Lazy Fifty's rock anthem Skeleton Crew out in time for Halloween

Frontman Adrian Athy giving it plenty at a Lazy Fifty gig. Picture by Strike Photography

Gisborne’s very own Lazy Fifty have released a full-throttle high-energy rock anthem Skeleton Crew just in time for Halloween.

The four-piece from Gisborne have returned with a new single, Skeleton Crew — a hard and fast blast of pure rock ’n’ roll.

Inspired by a recurring nightmare, and aided by a fascination with 1960s classic cult movie Jason and the Argonauts, Lazy Fifty’s new single Skeleton Crew tells the desperate story of those damned to eternal anguish.

Not originally written as a ghost story, the song came about from the term skeleton crew, which songwriter Adrian Athy thought was a good way of describing the musicians of Lazy Fifty.

“With our revolving line-up of players,  most of them skilled on more than one instrument. You never know what you’re going to see when Lazy Fifty plays live, or who will be playing which instrument. Sometimes we’re a four-piece, sometimes three.”

The lyrics were aided by the “hydra teeth” scene in Jason and the Argonauts — in Adrian’s opinion, “the best special effects ever in the history of cinema”.

The song starts with a one-minute slide guitar-dominated intro, which evokes a sense of melancholy before kicking on to the song proper, a high-energy rock anthem with lyrics that tell the tale of the doomed, trapped forever in a chaotic and frenzied hell on the high waters.

Greg Haver says it was great to

revisit the world of Lazy Fifty again after previously working on their 2021: A Lazy Odyssey album.

“It’s always encouraging to see a band refresh and continue on their musical journey, a path that Adrian constantly treads in his desire to expand his virtuosity and push the boundaries of the genre.”