King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

With a name that perfectly captures their psych rock majesty, Australian seven-piece King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard laced the crazy jam sessions of Frank Zappa with epic, progressive fantasies and an unwavering scrappy, DIY, garage-band spirit. Led by front man Stu Mackenzie, the band started off as Melbourne school mates clattering around together and, playing at parties, slowly grew a wildly eclectic, rampant, chaotic sound that included two engine-force drummers, flutes and a theremin. Their debut album 12 Bar Bruise captured the frantic sounds heard in influential 1960s West Coast garage rock bands and, between 2013 and 2016, their prolific work rate produced seven albums, including the wild west, outlaw, concept record Eyes Like the Sky, the sprawling, hypnotic jams of Float Along - Fill Your Lungs and the relatively calm, acoustic, folkie daydreams of Paper Mâché Dream Balloon. They returned to heavy, fuzzy riffs and stomping grooves on breakthrough album Nonagon Infinity before rebuilding their guitars to play Eastern-style micro tones and creating their own unique sound partly inspired by Turkish folk music, with comparisons drawn to Hawkwind at their most febrile on Flying Microtonal Banana. They also set up the Gizzfest music festival, which toured across Australia, and in 2017, released another four albums throughout the year, including Murder of the Universe, Sketches of Brunswick East, Polygondwanaland, and Gumboot Soup, following this with Infest the Rats' Nest in 2019. After the COVID-19 pandemic, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard made a triumphant return, embracing their unrestrained style in albums like the ARIA award winning Chunky Shrapnel (2020), K.G. (2020), L.W., and Butterfly 3000 (2021). In 2022, they went on to release another succession of four albums, including Omnium Gatherum, Made in Timeland, Laminated Denim and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava. Their May 2023 release, PetroDragonic Apocalypse explored a heavier metal sound, taking the number 2 position on the ARIA Top 10 albums chart. On October 3, 2023, they debuted three songs from their new record The Silver Cord, including the title track, as well as "Theia," and "Set," with the album appearing on October 27. The band announced their new record label, p(doom) Records, on May 6, 2024, releasing their 26th studio album, Flight b741, as the first project under the label, on August 9, 2024. The album reached number 8 on the Australian charts and also charted in the UK.

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