One of music’s greatest strengths is transforming the mundane into the magical. Other people’s cars are even less interesting than other people’s children, so when some bloke in the pub starts yacking to me about his motor he has precisely 40 seconds to talk before I glaze over with boredom and tell him that I need to go for a piss. But when someone records a song about their car it invariably turns out to be a thrilling audio loveletter which has me hanging off every word. Rap music is the king of car-talk songs, but other genres have been known to work their magic too – like my favourite single from The Chats’ new album.
(From Get F**ked album; 2022)
For the past couple of years The Chats have served the same purpose that Sum 41 did for me in the early 2000s: a gobshite Punk band armed with choonz, riffs, and very entertaining music videos (both bands even have scrawny ginger singers!) Fortunately, The Chats are Australian rather than Canadian so there’s very little chance of them growing up and becoming a Lidl Velvet Revolver like Sum 41 did. Personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead listening to a modern Punk band from Britain, America, Europe or Japan because the only people who can credibly make Punk music in 2022 are Australian zoomer grubs who sorta look like they could be James Gribble’s gang from Round The Twist season one.
Related: I Wonder if Heaven got a cul-de-sac in a fictional suburb of Australia?
