the goon sax: up to anything

Brisbane trio The Goon Sax present their debut album, Up To Anything. Louis Forster, James Harrison, and Riley Jones are all 17-18 years old at the time of this release. They make pop music. They have refined tastes -- they love The Pastels, Talking Heads, Galaxie 500, Bob Dylan, and Arthur Russell. On Up To Anything they pull off the almost impossible, capturing the awkwardness, self-doubt, and visceral excitement of teenage life while still in the thick of actually living it. The band formed around high school friends Harrison and Forster in 2013, and some scrappy duo home recordings still linger on the internet. Jones joined in early 2014, after a month of drum lessons, and the band played their first show a few months later. Chapter signed The Goon Sax in 2015 on the strength of an unsolicited demo, the first time that has ever happened in the label's history. Chapter introduced the band to the world via the 2015 BIGSOUND music conference, and 2015 singles "Sometimes Accidentally" and "Boyfriend" have since been featured on the likes of Stereogum, NME, BBC 6, and Brooklyn Vegan. They've gone on to play with the likes of U.S. Girls, Twerps, Blank Realm, and The Crayon Fields. The Goon Sax's songs are both immediately charming and deceptively deep; "Sweaty Hands" examines a point in a relationship where one is seen at one's worst, while "Telephone" addresses the heartbreaking realization that nothing one can offer is enough. The Goon Sax are already masters at pairing teen microdrama with pop sophistication -- but clearly, Up To Anything is just the beginning.