Spilt Milk - Justin Time (Demo)

Matty in Spilt Milk. This is the only image I have of anything to do with the band.

 

When I was 15 years old I got a drumkit for my birthday. I wasn't hugely into music at this point but I wanted to play in a band with my friends and everyone needed a drummer. The music of the time at Cranebrook High was Nirvana, Metallica, Pearl Jam, and any number of American grunge/metal bands. It was 1995. 

Then one day I was at my new school, St Marys Senior High, and some other students had put together a skate punk band called Linoleum. They performed in the playground at lunchtime and played a cover of a Spilt Milk song called The Simpsons. I thought it was the greatest thing ever... the lyrics were hilarious, the music seemed accessible enough to play, and it was fast and energetic. Plus the band who actually wrote the song, Spilt Milk, were locals!

This was the moment I knew that I wanted to play punk music. 

Anyway, this is something different for this blog but hey, it's my blog so I'm just gonna roll with it. 

Spilt Milk were a Western Sydney-based punk band that started in 1994. The original lineup consisted of Matty Albert (bass, vocals) and three other guys - Warwick McGee-Wright, Daniel Paterson, and Steven Kittney. Everyone except for Matty left or was kicked out sometime not long after formation. Marty Durkan then came on board on guitar and Lee Graham joined 6 months after that on drums. After another 6 months, Lee was replaced by Damiem Elliot... this was the most stable lineup and the one that I think most people probably remember when they think of Spilt Milk.

Adam Check (AKA 'Checky', previously bassist and vocalist for the band Detox Unit) joined as a second guitarist in 1998 and left about ten months later... the band only lasted another 3 months after that, breaking up in 1999. 

In their five years Spilt Milk brought out two demo tapes.

Justin Time (1997)

1. The Simpsons
2. Sandwich
3. Kissing Cousins

It Would Suck to be a Duck (1998)

1. Service Station Food
2. Wanker
3. Exploit Me
4. Nah Fuck It

They also had some various tracks on comps and stuff. They played a lot of all-ages shows in Western Sydney, a lot of pub shows in Sydney, and toured Melbourne twice. Says Matty, when I asked him about his time in Spilt Milk back in 2008, "It still spins me out that after all this time people ask me about this band, ask me if we could reform and even yell the name out at me in the street."

Matty and Damien went on to form Unpaid Debt after Spilt Milk. Matty has also played in My Therapy, Columbia's Pain (also with Damien and Checky), Toe to Toe, and a bunch of other bands. Checky went on to play bass in One Dollar Short.

A while ago, in 2012, Matty gave me permission to make the first Spilt Milk demo available online. Here's what he had to say:

MATTY: Okay, this was the first demo Spilt Milk did and it was paid for on the back of winning a band comp in Richmond after rehearsing once and getting 3 songs together. The main prize was a $500 voucher which was used at Zen Studios. With this we managed to record with Geoff Lee, press 500 demo tapes with black and white covers, and a few posters. Justin Time was the name settled on for the demo. Spilt Milk was started by myself on lead guitars and vox with a mate Warwick McGee-Wright on guitar. We were joined by Daniel Patterson on bass and Steven Kittney on drums. These are the first songs I'd ever tried to write and the lyric content wasn't exactly groundbreaking but fuck it, it was fun.

1. The Simpsons (Click here to listen/download)

MATTY: OJ is about the stupidity that the Aussie media had such a large coverage over a story about a guy we didn't give a fuck about. Not even the sport he played and his shit appearances in movies. Remember there wasn't any ESPN or pay TV at all.

2. Sandwich (click to listen/download)

MATTY: Sandwich is a piss take on munchies and Aussie vegemite.  

3. Kissing Cousins (click to listen/download)

MATTY: Kissing Cousins is a true story like a lot of my later punk writing about dirty, wrong people in the world. Especially the West of Sydney.

Bonus Track 1: Hot Stuff (click to listen/download)

MATTY: Hot Stuff is a Donner Summer cover. We were asked by Fox (Nancy Vandal) and the boys to be involved in the Bust a Move compilation in a tribute to 80s disco. We scored the second spot on the CD because Fox apparently liked it so much. At this time we had the longest and probably most well-known line-up as a three piece with Marty Durkan on bass and Damien Elliot on drums. The latter moving on to Unpaid Debt with me. He's also in a few other bands, with the most recent being Between the Devil and the Deep.

Bonus Track 2: Sex Me Hard (click to listen/download)

Editor's Note: I'd found this song at the last minute so wasn't able to get any words off Matty at the time about it. I believe it featured on another compilation.

Sources: This was pulled together from two main sources, a blog I used to write for the now-defunct Orble Network called Music Australia, and retired counterculture site called Duderocket. Many thanks to Matty for chatting with me both times and allowing for the songs to be posted. If anyone connected with the band has any corrections, suggestions, or retractions, feel free to let me know and I'll adjust the blog accordingly.