Sometimes, it feels like the music scene is being repopulated by some kind of zombie uprising, as musicians from yesteryear crawl from the graves of their long-passed careers and returns with another album or tour. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know The Hard Ons were still a going concern.
Bursting onto the scene in 1982, they were effectively Australia’s answer to The Ramones, and their 1991 collaboration with Henry Rollins is a bona fide classic.
So, anyway, this EP finds front man Peter ‘’Blackie‘’ Black on his own and features three acoustic tracks, alongside three tracks by hard-touring French musician Forest Pookie.
Blackie doesn’t go the obvious route of delivering sub-par punk tunes played on an acoustic guitar, and instead pursues a whimsical, off-kilter psychedelic trip that’s more Syd Barrett than Sid Vicious, and all the better for it.
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Forest Pookie’s songs could reasonably be described as acoustic grunge / alt rock, but that’s no criticism: they’re played with guts and sincerity, if anything Pookie’s three tracks are the stronger songs on this EP. Forest – who sounds far more American than French, hinting at times toward Alice in Chains – lays layers of angst around his simple, direct songs to good effect.
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