Aussie sax/drums duo Party Dozen have announced their fourth album, Crime in Australia, which will be out September 6 on Temporary Residence Ltd. The band made it at their studio in the Merrickville neighborhood of Sydney and the gentrification of that area played into the songs’ themes.
“We began without any theme in mind, just the beginnings of some song ideas,” say saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet. “As we were discovering the songs for this album, each song felt more and more at home in an old cop tv series soundtrack. The Crime theme quickly became apparent. The record feels split into two contrasting sides: The first half is ‘order’, being as listenable as Party Dozen has ever been. Each song is law abiding and dignified in its own place. The second half is ‘disorder,’ becoming more unlawful, unhinged, louder and noisier.”
The first single, “The Big Man Upstairs,” is pulled from the “Order” half of the album. The song is about Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the “hillbilly dictator” who ruled Queensland for two decades, “using corruption and police power to stifle dissent, arguably inadvertently creating the conditions for a punk underground to flourish.” The video uses archival footage from the ’70s and ’80s and the band say:
This is such a crazy story! We had to retell this case study and keep it alive. It feels like it’s only people from QLD (Queensland) who know it. Maybe they’re trying to forget?
It’s a story full of such unbelievable corruption and thirst for power. Feels sadly relevant to the state of the world at the moment.
A government rife with corruption and an inevitable explosive response of punk rock, activism and counter-culture. There were some very important movements happening at the time but of course we had to focus our scope more on the music side of things. It just doesn’t seem real. A special police task force waging war on music??
We definitely bit off more than we could chew with this idea. The research and collection of enough verified information, footage and photo stills to paint an accurate picture was fascinating but arduous.
I don’t think you can say that the QLD government was the catalyst for punk to evolve, but it certainly helped.
Watch the video below.
Need more sax/drums in your ears? London duo O. just released their debut album.
Crime in Australia Tracklist
1. Coup De Gronk
2. Wake In Might
3. Money & The Drugs
4. Les Crimes
5. The Big Man Upstairs
6. Judge Hammer
7. Bad News Department
8. The Righteous Front
9. Piss On Earth
10. Jon’s International Marketplace