(Matador)With three highly distinct writers, the still-developing band are in a fascinating state of flux
Growing up in public is a tough gig, but
Australian trio the Goon Sax don’t have a lot of choice. They were still at school when their 2016 debut album Up to Anything was released, with prosaic, witty songs about unrequited crushes, Saturday jobs and dates ruined by sweaty hands and bad haircuts. It would probably have been compared to the early, Jonathan Richman-indebted work of the Go-Betweens even if frontman Louis Forster’s dad hadn’t been the Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster. Frankly, if you’re a trio from Brisbane with a female drummer, dealing in smart, twitchy-but-melodic guitar rock with lyrics majoring in affairs of the heart, you’re going to provoke comparison to the Go-Betweens – who were all of those things 40 years ago – regardless of whether your old fella was in them or not.
The Goon Sax were still in their teens when its less rough-hewn successor, We’re Not Talking, was released two years later and started attracting attention among indie circles in the US, which led to a deal with venerable US alt-rock label Matador, currently home to Perfume Genius, Interpol, Julien Baker and more.