Music as catharsis from the Melbourne hardcore punks!
Punk and hardcore, at their best, have always been outsiders’ music; by and for people who never quite fit in with the rest. Melbourne-based hardcore punks La Famiglia are a case in point; this is their first record since vocalist Beth Seymour came out as transgender, and much of it explores themes from the discrimination and trauma she’s been through to the power of queer solidarity.
Musically, much of ‘Alphabet Mafia’ feels like a love letter to classic US hardcore, mostly the West Coast variety. The opening brace of ‘Life’s A Joke And We’re The Punchline’ and ‘Bad Times Don’t Last, Bad Girls Do’ bursts forth in enjoyably raw fashion, and both feature the kind of bouncy mid-section riffing sure to get many a dancefloor moving. The band themselves cite Madball and Comeback Kid among their influences, and indeed, echoes of the former’s muscular NYHC and the latter’s carpe-diem lyrical slant rear their heads throughout this record.
The highlights come thick and fast. There’s ‘Beauty All Around Me’, which features a chorus that just demands to be yelled along to, amid verses custom built for a circle pit. There’s that insistent stop-start riff of ‘Spite’ and the surprisingly catchy likes of ‘Cycles’ and ‘Why Do You Hate Me’. Most notably, there’s lead track ‘Hath No Fury’, on which Beth declares “I don’t think Jesus stood for what you have to say”, taking on religious hypocrisy with all guns blazing and more than a hint of Circle Jerks.
Later on, ‘Big Beth Beatdown’ more than lives up to its formidable title, whilst ‘Punk Means…(The Girls Have Your Back)’ is a punk rock rager up there with the best of them. It all comes to a close in suitably hard edged fashion with ‘Pretty On The Inside’ and ‘Tuff Girl Hardcore’; the former boasts a squalling solo near the end, and the latter pretty much does what it says on the tin – and does it well.
Overall, this is as good and important a hardcore record as you’ll hear all year, and as Beth signs off with a quick ‘Ciao bella!’, it’s clear that the genre can survive – indeed, thrive – just fine when stripped of unnecessary machismo. Here’s to La Famiglia and ‘Alphabet Mafia’ getting the recognition they richly deserve.
‘Alphabet Mafia’ is released on 12th June – pre-order it HERE.
- Life’s A Joke And We’re The Punchline
- Bad Times Don’t Last, Bad Girls Do
- Beauty All Around Me
- Spite
- Cycles
- Hath No Fury
- Why Do You Hate Me
- This Is A Fashion Show
- Big Beth Beatdown
- Punk Means… (The Girls Have Your Back)
- One Hundred Buck$
- Pretty On The Inside
- Tuff Girl Hardcore
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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