Pure and addictive.
Man, can you believe how close we are to 2016 being a thing of the past? God, that'll be awesome. Pity we're not quite there yet.
Lucky for you, we're back for another week with more off-kilter independent goodness to fill that This One Time, On Bandcamp-shaped hole in your heart and help buoy your spirits long enough to help tide you over to make it out the other side of the certified Worst Year In History Yes Even Including When The Black Plague Was A ThingTM.
And if there's anyone who can convince you that the travails of life are able to be overcome — and worth doing so — it's the magnetic and wonderful Spike Fuck.
Spike Fuck is brutal but beautiful; boisterous yet bashful all at once. She's a heart-and-heroin-use-on-sleeve open book of innately intimate lyricism with a penchant for beautifully retro new-wave and post-punk-inspired instrumentation. Simply: if the 1980s were a person — with a dash of the late '70s and overall air of timeless disheveled elegance thrown in for good measure — they'd be Spike Fuck. I mean that as a compliment.
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Her beautifully rough-edged but deeply earnest songs stand as a no-holds-barred exploration of "love and obsession, heroin addiction, transness and washed-up '60s musicians who make overproduced comeback albums in the '80s". Man, it's always threatening when musicians write better bios than I do, but that was too good not to use.
Perhaps that air of experience and savvy carries through because Spike Fuck didn't just turn up yesterday; rather, she's had prior experience tangoing with the unfeeling wretch that is the music industry, as part of now-defunct psych-rockers Bad Blood.
The acrimonious dissolution of that band in 2013 undoubtedly played a hand in an ensuing nervous breakdown that led to a three-year hiatus from the scene. However, as with all hardship, while it's never fun living through struggle, it invariably makes those who survive it stronger. So, too, has Spike Fuck re-emerged from her post-group creative slumber with a captivating, distinct and deeply replayable debut effort. It's a release that immediately grabbed our attention and, I'm sure you'll agree, leaves the listener eager to see what comes next.
If you dig what you hear below, Spike Fuck will be performing at the Unindustrious zine launch at Fitzroy North's Red Gallery on Friday 16 December. For more details, see the Facebook event page.
Got an independent band? Got a Bandcamp page (y'know, because the title really doesn't work without it)?
Let us know if you want us to listen to your tunes, and you might get featured in a future edition of This One Time, On Bandcamp!