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New
cd out now First
EP
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“…takes what’s best in Australian writing, in the tradition of Don Walker and Paul Kelly” – Billy Baxter, Coodabeens. “…a world class album” – Marcia Howard, Goanna. “… inventive music and energetic performances…Tank Dilemma has a vibrancy and enthusiasm that does justice to the great songs he has written for it…the band always sounds great. Tank never fails to inspire.” – Derek Guille, 774 Melbourne. “…A fine band of skilled and very entertaining musicians…always glowing feedback from festival patrons” – Jamie McKew, Port Fairy Folk Festival Director. “…Hints of Stevie Wonder, Joe Jackson and Van Morrison…great songs by some of the most amazing players to grace a Warrnambool Stage” – The Standard. From : ABC radio online – ‘The Backyard’.
Review by Jarrod Watt. Richard 'the Tank' Tankard is one of Warrnambool's great pub/festival musicians - he's been a keyboardist for hire for some years, seen with Shane Howard, Things of Stone and Wood and even Barnesy at the MCG, but the Tank Dilemma is his own outfit and this, their second full length album. Alright already! comes out of your speakers with the crisp professionalism and spotless production values of a contemporary roots/blues release from the USA: hearing lyrical references to the West Gate Bridge, the Bay of Martyrs, spotting whales in Warrnambool and such only confirms the feeling that Tankard's not actually trying to sound like anyone else, he just happens to have a very tight band and can write excellent songs that slip and slide between contemporary rock, soul, blues, jazz and that rootsy genre one could only label as 'Australian front bar'. Tankard is no tinkler on the keys - take equal parts
Jimmy Smith organ, Stevie Wonder funk keyboard and driving piano,
shake liberally, pour some brass over a rock solid rhythm section
and drink in the results. By Jarrod Watt WARRNAMBOOL STANDARD 25.4.04 - Article by Matt Neal. Inner Soul / Tank Dilemma (Independent) REVIEW. . . . WHILE Tank Dilemma are definitely one of those bands that are always going to be infinitely better live than on CD, Richard Tankard has used the recording studio to craft a different side of the band. Extra harmonies, thoughtful arrangements, a few guitars, and the odd Pink Floyd noise adds additional dimensions to what are already great songs. Tankard's influences shine through, whether it be Joe Jackson, Harry Connick Jr, Stevie Wonder or even Yes, but they never overwhelm is knack for writing familiar-sounding but original songs such as the soulful He Who Hesitates, the plaintively sweet Are You Just Wasting Time and the super-funky Way It's Always Been. There's some great variation on the album including the gentle sax number Song For Braddles, although some people may get wierded out by the spectacular psychedelic slog of Otherside and the wacky Set The Agenda Brenda does seem a little out of place on the record. But it all shows the many sides of Tank and his talented Dilemma, and with gems like the title track and piece de resistance of Lovesong, it's hard to go past what is one of the best albums ever made in Warrnambool. Article..... THERE'S a saying that musicians spend their whole lives making their first album. That is certainly true for Warrnambool five-piece Tank Dilemma, with the release of their first full-length album Inner Soul bringing to an end a 10-year journey for band mastermind Richard Tankard. The group will launch the CD on Saturday night at the Caledonian Inn in Port Fairy "our spiritual home," Tankard said followed by a release at the Hotel Warrnambool on May 9. Tankard isn't joking when he talks about the album having a 10-year gestation period. One of the tracks, Brickwalls, was written in 1993 and played in his bands in Mildura before he moved to Warrnambool in 1994, while the majority of the other songs were written when the 33-year-old musician was in his 20s. Sections of the music where recorded in 1999 under the pre-Tank Dilemma guise of The Guy Smiley Trio, while other parts were recorded in 2001 and the majority of the work was done over the '03//'04 summer. "It's a pretty full on thing to do, recording an album," Tankard explained. "There's a decision at every time turn /d a decision about a lyric or a line or a part or the mix /d and if you make the wrong one it impacts on the next decision," he said, giving an insight not only into the band name, but perhaps also why the record took so long to make. "The other reason it's taken so long is that all the musos, myself included, are busy making a living out of music." Tankard's other commitments include Things Of Stone And Wood, regular solo gigs and Hotel Warrnambool jazz nights, Melbourne group Thin Man, and even backing Shane Howard at the Folkie recently along with fellow Dilemma members Ruben Shannon (bass) and Jon Emry (drums). Somehow he found time to record Inner Soul at Warrnambool's Motherlode Studios and the end result captures not only Tankard's dedication to his craft but also the talents of the many Warrnambool musicians involved, including bandmates Emry, Shannon, Matt Hewson (sax), Brad Harrison (sax), and special guests Karl Laskowski, Glenn Board, Lyn Eales, and John Hudson. The singer-songwriter is proud of the fact he only used local musos on the album, and admitted to being "delighted with the way it sounds" despite being a perfectionist and "never happy" with his own recordings. Tankard said he resisted the urge to rewrite some of the lyrics and he's even pleased with the way some of the older tunes have held up. "I read the lyrics and went `that sounds a bit 20-something-ish (but) the songs are snapshots of whatever moment I was in or the way I was feeling that day," he said. His listening habits during his 20s also inadvertently shaped the sound of the songs something he said he has only picked up on recently. "There's a bit of Harry Connick Jr on Lovesong, He Who Hesitates sounds like Van Morrison people have said, Brick Walls is like Little Feat, and Inner Soul was a bit of an XTC thing. "The album almost feels like a compilation of my life." Tank Dilemma launch Inner Soul at the Caledonian Inn, Port Fairy on Saturday night.
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