Fancy Weapon

Poison City is thrilled to introduce Fancy Weapon; a new Melbourne-based group featuring four musicians that have all spent decades in the rock n roll game & continue to leave indelible marks across the underground music landscape.

An unlikely band name and a most unlikely band. With a line up as unexpected as a ball of lightning, the band sees a cross-generational bunch of Melbourne music perennials - Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque, Bleak Squad), Joel Silbersher (GOD, Hoss) and Claire Birchall (Smoked Salmon, Paper Planes) - joined by recent transplant Guy Maddison (Mudhoney bassist), to make a singular brand of minimalist, incandescent guitar-heavy rock music, both timeless and refreshing in the current context.

Fancy Weapon’s self-titled first album was recorded in a single session at Finn Keane’s Head Gap studios in Preston in late 2024, about a week before the studio burned to the ground after a neighbouring business was criminally torched. Further mixing sessions were completed at another venue under the name Head Gap. The album was engineered by Finn Keane and produced by Finn and Fancy Weapon.

The album reflects a self-assured and creative outfit bursting at the seams with ideas. Joel and Claire share lead vocals - Joel on more than half the songs, Claire on three of them, and they share a duet. The vocal melodies are ragged but beautiful as are their occasional harmonies. Joel and Mick share the guitars, and, as a cursory listen reveals, it is very much a classic guitar record. They are two very distinctive players, and their singular styles mesh spectacularly. Guy on bass and Claire on drums lay solid, powerful and always gripping and striking foundations.