I love these guys!” – Ted Carroll (early Thin Lizzy manager, co-founder Chiswick & Ace Records and founder Rock On Records, London)
“… garage like it was fresh and new, and that’s exactly what makes it great…”
– Raven Sings The Blues (USA)
“This Australian kid is making music like England in 1964-66 never ended. Incredible. Tunes for miles.” – Jay W Babcock (Arthur Magazine, USA)
Following the recent announcement of their name change from Gnome to The Gnomes, and the release of the singles “I’m Not The One” and “I’ll Be There”, Melbourne’s young Bayside Beat sensations have announced the NOVEMBER 7 release of their debut album. It is available to pre-order NOW!
The album, which is entitled simply The Gnomes (despite it saying Introducing The Gnomes on the cover!) features twelve original songs and was recorded at Frankston’s Singing Bird Studios. Produced by singer and lead guitarist Jay Millar, who also wrote all the songs (including one co-written by fellow guitarist Ned Capp) the album perfectly captures the young band’s energy and killer chops with an honest and pure rock’n’roll sound that’ll have you thinking the band is in the room with you. The Gnomes’ sound perfectly balances a ’60s garage-beat approach with a totally now vibe, and there’s not a dud on the record.
The announcement of The Gnomes’ debut album comes ahead of the band’s first ever show under their new name at the John Curtin Hotel, Friday September 12, with guests W.O.M.B.A.T, The Pearlies and Fish Catcher. They played their last ever show as Gnome with Eddy Current Suppression Ring at their home base Singing Bird Studios in Frankston last week.
The Gnomes are also set to play the Croxton’s 10th Anniversary Block Party on Sunday November 2 alongside Spiderbait, Floodlights and others. And in December they fly to New Zealand for the first time to play the inaugural Grrunk Festival in Galatea, alongside Oregon’s Jenny Don’t & The Spurs, fellow Aussies C.O.F.F.I.N and Hot Machine and locals The Eastern, Bloodbags, Mads Harrop, Adam Hattaway & The Haunters and CCTV. More NZ dates will be announced soon.
The Gnomes is out November 7 on Dog Meat Records
(through Tweak Distro in Australia, FMD in UK/Europe/Japan and Revolver in the US)
It will be released on LP (standard black and a limited-edition off-white pressing of 300 – both editions come with a poster lyric insert), CD, cassette and can be pre-ordered now from Sound Merch:
https://sound-merch.com.au/collections/the-gnomes
or from https://thegnomesrock.bandcamp.com
The album can be pre-saved here – Introducing… The Gnomes
Introducing the Bayside Beat of The Gnomes!
Although they emerged from Melbourne bayside outer suburbs onto the local live scene with their fresh and spirited indie-rock update of the garage-beat sounds of The Easybeats, Kinks and early Beatles only a year or so ago, Gnome – as The Gnomes were until very recently known – actually started out as a bedroom solo project for teenaged singer/songwriter/ guitarist Jay Millar a few years back. Jay, playing everything himself, started recording and releasing a steady succession of material – quite a few albums’ worth – on his own Goblin Records label via Bandcamp. Realizing he needed a band to start playing out, Jay approached some like minded players from Frankston’s rehearsal hub Singing Bird, and with Jay on lead vocals and lead guitar, Ned Capp on guitar, Olly Katsianis on bass, and Ethan Robins on drums, Gnome became a band.
Early in 2025, the last solo Jay recordings released under the Gnome name caused something of an international underground sensation when the Bandcamp only I Like It EP – four songs of kranked up Kinks-style mono riffage – was posted by a Spanish garage-punk YouTube page and quickly clocked up over 50,000 views.
At the same time, the band quickly began gaining attention on the thriving Frankston scene and around Melbourne. They started breaking out, sharing bills with the likes of Drunk Mums, Skegss, Split System, The Prize, The Unknowns, Cosmic Psychos, Hockey Dad, Guitar Wolf, The 5.6.7.8’s, The Breadmakers, Loose Lips, fellow Frankstoners/Singing Bird alumni The Belair Lip Bombs, and, on a quick trip to Sydney, Cammy Cautious & The Wrestlers.
And now, finally, we have The Gnomes’ debut album. Twelve killer tracks that combine the best of the ’60s with the best of today. Twelve killer tracks that show off accomplished songwriting, assertive singing and playing and an explosive and authentic swinging group sound. Twelve killers slices of raw rock’n’roll running the gamut from the savage Rhythm & Blues of “Play With You” and “Better With You” to the vibrant beat pop of “I’ll Be There” and “I’m Not The One”, with forays into the heavy reverb psych of “Stung”, the Cavern/Star Club stylings of “Flippin’ Stomp” and the first flyte jangle of “Time Will Tell” along the way. There’s more of course, including a new version of that Kinks-style kranker “I Like It” for good measure.
Frankston’s Fab Four are taking their sound to the world. Join them for the ride!
(** One of The Gnomes’ ever-growing legion of fans is none other than the legendary Ted Carroll, early Thin Lizzy manager and co-founder of seminal mid-’70s London indie label Chiswick Records, home of Joe Strummer’s first band the 101’ers, Shane MacGowan’s first band The Nips, Billy Bragg’s first band Riff Raff and classic early releases by Motorhead and the Damned amongst other things. Ted, who knows a thing or two about rocking, has described them as a “great rockin’ band” and declared, “I love these guys!”. )
