Hockey Dad

Windang duo Hockey Dad push off the janglier, shaggier notions of the current wave of Aussie pop for something a bit more driving and explosive. Knocking down the doors from the opening chords with their first single “Can’t Have Them, Boronia gets off on good footing; the sun in its hair and no responsibilities holding it back. The record has the impetuousness of youth stamped all over it. The pair have been friends since Kindergarten and that kind of easy chemistry shakes out of the speakers, bringing the listener into Hockey Dad’s world of late night beers, early morning surfing and endless pining crushes like just one more member of the crew. Its hard not to get caught up in the record’s wistful exuberance, crashing highs and that sweet twinge of ennui that shouldn’t befit a pair so young. They’re already learning how to look back with a sigh on last night’s party like it might have been the best they’ll know.

But that’s youth in an nutshell, eh? That lack of perspective feels like everything has bigger import than it does; the nights are more intense and longing squeezes the chest with more force. Hockey Dad convey those qualities with a hand more skilled than most their age will ever be able to, and commit it to tape with a widescreen smash. That the record leans just as heavily on the sound of 90’s alt-punk as it does on a more complex hangover of 80’s harmonies with eyes towards the arena stages vs the clubs gives the record a grandness that digs them out of any indie pigeonholes. The band balances their small town roots and huge ambitions and they spin it into a record that feels bigger than the sum of two kids who started merely banging out tunes in their parents garage. By the closing crash of “Grange” it feels like the best summer of your past fifteen years just passed before your eyes in dizzying montage with a perfect soundtrack pushing it along.