Gareth Liddiard is an Australian musician known for his work in The Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm, as well as his own solo career. Over the years his work has influenced King Gizzard and the two would cross paths at different points in their careers. At first, King Gizzard named themselves Sea of Trees following a discussion between Eric and Gareth about the Aokigahara forest in Japan. This would later become the title of one of the band’s early songs. A year later Gizzard would tour with The Drones. They worked with Gareth on Fishing For Fishies in 2018 with the footage from these sessions making it into How to gut a fishie. Portions of these studio jams were used on the Tropical Fuck Storm collaborative EP Satanic Slumber Party and served to inspire the Omnium Gatherum classic, “The Dripping Tap.” As an ode to one of the band’s favorite musicians, they titled one of their songs “Garage Liddiard.”
It originally started out as a “Twist and Shout”-like song according to a Mess+Noise track-by-track breakdown, but was changed when producer Paul Maybury told them a faster version could be more interesting. Stu said during an interview for FBI Radio that the title was essentially meaningless. “It’s not meant to be anything super smart, or like, super witty or anything. It’s just a bit of a play on words…” Eric chimes in saying “Joe, our guitarist, just said it one day and we thought it was hilarious… but we are massive fans of Gaza and The Drones so it’s definitely not a dig in any way. It’s more of an ode.” When asked if Gareth had heard the song, Eric said that he thinks he hasn’t heard it but knows of it. In another interview for Beat Eric said “I think with ‘Garage Liddiard’ we just needed a title and Joe was saying all this funny stuff then came up with that. It’s a garage-y song and we all love The Drones. But at the same time, it’s kind of what Gizzard is – that simple, Aussie fun.” It was released on 12 Bar Bruise on September 7th, 2012.
Based on available setlist data, “Garage Liddiard” has never been played live.