PUNK & DISORDERLY

[THE WORD ON PUNK] WITH ALICE WORLEY

Well hello there, Canberra. Long time no see. What’s it been, like, two years since I wrote this column? Seems it’s not only is your beloved BMA that’s back, but so is your punk scene, and it’s about f**king time! Been a very strange time for music lately since the reign of C-19, but you all know that so I’m not gonna start; it’s been talked about plenty already. I just have my calloused fingers firmly crossed that all the rumours about Transit Bar reopening in a new location are true because boy oh boy do we need more music venues in Civic (RIP Phoenix). Must say, very happy that with the loss of the old Phoenix and its free entry Monday night Bootlegs, sideway have stepped up to the plate and are now having a free entry Band Night every Thursday. We really needed another accessible platform both for our local emerging acts, and the crowds that want to see them but don’t have a lot of spare cash, so kudos to sideway – the line-ups have been fab, so keep ’em coming! Now, who do we have to talk about this month? Well, I wanna talk about st.sinner!

If you’ve got your ear to the ground you might’ve heard their track Mr Prime Minister recently, and judging by the 28,000+ streams it’s claimed on Spotify since its release in mid-November, you probably have. By the time this issue hits the streets, their much hyped second single Dead For The Weekend will have come out. Prediction: We’ll froth it. Let’s see how right I am. We frothed it didn’t we? Yeah, I knew it. With no shows announced but another single release on the way, plus a music video released for Mr PM, and their own web series starting to emerge, I just wanna know; who are these guys and where the hell did they come from? Must take a second to applaud your hype building skills; they’re highly effective. I cannot wait to see you on that stage. I’ll be front and centre when it happens with my hands tented in a Mr Burns-style finger pyramid in eager anticipation of imminent shredding. Another band that seems to be catching people’s eyes and ears is Highland Light. I saw them playing at sideway with local legends Slagatha Christie and The Dirty Sunflowers (who both absolutely slayed that night) and I couldn’t help but think, is anyone else getting Green Day vibes? All three members are just balls of pure energy. It was hard not to be entertained by them, and after snagging a support slot for Hands Like Houses, it seems these guys are doing quite well for themselves.

Ruffles, pictured here with crusty punk hype machine st.sinner Highland Light in full flight

If you’re keen to check ‘em out, I do believe they’ll be playing at The Basement with Parklands and Nina Leo on 24 February. If it ain’t sold out by the time this column is printed, I suggest you go along. If you’re keen for some very strong, femme, f**k off, hardcore punk energy, I highly recommend seeing Sydney grunge-witches BOYSCLUB when they grace us with their presence on their current tour. Perhaps you saw their new music video Best For You on Rage the other night. If not, you better look it up! I personally am so excited to see these guys tear up the stage at The Basement, 12 March, with local punks Box Dye [Band Profile on the Dye back on page 15, don’t-cha-know - BOSSMAN SKO] warming up the crowd. Tickets are already available on Oztix and this *will* sell out my friends. Prepare your heat packs for the headbangers’ hangover you’ll have the next day. Before I wrap up, I’ve got a hot tip for y’all. The Noise Floor’s Joel Cabban has put together a playlist of Canberra bops and it’s *chef’s kiss* glorious. A few personal favourites of mine include Two Steps by Betty Alto, Slags Against The Machine by Slagatha Christie, and Dust by Boileroom. Check out Canberra New Music by The Noise Floor on Spotify. With new Canberra tracks being added all the time so you’ll never be out of the loop. Here’s to more Punk & Disorderly next time!

PAINT STORE Canberra-based indie-rock band Paint quasi-dissonance and swampy MAYBE Store released their debut album atmospherics. [ ] Maybe in 2020. Formed a couple of years ago, the band made its inaugural The raw veracity here is performance at Mulgara’s No Front Fences festival in March 2019 disarming and curiously charming and since then have gone on to share the stage with touring bands in equal measure, and there including Majak Door, Destrends, and Canberra’s Teen Jesus and The is a consistency of style and Jean Teasers. aesthetics that’s difficult to ignore. It’s not the up-in-your-face mode Most of the tracks on Maybe eschew typical song structures, of punk happening on Maybe but preferring to rely on a quiet onslaught of irascibly jangly guitars, more of a kind of punk brooding. disjointed rhythm, and a miscellany of textures that seem to be And if there is a structural pattern the optimum backdrop for Liam Smith and Pat Johnson’s soft punk to Paint Store’s artful insouciance, nonchalance (Pat Johnson singing on the tracks Carseat Haiku and Dish it’s noticeable in the method by Pig, with Liam Smith as the vocalist on all other tracks). which some of the songs ascend into an erratic blur, one that seems to The opener Damage Report sets the temper and the mood of the confirm the alienation that precedes it. album, with Smith’s indifference the locus around which the band’s But there is also an element of amusing playfulness here, particularly accents and unpredictable acts of dynamism flitter. regarding the track Dish Pig. The energy level is maintained throughout The album is sprinkled with tracks that gather momentum robustly and surprisingly such as Carseat Haiku, People People and Patience while others, like the closer Yonder, seem to wander in a sonic effluvium of this debut set of songs, and it is this aspect and Johnson’s bewitching vocal performances, which sometimes veer into agreeable badinage, that linger long after. And that is, indeed, an admirable feat. VINCE LEIGH

