It’s a long shot, but there’s an argument that the industrial city of Newcastle is the perfect metaphor for the social, economic and political changes and challenges of the current generation. The decline of Australian manufacturing, the recalibration of the mining sector and the erosion of the ALP’s industrial demographic: it’s all happened in Newcastle, and the city is still working through it.
The Gooch Palms are from Newcastle – Novo’s (sic), the title of The Gooch Palms’ album, is a contraction of Novacastrian, the correct name for a resident of the city – and if this album is any indication, there’s plenty of life left in the once thriving economic powerhouse. We Get By is Devo via Eddy Current Suppression Ring, a tale of subtle triumph over prevailing regional socio-economic adversity; False Identity is a dirty garage track from central casting in London c1977. Hunter Street Mall is The Cannanes loitering with adolescent attitude in the bustling Newcastle retail metropolis. Loudest Mouth is the original Go-Gos spitting LA punk venom on hapless bystanders; You is a piercing meander through David Lynch’s suburban American dystopia.
Flip over to side 2, and there’s some freakish punk call-and-response in The Slide; A Sun, A Moon combines the prototypical dumb punk attitude of The Ramones with Calvin Johnson’s lo-fi aesthetic. Hungry is replete with the spirit of CBGBs and all its attendant amphetamine excitement, the title track pays tribute to Newcastle with the precision of Love of Diagrams covering The Fall and Don’t Cry rounds out the album with some cheesy 50s dancehall rock’n’roll.
It’ll take a while before the coal dust settles in Newcastle, and the city works out where its economic and political future lies. In the meantime, kick back and listen to The Gooch Palms. This is some seriously good shit.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: We Get By
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING, THE GERMS, GO-GOS, HEAVENS TO BETSY
In A Word: Dirty
