Wireheads Potentially Venus LP
I’d somehow gotten the impression that this was a new band, but nope! Turns out this Adelaide sextet has been at it since the early 2010s, and this is their fifth LP! How about that? I guess that explains why they sound like they know their way around a song. In any event, you can file this record alongside your LPs by bands TERRY, UV RACE, PRIMO!, etc. WIREHEADS play a distinctly Australian brand of garage-y post-punk, heavily influenced by the VELVET UNDERGROUND, but also a little twee. Unlike those acts, these folks tend to go on more indie rock-ish digressions, at times getting closer to MODEST MOUSE or BUILT TO SPILL territory. But I think the thing that will stand out to most folks is the band’s technically poetic lyrics. The vocalist delivers them in a sprung rhythm full of alliteration, half-rhymes, full rhymes—basically all of the poetic devices—sounding like a mix of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mark E. Smith, and the dude from SLEAFORD MODS. It’s genuinely impressive and, at times, like in the first handful of tracks, tremendously satisfying. But over the course of eleven tracks and forty minutes, it can also feel tediously clever. Overall, I’d say it’s worth your time—there really are some fantastic songs on here.
