And Now For Something Completely Different #1: Sexyparty
In ‘And Now For Something Completely Different’, we’ll be directly ripping off Monty Python in the title, while focusing on bands that are slightly more obscure, left of field, somewhat enigmatic or simply no longer exist. A bit greatest bands you’ve never heard of, but with less grandiose and click bait desperation. Sexyparty seemed logically, like a great place to start.
Sexyparty blew up the scene in 2012, and by blew up the scene I mean their most listened to song on Soundcloud has 524 listens and at least half of them were most likely me. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t brilliant. Sexyparty’s music was a little bit pop, a little bit punk, and scattered as hell. Which is exactly what they were aiming for, with all their music being single take improvisations in the recording studio. It’s some brilliant drone rock, what you imagine New York sounded like in the 90’s when it was all getting mugged in Times Square and cheap rent.
Sexyparty’s self titled debut (and only) album was the thrown together fruit of Melbourne pals Alex Jarvis (Black Cab, Gaslight Radio, solo artist), Stu McFarlane (Mountains in the Sky), Chris Smith (Golden Lifestyle Band, Bad Orchestra, solo artist) and Chris Patterson (Bunni), with help from Richard Andrew (Underground Lovers) and Rory Cooke (Gaslight Radio). It’s eight songs of noisy creep romance eccentricities, I still throw it from time to time, wonder whatever happened to the band and reminisce about 2012 like I actually remember anything from then. Highschool Massacre, Pony Boy and Just Don’t Say That You Love Me are the real strengths on this album, and the whole thing pieces together a kind of stoic intensity in a mild mediocracy. It’s not bad, it’s not slow, and there’s no song that lets the album down. But it’s not an album of killers either. It revels in its own doubt, and comes up a rounded and interesting album. Reflecting on it now it feels almost too bright, a little too Melbourne jangle, I want desperately for it to have a darker edge (despite the album having a song called Highschool Massacre or maybe because of that), but this was 2012, we’ve all grown since then, and other than that, the album can’t be flawed.
As far as I know, everyone from the band is still making noise in their own stuff these days and I can’t imagine Sexyparty are ever getting back together. But if you guys read this and have anything planned, just let me know.