Groove-drones and jangle freak-outs. 12 strings and 60s organs. Jiving rhythms and gazey fuzz-tones. This was The Grease Arrestor.

 

Born in an apartment in Bondi, Sydney, Australia sometime around 2012, The Grease Arrestor (aka T.G.A.) was a love project, a shared experience for like-minded friends, who adored similar music. Beginning with Rick Snowden (lead guitar/vox), Sam Potter (guitar/vox), Dave Landgren (bass) and Josh White (drums), the cover song jam sessions were quickly replaced with original material, a pastiche of their influences, and so it began.

 

The band's 2014 debut album 'What Was, Is.' was a symbolic sign off on their earliest material that brought together sounds likened to The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Warlocks, The Rolling Stones, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Black Angels, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Spindrift. The Active Listener called it “Byrd-gaze”, a “glorious hybrid of nineties shoegaze and sixties twelve string jangle”. Self-recorded, mixed and mastered, the album was raw, lofi at times, and full of life.

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'Volume Two' (2015) came next and saw the introduction of Liz Tillman (keys/vox) and Ryan Lloyd (guitar/vox). It represented a maturing of the band’s sound, songwriting and production capabilities. Any derivative shades present in their debut album had given way to a newer, darker side. The material had taken a life of its own with its unique fusion of garage, shoegaze and post-punk flavours. 

The Grease Arrestor enjoyed years of live shows, touring and adventures before a sudden hiatus shortly after releasing 'Volume Two', which lead to an eventual disbanding. In 2020, 'What Was, Is.' was reborn, remixed, remastered and pressed on 12” vinyl – the last artefact of T.G.A.'s golden era. 

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"Mixing jangle, drone, Americana, kraut and garage into a single entity." — Happy Mag