NGL007, Edition of 200 copies (SOLD OUT)

'The Wonderfuls are cousins Bobby (vocals) and Danny (guitar). Recording started shortly after Bobby was released from a relapse stint at the local psychward, and continued over a four year period under intense psychiatric treatment. Their self titled 7” contains 4 tunes, decalcified from 2004-7, that recall 'Twin Infinitives'/'Singles, Live and Unreleased'-era Royal Trux Playing hat Stu Spasm dubbed the Devil's Music. If the 'Waste Sausage' or 'Leather Donut' comps were centred around Brisbane bands butterflying in the contemporary shitpool, rather than the dark side of 1980's King's Cross, at least one of these tunes would've been a surefire album highlight, instead of, herr.....Purple Vulture Shit. If the Urinals grew up in dregs of Woolloongabba and Red Hill, then just look at what the toilet just spat up. But enough w/ the reference points, right? Wonderfuls are part blazed guitar band, part performance art shoguns. Listen up and you will hear genuinely damaged cuts about rejection, Piss Fisting, and adult romance. Four of them in as many years.

With the interest in underground Australian music continuing to grow pig-wings, it's only fair that the freaks get their fifteen minutes, and these two gentlemen are as Weird and Wonderful as they come. (Brendon Annesley/Negative Guest List)

Brendon NGL extends his empire into the world of vinyl with the release of an EP from this Brisbane-based duo who must be some pretty weird dudes, or are ready to die trying to convince you they are. These songs are sourced from recordings done from 2004-07 before they guys were probably committed to the psych-ward or took jobs in some factory sweatshop for malt liqour money. I think the "Royal Trux if they were on the 'Waste Sausage' comp" vibe Brendon prepped me with before hearing this is more apt than anything I'm going to go reaching in the chumbucket for. They certainly propagate a certain shite-gazing aesthetic, one part guitar-folk and the other half barrel-bottom art-punk trash, or at least poking irreverent fun at such things. "Piss Fist" itself is vulgarian acoustic rock'n'roll with perhaps ad-libbed lyrics and a shockingly catchy guitar part recorded while relaxing in a truck stop bathroom. "Hated Man" is mock-psychedlica whose "hook" seems to be only the wonderfully sleazy pronunciation of the word "maaaan". I have to think glue was the preferred drug of choice while recording this one. "Sick Individual" is so loose it hurts, a real showcase for their troubadoring skills. Could also be a piss-take on NZ-pop. They end with the tour-de-force of "Young Hearts", a snaggletoothed bit of emotionally difficult brain-damaged grunge rock. A peculiar record that becomes a little bit more odd each time you listen to it, and straddles the fine line between total garbage and absolute rubbish with unnerving panache and is an interesting throwback to the days of yore when Australian music was truly fucking bizarre and uninviting.(RK/Terminal Boredom)

The title tune gives off a weird stench of Pink Reason-y acoustic gloom and Dave E snot-filled storytelling. For a song torn from the pages of an AA/NA meeting…this slurry named "Piss Fist" is (dare I say) quite catchy. After the minute or so of 12 step confessions, "Hated Man" hightails it into acid casualty territories and outsider guitar wank-isms. This shizz is stewed. A steady stream of 70’s retrofitted psychosis, heaped upon a moderne strum-punk that mumbles and collapses through the flipside. "Sick Individual" and "Young Hearts" seem to reference The Geeks or that now famously heralded Unwanted Christmas Presents LP everyone's been fighting for. My kinda’ glop. A head-scratcher that’ll become an “ooh-lookie-what-I-found” treasure for record nerd show-offs for years to come. This is pretty sweet slab…and it’s heading to a Shit-Fi Mix-tape near you.(RSF)

Heard a buncha stories behind this 7” EP and don’t know what to think, what with the overt junky imagery and rumours that one of the players has been in and out of mental institutions. The record definitely has a heady junk vibe, w/a low-fi folk-punk take on Royal Trux accompanied with some primitive almost ‘billy/Vega-isms. Then you flip it and it comes over like weird Flying Nun satellite hovering up acid folk sides in the comfort of their own dungeon. Which is to say it’s pretty great. (Volcanic Tongue)

I slobbed on the proverbial knob of Negative Guest List editor Brendon Annesley a few months back and now I’m gonna glob on it once again. The first release on his NGL record label is a four song 7" by a family band who call themselves The Wonderfuls. E-mails from Brendon hyped up this cousinly duo’s trips in and out of mental institutions, their substance abuse problems and other such stuff that gets any talentless dickwad a mention in this column. Regardless of whether these guys shoot Drano or think the CIA placed cameras in the walls to watch them wank, this record is pretty great. Half of it sounds like the Godz gone juvenile, while the rest comes off like some grainy aural self portrait of freedom rockers found in a dusty basement along with American flag rolling papers and soggy herbs. 'Tis good. (Tony Rettman/Rettsounds - Vice)