Bank holiday Monday here in the UK and I’m just home from
a weeklong trip to Northern Ireland visiting family…apologies if I haven’t
responded to your comments, normal service will resume eventually…righto let’s
get this Aussie week under way
The antithesis of a sex pistol is a celibate rifle, but Australia’s Celibate Rifles are anything but the opposite of loud, snotty and fast. A fusion between Detroit-style straight-ahead hard rock and Ramones pop, steeped in Stooges and Radio Birdman milk, the Rifles began as a party-time Sydney band, racing through deliberately silly and simple Ramonesque lyrics (“What about the kids? Get a baby sitter…and some kitty litter”) with three fast/loud chords. But unlike the Ramones, the Rifles insert loud, sinewy guitar solos between the slash’n’burn verses and, on tracks like “24 Hours,” warped and warbly guitar effects. After a few years learning the trade at parties and school dances around Sydney's North Shore, The Celibate Rifles (one of a bunch of one-off party names that stuck) progressed to playing pubs and getting a record out - and what a record! But Jacques, The Fish? is just about the finest record to ever emerge from up that way. Four great songs, some hilarious lyrics, and a frustrating set of sleeve colour variations. Catchy power-chord progressions, tasteful lead breaks, and extremely clever lyrics set this debut four-track apart from most. “Kent’s Theme” integrates snippets of cigarette jingles with a sharp anti-smoking attack, while “Let’s Get Married” adopts a loose, good-humoured quality.
