The Chats/The Prize – The Marble Factory, Bristol 11.12.24

The Chats/The Prize – The Marble Factory, Bristol 11.12.24

Boy it’s cold, these guys n gal from down under must be feeling it as the UK recovers from the storms and its just pre Christmas cold we have to deal with. Which to be fair is fine by me, on entering the Marble Factory its like entering the set of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but this time its packed to the rafters as The Chats are here for two nights of flat out punk rock and this time they’ve brought fellow Australian power poppers the Prize along for the ride, and to be fair they put in an excellent shift as support with their Boys meets a lighter Ramones meets Thin Lizzy but with a tripple guitar attack.

They have half an hour and this five piece do their best to just fill their time with tunes and pretty bloody decent tunes at that.  lead vocals shared between drummer Nadine Muller and guitarist Carey Paterson who both do a sterling job weaving these nifty tunes to a very appreciative Marble Factory who dig what they do with impressive rapture which bodes well for the future of alternative punk rock n roll.

Hailing from Melbourne the band have been together since 2021 and it can only be a good thing playing to sold out audiences night after night who clearly like what they hear should see the band follow up their recent single with more music soon. Being unfamiliar with their song titles I throughly enjoyed what I heard and anyone who throws out a Boys melody or two is going to get a big thumbs up from me. Honest John Plain would certainly approve.

Enter The Chats with nothing to promote other than having a night out and playing some rapid party time punk rock, no records to promote, no festivals to push just doing it for shits and giggles. The Chats are ready to rock big time.

As they amble on stage Eamon lets the audience know the house rules of have a good time and look out for each other this ones called ‘Nambored’ the entire floor became a sweaty heaving swirling mess. By the time they steamed into the epic ‘6l GTR’ and then the epic ‘Emperor Of The Beach’ I feared they’d shot their bolt early and gone all in to quickly but fear not these boys are professionals.

The energy is relentless and you know that for the next hour they are going to give the set list a good seeing to and give nothing short of 100% wham bang thank you mam! we’re outta here. Tonight was no exception except to be fair I felt the songs weren’t so hurried tonight and they kicked back a fraction and not turning it into a whole we are Australias answer to Zeke now ave it! It wasn’t far behind but noticably more chilled.

Theres equal amounts of ‘High Risk Behaviour’ with the snotty ‘Stinker’ and ‘Drunk And Disorderly’ beign the glue in the middle of the set whilst ‘Get This In Ya’ ‘Nazi March’ is a belter. Of course ‘Smoko’ is present and played like its going outta fashion but tonight something happened and they had to stop it in the middle maybe there was a crowd safety concern because it went fuckin’ nuts when the bass riff kicked in or they just decided to go on Smoko mid tune.

‘The Price Of Smokes’ saw a complaint about JPS now being too expensive first world problems I guess. Eamon gives his fourstring a proper seeing to on ‘Struck By Lightening’ and its fair to say the band are tight as a soaking wet pack of Rizlas with Josh layign down some mighty fine licks on his guitar. For one hour these boys are untouchable and this was as good as I’ve seen them since they’ve been coming to Blighty a really excellent hour of non stop punk rock n roll that has boundless energy and never overstays their welcome theres even time to crucify Kiss’ ‘Rock N Roll All Nite’ in the best way possible before its brought to a crushing end with a wholesome bargain ‘Pub Feed’, and we’re done.

Like the best Bargain Bin Records tour package I absolutely appreciate touring for shits n giggles its the best way possible now get back down under, record a new record and head back over with Stiff Richards, COFFIN and Civic on one of those travelling revue tours that would be fuckin smashing lads until then this will more than do. Merry Fuckin Christmas all and get off Smoko and back to work.

Author: Dom Daley

April Playlist from RPM

April Playlist from RPM

 

 

Well, these are strange times and Rock and Roll won’t be clamped down even if we are.  Thanks to the magic of this here interweb we can still get our mitts on new music (gloved up of course) first up on this playlist is a right banger from Noo Yawk Citys Wyldlife . It’s recently been reviewed on RPM and I happen to agree with Ben when he claimed it could be a contender for record of the year. We have added ‘Sacre Bleu’ to our banging playlist.

 

Next up is a band from Sweden called Dictator Ship and Fraser covered this one and ‘Your Favourite’ is a great slice of scandiRock with ‘Eat The Poor’ making the cut in our Playlist.

 

Australia is quickly becoming the epicentre of Global Garage Rock and you sure can add The Chats to that list of fine Australian bands and with their recent record ‘High Risk Behaviour’ hitting the shelves we’ve included ‘ The Kids Need Guns’ to our playlist with its classic DC early days rawness and their snotty lyrics The Chats rightly are causing a stir around this globe all of their own.

It’s not all snotty records this month we did have some offerings from the Classic Rock and Grunge crossover of Buffalo Summer so included the excellent ‘Hit The Ground Running’ taken off their recently released album ‘Desolation Blue’ with some fine cool slide on the otherwise beefy riffs it’s a real tour de force from Soth Wales on this new album.

 

It might have been a lifetime ago that The Psychedelic Furs last released a new album but the wait is over and Made Of Rain is almost upon us.  We’ve included the first single taken from the record ‘You’ll Be Mine’.

Naked Six have a new album out and the lead track off that album is ’21st Century Brawl’ and that makes our playlist with its jarring poke before the album kicks off with some great tunes. Well worth investigating so let this opener suck you in but don’t forget to buckle up.

