What would there be not to like? Double-jangle melodic pop with a hooky melody on one A side and a soaring piece of extended majesty with a searing guitar solo on the second.

It’s what used to be called a Super Band. Which is to say the members have graced a lot of “name” acts from Sydney’s underground past. That might be important to anyone with a modicum of history but Joeys Coop also stand on their own feet. The song-writing is strong and the playing equally so.

“Take Me Away” is the pop song and it’s a beauty. The feel from Andy Newman and drummer Lloyd Gyi is rock-solid but it’s the simple interlocking of Brett Myers (Died Pretty) and Matt Galvin (Loose Pills, Eva Trout, Perry Keyes, Happy Hate Me Nots, Barbarellas) on guitars that builds the song,. Ex-Decline of the Reptiles singer Mark Roxburgh’s warm vocal elevates this to top-shelf pop.

Along with half of once-underground Sydney, I know Bob Short. Unlike the rest of Sydney, it seems, I’ve only seen the scrote play once and, because he was rather brilliant, he rates a decent listen and a proper review of his first 7”.

This isn’t an essential purchase, not in this world of freebie downloads and rubbish music. Surely?

Well, actually I rather love this little record, and it looks super in my collection. And, as I understand from Bob’s accompanying pitiful blurb that there’s an LP in the works, all this is as far as I am concerned, most certainly essential. Why?

So settle back on Granfer’s knee and I’ll tell ye a story young feller …

This single is great and odds are that the album from which this comes, "False Memory Lane", would be even better. Let’s get the antecedents out of the way first.

The Galileo7 is the latest vehicle for ex-Prisoners bassist Alan Crockford, whose band was at the vanguard of the Medway garage rock wave in the UK. The Prisoners bit the dust in 1986 but Rockford has been dutifully playing this garage rock-pop stuff since then and this is a new line-up of his current band.

If this East Sussex, England, all-girl trio is aiming to parachute into the same territory as The Pandoras with their debut 45, it’s found the drop-zone. The engine room doesn’t stomp quite as hard but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“Black Book” is a song about, well, a girl’s black book and it bristles with fuzz tone and bad grace. Bass tones and a touch of the toms signals the start and it quickly locks into a nice groove. Guitarist Laura Anderson has a strong voice and she's mixed right up front. 

Flip it over and you’ll hear a dirtier, drum-led rocker that’s no slouch, either. Skuzzy guitar fights for a place up front at centre mic before handclaps signal we’re on our way out. Another reminder, if it was needed, that garage punk rock isn't entirely down and out in Mother England. 

1/2

State Records on the Web

Mike Stax, long-time singer for San Diego's long-running The Loons, is better known for Ugly Things, the magnificent magazine he runs, than his  band. This double-headed pointer towards their forthcoming album suggests that needs to change.

“Miss Clara Regrets” is a fine slice of bustling freakbeat with a bassline that means business and guitars that demand to be heard. Stax delivers a fine vocal with punch and good range to tell a tale about an “It girl”. Twin guitars and a hook of in the tail that says it’s a pop song and it's exclusive to this single.

There’s a case to be made for this being the best Australian 45 of all time so Canadian label Ugly Pop has done the world a great service by re-issuing it. Here are the young Masters in their early incarnation, their essence wrapped up in two succinct but telling garage punk punches.

Gloriously raw and an inspiration to countless bands that have followed (Radio Birdman and the Saints among them), “Undecided” explodes with the snarl of over-driven guitars and the young Jim Keays’ unrestrained vocal.Taken from the Aztec Records re-master, it has translated perfectly to vinyl with a crunching bottom end and punchy mid-range.