by Amyl and the Sniffers
Amyl and the Sniffers Big Attraction/Giddy Up (PBS Feature Record)
Amyl and the Sniffers are a punk band possessed by the spirit of seventies Australian rock. Amy Louise Taylor (vocals), Bryce Wilson (drums), Dec Martens (guitar) and Gus Romer (bass) are former housemates who formed the band, wrote a handful of tunes and released their debut EP, Giddy Up, all in a span of twelve hours. Taking their cues from a diverse bunch of legends including AC/DC, Cosmic Psychos, Dolly Parton and Die Antwoord, they set out to have as much fun as possible.
Amyl and the Sniffers’second EP, Big Attraction, was released in February 2017, kicking off a stellar year for these young punks. Growing buzz around their blistering live show made the band a hot tip at Bigsound in Brisbane, while the band was added to festival line-ups including Meredith and CherryRock17.
The band sold out their first headline show at the Bendigo Hotel in September, and were invited to join the Cosmic Psychos on their forthcoming November/December tour. A stadium show awaits in January '18 with some unknown band, Foo-something or other.
With a ton of heat behind them, a debut album due before mid-2018, Amyl and the Sniffers are barely off the leash.
Total Control Laughing at the System (featured on The Breakfast Spread)
However you might try to find the words for it, Total Control's caustic charm is stunning and oblique. A sensible account of the band typically focuses on its parts—the associated groups, the touring configurations, etc.—as if finding ways by which Total Control is divisible gleans critical information for breaking through their cryptic sheen. With tonic, wry twists, and forever employing aphoristic brevity for the comic/cosmic dynamite that it is best reserved for, the band seems to indulge this with each new release, or tour, or whatever's put on the counter. The bands European tour tape from 2015 was a sure reminder of this.
Their new 12", Laughing At The System, is a succinct statement, but it feels like the sharpest thing they've ever assembled. Written and recorded over the past couple of years in various lounge rooms, bedrooms, and rehearsal studios, across Melbourne, regional Victoria, and Western Australia, Al Montfort, Daniel Stewart, James Vinciguerra, Mikey Young, and Zephyr Pavey are—for the record—all accounted for in the process.
Laughing At The System is bookended by a title track in two parts. The scattered mania of the opener is an unsettling beginning, with cascading madhouse-riffs somehow finding a ricocheting unison. The closing part has the familiar head-charge of Total Control's most gnashing moments, with the guitars balancing the equation between running-too-fast and drinking-too-fast in one queasy commitment. With a brilliantly acerbic wit, we're implored to gather that there's some equivalences here. And it's this kind of impulse that's kept up throughout the 12".
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