"We're not concerned with fitting in with any modern notion of music just to please everybody who comes to see us. Most groups are so gutless and fit into the general scheme of things with shitty sounding records and singers that can't sing so have to be treated in the studio. There's nothing physical about that at all." – David Graney, Moodists singer.

It seems that everyone in Melbourne goes 'ah, The Moodists' and talks about them as though they're edgy, strange and special. Furthermore, all interested parties are warned never to drink with them whatever the state of one’s thirst.

The essence of their repertoire appears to live in some raging emotional menagerie. Possessed of wild and burning tensions, their songs soar and sting the senses with thunderous cracks of sensual energy. It's a vicious jolt to the skeleton just attempting to exist in the same space as those death roar growl growl guitars ... all that strummy clatter and then you get smattered to jelly by the whack! of Clare's drums when they simply crunch up and through everything else.

Live wise, Steve, Mick and Chris (gtr, gtr and bass) get into a backs to the front strategy. A self-confident insularity which screams out their intention to play for themselves and their own pleasure as much as providing an audience with their money's worth.

Clare grips her sticks and looks plain dangerous while David arches his arms, boldly painting some extravagant landscape in the air, letting his vocals roam through ranges of tear stained bitterness and euphoric well-being.

Contrasts, y'know.

It's been heard that the Moodists are erratic, that their gigs veer from the sublime to the unthinkable. The sport in me replies that their showing depends on their mood and hence the name.

David: “In Australia any band without a record company or agent is treated like a bunch of shit kicking losers. You get to the point where you think 'forget it' and do what you want. There's no chance of crossing over in the charts with anything remotely good. So, basically, the idea is to do whatever we want."

Clare: "People here were more excited by our 'Gone Dead' single than they were in Australia."

David: "We'd play at two or three places in Melbourne and anywhere in Sydney that would have us. People were interested in investing some money in us to come and make a record here."

The underwraps album for Red Flame, 'Thursday's Calling' and the single coming from it, 'My Runaway', are a mite more vigorous and vital than anything on 'Engine Shudder', a mini album that had an impressive yet unrefined force. Its strength crawled out in lumps.

Steve: "'Engine Shudder' was a big disappointment. The engineer thought he knew what rock and roll music was all about." An aspect of the Moodists' attractive intrigue is in the combination of selfishness and generosity which come at either end of the 'creative process'. They need neither the narcissism of cult adoration nor the hollow validity of mega acclaim.

David: "You can talk about music itself as sounds and disembodied voices coming at you which can be a pretty potent thing. Or you can talk about the packaging of music and how it becomes a special currency. That's what groups like ABC seem to be concerned with. Find a really wise way to sell something when all they've got to sell is a big zero anyway.

“We can produce music that we like as a band, as an ensemble playing, and I don't think many bands can do that. Have you ever heard Big Joe Turner singing 'Shake, Rattle And Roll? There's nothing to it, just pure pleasure."

Ditto The Moodists.