Ahead of their new 5-track EP Roi de l’herbe to be released on 27 June on 12” vinyl and digital via Venn Records, Manchester’s Aerial Salad have released their new single ‘King Of The Grass’, a tribute and celebration of Aerial Salad’s infamous bass player Mike ‘Wimbo’ Wimbleton. Not only does Mike possess the best moustache in punk rock since Greg Norton from Husker Du’s perfectly groomed facial hair, he also works for the council and is the prime operator of a badass sit-down lawn mover.
“I wanted a song where we could celebrate Wimbo,” explains guitarist and singer Jamie Munro. “He is truly one of Manchester’s most treasured musicians, genuinely, most people that know Wimbo would take a bullet for him, the same can’t be said for some other “so-called-legends”- no one I know is taking a physical bullet for Noel Gallagher after coughing up the best part of 300 quid to see him. Anyways, musical, mythical or moderate legend Mike Wimbo works at the council to help us pay for things like this EP and this music video, it’s a horrible job some days when it’s crashing down with rain and he’s picking up dead cats off pavements, but he has a positivity and enthusiasm for not letting “the bastards” grind him down, it’s inspiring, in a lot of ways, we all have our own grass, that looming dark cloud that comes to haunt your Sunday evenings, but fuck it, he’s the king of the grass our Mike, go be the king of your own grass, it’s now or never.”
“This is us at our absolute daftest,” laughs Jamie, but to be frank we need Aerial Salad at their daftest right now. This is a track guaranteed to make the listener smile and bounce, and just watch the video for even more of a serotonin boost. The sharp energy and hilarious yet affectionate subject matter is an utter joy.
“When we first started jamming this idea out, when we first came up with the “jumping for joy at the grass” we genuinely were jumping about like teenagers, we just hope other people find it as cathartic as us, maybe we’ve lost our damned minds, who knows, who cares, the world keeps spinning and we’ll keep jumping for joy. Also, it’s genuinely got nothing to do with drugs, please stop asking us about this,” he grins.
On the EP Jamie shares:
“The EP is like the teaser for what’s next. The overall hook for this EP is one of hope, that by sticking to what you believe in you can do anything.”
Aerial Salad Live Dates
June
27 MANCHESTER – Soup
28 SHEFFIELD – Corporation
July
31-03 August Y-NOT Festival
August
6-10 BOOMTOWN Festival
For more information on Aerial Salad please check their facebook and instagram.