Sydney Ducks - Demo (2009)

Tracklist:
01. Brannan's fall
02. He lives for today
03. Few years left
04. Whats at stake?

Sort of an all-star band started in San Francisco around 2009. I know what you think and i thought it to but no.... Sydney Ducks is a name that was given to Australian immigrants in the San Fran area. The fact that none of the members have Australian roots makes it a confucing name though and add the fact that one of the members is a wellknown name in the Canadian Punk/Oi! scene and my cofucion was total.
The band was started by Carl on vocals (a wellknown face in the bay area hardcore scene), Mike on bass (Mike is the creator of the Longshot recordlabel and has a hell of an impressive trackrecord since he has played in bands such as Subway thugs (Can), Emergency (Can), 12 Pointbuck (Can) and The Boi!s). A bit more unknown is Grant on guitar (has been in various garage bands but never released anything) and Phil on drums (has played in hardcoreband Secret people but lately also been a member in the new wave/rock band The Airfix Kits).

The idea was to start a Mod powerpop band and with that thought they entered the studio to create this demo. The end results was more of a punkrock/soft oi! sound that reminds me a whole lot about how the Swedish band The Clichés sound today.
The band recorded 5 new songs in 2010 and 4 of them was supposed to be released on 2 split EP's and the last one on a 4-way split EP. None of these songs has seen the light of day yet (to my knowledge) but that 4-way split (with The broadsiders, Noi!se and Razors in the night) has been mentioned to have a late 2011 releasedate so hopefully we can see it in stores soon. In 2010 they added a second guitarist called Gabe (who runs a recordshop in the bay area) to fill out the sound.

Having members from various genres like Oi!/Hardcore/New wave gives it a really destinct (and Swedish) sound and me being a big fan of both Emergency and The Airfix Kits i just knew it was something for me when i heard about it.

As i always mention i am all for more rock'n'roll in American Oi! since i often feel as if most bands are hardcorebands with shaved heads. This band delivers exactly that. Add a great vocalist and a band full of skilled musicians and the lack of any tough guy attitudes displayed by most other bands and i am sold.

I wont go into the songs but instead i'll let you download the demo and make up your own mind about them (ok i admit, the sun is shining outside and i aint working for a month so time to get my tanning and drinking on).

Download