DEPUTY CHIEF Apparently, the musician behind WARDENS Deputy Chief Wardens is an Indie teen

DICKSON LIQUOR from Canberra with an out-of-tune [ ] guitar and too much time on his hands’. Well, that situation sounds like it’s working out quite well. Who doesn’t want to hear an out-of-tune guitar now and then? Dickson Liquor is an album bursting with songs by the aforementioned teen that run the full gamut of teen angst creative energy. It’s a bit punk in the vein of the classic kind such as The Clash, the modern sort in a Dune Rats kind of way, as well as strewn with splotches of rap punk that, in a stark reverberant way, reveal the extent of this teen’s quite entertaining and enlightening musical style. Pissed-off street panache. The subject matter is perhaps the same but the details differ. It’s not weed, it’s nangs. From the relentless party reportage of the opener to the deliriousness of the gloriously titled Skate Rat Scum, Dickson Liquor has as many barbed edges and hormonal expulsions as any work by an agitated artist who’s been imprisoned and let out for a weekend visitation.

The disjointed and fearless unrefined firepower expunged through

PRETTIEST KIDS Prettiest Kids out of Canberra has

STRAIGHT FACE just released their EP Straight Face, [ ] a fiery blend of teen angst pub rock punk-pop that seethes with urgency, humour, temerity, and a touch of melancholic fervour that casts a faint glow over this set of songs. The opener I’m Miserable & I Look Like Shit begins proceedings in an almost terrifyingly rambunctious way, a post-rap spit that Isaac Foreman dishes out with cyclonic power. And then the guitars land. Aside from the many curious and disruptively alluring aspects about this record is the stand-out highly intelligent use of guitar, at times a cross-pollination of jangly REM and at others a mongrelised take on The Angels colliding with any number of later day riff heroes. But at the helm, no doubt is Isaac Foreman, blisteringly candid and self-aware to the point of nonchalance. Restrictive and recycled arrangements are no use here; the song parts seem to congeal within the micro-world of their existence, forgoing the easy trappings and common targets of many post-punk pyromaniacal musical endeavours. However, there is colour here too, with the closer Smirk (Catharsis these mostly short and sweet ditties is a dizzying example of what a bright and enlivened creative spirit can come up with using such humble means as Garageband and a few mics and guitars (out of tune, of course); a splendid spray of social revelation, a peek into that clandestine world which we have all stumbled and staggered and dragged ourselves our way through: teenagedom. Here it is, shimmering in its redrawness, resplendent in all its gratifying, gory detail. But it’s not entirely without light and shade; there is quite an intuitive dynamic at play here, with tracks such as Cry To Yourself and the closer Babushka rounding off the heady, tempestuous onslaught. Take a listen and hear for yourself what controlled energy can muster when it dips above the cyclonic waves long enough to take a breath and press record. VINCE LEIGH

Can Be A Bitch) presenting a very raw slather of attitude, with the admission of ‘I haven’t actually finished this song yet but…’ providing an insight into the seemingly reckless creative outpouring that underscores the majority of this EP. Featuring some splendid concoctions of sound, rebellion aesthetics, and vaguely prurient abandon, Straight Face explores a miasma of characteristics, adopts them to suit, and dishes them out with maniacal cheek. On occasions, we get a glimpse into the quite athletic capabilities of Isaac Foreman’s voice as it reaches perilously hazardous zeniths but manages to come out swinging with attitude (and voice) intact. There were moments when I thought this is startlingly fresh and intoxicating, and other moments when it came so close to it that it didn’t matter.

Straight Face is worth checking out and Prettiest Girls no doubt an act to keep an eye on. VINCE LEIGH