The Goon Sax – Up to Anything (March 2016)

The Goon Sax – Up to Anything (March 2016)

A very good band, really nice!

Purists of the 80s will say that there’s nothing new under the sun… and I say that we should be happy that today’s bands are so influenced by the best bands of past decades.

Anyway, 60s purists said the same thing about the 70s, who said the same thing about the 80s. So? What’s the point of criticising everything?

Songs about everyday life with a humour reminiscent of the British, of course. Whether they’re about cutting your hair, letting it grow, feeling bad about yourself despite losing weight or having bad breath, they’re always fun and touching to listen to. Telephone is about hating the telephone: ‘I don’t need a telephone just to feel good!’ Two songs are named after women: Susan and Maggie!

Here’s an excerpt from Boyfriend:

And we could break your heart (And we could break your heart)
So you see how I feel (So you understand how I feel)
I need a boyfriend (I need a boyfriend)
Or just anything real (Or just something real)
And if I had a boyfriend (And if I had a boyfriend)
Well, I’d cut his hair
I’d tell him I care

The Goon Sax was an Australian indie pop trio from Brisbane. Formed in 2013, the band consisted of Riley Jones (vocals, drums, lead guitar), Louis Forster (vocals, rhythm guitar, bass) and James Harrison (bass, rhythm guitar, backing vocals). The band was joined on tour by Alistair Taylor (lead guitar, keyboards, drums) for concerts. Forster is the son of Robert Forster, co-founder of the indie rock band The Go-Betweens.

The band’s name is a play on words combining the Australian slang term for boxed wine, a ‘goon sack’, with the musical instrument, the saxophone. But… No, in case anyone is still wondering: this band did not have a saxophone!

However, I think there is a harmonica on the last song.

It’s a real shame that this band didn’t even last ten years.

The Good Sax is reminiscent of quite a few other bands. Sometimes The Housemartins. The voice of one of the two lead singers sounds like Captain Sensible. The rhythm and guitars inevitably bring to mind early The Cure, but also The Smiths and Orange Juice. I also thought of Clearlake during this album. This band mastered indie rock (which has been around since the late 70s) to perfection, but also played twee pop and dolewave.

For your information:

Twee Pop is a subgenre of indie pop characterised by its rejection of masculine conventions and its association with feminism. The lyrics often focus on love and are written from an innocent point of view. The genre emerged in the 1980s in the United Kingdom and the United States and developed in the 1990s and 2000s. It experienced a resurgence in popularity in the early 2020s.

Dolewave is an Australian musical genre that emerged in the early 2010s. Initially used online as a joke to describe an indie scene in Melbourne involving Twerps, Dick Diver and other bands, the term has since been applied by music critics to a wider range of Australian acts that share a DIY ethic and a ‘distinctively and recognisably Australasian sound’, such as Courtney Barnett and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Common influences include the 1980s jangle pop of Australian bands such as the Go-Betweens, as well as the lo-fi ‘Dunedin sound’ of New Zealand label Flying Nun.

An album that is probably not perfect, but it is worth listening to and the band clearly deserved more recognition. Not all the songs are mind-blowing, incredible or transcendent, but they are a real pleasure to listen to.