Ambrose Kenny-Smith (King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard) with Babe Rainbow

For our first brand new Talkhouse episode of 2023, we’ve got a short but great chat with three guys from the rollicking Australian rock scene: Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Jack “Cool Breeze” Crowther, and Elliot “Dr. Love Wisdom” O’Reilly. Yes, they have excellent names, and so do their bands. Kenny-Smith is part of the super-prolific King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, which since coming together in Melbourne in 2010 has released an incredible 23 albums—three of those in October of 2022 alone. The band has built up a manic following along the way, building up a whole universe—people call it the Gizzverse—of characters and sounds that range from extended rock jams to jazz to microtonal exploration. If you’re not already familiar, there’s no perfect place to start, though last year’s Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava is accessible in its own way. In addition to non-stop touring and recording with King Gizz, Kenny-Smith also leads another band, The Murlocs, which put out their sixth album, Rapscallion, just last year as well. To borrow a funny line from Pitchfork, being a King Gizzard fan can feel like a full-time job, but seems like a fun one to me. Check out “Iron Lung” from that album I mentioned above with the really long name. The other two gents in this conversation, Jack Crowther and Elliot O’Reilly, are part of Babe Rainbow, another hardworking Australian band. Though not quite as busy as King Gizzard, Babe Rainbow has managed to release five full lengths in just the last five or so years as well—including one produced by a member of King Gizzard. Theirs is a slightly more focused take on psychedelic rock—no less spacey but a bit more structured. Here’s “Inner Space” from their latest album, The Organic Band. In this conversation, these three friendly guys talk about recent flooding in Australia that involved some cat rescuing, as well as fashion, having babies, surfing, and lots more. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Jack Crowther, and Elliot O’Reilly for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out Talkhouse.com for tons of great written pieces and other podcasts in our network. This episode was recorded and produced by Keenan Kush, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! This episode was recorded live at Desert Daze 2022. Special thanks to Desert Daze and to Dad Grass for making this episode possible.