Hailing from the Drunk Mums extended family, notorious pub rockers Dumb Punts are a Melbourne four piece intent on kicking out short, frenetic and rabidly Aussie garage punk tunes.
Squeeze out all the beer, sweat and blood from any pub carpet and you have Coupla Couplas from Dumb Punts. Shredding, brewskis and punk, it’s all you need.
Formed from Bonny Hills expats, the group came together in early 2014 when Creed McTaggart (WOD, Charging Stallion) began bashing out tracks with brother and sister James and Ciarn Gallagher (a.k.a. Jimmy and Seattle) as well as schoolmate Brent Lockhart. Since then band have been gigging around the Melbourne bar scene playing a slew of their own headline shows as well as supporting Bad//Dreems and mates Drunk Mums. Drawing some inspiration from garage legends like MC5 and The Stooges, the group are also influenced by the punk sounds of venerable pub rockers the Cosmic Psychos.
The band dropped first single Chiller, a laid back beachy tune with some Dinosaur Jr. style 80s alt rock guitar shred thrown in July 2014. The group followed up in January with Hey You, an occa garage rock track with a shambolic 70s rock riff that makes an impassioned plea for a potential lover to get up and have a dance. Taking break from gigging to record with Pissfart Records the band knocked out debut LP Coupla Couplas in April.
Exploring themes of slacking off, beers and having a few laughs, the album collects the two previous singles and some new material from the band. From the second track onwards it’s clear that the LP takes on a more straight forward punk sound than the previous singles with no-nonsense thrashers Pissed On, My Street, Ice Cream and Shred Till Ya Dead (possibly the greatest and only song written about the Croydon skate park). Drawing some inspiration from tracks like Beer Sandwich by The Fuck Fucks, Goon Sack is a punk anthem in which Creed adopts the persona of a deranged and intoxicated publican ferociously intent on telling the narrative of a sack of goon which fell on the ground.
No doubt honed by some prolific gigging the band dynamic proves perfect for conveying the group’s loud, in your face and guitar driven lo-fi punk tunes. Together with Ciarn’s drums and Brent’s bass Dumb Punts’ slick rhythm section allows the James and Creed’s guitar work to shine through. Sitting above the calamitous instrumentals the raw bite and vitriol of Creed’s vocals get through to the spirit of punk and pub rock.
At the end of the day Dumb Punts’ music is true to what it’s all about: shredding out some great rock tracks, knocking back a few and having some laughs. For those outside of Melbourne Dumb Punts will be kicking off an East Coast tour with Pow Pow Kids in July.