Album Review: The Goon Sax - Up To Anything

There's always been something in the jangly tones of Brisbane indie-rock and pop bands that somehow separates them from the pent-up city vibes of their southern metro neighbours.

It's a less glossy, less than perfect sound and one that's a bit sunny, sprawling and suburban, like the big country town that Brisbane is. The Go-Betweens were the first to famously capture it, and scores of young bands have since. In the case of The Goon Sax, the repetitive strum of that steamy Saturday afternoon garage jam is inescapable from the moment that first second ticks over on Up To Anything, and it makes it an inescapable listen too.

Riley Jones, Louis Forster and James Harrison have knack for those jangly tones — sonically their debut is neat, full of moody guitar noodles, pared back. But it's all in aid of the stories told in the lyrics, rather than to outshine them. They could sing about a garbo and render the task with a glory never previously considered, let alone put into song and words. It's a little bit Courtney Barnett with its confessions and insights, like the title track's yearning for "people to wonder about me", and Home Haircuts' very good question, "Do they ever go right?"

Even something as simple as the portentous relationships we used to have with our telephones are given a look-in in, yep, Telephone. It's these little oft-forgotten insights that lend this debut bag loads of vulnerable charm and affability, and oddly endows the young trio with maturity that belies their teenage years.