Is enough really ever enough? This classic question, and many more, have been conclusively answered by Melbourne rockers Heads of Charm on their 2015 EP Enough is Enough. This introduction makes up the second part of the two-part series, “Bands Nick found out via Ecca Vandal’s guest spots on Triple J”.
The name of the game is trash rock for Heads of Charm. The Melbourne three piece rock hard and heavy, their sound is an imposing force to be reckoned with.
Enough is Enough has three tracks to it: the title track, Spain Is On A Roll, and Check Check Check. Squaring that threesome is the tripartite nature of Heads of Charm, comprising David Gagliardi, Sam Whiting and Lachlan Ewbank; Gagliardi is the only member to have a writing credit on all three songs, including a sole credit on Check Check Check.
So, let’s do it that way, eh? In both refrain and style, Check Check Check is about as garage as you can get in a song. The rhythm and melody are both bare bones, an easy bass riff accompanied by a sunbathing drummer. Check Check Check seems to be the band’s earliest recording – dating all the way back to August 2013 – and it’s easy to tell.
Even then, though, the song provides a smooth(ish) hook, with Gagliardi’s vocals during the verse also somewhat reminiscent of Yannis Philippakis’ early work for Foals. Not being the rabid fan of garage rock that I am, Check Check Check still has an irresistible lustre to it. Next up we have the single, the big wig, Enough is Enough. Composed by Gagliardi and Eubank, the title track is very tightly wound despite the fact that almost half of its length is an instrumental denouement.
Featuring a pulsating bass line that has the heart of a pre-filicidal Stannis Baratheon, the math rock influences of Heads of Charm burn right through this one, right up to the chorus. “All things must go/ Barely, barely possible” sings Gagliardi; seemingly disjointed prose that somehow clicks in with the calculated rhythmic loops carried by Eubank and Whiting’s rhythm section.
The last banger off this sausage rank is Spain Is On A Roll (written by Gagliardi and what I can only assume are his mates Chris Drane and Patrick Walker), the whole reason this article started. The most visceral and hardest-punching of all tracks on this album, Spain Is On A Roll leaps out from the very start, in that cock-rocking way riffs from songs like If I Had A Tail jumps out and grabs you by the canastas.
Everything in this song rolls on indiscriminately like one of those road smoother things, crushing rocks, cars and hippies underneath its rounded feet, driven as usual by Whiting and Eubank. Meanwhile, Gagliardi sits drunk and swilling atop the cupola, wailing about Spanish imperialism or colonialism or some such. Somehow, it all comes together as a good team and works quite well.
If you like the sound of these guys – and let’s be honest, you should – you can catch them on an upcoming east coast tour (condolences to Adelaide and Perth):
Sat 1 Aug – Budd St Warehouse, Melbourne
Fri 7 Aug – The Eastern, Ballarat
Fri 14 Aug – Manning Bar, Sydney
Sat 15 Aug – The Lord Gladstone, Sydney
Fri 21 Aug – Crowbar, Brisbane
*Home page image credit to Shaina Glenny
