Imagine yourself on an open coastal road in a beat-up old Sandman with a few mates. The weather is perfect, it’s three in the afternoon and you’ve got absolutely nowhere you need to be.
Hockey Dad’s debut album ‘Boronia’ is the soundtrack to that day. It’s fantastically catchy, infectious and instantly likeable from beginning to glorious end. It’s uncomplicated and uncompromising – the perfect musical backdrop to a coastal road-trip.
The Leisure Coast natives have been hard at work on ‘Boronia’ for the best part of three years after the release of their first EP ‘Dreamin’ in late 2014. ‘Dreamin’ gave us our first taste of just what these boys can do and they’ve been teasing us ever since with staggered releases of the album’s singles ‘Can’t Have Them’, ‘So Tired’ and, most recently, ‘Jump The Gun’.
The singles set the tone for a thrashy, surfy, yet somehow still slick, polished coast-to-coast arrangement (pun unintended). ‘I Need A Woman’, the only song to feature on both album and EP, has experienced resurgence over the past year with the announcement of the album after its initial success on ‘Dreamin’.
Eclectic musical tastes are evident through the record, the ears treated to tinges of DZ Deathrays, early Jungle Giants, Wavves, and even a little of The War on Drugs. Despite the comparisons and influences one is able to draw from ‘Boronia’, however, Hockey Dad has managed to create something so very original and unique. It’s one of those rare pieces of musical mastery in which there are no boring bits; this album can be played from start to finish every time without the urge to hit ‘skip’ anywhere.
The stand-out track, for me personally, has to be Boronia’s swansong ‘Grange’. Apart from some harmonic humming, the song is completely instrumental and I do wonder if the boys actually had some lyrics planned but realised they’d struck gold with what they had and decided to leave it as is. Whatever the process, ‘Grange’ is a fantastic note on which to leave the record, reminiscent of the sun setting on the coastal getaway.
As we speak, these crazy cats are making their way across the US in a decked out van with a PlayStation 2 in back. Good news, though, they’ll be back in the land of pleasure at the end of September to bring us ‘Boronia’ in all its wonder, hitting Jive in Adelaide on Friday 7th October.
Stay tuned for more info on the gig closer to the date, but in the meantime, pick yourself up a copy of ‘Boronia’, wait for the sun to come out and drive up the coast.
Image: supplied
