Mental as Anything

Once upon a time, a group of art students passed themselves off as a band in order to con the local publican into giving them a gig in exchange for free beer. The deception worked better than intended with the group receiving beer in return for music and came to be known as Mental as Anything.

Four decades later, they are still irritating the public with their highly listenable, idiosyncratic brand of garage pop and to celebrate the anniversary of their first release, Mental as Anything Play at Your Party, the Mentals have released the 7-track EP on vinyl available exclusively at mentals.com.au, as well as releasing a brand new 40 minute, hi-definition, multi camera film to celebrate the milestone.

Mental as Anything Live was recorded in front of a live audience at Surfersaurus in Hillsdale, in October 2018, by Moshcam and is a multi-camera production capturing the Mentals' trademark fat sound mixed by long-time collaborator producer/engineer, Steve James (RocknRoll Music, Cyclone Raymond, 5 Track EP).

From The Nips Are Getting Bigger, Come Around, If You Leave Me Can I Come Too and Too Many Times, through to Live It Up, You're So Strong and Let's Cook, Mental as Anything supplied the soundtrack to suburban Australia - brilliantly crafted pop hits that evoke wonderful memories. Their 25 Top 40 charting songs were, for a long time, a record for an Australian band and are a wonderful illustration of the depth of their catalogue and their song-writing ability.

Founding member, Greedy Smith, said "Since 1977 the longest break I've had from playing with Mentals is 6 weeks in 1989/90 when I fell off a horse. Martin Plaza has been off the road for over two years now and I feel so proud of the players I have around me and the way the songs have been sounding I felt we had to properly record our live show and film it. We rounded up some pals to play to and just let rip."

"We recorded through (our guitarist) Martin Cilia's old Sonic Workshop mixing desk that Harry Vanda and George Young used to write on and then Steve James took it up to Brisbane to mix at Red Engine Studio" Greedy added. "Now if punters can't get to our shows, for the life of me I don't know why, we've been playing everywhere forever, if they can't make it to the shows this recording shows 'em what they've missing."

Mental as Anything is led by Greedy Smith, together with ex-Atlantics guitarist Martin Cilia, drummer Jacob Cook, guitarist/vocalist Craig Gordon and bassist/vocalist Peter Gray.

Mental as Anything Plays at Your Party on vinyl is available now from mentals.com.au

The soundtrack to Mental as Anything Live, aka Mental as Anything at Play, is available to stream on Apple Music, Google and Spotify now and the CD will be released on Friday, 25 January 2019.

To stream and/or download Mental as Anything Live, go to mentals.com.au.

Upcoming Shows
Friday, 11 January 2019
Stay Gold, Brunswick VIC
Tickets available from Eventbrite

Saturday, 12 January 2019
Esplanade Hotel, St Kilda VIC
Tickets available now from Moshtix

Saturday, 26 January 2019
Enmore Park, Enmore NSW
(Free show)

Sunday, 27 January 2019
Wonderland Spiegeltent, Barwon Heads VIC
Tickets available now from the Wonderland Spiegeltent

Friday, 1 February 2019
Redcliffe Leagues Club, Redcliffe QLD
Tickets available now from the venue

Friday, 7 February 2019
Sooki Lounge, Belgrave VIC
Tickets available now from Oztix

Friday, 8 February 2019
Burvale Hotel, Nunawading VIC
Tickets available now from the venue

Mental as Anything are also appearing on the By the C tour:

Saturday, 19 January, 2019 - Camp Shortland, Newcastle NSW
Sunday 20 January, 2019 - Stuart Park, Wollongong NSW Saturday, 2 February, 2019 - Queen Elizabeth Park, Coolangatta QLD
Saturday, 9 February, 2019 - Leura Park, Geelong VIC
Sunday, 10 February, 2019 - Glenelg Beach, Adelaide SA
Tickets to all By the C shows are on sale on now and available from  Ticketmaster