Muzzy Pep are one of the undiscovered treasures of the music world. quite a few people claim to have heard of us, some claim even to have seen us play and a very select few have bestowed upon us the ultimate honour of actually buying our records. From humble beginnings in Maitland in 1997, co-founders Scott Blackley (the Frank Sinatra of indie rock) and Errol Moyle (the Errol Moyle of indie rock) steered the good ship Muzzy Pep through two EPs, two albums, hundreds of shows and an absolute fuckload of piss.
The first Muzzy Pep EP, imaginatively titled ''Muzzy Pep' was recorded on a farm in Patterson, NSW with Errol playing drums and Scott playing bass, and both of them playing guitar and singing their little hearts out. it featured 'One 85', a tribute to the television series 'Get Smart', which subsequently won them the Newcastle round of Triple J's Unearthed competition- an honour which seems for most people to represent our only claim to fame. By this time the band had doubled in size to include drummer Simon McCabe and bass player Stephen Bisset, a tacit acknowledgment that neither Errol nor Scott can really play more than one instrument at a time.
Therein began the mayhem. To capitalise on our success, the band began a punishing ritual of endless rehearsal and relentless touring around the country. 1999 saw the release of the second EP, 'This Is Not Art'- a beautiful, smiling child of a record which unfortunately sounded like shit on the radio. Being indie is fantastic in terms of having complete artistic control but it would have been nice to see the inside of a multi-gazillion dollar studio at least once. The debut album, 'Moments In Weightlessness', suffered a similar fate. Had someone like Rick Rubin or Timbaland recorded that album we would be on easy street now, sipping champagne out of diamond-encrusted golden chalices, but alas- we are still drinking domestic beer and talking to the people we hoped we might one day be looking down our noses at.
The seemingly neverending run of secret shows began to take its toll on band morale as well. In late 2000 Stephen Bisset left the band, possibly because he realised what a stupid idea being in a band actually is. He was replaced by Nic Munnings (the Kylie Minogue of indie rock) and we began to start working on the second album, 'The Faintest Clue', during which Simon also got jack of it and left. He played on three songs on the album, including our moment in the sun, 'I Haven't Got Time To Spell It Out' which received heavy rotation on Triple J (and, true to form, was completely ignored everywhere else). Errol returned to the drum seat for the rest of the album, before vacating it for Luke Bennett (the Mahatma Ghandi of indie rock), who at that stage was oblivious to the futility of playing in a rock band and was bang up for a whole bunch of secret shows.
By the end of 2003 we had decided to take it slow, our most successful decision to date. Save for the last tour (where Stephen stepped in to replace Nic, who had broken his arm falling over Scott's fence) we have taken it so slowly that most people (including us) assumed that the band had broken up. Because we didn't bother to break up in the first place, it will probably never happen now because there is no point.
To celebrate the passage of 10 years since our first show we played a couple of shows in August 2008; a teary, bleary-eyed trip down memory lane that cemented our intent to never again leave the general listening public alone. At the time of writing the band is working on "Get Sensible", a triple live concept album that has yet to be recorded, written or even seriously entertained as an idea.
And if anyone offers us a truckload of cash (or half a carton of VB and 20% off counter meals) we will probably do more shows until we get sick of each other again.
