Giants of Science -Sisters EP

Tue 21st Mar, 2006 in Music Reviews

If you’re gonna play hard artful rock n roll, the you can’t go past bands like Wire, The Monks or The Real Kids. Todays pups have names like Peabody and Kiosk, who are worthy of being inked on duffle bags. And yes, it seems also, Giants Of Science. One can’t get round to hearing every Australian release of worth, it’s true, and previous Giants discs had never left the shrinkwrap as they passed me by on a regular basis at work. Sisters, their new mini-album (the deeply old-fashioned rockers buried beneath this release would appreciate that term, a throwback as it is to days of 7” and 12” formats), has broken my cherry.

Oh yeah. Sisters – essentially half Lennox/ Franklin (go on, sing it, you know you want to!) and half 30 year old Brisbane male angst/self-hatred – comes from last year’s Here Is The Punishment album. It is recognisably eighties but kudos for the impassioned screaming that counterpoints its FM-friendly melody. A sense of urgency prevalent in lines like, “can you see this pathetic motherfucker sat next to you?” and in the hot rod strum of the guitars, more Chapel Hill than Detroit. Holy shit does the drummer pack a mean punch – relentlessly hammering the cymbals whilst the snare is moments from a broken nose.

The intense rhythm is also the highlight of the first of six covers, Split Enz’s One Step Ahead. Like Sisters, Giants take a relatively safe, universal tune and midway hit the burner. Letting the guitars unravel and escape the leash (a la Zuma-era Crazy Horse, if you will) becomes all the cue the drummer needs to bash merry hell from the cymbals once more. Ah sweet rock n roll, soothe thy soul. Swerverdriver’s Last Train To Satansville, KT26ers’ Jenny Flex (a band also lionized in song on their album), Sonic’s Rendezvous Band’s Electrophonic Tonic, Sparklehorse’s Happy Pig and Superchunk’s The First Part.

I’m sure the band also listen to mellow stuff, yeah I’m sure they do. Of these, Linkous’ tune of waking up “in a horse’s stomach one foggy morning” is the standout. There’s something in it that the band manage to drag out, inexplicable and cryptic though it is, that makes a revelation of the lines that follow. “His eyes were crazy and he smashed into the cemetery gates.” Not exactly an anthem, then; but that’s the magic of a rock band at their peak, innit? It transcends the mind and heads for the king of it all; the guts.

Totally inspired and inspiring listening. Looks like it is time to track down the back catalogue.