Always look down under when rock needs a kick in the ass and a straight shot of raw power. AC/DC. Jet. Men at Work. Assassins '88. Lofty expectations aside, there’s no doubt that these blokes from Canberra, Australia put in overtime on any of their thousand house shows or other notable performances. Lachlan “L.A.” Howard, awesome rock name I know, and Tim Guthrie are described by their Dream Damage label as “an uneasy metamorphosis ‘60s pop with the rawness of punk rock.” I’d describe them as the Southern Hemisphere’s answer to The Black Lips.

On their 2009 debut, Go Go Second Chance Virgin, they retained their drum and bass aesthetic. Though after seeing them live, you can see that they must have either a). a ton of overdrive on their amps or b). tuned the shit out of their bass guitar. Fortunately they didn’t abandon the four string for their recent Beach People EP, they just blended it effortlessly with fuzzy electric guitar and ‘60s snare. The title track moves at a 140 kmph, which makes the Interpol-esque “Raising Phoenix” sound infinitely more cool than it would by itself. “Wildwood Girl” has one of the best intros to a rock song we’ve heard in quite some time. The key changes are surprisingly crisp for a single guitar coming out of what sounds like a speaker buried in mud. You know the bass and drums are about to drop, but unlike the pedantic pissing contests you see in most dubstep, it compliments the overall song instead of squashing it to shit. I just hope these guys don’t get lost in the lo-fi ‘60s surf rock shuffle.