Bluejuice

In 1984 bluejuice rose from the ashes of one of Australia’s favorite pop bands, Sherbet.

After singer Daryl Braithwaite left to pursue his solo career, the band found themselves struggling with significant gambling and narcotic debts. Although Howzat was an international hit, the royalties dried up and the boys were getting desperate. One night in Bangkok changed all that.

Drummer Ned Molesworth, keyboardist Jerry Craib and bass player Jamie Cibej found themselves in a seedy strip club when they chanced a meeting that would change their lives.

Without warning, two of the most beautiful female impersonators took to the stage and hypnotised the audience with a slow, seductive snake-dance. The boys were speechless. The she-males were wanton, blistering.

The audience rushed the stage, and the lady-boys took a back door out. Jerry was waiting, and ushered them into a tuk-tuk. Plying them with opium and the promise of clean, safe gender-realignment surgery, he coaxed Xinxui (now Jake Stone) and Pataks (now Stav) back to Sydney, Australia.

Rehearsals for the new band began in earnest, and bluejuice was born.

Sporting an aggressive, party-oriented mix of rock, hip hop, electro and disco, the five member group is in its element making people dance in a retarded, unselfconscious way. Producer Jim Mashedar likened the band’s sound to “Lil’ Jon playing in a rock band”, an accurate representation of the more aggressive tracks on their debut LP, Problems. Elsewhere, expect to find downtempo hip hop, ska-tinged pop and pounding disco, all laced with the band’s winningly tongue-in-cheek attitude.

A successful formula thus far, the totally independent group has scored high rotation Triple J radio play for each of its three releases. Recent single Vitriol was the most reported alternative song on national radio (w/c 1st August 2007 -The Music Network). It was also the most played song on Triple J for two weeks, and remained in the Top 20 for seven weeks.

In addition, bluejuice have supported major names like The Specials, Butterfingers, Jackson Jackson (feat. members of The Cat Empire), Mercury Prize winner Dizzee Rascal, and played festival bills like The Essential Festival and Come Together 2.

Not bad for a bunch of ex-Sherbet band members, and two greedy she-males, eh?

Problems, the aptly titled debut album from this rag-tag bunch of pirates, was released in August 2007 through MGM.