The human heart seeks liberation in confined spaces. ‘Call Centre’ is a psychedelic punk song from Toxic Bears about Mumbai telemarketers embarking on a subversive romance. It bolts out of the gate with majestic bombast and a hardcore romp through the soul-hardening routine of the aspiring phone hawker. It breaks down with a reggae-inspired vamp as gang vocals cry out the telemarketer’s mantra – or is it the dictates of management? “We won’t let up… won’t let you get away.” In a shift to melodic psychedelia, new hope springs internal via a connection through the office partition.
It is the first track off our new album Nine Meals. Lyrically, Nine Meals finds the band delving into a world of romance and self-propelled doom via an unlikely parade of modern tribes: aspirational phone hawkers (‘Call Centre’), jail-bound provincial politicians (‘Governance 101’), far-right survivalists (‘Nine Meals From Anarchy’), New Age cultists (‘Million-Dollar Cult’), opportunistic entrepreneurial scientists (‘Experimental’), malevolent corporate mascots (‘Killer Clown’), unravelling salarymen (‘Stolen Shoe Sprawl’), well-funded climate change refugees (‘Atlantis’), and compulsive DIY landscapers (‘Guerrilla Gardener’).
Toxic Bears are an Avant garage, experimental punk band out of Brisbane. Their music ranges from melodic hardcore to funk, jazz and Latin-infused garage rock.
