This One Time, On Bandcamp: The Football Club

We're back, baby!

After a seven-or-so-month hiatus that we've never explained and probably never will, we're reviving our all-too-short-lived weekly series, This One Time, On Bandcamp, conceived in service of spotlighting the country's finest lesser-known musical gems.

We never really meant for this to go away — the best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that — but we're damn well determined to make sure we stick around for the long haul this time. We'll, you know, see how that goes.

For now, enjoy our good intentions, and spend some time today getting to know The Football Club, absolutely more than worth getting out of bed for after a seven-month hibernation. Let's get acquainted.

the football club — melbourne, victoria

Led by Brisbane expatriate Ruby Markwell, the energetic, heartfelt compositions of Footscray outfit The Football Club are a true slice of under-appreciated Aussie folk-punk brilliance.

From the opening track of 2015's remarkable self-titled debut EP through every song up to You Are Everything & I Am Nothing & This Isn't Something But It Isn't Nothing — the last song on this past September's sublime second EP, Songs About Friends — Markwell lays herself bare to her listeners, pulling no punches yet utterly vulnerable as she reflects on what it is to be a trans woman in the process of finding herself, a transition that began in earnest when she fled Queensland for the more open communities of old Melbourne town.

However, her tumultuous origins in the less-forgiving lands of the north-east — and consequent challenges down south because, let's be real, Melbourne's not perfect either — have resulted in an important and impressive oeuvre that buoyantly raises up marginalised LGBTQI voices — particularly from a trans perspective — and does so with some friggin' great, massively infectious tunes punctuated with intelligent, insightful and engaging lyrical narratives to boot. If you're into highly sing-along-worthy songs that dabble in themes of sexuality, gender, relationships, friendships "and cheap red wine", then it's super-likely you'll love the heck out of The Football Club.

It's clear that, over the course of their time together, Markwell and her bandmates (guitarist/vocalist Leah Romero, keyboardist/vocalist Vanessa Grillo, bassist Jonathan Keeling and drummer Lee Jackievic, though slightly changed from the self-titled days) have achieved a deft balance between crushingly despondent introspection and energised, pick-you-up determination and drive — or perhaps the illusion thereof, more fittingly.

Simply put, The Football Club have absolutely achieved a sound that is all their own and, more importantly, is wholly unafraid to be itself — and we're all more fortunate for it.