This is The Chats.
They are so punk rock, ya can’t even hardly find a press photo for these chaps in The Chats.
I dub them ‘pure punk’ and this is why. When punk first started, there were very few rules to the genre. If you didn’t fit in anywhere else, punk would have you. While it became easy enough to spot a punk rocker, the guidelines where pretty vague as to what constituted a proper punk outfit. But then it got commercialized like anything that’s good does. It started to become more image based and pop song-ified until you have yourselves a Green Day. Nothing against them, but real punk probably doesn’t win Grammy’s.
Nor would it want to.
So how to spot a contemporary punk rock band? Look no further than The Chats. The band hails from Queensland, Australia. That’s pretty punk. The singer’s name is Eamon Sandwith. and that’s definitely punk. Plus he rocks no less than two hairstyles simultaneously (The bowl cut front, and the mullet back end) that are normally considered, ‘not cool’. So goddamn punk.
As a band, they are a goofy three piece who really enjoy their brand of self dubbed “Shed Rock”. You can tell That Chats really love The Chats. Which makes it so much more inviting for new listeners to love The Chats. They don’t take themselves or their songs too seriously, yet manage to crank out mini-anthems about things that don’t normally inspire songs.
For instance, the track that caught our attention (plus over 9 million views on YouTube!) is the 3 minute missile that is, ‘Smoko’. Apparently that’s what they call a smoke break in Queensland. So yeah, their breakthrough song, is about a smoke break. Punk as fuck. So catchy…
This song propelled this band to their first US appearances and a spot on 2020 Coachella line-up. Impressive. They have released a handful of singles but their first album proper drops in March 2020, “High Risk Behavior”.
And in a pure punk move, the only song they have previously released that is NOT on this new album, is ‘Smoko’, by far their most well known song. I suppose closing in 10 million YouTube views gives the band a sense of, ‘Ok… they’ve heard this song… how about these other 14 songs?” Which sounds like a lot, but most of their numbers come in around the 3-minute mark. Hit it and quit it. Punk.
The band is rarely (never?) serious and songs sound like inside band jokes they are letting you listen in on. Eamon has a knack for pulling a song from a mundane topic and then making it catchy with a punk rock 3-piece crunchy shell.
Check out: ‘Pub Feed’ (which really captured the essence of Eamon’s ‘bowl-let’. Please never change that style… so friggin’ punk.)
Having just formed in 2016 at the tender age of 17, the band members found each other while attending music class at St. Theresa’s Catholic College in Noosa, Queensland. So fate had a hand in forming The Chats. But the rest is a buffet of old school sounding punk emanating from new school kids. It makes one’s crusty old punk rock heart swell. It’s like seeing a Black Flag shirt on a 7th grader. It shouldn’t be… but there it is. Just like The Chats.
Another dose of their brand of punk humor: “The Clap”. If you aren’t singing along to the chorus by the end of the song, you just don’t like punk rock fella.
Most all of their music is dumb fun. If you don’t expect too much, The Chats will deliver just that. Revolutionary? Hardly. They paint well within the lines of classic punk song structure and sing along choruses. It’s all in their attitude and how well they sell themselves with simple, easy punk rock nuggets that defines their charm.
Like… ‘Identity Theft’
I’ll admit this band has garnered way more success than I would have predicted. Good on them. Good on you for checking them out.
They are touring round the world in 2020. Being from Australia, catching them live anywhere other than Australia is a rare, not to be missed opportunity.
Tour dates and other The Chats stuff can be found here: thechatslovebeer.com
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s hit abou t
desig n is v ery pun k.
