With the American car industry propped up by a series of benevolent government handouts, and its emaciated Australian cousin under constant threat of economic malnourishment, it’s easy to assume the nexus between garage rock and automotive discourse might be open to review.
With the American car industry propped up by a series of benevolent government handouts, and its emaciated Australian cousin under constant threat of economic malnourishment, it’s easy to assume the nexus between garage rock and automotive discourse might be open to review. If so, no-one told Perth band The Chevelles; their new album, Accelerator, basks in the glory of the ‘60s cool car culture.
From the album title to the images of an analogue speedometer inside the CD, to suburban dragster sonic aesthetic of the opening track, Get It On, The Chevelles’ affection for the garage-automotive is as obvious as the environmental counter-consciousness of a 1966 Valiant.
For all of that, the rest of Accelerator is more bubblegum than nitro-glycerine: Take A Chance is a breezy, harmony-laden journey along the beach front, Wake Up Suzy is a lost track from the first Archies album and Summer Sun is a faithful incarnation of the sound and feel of another of Perth’s favourite powerpop progeny, Kim Williams’ Summer Suns. The pop balladry of The Break Up Song and Goodbye is self-explanatory, while Daytona returns to the hedonistic garage rock world inhabited by The Hitmen and plenty of other devoted followers.
After the soft and mushy Hold On, Stacey Loves Cocaine offers shades of The Eastern Dark’s Julie Is A Junkie in both lyrical and musical content before the album concludes with Barbarella, a barely veiled, and cheesy tribute to the ‘60s cult movie.
Economists argue the car industry’s problems are a consequence of its own inflexibility and intrinsic structural defects. In contrast the garage rock scene thrives on its own structural predictability, an aspect The Chevelles are only too keenly conscious of.
