The Chordites: Taking A Ride | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Veteran Brisbane rockers The Chordites know their rock’n’roll. Although The Chordites have only been about for three years, the band’s members have done time in outfits that local folks may recognise: The Daisygrinders, Subsonic Barflies and Death Of A Nun for instance. Unsurprisingly they bring a broad appreciation of a variety of versions of the rock sound, stretching from the late ‘60s and the garage of The Flamin’ Groovies through the ‘70’s and ‘80’s proto-indie sounds of Big Star and The Replacements and the punk of The Ramones on into the indie of Teenage Fanclub and the grunginess of Mudhoney. They’ve really absorbed those influences: sliding almost imperceptibly from one sound to another, even within one song, across their debut full-length, Taking A Ride.

I think what makes them most difficult to get a handle on, is, actually, the Australian accents. It’s like I’m always thinking The Angels or Hunters and Collectors and in the moments of broadest twang, like the ear-catching Cyndie Lee, it’s more like Hoodoo Gurus. This is no bad thing. It makes the Chordites a rockin’ outfit but one that’s just that little bit difficult to place, keeping your ear pricked, your attention focused on what’s really going on in there.

Lyrically, it sounds like The Chordites -though they’re old enough to know better- have been hanging out with a bad crowd. From the lurid character assassination of opener Liar, straight into the rather similar themes of Sociopath. It’s interesting, while condemning the soul-sucking qualities of life’s dissembling scumbags, there seems to be some kind of identification, even a celebration of life without conscience:  “I wanna be a sociopath and I won’t give a damn about you.” I don’t know for certain, but I think the cause of this ambivalence may be Cindie Lee a lady who will have you “beggin’, you’ll be begging for more” but with a dark, grifter quality that seeps in, over the course of the song: “This girl is poison / This girl is bad / But she’s the best you’ve ever had...Now you’re trapped / Inside her web / You’ll be wishing, wishing you were dead.” This theme is borne out across ensuing numbers, which swing between bitter recriminations (like Never Again) that suddenly lurch back to burning infatuation (as in Stars Align). Ain’t that always the way? Just in case you weren’t sure this was a case of bad, bank-account emptying, reputation ruining bad romance, there’s even a ballsy, rocking cover of Tainted Love. It’s a pretty sturdy interpretation, too, though it’s hard to go up against the two very famous versions that are already out there.

2020 is not exactly the golden-age of rock, but the fellas in The Chordites have quite clearly been living there for the last thirty years and learnt a very large chunk of what it has to offer. The varied and accomplished sound of their debut are solid proof of this and with their love of these subtly diverse sounds, I don’t think they’ll be leaving any time soon. It’s a band like this that makes both bad love and an inability to let go of the past seem like an attractive kinda proposition.

- Chris Cobcroft.
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