I had to prize the demo by Western Australia’s GOLDEN STAPH from the hands of another MRR reviewer, so enamored of it am I. The first song, “Dr Tony,” has already been my bedroom classic for a few months. Brace yourselves chapesses and chaps — all four songs on this cassette will only add further fuel to the swirling mystique around just what it could be about the vast sub-equatorial landmass of Oz that produces such exciting music. I’m under-qualified to theorize on that, but what I do know is that GOLDEN STAPH is excellent. They don’t really sound classically Australian, in terms of punk, which in my brain has always been a bit on the blokey-mental-junkie-genius side of things, rather than the raw lady-vox keys guitar fuzz we have here, but feel free to correct me. To me they recall more the howling, high-pitched wonderment of raucous echo chamber shouters like ACTION PACT or even HANS-A-PLAST. Sonically they’re extremely vintage upbeat punk, late ’70s, in a magic dark alley somewhere between the Masque and the Roxy (holy shit, dream city) but without sounding obsolete. The guitar and keyboards work together super well. It’s sparse and Amber’s vocals reminds me a lot of Olga de Volga’s stint with THE LEWD.

The demo... get it!

Dowload their hit song, “Dr. Tony” here: GOLDEN STAPH – Dr Tony MP3

The band can be contacted at goldenstaphperth {at} gmail(.)com, and their website is at goldenstaph.wordpress.com.