Well, if it isn’t that time of the year, pleasant weather surprises, $5 Kris Kringle surprises from co-workers at work and super surprising fourth record, from Brisbane’s grunge royalty, The Grates. In November, The Grates once again graced the Australian music scene with Dream Team. Just in time for Christmas, this album is the perfect present for anyone who adored their previous work in 06, 08 and ’11.
Pumped out in a week, The Grates’ Dream Team shows the Brisbanites at the top of their noise rock game. As they dip their toes deeper into grunge territory, their fun, poppy vibes shines through.
The Grates have evolved and changed shapes and sounds over the years of being together. Two of their founding members, John and Patience still continue to make music together and recently welcomed a newcomer, Ritchie Daniell to join in making catchy Australian anthems. In one week, the well loved and missed trio worked together in Sydney to push out this record. Contrasting their well known and namely fun and poppy sound, Dream Team, eleven tracks, approximately 25 minutes and garage grunge, rock, and a little darker in sound, marking a new chapter in their musical library.
That’s not to say that with lyrics on the album like, “Do you want to spend the night in this holiday home?”, “I like to light fires on the weekends” and “Do you wanna take my soul” the band have taken on a new identity. Their lyrics harness their old fun and light hearted ways of being that summer-pop band whose songs got stuck in your head on a frequent basis. There’s one thing for sure, The Grates still have a…loud sound, that sound that is more of a chant that an chorus, a unanimous plea to have fun.
With tracks named: 7-Eleven, Friends With Scum and I Wish I Was Alone, the album contains a few exasperated feelings, like all trivial rock bands do, but these songs are authentic in every way (but not like someone who shops at Dangerfield and calls themselves an authentic brand of punk). Patience explains their ideology behind Dream Team, “We didn’t want to do it in the traditional way because it takes so long, and it had already been so long between records for us…We really wanted to be in band again and release music. We decided. Let’s record it.” She also mentioned that every record has been unavoidably inspired by her friends making it the perfect Christmas vinyl for your pals this December.
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