Ben found his stereo working overtime as The City Kids released ‘Things That Never Were’ so we’ve added ‘You Get Nothing’ To our playlist.

I know a girl, a girl called Party, Party Girl.  Bono sang that but the Dahlmanns sing ‘Party Girl’ which was released as part of a split with Tommy & The Rockets on Beluga Records a classic castanets clacking slice of power pop with saxophone and New Wave approved piano.

Then Comes Silence who we include ‘Devils’ from their most excellent ‘Machines’ album that was recently reviewed with some dark Goth undertones this has been on heavy rotation around some RPM circles as the corpse paint went on and certain writers were only venturing out after dark with this on their playlists.  Get on it kids.

If a bit of Goth isn’t your thang then why not grow out those sidies and  some facial hair and get on down with Rookie. We’ve got ourselves a ‘One Way Ticket’ to listen to this great playlist and ride out this Global pandemic.

As well as some awesome reviews April sees us bring some news that bands push out so why not include some of the movers and shakers who are busy this month either re arranging tours or putting the final touches on new releases. How about some Rock with American Jetset? ‘Gold & Nines’ is classic cock rock n roll so it makes the cut.  Our old friend Jizzy Pearl also announced that he has signed a new deal with Golden Robot Records so expect some new music and live shows soon. We head back to when he did the album ‘Just A Boy’ and include the cracker ‘Do You Wanna Get High’.

With everybody with a guitar and camera phone shooting home shows we have a few suggestions of who you could check out starting with Rich Ragany & The Digressions who bring ‘Later Than It Is’ to our playlist off the excellent debut album and rumour has it that recording has begun for the follow up which commenced before this lockdown but be sure we’ll bring you the news as and when. 

Another artist smashing the numbers watching his home broadcast is Mike Peters with his ‘Big Night In’ I’ve not tuned in yet but rest assured I will.  Heres one from his recent output ’13 Dead Raindeers’.  Another live streamer is Jesse Malin  who we also interviewed recently and who has a brand new single out sadly it’s not on this service yet so make do with a cut off his last album ‘Chemical Heart’.

There’s fifteen reasons to stay in and have RPM Playlist be your companion and while away the hours playing some quality rock and roll . Go on a journey of discovery and see where it takes you as you avoid the rocks on the choppy water of Rock and Roll 2020.

 

 

The Chats – ‘High Risk Behaviour’ (Bargain Bin Records / Cooking Vinyl Australia)

The Chats – ‘High Risk Behaviour’ (Bargain Bin Records / Cooking Vinyl Australia)

 

So The Chats have the cops to thank for the title of their debut album, ‘High Risk Behaviour’ and to be fair it sounds like their flying by the seat of their pants at times – making it up as they go along and getting away with the biggest heist in punk rock history with a bunch of songs hanging on by a thread through more luck than judgement.

It was the youtube smash of ‘Smoko’ that brought these three oddballs to the wider worlds notice with a DIY sound of three yobs goofing off and managing to brush off a little bit of magic at the same time.  If you think their the Aussie Barron nights for the new punk rock generation or the real deal it matters not there is no denying they have the tunes and once they crawl in your head good luck shaking them out.  Like Amyl and her sniffers before them, these cats are the new big cheeses of Oz punk so get used to it and move over Cosmic Psychos and shuffle up Grindhouse because The Chats are taking over.

‘Stinker’ is very much like Pete Shelly had too much sun down on Bondi Beach and ran into the Saints who happened to rope him into penning a few tunes.  Its sharp and boundless energy and the lyrics were deffo penned at the back of the class on the inside of a pack of rizlas.  Hold on to your board shorts kids because ‘Drunk And Disorderly’ is full of Four X on a wife beater bender.  Get it down you and the next round is on you.

Don’t worry if your attention span is short because the songs are as well shorter than Paul Daniels and Ronnie Corbett put together and twice as entertaining. Less than half an hour of wonderful sharp – on the money punk rock n roll.  It’s not rocket science nor is it clever.  The lyrics tell tales of pubs, Wanking, legging it from restaurants, Their mates, boredom and everything you’d expect from three bums or so they’d have you believe but I recon behind it all is three focussed lads who know exactly what they’ve happened upon.  It’s a good fucking time, No, It’s the best of times.  Noisy, funny, energetic, comfortable, uncomplicated punk rock and roll and I fuckin’ love it.  Oh, and if Iggy pop is on board then that’s good enough for me.  Pick this up and fight the Virus with punk rock play it loud and open the windows everyone can enjoy it then even if they don’t want to.

Now ‘Pub Feed’ makes me hungry and crave a party seven and the riff on ‘Ross River’ is sharp as fuck, its a simple process but why do hardly any bands make albums this simple sound this good? Maybe its not so easy otherwise there would be hundred doing it but there isn’t.  So on that basis all hail Eamon, Matt and Josh you fuckin’ beauts.  How can you not fall in love with this?  Just get it and play it and throw yourself around when its on. Don’t be a miserable cunt (to be fair that’s impossible when it’s playing) buy it and fall in love with punk rock n roll again, simple really,  Everyones happy now’days and when they gang up on the mic for the final track you know its sung/shouted with a wink of the eye because they’re spot on it is better than you.

 

Buy ‘High Risk Behaviour’ –  Here

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