Aussie Rules: No Through Road
A Free Man’s Best of South Australia series continues with Adelaide’s No Through Road. Founded by Matt Banham in 2000, No Through Road has been churning out fetching lo-fi tunes at a heady pace. Matt’s hooked up with a regular band these days and their most recent record “Too Much or Not Enough” has just been re-released by Unstable Ape records. Matt was kind enough to take a seat on the virtual couch for a chat with A Free Man.
AFM: First of all, from what I’ve been able to glean from the internet, it seems that you are the soul and core of No Through Road but that you’ve recently added some regular players. Can you tell me who’s who in the band and what they play?
MB: Well, it started as just me in my room with a 4-track making songs that I didn’t really expect that many people to like but I just had to do it. I did that for a few years and then in early 2005 I picked some of my fave musicians from Adelaide and got them to join my band. Since then its been lots of fun because I was gettin’ kinda bored playing on my own all the time, and they have helped me to write a lot.
Currently the members are Steph Crase, Ianto Ware, Nic Datson, Marcin Kobylecki and Dexter Campos. They all swap around a lot so they don’t really have any main instruments.
AFM: I love the spontaneous, shambolic, sing-a-long quality if your 2005 internet only release “Lo-fi Sandwich”. Based on your most recent track on your MySpace page (“Rock N Roll”) I get the impression that your sound might be changing. This track is cleaner, more polished and straight-ahead rock? Is there a stylistic change in the works?
MB: I wouldn’t say too much of a style change just a change in how we record. Everything before this has been pretty much just done at home one a computer or multi-track tape recorder thing. Now with the band it’s gotten a lot harder to do that. And the live sound is great so I really want to capture that. I guess I’ve also been trying not to repeat myself too much so the songs on the upcoming album are a bit different from my older stuff. I guess I just don’t really wanna keep repeating the same old thing again and again.
AFM: One of my favorites off of that LP was “The Final Song for Ally McBeal”. Is there a story behind that track that you’d like to share?
MB: A lot of people like that song. I have grown to hate it now, I think probably mostly cause its so repetitive which I grow quickly bored of. I stole parts of it from a Modest Mouse song. I guess it’s just a song about the repetitive nature of my reaction to failing relationships. When I played it to a friend he said it sounded like a song you would hear on the end of “Ally McBeal” hence the name.
AFM: Okay then, you hate Ally McBeal, fair enough. What’s your favorite track from your archives these days?
MB: I think “Reason to Fight” and “Girl” are probably my favourite songs from that album. I think “Black & White” from “Monkey on a Rock” is probably my best song. I’m quite proud of that one.
AFM: What made you decide to release ‘Lo-Fi Sandwich’ for free on the net? Did you get what you hoped out of the experiment?
MB: Before I got signed to Unstable Ape, I made music on CD-Rs. I sold them for cost price to people just in the hope to get as many people out there to hear my music. I have never really expected to make much money or any money from my music, but I love the thought of lots of people hearing it. The internet is so good for that so I am happy to put lots of mp3s up. I made that album when there were delays in recording our last album ‘too much or not enough’. I was bored of waiting so I did it really quick and stuck it on the net. It’s gotten a good reaction over the years it’s been online, and heaps of downloads, which is pretty cool. It’s nice to know that people all over the world have heard my music.
AFM: That experimental lo-fi sound prevails in a lot of the tracks I listened to on your site. I hear Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg, Mark E. Smith. Who do you hear when you’re writing and playing?
No Through Road - "Hey Ya!" [2:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download No Through Road - "Black & White" [3:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download No Through Road - "Reason To Fight" [2:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadPopularity: 14% [?]
As you may or may not know, A Free Man is bound for Down Under. In anticipation of the imminent move, I’m on a mission to discover the best up and coming bands from my soon to be home. 
For example, the song 
A Free Man will be headed Down Under in a matter of weeks. In anticipation, South Australian music blogger Ringo Stalin at 
and ![The Pogues - If I Should Fall from Grace With God [Expanded]](http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/images/badgeitunes61x15dark.gif){kind=small}
One of the guilty pleasures, among things like beef flavored Rice-a-Roni, that I hang onto from the States is American reality TV. We get the king of that genre, American Idol, a couple of days after it airs in the U.S. I have found a way to get completely hooked again this year. I rarely actually like any of the contestants and am proud to say that I’ve never bought a single, album or concert ticket from any of the contestants nor voted for any of them. It’s just something about the format itself - great damn television. As I was listening to the freebies I had accumulated for the week I noticed a few female singers that wouldn’t be out of place on Idol, so with apologies - here are my three finalists for my own International Idol.
