Are you proud to be Australian? Well, Melbourne-based eight-piece Mighty Boys sure are. Their scrappy brand of garage rock reflects a bunch of mates letting their life experience and surroundings seep into their sound. This is not the faux-ocker-Peter-Russell-Clarke-singing-for-an-American-band-Australiana of The Smith Street Band and Luca Brasi, but a band that reflects the influence of crappy instruments, hot weather, fatty sausages, shitty jobs and parking fines.
Opening song ‘Hey Hey’ is a loose garage rock track that sonically references Radio Birdman and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Lyrically, it covers Plucka Duck, racing tracks, Centrelink and, the origins of the title, TV show Hey Hey It’s Saturday. ‘Bad Pornography’ is a rerecording of an older Mighty Boys song, ‘Shitty Blowjobs’. This one tackles the very modern societal problem of porn addiction-caused flaccidity.
Musically, Dole Cheque & Kabana is a punk rock record. Thematically, in its own deeply sardonic, observational way, it is a punk record that comments on a period of Australian culture we will remember fondly in years to come.
In an era of a hyper-information via the internet, even punk rockers like Mighty Boys are informed enough to know, that yes, modern life has its flaws, but it’s the best life we have.
4/5.
Dole Cheque & Kabanais out now through Independent / Bandcamp.
